Kmflett's Blog

In a New Year message to Brewdog employees James Watt has revealed that the Company made a loss in 2023. Despite frequent reports of an IPO Brewdog remains in private hands (effectively owned by a private equity company) so we are not likely to get any more details. The BBC has reported (10th January) that the loss was £24m which Brewdog attributes to increased brewing costs particularly for PunkIPA

Hospitality is struggling against the backdrop of a cost of living crisis and a Government failure to act on the economic issues facing the industry. There are likely to be more specific factors however. Brewdog bars are quite expensive for beer and food (if you want a reasonably priced pint of Punk, Wetherspoons will provide it) and the beer is no longer the stand out it was in the early days.

Watt went on to say that from April 2024 Brewdog workers outside of London will no longer be paid the real living wage (£12 an hour) but the national living wage of £11.44. It is, if you like, a cut in the increase of wages which itself is driven by a very high rate of inflation. The headline rate of inflation has now dropped to 3.9% but housing and food costs are much higher than that still.

The move is totemic because Brewdog has sold itself as an employer that pays at the top of the market. Indeed Watt lists a number of other employee benefits which he is not cutting, at the moment. The Guardian reports (10th January) that in a staff survey a year ago the real living wage was the benefit most wanted to keep above all

Whatever the issues with Brewdog’s profitability are- general or specific- they won’t be solved by cutting wages. Morever it should be noted that Watt has just announced this. In an ethically run company a union is recognised, its representatives are consulted, negotiations take place and difficulties are worked through.

In short the New Year message is Unionise Brewdog!

Unite the Union have launched a petition calling for Brewdog to keep the Living Wage. Sign below:

https://www.megaphone.org.uk/petitions/brewdog-pay-the-real-living-wage

Happy New Year or the Long 2023?

Historians are familiar with the concept of long and indeed short centuries.

The categories of the long eighteenth and the long nineteenth century are familiar. Eric Hobsbawm argued that the twentieth century, one of wars and revolutions, really started with the First World War in 1914 and closed with the fall of the USSR in 1989. By contrast I recently posted a piece outing the case for a long twentieth century with the various crisis associated with it around war and the economy still very much with us.

In this context I think its possible to argue that while calendar wise we are clearly in 2024 the various crisis of 2023 hang like a nightmare on the brain of the living (Marx).

Domestically a General Election is both long overdue but apparently not going to be called yet. As Gramsci noted it’s the time of monsters.

There should have been a ceasefire and an end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza before Christmas. Instead Biden with UK support continues to green light it.

The climate crisis will not be resolved any time soon, although action on it remains urgent. Urgent that is except for the current Government which is back peddling on measures to address the crisis and the likely next Government which has a good plan but cant it seems decide how long it might take.

How to deal with the long 2023? Clearly while a change at Westminster is needed the real motor for moving into 2024 needs to come from below, organising in workplaces and colleges and on the streets.

Doctor Who and the Communist: the work and politics of Malcolm Hulke TV scriptwriter Michael Herbert Date: Mon 22 January Start time: 1730 On Zoom. Free. Book here: https://www.history.ac.uk/events/doctor-who-and-communist-work-and-politics-malcolm-hulme-tv-scriptwriter 

‘Hen Chartists’ and ‘Vulgar Viragos’: Rethinking the role of women in the Chartist Movement Judy Cox Date: Monday 5th February Start time: 5.30pm On Zoom. Free. Book

https://www.history.ac.uk/events/hen-chartists-and-vulgar-viragos-rethinking-role-women-chartist-movement

Transnational Perspectives on French Anarchism(1880-1918), Biography, Networks and Print Culture Constance Bantman Date: Monday 4th MarchStart time: 5.30pm In Person. Room 301, Institute of Historical Research

The Great Defiance. How the World Took On The British Empire David Veevers(Bangor) Date: Monday 18th March Start time: 5.30pm On Zoom

For more information on seminars contact Dr Keith Flett 07803 167266

Beard Liberation Front

13^th January

Contact BLF Organiser Keith Flett @kmflett

Beard Friendly Pub* of the Year 2024

The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that the final vote for the Beard Friendly Pub of the Year has now closed. There were over 500 votes and competition bristled. The votes will now be verified and the winner announced on 14th January

For 2024 the BLF has looked to a new focus on beard friendly pubs with a strong community presence.

