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Futures & Histories

Representing resistance, organising, and argument: Literature and worker activism in mid-20th century America

Representing resistance, organising, and argument: Literature and worker activism in mid-20th century America

In this talk delivered as part of the University and College's Union Political Education Programme, Chris Reid discusses a series of radical texts produced by workers in mid-20th century America, and the hopes of overcoming capitalism that they contained.

A man walks along an empty, foggy beach in Trinidad

Workers and empire: Learning from early 20th century resistance politics in Imperial Britain – Part 2

In the second part of Workers and Empire, Christopher Reid surveys the relationships between working class revolts in the centre and the periphery of the British empire, and draws lessons from George Padmore, CLR James, and George Orwell.

Workers and empire: Learning from early 20th century resistance politics in Imperial Britain – Part 1

Workers and empire: Learning from early 20th century resistance politics in Imperial Britain – Part 1

In the first of two articles on the history of worker activism in the British Empire, Christopher D. Reid examines the resistances in the Welsh coalfields and of women clothworkers in Scotland, and connects them to lessons that can be learnt today.

IBM, the Holocaust and the hacker

IBM, the Holocaust and the hacker

The history of International Business Machines (IBM), how they were used by the Nazis, and how one statistician gamed the system to save thousands of Jewish lives.

Protestor holds a sign 'I can't believe we're marching for facts'

Revisiting the ideas of Hannah Arendt in the era of fake news

Cat Lawton-Westerland explores the idea of malleable truth. "The disempowering narrative that we cannot discern the truth, that we do not have the skills to find it, is itself a tool of oppression."

The ‘War on Neds’ and contradiction: 1995–2008

The ‘War on Neds’ and contradiction: 1995–2008

Gavin Brewis traces the history of Scotland's 'War on Neds'. At the centre of a nation-wide moral panic targeting working class youth, Neds created a complex culture that was a direct response to material conditions of poverty, violence, and exclusion.

'Let it be known that homosexuals are not cowards': The story of Willem Arondeus, queer antifascist

'Let it be known that homosexuals are not cowards': The story of Willem Arondeus, queer antifascist

Arondeus shows that the queer community is one of the strongest and the bravest, willing to fight back, risk everything and act in order to save lives from fascism. In the words of one of the queer antifascists currently fighting Daesh in Syria, 'These faggots fight fascists'.