Frank Furedi is the news so a reminder of December 1989 when the Guardian reported that I was the Editor of Living Marxism.
LM was the glossy magazine of the Revolutionary Communist Party and was pitching in competition to Marxism Today on the news stands. Frank Furedi, aka Frank Richards, in fact a sociology Professor at Kent University was the theoretical guru. He has since appeared on the political hard right.
Its no secret that I am a Marxist and socialist activist but LM and the RCP were certainly not my variety of left.
The Guardian report by Nigel Fountain was in error. It noted not only that I was the Editor of LM but that I had denied the paper access to my anonymous HQ. Hmmm.
Anyway the Guardian printed an apology and Nigel Fountain who I knew then and I hope is still around explained to me that my name had somehow got into his mind as the LM Editor even though of course he knew the identity of the actual Editor and had met them.
My employer of the time (in fact still my employer) expressed some concern. The politics bit has never bothered them, they were just wondering if I had another job…
From Cinderloo 1821 to Shrewsbury Pickets 1972: employers & the law in North Wales & Shropshire
The first week of February saw a couple of labour movement occasions which were centred on Shropshire and North Wales.
It was the 200th anniversary of the event known as Cinderloo , where miners protesting about wage cuts were attacked by the Shropshire Yeomanry. Several were killed and others put on trial at Shrewsbury.
Over two days in the same week the long overdue appeal by building workers convicted as part of the 1972 national building strike, where the matters at issue also took place in the Shrewsbury area, took place
The events of February 1821 whose anniversary was marked with a range of virtual activities took place at Cinderhill near Telford. Local ironmasters had been engaged in an attempt to cut the wages of workers. Fearing that the same would happen to them, miners called a protest which took place over two days on 1st and 2nd February 1821. The occasion was known as Cinderloo as a conscious echo of Peterloo in 1819. On both occasions local Yeomanry, armed men on horseback, were deployed and attacked protesters.
Several of the key figures in the Shropshire Yeomanry were ironmasters. A 2017 article by local historian Neil Clarke underlined this. The Yeomanry had been formed at a meeting in a Shrewsbury pub in 1785 by the then Mayor William Cludde. His son Edward Cludde was in charge at Cinderloo in 1821. They were landowners as were numbers of other members. Local ironmasters Henry Williams and Joseph Reynolds were also part of the armed troop as was wine merchant Thomas Jukes Collier. In short the Yeomanry were the armed force of the local ruling class. They were last used in the 1842 General Strike before the policing framework we know today developed.
If we fast forward to the Shrewsbury Pickets arrests in 1972, which occurred in the same area of the country, we find some interesting parallels. Of course the local ruling class was no longer required to ride around armed on horseback cutting down any working class protests they found. They still maintained however a key interest in defending their wealth and using the law and its agents to do it.
In 1972 it was the well-known construction family the McAlpines who exercised great influence in the area as the Shrewsbury 24 campaign website underlines.
It notes that McAlpines were the main contractor at the Brookside building site in Shrewsbury which was a focus of charges against pickets. The McAlpine family were a cornerstone of ruling class politics in North Wales. Prior to the events of 1972 the post of the most senior law officer in the area, the High Sheriff, had been held by members of the McAlpine family on nine consecutive occasions. Even when the succession was broken in 1974 the occupant Peter Bell was in fact a director of McAlpines and the son-in-law of Sir Alfred McAlpine.
As the Shrewsbury pickets appeal underlined there was probably more at play in the case than the McAlpines, with the direct influence of the security service and Heath’s Tory Government suspected.
Political influence also existed at Cinderloo with the Home Secretary who had found nothing problematic about the Peterloo Massacre, Lord Sidmouth, writing to the Lord Lieutenant of Shropshire praising the ’exemplary forbearance’ of the Yeomanry.
E P Thompson noted in the Making of the Working Class that the State learnt from Peterloo that it could never use armed force against protesters again but that the same did not apply to industrial disputes. Cinderloo underlined that and Orgreave in 1984 reminds us that it remains true.
This post appeared in the Morning Star 12th February
by George Charles Beresford, sepia-toned platinotype print, 1905
Beard Liberation Front
Press release 12th February
Contact: Keith Flett 07803 167266
Beard Liberation Front to hold special meeting to advise on Starmer image crisis
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has said that it will hold a special meeting on Saturday to consider advice to Labour Leader Keir Starmer on what it is now a full blown image crisis.
In a Survation poll published on Friday Labour had slipped 5 points to 33%, 6 points behind the Tories on 39%.
The campaigners say that it is clear that Starmer has an image crisis with voters. Too many voters see the Labour leader as just another clean shaven politician in a suit with a sharp haircut.