BLF Inspectors drew up a shortlist comprised of pubs which are independently owned, inclusive of the communities in which they are located, have a welcoming presence and sell good beer, broadly defined

BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, its tough times for hospitality particularly in January and tough times for pub goers too as the cost of living crisis continues. The Beard Friendly Pub of the Year vote aims to encourage people to stop by their local and engage in some hirsute socialising.

*the vote also covers bars, taprooms and bottle shops

After two preliminary rounds of voting the top two in each round went to a final vote. The winner will be declared on 14th January

Tom’s Tap & Brew and the Cock Tavern E8 won the first round and will now feature in the final together with the winners of round two, the Shirkers Rest and PopnHops

Final Shortlist

Cock Tavern, Hackney

Pop’n’Hops, Cardiff

Shirkers Rest, New Cross

Tom’s Tap, Crewe

Along with Paul Foot, John Pilger (Obituary, 1 January) was one of the greatest campaigning journalists of our times. His death brought many tributes, but not a word from Rishi Sunak or Keir Starmer. Proof that his journalism exposing the rich and powerful, their policies and motivations, made him persona non grata in official political circles. A better epitaph there couldn’t be.
Keith Flett
Tottenham, London

Guardian 2nd January 2024

Culture Wars: Times review agrees Churchill was racist

A review of a new book in the Times (6^th January) was headed BLM were right. Churchill was racist.

This was of course a book review not the Times Editorial policy but even so in the long running culture war on Churchill it was a surprising statement in a surprising place.

The book in question is Fighting Retreat, Churchill and India by Walter Reid. It was published on 4^th January and the book reviewer was Gerard DeGroot

DeGroot underlines that Reid while not a professional historian is a well respected one with a significant publishing history. He is described as ‘white, late middle aged and as a landowner rather posh’.

Even so Reid has looked at Churchill’s long history of engagement with India from the late nineteenth century to the Second World War. He concludes that while Churchill liked India the country and saw it as an essential part of the British Empire, he was at all times racist towards Indians including Ghandi.

Of course the charge sheet of racism and imperial endeavour against Churchill goes far wider than this but the book reflects both an important statement given its provenance and a reminder that research history is about asking questions the answers to which may not be what was expected.

Walter Reid did not expect to find that Churchill was a racist on India but that is what his researches demonstrated.

The politics of protest: the ‘mob’ versus the ‘crowd’. 6^th January 2021 five years on

Its five years since Trump supporters on 6^th January 2021 attacked the US Capitol building. There was a riot and a mob or crowd was involved.

In 2024 Trump hailed it as a glorious day or some such and promised to pardon most of those subsequently jailed if elected President. This he has subsequently done.

Biden meanwhile, taking a brief moment off from backing genocide in Gaza, argued that it was an insurrection. A coup d’etat would have been a better description although interviewed by the Times (4th January 2025) the historian Sir Niall Ferguson who criticised Trump in 2021 but now backs him argued that it was better understood as a sign of unusual COVID pandemic times.

One person’s mob is another person’s crowd

For example protesting outside the house of someone who has transgressed many people’s understanding of what might be termed a ‘moral economy’ is a British tradition stretching back over many centuries. It was not however by any means always politically progressive, so controversy over it is also something not recent. It started again with peaceful protests outside the Constituency Offices of MPs who refused to back a ceasefire in Gaza being elided with attempts to cause physical harm to MPs

The use of the term mob to characterise popular protest dates back at least to Edmund Burke’s view of the French Revolution. As the historian of nineteenth century protest George Rude underlined what reactionaries thought was a mob was in many cases simply a peaceful crowd making reasonable points. If one wants to look for a mob, the activities of the Bullingdon Club are a good place to start.

