Bollocks to the Poll Tax
Colin Revolting remembers the day 30 years ago when one of the biggest marches ever turned into a mass riot which sunk the Tory flagship Poll Tax policy and took Prime Minister Thatcher down with it.
revolutionary reflections | The Anti-Poll Tax Federation: Organisation and spontaneity
The anti-poll tax movement was arguably the most successful social movement in Great Britain since the 1970s. In advance of the 30th anniversary of the poll tax riot (31 March 1990), Andrew Stone explores how political organisations and grassroots initiative interacted.
What does my body know of photography? – Remembering the resistance through art
On Holocaust Memorial Day, Annie Dobson remembers Faye Schulman, photographer and Jewish partisan with her lyric essay.
Beyond 4 June
Last week we published reflections on the 30th anniversary of China’s ‘May of the Masses’. Here Charlie Hore reflects on the massacre of 4 June and its aftermath.
May of the Masses: the Tiananmen Square movement 30 years on
While 4 June marks the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, the inspirational movement that went before also deserves to be remembered, writes Charlie Hore.
Accuser of capitalism: speech from the dock
A hundred years ago today, John Maclean, hero of “Red Clydeside”, assailed the imperialist slaughter of World War One as he stood trial for sedition
Half a millennium away: Martin Luther’s 95 theses 500 years on
On the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s 95 Theses, Andrew Stone looks at the context in which Protestantism arose and the global impact it had. On 31 October 1517 an Augustinian monk nailed a list of complaints – known to posterity as the 95 Theses – to a church door in Wittenberg. This austere professor of theology […]
Atlas Shrugged: the world’s most boring cult novel
On 10 October 1957 Random House published Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, a book now regarded by many as the ultimate expression of capitalist greed, as well as perhaps the worst novel ever written.
Intolerants not welcome – The Battle of Lewisham 1977
13 August 2017 will be the 40th Anniversary of the “Battle of Lewisham” when thousands of local people and other anti-racists refused to allow the fascist National Front to intimidate them with a provocative march through the community. Lewisham poet Mark ‘Mr T’ Thompson has written this poem in remembrance and celebration of the historic event. […]
“Buried alive by the National Coal Board”: the fiftieth anniversary of the Aberfan Disaster Tribunal
At 9:15am on Friday 21 October 1966, a colliery spoil tip collapsed, and slid down the mountainside onto the mining village of Aberfan in South Wales.
Bollocks to the Poll Tax
Colin Revolting remembers the day 25 years ago when one of the biggest marches ever turned into a mass riot which sunk the Tory flagship Poll Tax policy and took Prime Minister Thatcher down with it. “An anti-poll tax rally in central London has erupted into the worst riots seen in the city for a […]
Candles in the night: Vigil in Hong Kong commemorates Tiananmen Square
Sue Sparks reports on the vigil held in Hong Kong 25 years after Tiananmen Square.
The May of the masses: the Tiananmen Square movement 25 years on
4 June marks the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Charlie Hore looks back at the inspirational movement that went before, and repression that followed. Twenty-five years ago, a mass protest movement exploded across China’s cities, posing potentially the biggest challenge to China’s rulers since 1949. The Tiananmen Square movement, as it came to […]
Who was Blair Peach?
Today marks the 35th anniversary of the killing of Blair Peach by the police. David Renton looks back at Blair Peach’s life as a poet, trade unionist and committed antifascist. Blair Peach was a 33 year old teacher killed on a demonstration on 23 April 1979 at Southall against the National Front. He is one […]
The Kosovo War – 15 Years On
15 years ago today NATO forces began bombarding Serbia with high-tech bombs. For Blair and Clinton the Kosovo War was their ‘humanitarian’ intervention. However, as James B writes, the actuality of that conflict, and the legacy, is anything but. Fifteen years ago Europe was at war. The Kosovo conflict has been eclipsed in the popular […]
Patrice Lumumba’s legacy
Last Friday marked the 53rd anniversary of the assassination of Patrice Lumumba. Miriyam Aouragh looks at his legacy and western complicity in his murder. In Une Saison au Congo (A Season in the Congo) from 1966, Aimé Césaire tells an unapologetic story about brutal colonial exploitation and the subsequent transformation of the Belgian Congo into […]