By contrast Boris Johnson consistently dishevelled appearance, while hardly that of a traditional Prime Minister, stands out and seems to make the Tory leader appear idiosyncratic and distinctive to voters.
BLF Organiser Keith Flett, we will consider what image advice we can give to Keir Starmer to improve the poll ratings. Some say of course that it is not image but a lack of policies that is the issue. Frankly however what actual policies does Boris Johnson have aside from ones he makes up to suit the expediencies of the moment from time to time? Politics in 2021 is about image and Keir Starmer is failing to cut through.
Home Secretary Priti Patel is very right-wing. This is probably the only thing you really need to know about her. She is also member of the MCC,(think Lords cricket ground) but even though they are generally thought to be a somewhat conservative body, even they are not responsible for Ms Patel’s views.
Patel has opined that while she supports the right to protest, she does not support Black Lives Matter, taking the knee and so on.
This places her at odds with many sporting institutions, large businesses and trade unions, all of whom for various reasons do support BLM.
I doubt Priti Patel cares about that but there is a wider historical reality which is that Home Secretary’s do tend to be very right-wing.
Perhaps the only significant post-1945 exception was Roy Jenkins. Tory Home Secretaries have not been noted for their liberal approach to anything. Labour holders of the Office while sometimes better on detail also tend to be very right-wing and particularly careless about the democratic rights and liberties that would not exist at all without the labour movement.
Of course Ms Patel’s thoughts on BLM are just another shot in the Tory Culture Wars. I’m not sure she is particularly competent even at that fairly easy to master activity though.
Historians call on Rees-Mogg to clarify ‘celebrating our wonderful history’ remark.
The London Socialist Historians, which organises the socialist history seminar at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London, has called on the Leader of the Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg to clarify a comment he made in the House on 11th February that we should be ‘celebrating our wonderful history’.
The comment was in response to a question from Tory MP Andrew Rosindell about the Mayor of London’s taskforce to review the Capital’s statues, memorials and street names. Mr Rees-Mogg criticised the Mayor Sadiq Khan and concluded that British history should be celebrated.
The historians say that there are many things to celebrate in British history including, for example, the 1972 strike of Birmingham workers and mass picket of Saltley fuel depot which took place this week in 1972 and effectively won the miners strike of that year.
Mr Rees-Mogg who has published a poorly received volume of historical essays, The Victorians, failed to qualify his remarks leaving it open that he was in favour of celebrating the slave trade and slave traders like Edward Colston whose statue was toppled in Bristol in the summer of 2020. This is not least because the issue of memorials to such historical figures is likely to be part of the Mayor of London’s review.
LSHG Convenor Dr Keith Flett said, of course Jacob Rees-Mogg’s comments are an attempt to stoke a Tory Culture War and distract from pressing issues around COVID-19 and the economy. However the question of what can be celebrated in British history and what needs to be disavowed remains important. We are calling on Mr Rees-Mogg to clarify what he meant.
Asked in the Commons (11th February) by hard right Tory MP Andrew Rosindell for his views on a new taskforce set up by the London Mayor to review statues, memorials and street names, the Leader of the House Jacob Rees Mogg opined:
we should celebrate and glory in our wonderful history and in the great heroes of our nation going back over centuries.
Rees Mogg has written a very bad history book, The Victorians, but is really saying we should celebrate the slave trade and slave traders?
So. Farewell then the print edition of What’s Brewing. A World We Have Lost
The print edition of the monthly paper of the Campaign for Real Ale will cease with April 2021.
To be fair it’s a while since last orders were called and the decision had been made a while back to stop in July 2021. All that’s happened is that it’s been brought forward which in times like these saves money- particularly postage.
There will be a 8 page What’s Brewing insert into the quarterly Beer magazine (which surely would do better if it was called Beer and Beard) and an enhanced on-line CAMRA presence.
Its certainly the end of an era. I’ve been reading What’s Brewing since the 1970s. Aside from obviously writing letters to it (sparking the obvious volume of complaints which in the days before social media one just lived with)I also wrote the occasional column. Roger Protz commissioned me to write a piece on Marxism and beer (cue even more complaints) while noting privately that obviously (and understandably) he couldn’t be seen to promote such positions..
In recent times it’s fair to say I haven’t read the paper edition that much (glanced at it certainly) and sometimes when I remember and have time looked at it on line.
In general though, despite the fact that in more or less every area I operate I do stuff mostly on-line, on social media, on blogs, on websites, I do think there is a concern about not having some form of hard copy publication.
Obviously that doesn’t apply just now. But in general it will again. As the London Secretary of a major section of one the UK’s biggest unions I write a monthly newsletter for members. In usual times it circulates of course via e-copies but paper copies are always done. Why? Because when talking to members and trying to recruit more having a piece of paper with details and some news to hand them is immediate. It’s in their hands. They will need to glance at it even if they throw it away. Suggesting they have a look at a website if they remember and have time is just not the same thing.
The same applies to What’s Brewing. Reading it and leaving copies in pubs gets the CAMRA view across more widely and keeps it in people’s minds in a way websites don’t. Will I sit in a pub and read What’s Brewing on a website on my phone? Possibly but more likely I’ll be looking at the football.
Hopefully local hard copy branch magazines which still seem to flourish can do the job. At the same time though, and with all the benefits of the on-line world, when hard copy publication goes so does an element of public presence.
For example the Independent still exists as a newspaper on-line. How many people know or care? They don’t see it in the newsagent or (more likely)the supermarket. If they want to know what its saying they will never accidentally just see it (and perhaps want to see more). They must decide to seek it out on-line and, as above, other things may get their attention.
As the print edition of What’s Brewing ends CAMRA must make sure its in the public eye and mind. Particularly in days like these.
Cats are in the news (again) because a screen shot of one replaced a lawyer who was speaking to a judge in a US court hearing. The lawyer was heard explaining to the judge that they were not a cat
Cats however have a long association with wisdom- just ask any cat.
It is a by way of history but two (at least) of the most well-known post-1945 British marxist historians had cats.
Eric Hobsbawm had a cat Ticlia (photo Marlene Hobsbawm from Richard Evans 2019 biography of Hobsbawm) and E P Thompson’s cat (name I’m unaware of) was pictured on the back page of the Poverty of Theory. Whether the cats hindered or helped historical research is another matter..
Thompson reported about the views of his cat in the Poverty of Theory. What Hobsbawm’s cat thought does not appear to have been recorded.
Thompson noted that Marchais, a leader of the French Communist Party in the 1970s and 1980s had said that when he came to power he would be kind to animals. ‘My cat, who read this over my shoulder, laughed’. Several paragraphs later Thompson writes ‘I have asked my cat’ (about the evasions of Stalinism) ‘and he has explained that it is all this which made him laugh’.
Our cat Holly often observes Zoom & Teams meetings (& sometimes falls asleep during them-who can blame her?) but rarely shows an inclination to participate
My Hairy Valentine 2021. Beards Lovers, final vote
The Beard Liberation Front, the informal network of beard wearers, has launched its annual search for My Hairy Valentine ahead of Valentine’s Day on 14th February.
After two rounds, the final Beard Lovers vote is now open.
This year it has been refocused to include two categories:
1 Beards that are sexy, allowing for the reality that this is in the eye of the beholder
2 Beards that are loved because they add a reassuring presence to public life and should be celebrated.
The campaigners say that they don’t attempt to define a sexy Valentine’s beard as beauty is in the eye of the beholder. They are concerned however to move away from traditional images of chisel jawed clean shaven men, and dispel pogonophobic myths that beards are dirty or unkempt
Michael Rosen and Kris Kristofferson won the Beards That Are Loved round. Idris Elba and Michael Sheen won the ‘Sexy’ beards around and go through to the Beard Lovers final
BLF Organiser Keith Flett said, we think beards are lovely and to be loved- in most cases. What better way to celebrate Valentine’s Day than vote for the most ‘sexy’ and loved beards?
The Vote opens at Midday on Wednesday 10th February and closes at Midday on Saturday 13th February
Historians say Boris Johnson must raise Holocaust ‘cancel culture’ with Polish Government
The London Socialist Historians Group, which organises the socialist history seminar at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London, has expressed concern about the outcome on 9th February of a case in a Polish court on research into Polish collaboration with the Nazis on the Holocaust.
Many Polish Jews died in Nazi concentration camps and historical research has looked at complicity between Poles and the Nazis in identifying Jewish people to be sent to the camps.
In the current case a leading researcher on the subject Professor Jan Grabowski faced a libel case from an 80 year old Pole Filomena Leszczynska who claimed her uncle had been incorrectly identified as a collaborator with the Nazis.
The judge did not fine Prof Grabowski but ordered that an apology be made and a correction in any future edition of the published research. This is despite the fact that the Professor had correctly identified the uncle of Ms Lesczynska as a collaborator.
The case has been widely seen as an effort by the hard right Polish Government to stifle research into the Polish holocaust, although this is denied.
LSHG Convenor Dr Keith Flett said, it is of great concern when research designed to show the realities of the holocaust and those who collaborated with it is the subject of a Court case. It looks like ‘cancel culture’ is at work here by those who seek to minimise or deny the Holocaust. We hope that Boris Johnson will raise the matter urgently with his Polish equivalent.