Events in the US on January 6th 2021 provided a much wider canvass to issues of the politics of protest but a summary of the mob v crowd debate, now history itself, is here:

While George Rude saw in a protest up to a riot the work of the crowd, and broadly progressive intentions and outcomes, E.P. Thompson was less happy with this formulation. He suggested that riots could also contain reactionary elements and the crowd involved in the Gordon Riots would be an obvious example.

I would take Thompson’s side in that debate (if only just) but underline the point above that while we may accept that there may be reactionary elements in crowds which can get involved in riots this doesn’t alter the fact that they happen and need to be understood

E.P. Thompson’s work on food riots points to the reality that the threat of a riot was often more effective than an actual riot. It could cause a reduction in the price of bread or the distribution of hoarded food. When riots did occur very much the same impact was to be found. Hidden food was seized and distributed at low price.

There were other, more obviously political riots, often associated with the Chartists. The Chartists were an organised political force that most certainly did not support riots. It was rather the wider Chartist crowd that participated in such activities, often after provocation from the authorities.

There has been a lot more research and wider perspectives on the crowd since Thompson and Rude looked at the matter in the 1960s and 1970s. Crowds are looked at from the perspective of safety risk management and from psychology as well as history.

Historical research however can provide useful context by looking at who the individuals were involved in mob or crowd protests, what their intention was, how this turned out and what the reaction of authority was. Perhaps needless to say such research is limited because often the only people who can be identified are those who are arrested and any who make public statements about their activities. We now know a good deal about the organised fascist groupings behind the 6^th January 2021 attack

Of course the democratic crowd will usually make it clear what it’s about so a lack of clarity may suggest a mob with less clear intent.

graphic, Morning Star

London Socialist Historians Seminar

Monday 22nd January 5.30pm

Recording of Michael Herbert’s opening & discussion

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/i-4nO0HJCbxltiEohg3ehp0p1WbYCInXiQlfxQItUQte0GuGrf7hrZlTJG8zADKq.nTkHVcmeTNuJYHT_

Report

Michael Herbert outlined Malcolm’s early life,his time in the forces during World War Two and his decision to join the Communist Party. During the 1950s through activity in the Young Communist League and Unity Theatre Hulke came to know (Lord) Ted Willis and this amongst other things provided an opening into scriptwriting for TV.

Hulke wrote a number of episodes of the Avengers for ITV except during the Cold War era of the early 1960s his baddies werent Soviets but capitalists. He went on to write numbers of episodes of Dr Who featuring topics such as the futility of war and the environment. Michael Herbert underlined that while the BBC knew Hulke had a political perspective they thought this added a purpose and structure to story lines.

During the discussion there were memories of Hulke selling the Daily Worker in South End Green (Hampstead) where he lodged with another CP member and of his time in the same CPGB branch as Eric Hobsbawm and the Aaronovitches.

About the speaker

Michael Herbert is a socialist historian who lives in Manchester. He is a past editor of the North West Labour History journal and a former trustee of the Working Class Movement Library. His published work includes: “Never Counted Out! ” the story of Len Johnson, the boxer and Communist; “The Wearing of the Green”, a political history of the Irish in Manchester; “’Up Then Brave Women’ – Manchester’s Radical  Women 1819-1918″ and “’For the sake of the women who are to come after’- Manchester’s radical women 1914-1945″.

He has been watching Doctor Who since 23rd November 1963 and is completing a biography of the television scriptwriter Malcolm Hulke to be called “Don’t Believe Everything You See…” which will include Malcolm’s writing for Armchair Theatre, Pathfinders in Space, Danger Man, Crossroads and Doctor Who.

Michael writes about radical history at https://redflagwalks.wordpress.com and about science fiction at https://fantasiesofpossibility.wordpress.com/list-of-posts-on-this-blog/…