CfP: The British General Strike of 1926: New Directions of Research, 7-8 May 2026 @newcastleuni.bsky.social Deadline: 6 February 2026 More details: @sslh.bsky.social sslh.org.uk/2025/10/13/c... sslh.org.uk/wp-content/u... Kindly supported by @leverhulme.ac.uk #GeneralStrike1926 #GeneralStrike100

Jimmy Cliff was touring the clubs of Wolverhampton in the year Enoch Powell made his Rivers of Blood speech. 50 years later artists Anand Chhabra, Jagdish Patel and Vanley Burke responded with the exhibition Many Rivers to Cross, the title of Cliff's 1969 track. RIP www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y9Q...

I was reading about Elspeth King in Alasdair Gray's Poor Things - she features in the introduction. What a wonderful life www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Sunday afternoon watching Up - what a great film 🎈 ❤️

I’m in this piece talking about the Manchester links with the fifth Pan African Congress…

Last few tickets for this, next Friday!

‘Would you let your daughter marry Enoch Powell?’ 😝 🥰

This should be a great lecture @phm.org.uk to mark the 80th anniversary of the Fifth Pan African Congress with the wonderful Gary Younge. Tickets going fast here phm.org.uk/events_new/w...

A brilliant first published journal article by Mohammed Khan, on an Indian Seamen’s Home in 1940s Liverpool - well worth a read! www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

On the Tommy Robinson march… On the tram today and a man flicking through his Fb turns to his partner says ‘look Steve was on the march for common sense’, the tram passenger clicks ‘like’ and scrolls on. Huge potential for fascists to broaden and deepen their base further after yesterday

Ten to one on Burnham as next Labour leader, pretty good odds right now...

We are proud to announce that South Asian Britain: Connecting Histories, a landmark educational website on the histories of South Asians in Britain, is now live! Visit southasianbritain.org @qmul.bsky.social @bristoluni.bsky.social @britishlibrary.bsky.social #AHRC @uobartsmatter.bsky.social

This is a brilliant history from below by @grsbrown.bsky.social. The ANL had a defining impact on the contours of racism and anti-racism and was that rare thing, a success, defeating the National Front. Now more than ever we need to return to this history bookmarksbookshop.co.uk/product/a-pe...

Important letter by Dr Joanna Gilmore and Prof Mead explaining what the restrictions on juries will mean www.theguardian.com/law/2025/jul...

Thinking of Neil Davidson today and his untimely death. He was the best kind of academic, someone who hated the academy as an institution, who was so generous with his vast knowledge, who spent his time encouraging others to read and think. A working class intellectual and revolutionary.

Today, after 14 years, I’m resigning from the Labour Party. Jeremy Corbyn and I will co-lead the founding of a new party, with other Independent MPs, campaigners and activists across the country. Join us. The time is now. Sign up here to stay updated: actionnetwork.org/forms/join-t...

Just one of the huge pickets in the pouring rain striking over low pay by our colleagues @unisonmmu.bsky.social

The historic Hotspur Press building on fire this afternoon, after the owners let it rot for years. (Son took the picture from the top floor of a nearby multi-storey car park)

Spent yesterday watching Zohran Mamdani speeches and then came across his father, Mahmood Mamdani's book on Ugandan Asians coming to Britain. A great read and just happens to be very useful for the article I'm writing!

I feel like every meeting needs to have the word Palestine uttered right now. Boring, bureaucratic meetings, still worth it, someone reminding us of the genocide. Palestine, Palestine, Palestine.

That's it, marking all submitted. My teaching year all done since returning from mat leave with three little kids. First day thinking through research again.

Emotional hearing the flotilla has been captured. And then reading the BBC report and the way they so casually repeat Israel's propaganda. It jars so much with the reality of what is happening.

"My name is Greta Thunberg and I am from Sweden. If you see this video, we have been intercepted and kidnapped in international waters by the Israeli occupational forces, or forces that support Israel."

What a wonderful book launch and conversation with the brilliant @sadiahqureshi.bsky.social and @davidolusoga.bsky.social Very pleased I now have my copy of Vanished: An Unnatural History of Extinction

Starmer echoing Powell on 'strangers', the references to Birmingham, to lack of 'integration' and speaking English. It's such a despicable mix of all the worst parts of racism over the last half century. Even the way they upload his script, a desperate media spectacle www.gov.uk/government/s...

