Decommissioned railway tracks have been ‘repossessed’ by nature with wild birds the prominent protagonists, writes MARK SEDDON
Latest editorial
Charlotte Despard: suffragist, communist, Irish republican
Taking up social work after being widowed transformed a Victorian liberal into a lifelong fighter for causes as wide-ranging as Sinn Fein and Indian independence to the right of women to drink in pubs, writes MAT COWARD
ICON OF STRUGGLE: Charlotte Despard speaks to a crowd in Trafalgar Square, June 1910
ROGER MCKENZIE recalls the one-in-a-generation communist leader murdered at the dawn of a new South Africa 33 years ago last April 10
Ignorance of working-class history leaves working people open to deceptive narratives, demagogy and political manipulation, writes SAN SENIK
Delegates rejected calls to disaffiliate after a passionate three-hour debate, while warning the Labour leadership that working-class members demand change
TUC Cymru’s programme offers a potential roadmap for co-operation between Labour and Plaid Cymru on jobs, services and economic democracy, says DAI MORGAN
HAZEL PRING and MAX DICKINSON introduce The Angry Summer Project, a fringe for the TUC Cymru Congress
THE right to a pint was one of the campaigns taken up by the Women’s Freedom League during the first world war. Wartime saw an influx of female customers into Britain’s pubs.
Many women had spare money for the first time, as they had taken over higher-paid industrial jobs previously held by the men who were now away fighting.
Besides, a couple of hours in a warm, friendly pub must have been a lot more enticing than spending a lonely evening at home, worrying about or even mourning the missing husband, brother or son.
Similar stories
Long before modern labour movements, England’s farmworkers fought back against their oppression – and for some, like Elizabeth Studham, the price was exile to Australia. MAT COWARD tells the story
A WWI hero, renowned ornithologist, medical doctor, trade union organiser and founder member of the Communist Party of Great Britain all rolled in one. MAT COWARD tells the story of a life so improbable it was once dismissed as fiction
MAT COWARD tells the story of the eccentric founder of a short-lived but striking experiment in ‘vital democracy,’ who became best known for giving away his estate to the nation
While an as-yet-unnamed new left party struggles to be born, MAT COWARD looks at some of the wild and wonderful names of workers’ organisations past that have been lost to time