Kmflett's Blog

The Society for the Study of Labour History has some excellent ideas for Christmas reading for socialists. Not all of the books are currently in print but should be available from a library or perhaps a second hand bookshop. Where they are in print they would also make good Christmas presents.

The complete list is here:

Before the Socialists, by Royden Harrison (1965)
Royden Harrison’s book looks at what some might regard as one of the ‘unheroic’ periods of English labour history, between the final demise of Chartism and the rise of the new unions and independent labour political organisation.
It confines itself largely to the first of what might be seen as a two decade period – 1860 to 1880 –and looks at various aspects of working-class and radical activity and ideas in that period rather than trying to provide a comprehensive narrative.
Harrison’s analysis of working class attitudes to the US Civil War was ground breaking but remains a live issue almost 50 years on. His examination of the rise of organised labour – with the TUC founded in 1868 and the development of the Reform League, where working class and middle class radicals worked together for the vote – also broke new ground as did his emphasis on the Land and Labour League a proto-working class party.
There is heroism too though. While the Chartists protest for the vote on 10 April 1848 failed, the Reform League’s Hyde Park demonstration on 5 May 1867 succeeded. Many of the same activists were involved.
Keith Flett is Convenor of the London Socialist Historians Group

Socialist History but also available as a tea towel in what is a very long history of selling radical artefacts dating back to Henry Hunt and Peterloo and before

The beer writer Pete Brown had a lengthy Q&A about all matters beer in the Sunday Times magazine on 1st December. It was of course well informed and entertaining. He posed, to give one example, the question ‘does anyone drink mild anymore’ to which he answered simply ‘no’.

I’m not sure whether this was a joke (fair enough) or a personal view but either way it is of course not true. Mild has long been characterised as an old man’s drink, and I am an old man (well 68 anyway) so I would say that. Except I’ve been drinking mild for decades even when I was younger, so much younger than today etc.

Mild is of course not a strength of beer but a style or arguably styles as it comprises light and dark milds.

Anyway finding myself, as usual, at the annual CAMRA Pigs Ear Beer Festival in Hackney in early December, I tried the annual release of a Victorian Mild from Kernel and Redemption Breweries. It was first brewed in 2011 and in recent years has made a pre-Christmas appearance.

The Kernel version was in a wooden cask at 5.5% and that gave it in my personal view fuller flavour. The Redemption version was 6% and is currently also available in mini-kegs.

I had a brief chat with Evan from Kernel and Andy from Redemption where the consensus seemed to be that the latter’s version is better this year. You can of course form your own view by drinking some and at the same time proving Pete Brown wrong

The list above is actually a promo for Boris Johnson’s memoir which is officially called Unleashed. Those who will or will not receive a present from Santa Boris (i.e a copy or perhaps several copies of the book) are listed.

Of course it being Johnson its a bit confused. Michael Gove appears on both sides as does Johnson’s dog Dilyn who might enjoy chewing the book.

Jeremy Clarkson will not be getting anything from Santa Boris. Johnson agreed that (in his view) Clarkson had stood up for farmers. However Clarkson’s book aimed at the Christmas market, Diddly Squat, Home to Roost, is at number 2 on the best seller lists, having sold 10,750 copies last week. By contrast Johnson’s book is at number 4 with 7,795 copies sold in the past seven days.

As splits in the Tory supporting Establishment go, this is serious

The revolt that has seen the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad toppled opens up a period of perhaps positive possibilities but a range of great dangers too.

While its not a revolt from below, of the kind Assad brutally suppressed in 2011, the fall of statues is always a sign that real change of some kind is happening. The felled statue pictured is of Hafez, the just deposed dictator’s father.

Those who have seized power are not liberators but in toppling the existing regime they provide a chance, perhaps a limited one, and not their intention, that the forces of 2011 might gather again. That is the key point for Syrian people. If they succeed then a range of reactionary imperialist forces with other, very different, agendas, may come to regret matters. Let’s hope so

Ambridge Socialist

8^th December

Mick drifts into Reform UK Ltd territory

Mick is angry and so he has made a complaint about Emma’s suitability to be  Parish Councillor. He thinks Joy should be on the Council instead but has apparently never heard of elections. Perhaps he could try a petition.