#VEDay #VE80 #HistNursing #HistMidwifery In their own words From @rcnhistory.bsky.social #OralHistory interviews @rcndefencenursing.bsky.social

fighting tears

#Chartism #C19th Rather than share the famous photo of the Kennington Common Chartist rally again, let’s join Prof Fabrice Bensimon to take a look at who was in the crowd #OnThisDay in 1848. chartistancestors.blog/2024/07/11/k...

We're hosting a workshop on 'South Asian Women's Activism and Agency' on Thursday 8th May (draft programme below). We're delighted to have a brilliant group of speakers joining us. Our keynotes will be Amrit Wilson and Samita Sen. If you would like to join us, please get in touch to register.

Can anyone recommend a good book or article on 1920s photography in Britain? Even better if it discusses photojournalism from that period.

In the run up to the centenary anniversary next year, here's my short introduction to the 1926 General Strike for @phm.org.uk #GeneralStrike100 phm.org.uk/blogposts/19...

Pleased @phm.org.uk is a partner too in marking this important centenary anniversary of workers' struggle.

My dad remembers speaking to his grandad, Alec, about his memories of the general strike. He said when he heard it was called off he simply disbelieved the news. Newcastle Uni Oral History Collective have started a great project researching this intergenerational memory of the general strike.

Preparing my class tomorrow on riots,hadn't realised James Anderton is dead. Photo of him in the obit is from Moss Side 1981 - clearly staged to show him in control of the city, but also can be seen as a deranged man next to a strange assortment of gardening tools www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022...

My mum, Swatanter Mayor (1940–2024), was part of the 1984 Ford Dagenham strike for equal pay. Her journey was one of resilience and strength, fighting for fairness in the workplace. Her story is a powerful reminder of the importance of trade unions and collective action. @tajali1.bsky.social

Fascinating seminar on #WorkingClass #SouthAsian #LabourStruggles #TradeUnions by my wonderful colleague @shirinhirsch.bsky.social

Yes great I’ll write my public talk for Tuesday and prepare for my Tuesday lecture all on Monday, plenty of time. Who would have factored in a poorly toddler sent home from nursery?!

Hakim Adi’s wonderful obituary of Marika Sherwood. So much I didn’t know about her extraordinary life, not least her support for Palestine. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

Hundreds of Columbia students in the streets demanding Trump release Mahmoud Khalil & Leqaa Kordia — and demanding that Columbia repeal its expulsion of Grant Miner, president of the Student Workers of Columbia-UAW

All papers in the special section on Palestine in the latest issue of @sociologicalreview.bsky.social are open access and vital reads ❤️

Very pleased to buy my copy of this beautiful new book today at @wcmlibrary.bsky.social

The UK university sector is on fire. This is happening virtually everywhere -- job cuts, hiring freezes, department closures, PhD funding programmes... full blown crisis

Great to be back at @wcmlibrary.bsky.social today. What a meeting this must have been to mark the 70th anniversary of the General Strike!

What a treasure this book is

Great work from @david-scott71.bsky.social and the team in collectively remembering a once forgotten workers' uprising and massacre. Public history at its best. Good news this has now got funding and will be taught in schools too www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

In September 2024, YHP unveiled our third commemorative mural as part of our project celebrating historical African women in healthcare. Installed outside Guy's Hospital in London, the mural features six impactful healthcare workers from a range of time periods. #EachOneTeachOne✊🏿

If anyone is about 18th March I'll be giving a public seminar for the Manchester Uni history department. The talk will be exploring photographs of industrial struggle, race and resistance and discussing 'Bolton's Grunwick', a mill strike in 1978. All welcome! events.manchester.ac.uk/event/event:...

#FamilyHistory I launched the Trade Union Ancestors website in 2006, then rather neglected it. But I have now overhauled it and added new and previously lost content - including all the trade union ‘family trees’ I first put together 20 years ago. It’s here… www.unionancestors.co.uk

Have you all been to the People’s History Museum in Manchester? It’s all about radical stories of people coming together to champion ideas worth fighting for And it’s FREE ENTRY phm.org.uk