Working class episode – Wiltshire history day

Working-class episodes
Saturday 6 November 2010 – 10.00am-2.30pm
St Margaret’s Hall
Bradford-on Avon BA15 1LH
Admission free

The ‘Trowbridge martyr’: Thomas Helliker and the Wiltshire Outrages of 1802
Prof. Adrian Randall, Birmingham University

Swing Rebellion in Wiltshire
Nigel Costley, Regional Secretary, South West Trades Union Congress

Chartism in rural Wiltshire, 1838-1842
Steve Poole, Principal History Lecturer, University of the West of England

Strikes and Socialism in Swindon in the 1960s and 1970s
Derique Montaut, Labour Party Leader, Swindon Borough Council

Phyllis and Idris Rose: Trowbridge communist councillors
Dave Chapple, CWU and Rosie McGregor, UNISON

Organised by White Horse (Wiltshire) Trades Union Council

For further details contact: Andy Newman 07764 563855 andyd1961@yahoo.co.uk

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‘Save CLR James Library’ name – online petition

An online petition demanding that Hackney Council, London retain the name CLR James Library for the new Dalston Sq Library development has been launched online. The petition declares:

We the undersigned demand that any new library built as part of the new Dalston Square Development as a replacement for the current CLR James Library retains the name CLR James Library. We believe that the current name should stand as a tribute to the great writer and historian, and also as recognition of the literary contribution of Hackney’s African Caribbean community.

Twentieth Century Communism – Communism and Political Violence

The second issue of Twentieth Century Communism journal, which has as its theme ‘Communism and Political Violence’, has now been published and is available in print and online.

Communist attitudes to violence have varied according to whether a given party was in power or opposition, and on the wider context in which its adherents found themselves. For communists of the Comintern generation, it was forever framed within a Bolshevik-derived paradigm centred on the experience of 1917; for the resistance movements of the second world war it was understood as part of the struggle against fascism; for those battling to liberate themselves from colonialism it was understood as part of the liberation struggle.

Two sample articles from the issue can be read in-full online:

• Communism and political violence – Matthew Worley
• The communist movement and violence in France: from the First World War to the Cold War – Sylvain Boulouque

Twentieth Century Communism – issue one, May 2009

The launch issue of Twentieth Century Communism: a journal of international history is published in May 2009. The theme of issue one is ‘Communism and the leader cult’.

From Franz Borkenau’s commentaries of the 1930s, through Khrushchev’s secret speech in 1956, the cult of the leading individual provided one of the distinguishing features of the Stalinist party and an epitome of centralisation. The proliferation of such cults, however, also posed potential dilemmas: for if there was to be a cult of leadership, Stalin’s ideal of a single monolithic will implied that this too should be centred in Moscow, and on the person of Stalin himself. Ranging across several countries and different levels of communist leadership, the first issue of Twentieth Century Communism provides new insight into how and when these cults were constructed, and with what political consequences. The issue will also feature reviews, a roundtable discussion of the Italian communist leader Togliatti and an interview with the influential German historian and architect of the concept of Stalinization, Hermann Weber.

A detailed guide to the contents of issue one, and subscription information can be found on the Lawrence & Wishart web site.

Twentieth Century Communism - issue one