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War, Hell and Hope

Published in Solidarity 337, 24 September 2014 The Workers’ Dreadnought published this poem on its front page, heading an article entitled “Soldiers ask what they are fighting for” on 20 October 1917. Britain was over three years into a war which … Read more

Women in the Irish nationalist movement 1900-1916

Written back in around 1993: Constance Markievicz and the other women who fought in the Easter Rising struggled to be accepted on equal terms by the Irish labour movement and among nationalists. Their experience holds many lessons for today’s socialists … Read more

Should the Workers’ Movement Have Special Structures for Women?

The fourth in a series of articles about the German socialist women’s movement 1890-1914, written in 2005, originally published here: Laws against women’s organisation After Bismarck’s Anti-Socialist Law lapsed in 1890, laws remained which restricted women’s political activity. The 1851 … Read more

Organising working-class women

The second in a series of articles about the German socialist women’s movement 1890-1914, written in 2005, originally published here. Education German socialist women placed strong emphasis on education. They set up education clubs for women and girls (Frauen- and … Read more

Introducing the German socialist women’s movement 1890-1914

Introducing a series of articles on the German socialist women’s movement 1890-1914, written in 2005, originally published here. During the nineteenth century, the emerging workers’ movement began to develop its policy on the ‘woman question’. The early, ‘utopian’ socialists argued … Read more

Working-class Women and Bourgeois Feminists

The third in a series of articles about the German socialist women’s movement 1890-1914 written in 2005 – originally published here. What is often seen as one issue – referred to at the time as the ‘woman question’ – actually … Read more

International Women’s Day: Past, Present and Future

Written for International Women’s Day 2007: March 8th each year is International Women’s Day. It is celebrated across the globe, and is a day for campaigners to draw attention to women’s continued second-class citizenship and need for equality. However, it … Read more

Poplar Council 1921: Last Words Before Prison

In 1921, thirty Labour Councillors in Poplar went to prison to protest at an unfair rating system that penalised poor boroughs. They eventually won their fight. Here are the parting messages from the Councillors (well, most of them, anyway) as printed in … Read more

Organising Offshore

As the Offshore Industries Liaison Committee prepared to become part of RMT in 2008, I compiled this collection of articles about its history.

Constance Markievicz: a life

countess_markiewicz

These are biographical notes on the ‘Red Countess’, Constance Markievicz, prepared for the London Socialist Feminist Discussion Group on 10 October 2008. Also attached are two one-page files giving a timeline of her life. Constance Georgine Gore-Booth was born on … Read more

The First Two Labour Governments

I drafted this several years ago, for a discussion at a Workers’ Liberty branch meeting on the first and second Labour governments. I found it useful to tell the story, then ask people to discuss some questions: the ‘timeline’ and discussion questions … Read more

‘Transport for London seeks new powers with developers’

CorporateWatch has an article, Transport for London seeks new powers with developers, reporting that “Transport for London (TfL) is currently seeking to team up with private sector partners to give it new powers, especially regarding land development, putting public land and affordable … Read more

Pink Pound Will Not Bring Liberation

The attached article was included in the Workers’ Liberty pamphlet Pink Pound or Red Flag? Socialists and the Fight for Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual Liberation in 1995.

‘Government’

by Janine Booth (intro) / Eva Gore-Booth (poem) – published in Solidarity 334 Eva Gore-Booth (1870–1926) was an Irish poet and dramatist, and a suffragist and labour movement activist. She was the younger sister of Constance Markiewicz, the nationalist, socialist and feminist … Read more