Micks’ justification is that while George was driving the car that saw Joy almost drown in the Am, Emma’s failure to report George to Knacker pronto suggests that she is culpable of something. What is not clear as the police found no issue to pursue.

In fact Mick is just is an angry old man without a plan and that way leads to Reform UK Ltd.

Santa, Creepy Christmas & the Bull

Meanwhile he has several events planned where he will be playing Santa the Bull. The Ambridge Socialist has some concerns about this not least that despite Lynda Snell saying she was not doing a Panto this year she is now centrally involved in the Creepy Christmas. One concern is that with Mick involved it might be…

Parish Council

The Ambridge Socialist has long called for the Parish Council to be a Workers Council but it continues on with the Professor as Clerk and debates and decisions unreported. Joy has discussed with Emma the valuable role she brings to the Council, and to be fair not having an Archer instead is a plus

Ed helps Fallon changes tyres

Perhaps a shower scene beckons notwithstanding there is no place for Gregg Wallace style ‘banter’ in the Ambridge Socialist

The below is from a Christmas 2023 post from the Society for the Study of Labour History

The Redskins post is here:

But do check the entire series:

Keep on Keepin On
The Redskins (Martin Hewes, Chris Dean, Nick King 1986)

The Redskins were a short lived rock to soul band in the mid-1980s. They were often to be found playing benefit gigs with the likes of Billy Bragg in the Red Wedge period. However as the lyrics of Keep on Keepin On underline, the band’s politics were some way to the left of Bragg.

The song is on their only album, Neither Washington Nor Moscow, which appeared in 1986. The words tell the story of industrial struggles and the need to keep on fighting even when defeats happen. A focus is on the ability of bosses to divide and rule workers and make them pay for crisis. However a line also notes ‘full timers, back sliders to the cry of sell out sell out’, a reference to the role of union officials in failing to prosecute struggles in a way that rank and file workers demand.

The context of the song is of course the defeats of the 1984/5 miners’ strike and the printers at Wapping in 1986. The point of the lyric is that while defeats happen the fightback must and will continue.

As a long time elected union official myself I keep the song constantly in mind as a warning! While the lyrics may seem didactic the vocal of lead singer Chris ‘X’ Moore and the upbeat music means that Keep on Keepin On remains a favourite even now when its played at my North London local.

Keith Flett is a Convenor of the London Socialist Historians Group

Its something that will be viewed with interest from various quarters but Elizabeth Ammon (Times 7th December) reports that some leading players are threatening to boycott The Hundred in 2025, in effect taking industrial action.

The reason is that the ever hapless ruling body of English and Welsh cricket the ECB is endeavouring to intervene in global franchise cricket. Understandably the ECB wants leading players to be available for the T20 blast (which they have now determined is played early season) and the Hundred in August. The problem is that players can earn a lot more elsewhere.

The ECB has to give permission for players to appear in domestic competitions elsewhere in the world. The current ECB threat is that this will be not be given for the Pakistan Super League (now in April/May) the Caribbean Premier League and US Major League cricket. It appears that players with white ball only contracts might be allowed to play in the PSL.

Whatever one thinks of franchise cricket- and with the Hundred the ECB is a major player itself- a robust response by the players union to the ECB diktat would represent progress in history

55 years since the Rolling Stones released Gimme Shelter

Gimme Shelter was the first track on the Rolling Stones record Let It Bleed released 55 years ago on 5^th December 1969

It was a different era and coming after the events of May 1968 in France, the Vietnam War was becoming an all pervading issue in the same way Gaza and Palestine are now.

The song was a Jagger/Richards composition and Jagger told Rolling Stone magazine (14^th December 1995)

Well, it’s a very rough, very violent era. The Vietnam War. Violence on the screens, pillage and burning. And Vietnam was not war as we knew it in the conventional sense. The thing about Vietnam was that it wasn’t like World War II, and it wasn’t like Korea, and it wasn’t like the Gulf War. It was a real nasty war, and people didn’t like it. People objected, and people didn’t want to fight it … That’s a kind of end-of-the-world song, really. It’s apocalypse; the whole record’s like that

However Richards original idea had been motivated by watching a London rain storm which 55 years on gives the song an unintended climate change context as well

Gimme Shelter – Wikipedia