Author Archives: lipstick socialist

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About lipstick socialist

I am an activist and writer. My interests include women, class, culture and history. From an Irish in Britain background I am a republican and socialist. All my life I have been involved in community and trade union politics and I believe it is only through grass roots politics that we will get a better society. This is reflected in my writing, in my book Northern ReSisters Conversations with Radical Women and my involvement in the Mary Quaile Club. .If you want to contact me please use my gmail which is lipsticksocialist636

My review of “I Have No Regrets: Diaries, 1955-1963” Brigitte Reimann

Posted on March 25, 2019 by lipstick socialist

    Brigitte Reimann was an East German writer and  an avid chronicler of her own  life through her diaries. In this new book we follow her as she becomes a successful writer, but at a turbulent time for her … Continue reading →

Posted in book review, Communism, education, novels, political women, Socialism, Uncategorized, women, working class history | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

My review of “High Wages” Dorothy Whipple

Posted on February 20, 2019 by lipstick socialist

  High Wages is set in 1912 and describes the lives of many young women of that era who had  limited educational and career options. Jane Carter, the heroine of this novel, is a Northern young woman who has to … Continue reading →

Posted in book review, feminism, labour history, novels, political women, Socialist Feminism, trade unions, Uncategorized, women, working class history | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

My review of “You Can’t Kill the Spirit!” Houghton Main Pit Camp, South Yorkshire;the untold story of the women who set up camp to stop pit closures

Posted on February 4, 2019 by lipstick socialist

  This is the inspiring  story of a group of working class women who decided to fight to stop further pit closures seven years after the momentous Miner’s Strike of 1984-5. They set up seven women’s pit camps outside the … Continue reading →

Posted in book review, education, feminism, human rights, labour history, political women, Socialist Feminism, trade unions, Uncategorized, women, working class history, young people | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

My review of “Our Woman in Havana Reporting Castro’s Cuba” Sarah Rainsford

Posted on January 30, 2019 by lipstick socialist

  Sarah Rainsford was the BBC’s correspondent in Cuba from 2011-14. Known as “Our woman in Havana”  it  feels  like  a throwback to a time when the UK was a world power that needed  to send out foreign correspondents like … Continue reading →

Posted in book review, Communism, human rights, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

My interview with Sheila Rowbotham about her groundbreaking 1969 article “Women: the struggle for Freedom”

Posted on January 14, 2019 by lipstick socialist

 On 10 January 1969 in an article  called   “Women; the struggle for Freedom”, published  in the Marxist magazine Black Dwarf, socialist feminist Sheila Rowbotham  poured out her anger and resentment about the inequality and injustice of women’s lives:   “A much … Continue reading →

Posted in biography, Communism, education, feminism, human rights, labour history, political women, Socialist Feminism, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

My review of “Algiers, Third World Capital Freedom Fighters, Revolutionaries, Black Panthers” Elaine Mokhtefi

Posted on December 30, 2018 by lipstick socialist

  Elaine Mokhtefi was a key person for the Black Panther movement in Algiers,  but her own story, added to the end of this book,  is as  important as it sheds  light on how a young Jewish woman from small … Continue reading →

Posted in biography, book review, Communism, human rights, political women, Uncategorized, women, young people | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

My review of “Moving Histories Irish Women’s Emigration to Britain from Independance to Republic” Jennifer Redmond

Posted on December 15, 2018 by lipstick socialist

  MORE Irish women than Irishmen have over the years emigrated from Ireland. In this new history of Ireland from the 1920s to the 1950s Jennifer Redmond uses an important array of new sources to tell their story. This includes … Continue reading →

Posted in book review, Catholicism, Communism, education, feminism, Ireland, Irish second generation, labour history, North of Ireland, political women, trade unions, Uncategorized, women, working class history, young people | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

My review of “Across the Water Irish Women’s Lives in Britain” (1988) Mary Lennon Marie McAdam Joanne O’Brien

Posted on December 4, 2018 by lipstick socialist

    This  unique history of the role of Irish women in Britain was published  in  1988: Across the Water Irish Women’s Lives in Britain.  It was produced by three women, none of whom were academics, all of them had … Continue reading →

Posted in book review, Catholicism, Communism, education, feminism, human rights, Ireland, Irish second generation, labour history, Manchester, North of Ireland, political women, Socialist Feminism, trade unions, Uncategorized, women, working class history, young people | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

My review of “But You Did Not Come Back” by Marceline Loridan-Ivens

Posted on December 1, 2018 by lipstick socialist

Marceline Loridan-Ivens  (19th March 1928 – 18th September 2018) was a French Jew, an activist in the French Resistance and the Algerian resistance, an actor, a filmmaker, and a writer. In 1944 at the age of 15 she was arrested … Continue reading →

Posted in art exhibition, Ireland, Manchester, Salford, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

My review of”Why Women have better sex under Socialism” Kristen R. Ghodsee

Posted on November 20, 2018 by lipstick socialist

  In 1925 Mary Quaile, Manchester Irish trade unionist and one of the first women to be elected onto the  Trades Union Congress, led a women-only delegation to the Soviet Union to investigate the lives of women and children in … Continue reading →

Posted in anti-cuts, book review, Communism, education, feminism, human rights, labour history, Manchester, political women, Socialism, Socialist Feminism, trade unions, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment