This year’s Bristol Radical History Festival focused on the persistent threats of racism, xenophobia and, of course, our radical collective resistance to it across Ireland and Britain, reports LYNNE WALSH

I WAS invited to London Young Labour’s Summer 2018 event to present my union’s position against the EU and in favour of Brexit.
I even cancelled a solidarity visit to a picket line in Wigan to do so, so enthused was I by the new spirit in the Labour Party and a new audience prepared to open up debate and allow dissenting views on the neoliberal consensus that has dominated politics for so long.
The night before the event I was smeared as an anti-semite for the crimes of stating my belief that Jeremy Corbyn is not anti-semitic and saying that some of the claims being made were cynically using the despicable crime of anti-semitism to undermine the socialist leadership of the Labour Party.

This May Day we reaffirm our commitment to working people and our class and to get trade unionism back on the front foot, says EDDIE DEMPSEY
