The Battle of Saltley Gate remembered

A new website has been set up to publicise the 40th anniversary of 'The Battle of Saltley Gate' in Birmingham:

In February 1972 some 30,000 Birmingham engineers walked out on strike in solidarity with striking miners who were fighting against austerity pay deals. Up to 15,000 then marched to join miners who were picketing Saltley coke depot. The blockade forced the police, who had kept the depot open all week, to surrender and close the gates.

Militant picketing involving tens of thousands of miners had shut down power stations, docks and coal depots. But the victory at Saltley, won through solidarity strikes, was the turning point for the miners. Within seven weeks the government was defeated.

Today, working people face a similar assault on their living conditions. November 2011 saw millions of workers strike in Britain in the biggest show of united action in generations. Forty years on the Battle of Saltley Gate carries powerful lessons for a working class that is once again stirring.

This website is an attempt to produce a list of articles on Saltley Gate. Click here for article links and click here to read articles on this site.
There will hopefully be celebration events in Birmingham in 2012. These will be publicised here.

If you have articles or pictures you would like linked, or hosted, on this site please email saltleygateinfo@gmail.com

A commemorative pamphlet, Close the Gates - the 1972 miners strike, Saltley Gate and the defeat of the Tories has also been written for the anniversary by Pete Jackson:

Worcester TUC publications

Worcester Trades Union Council

All funds raised are used in to support WTUC campaign for the continuing campaign against the cuts in the city & county.

Class Words 100 Years of Struggle (Limited copies available)
Class Words contains many poems and words from the history of the working class. The booklet celebrates the history of the struggle by workers, a must for all trade unionists. £4

Worcester Trades Union Council 120 Years Commemorative Booklet
A Short History highlighting some episodes of the activities of the WTUC during the last 120 years. £5

Their Glorious Fight
In 1922 the National Union of Teachers in Worcestershire took strike action as part of their struggle to achieve the nationally agreed Burnham Scale. This Booklet details the fight that the Teachers with the reactionary forces in Worcestershire County Council. £5

To obtain a copy of any of the above please complete the form below and enclose a Cheque made payable to John Stevenson for the appropriate amount.

Title Number of Copies

Class Words ................

WTUC 120 Years Commemorative Booklet ................

Their Glorious Fight ................

I enclosed a cheque for ....................

Name ……………………………………………………………
Address ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Postcode ……………………………………………………..

Worcester Trades Union Council
67 Mayfield Road
Worcester
WR3 8NS

Aspects of Popular Protest seminars

Aspects of Popular Protest
- seminars organised by the Socialist History Society

Prof Jerry White - 'Riots and the Law in 18th Century London'
7pm 22 February 2012

Prof David Goodway 'The Real History of Chartism'
7pm 19 April 2012

Venue for both:
Bishopsgate Institute, London
Free entry, all welcome,
retiring collection.
www.socialisthistorysociety.co.uk/

LSHG Spring term seminars 2012

London Socialist Historians Seminars Spring Term 2012

9th January Ian Birchall 'The Missing founders. The early years of the French Communist Party'

23rd January Nicole Ulrich {University of the Witwatersrand] 'Direct Action and Colonial Rule in Eighteenth-Century Southern Africa: a survey of underclass protest'.

6th February Merilyn Moos 'From the personal to the political: Researching the KPD 1929-37'

20th February Manus McGrogan 'The revolutionary left press after 1968'

5th March Lucian van der Walt [University of Witwatersrand] 'Adding Red to the Black Atlantic: the Industrial Workers of Africa and International Socialist League’s black revolutionary syndicalists and the South Africa Native National Congress's 1917-1920 radicalisation'

19th March Roberta Wedge 'Mary Wollstonecraft: journalist, socialist, or somewhere else on the political spectrum?'

All seminars at 5.30pm
Gordon Room,
Ground Floor
Senate House
South Block
Institute of Historical Research
London

Edited to add:
LONDON SEMINAR ON CONTEMPORARY MARXIST THEORY
14th December, 6pm King's College London, Strand Campus, Room S-3.18 Jairus Banaji (SOAS) ''Retotalizing Fascism: reading Arthur Rosenberg through Sartre's ‘Critique’''

Bert Ramelson

'Revolutionary Communist at work'

A tribute to Bert Ramelson will be held at the Marx Memorial Library on Saturday 5th May 2012 from 12 noon to 6 PM admission free. If you would like to speak at this event or attend please contact Terry McCarthy at, terrylhm@virginmedia.com
Revolutionary Communist at work a political biography of Bert Ramelson by Roger Seifert and Tom Sibley
Special offer to receive this 350 page book at £15, five pounds goes to the morning Star - see www.labourhistory.co.uk

Reminder - Keith Flett on William Cuffay

Keith Flett on 'William Cuffay, Black Chartist and Londoner'
Seminar - Mon 12th December
Institute of Historical Research, Gordon Room G34, Ground Floor South Block Senate House 5.30pm - all welcome