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

“…the point is to change it”: Remembering Ruth and Eddie Frow and the WCML

Posted on November 13, 2017 by lipstick socialist

  Last Saturday’s event commemorated the lives of the  Frows,  showing  how their belief in communism was about grassroots activity which included the creation of the Working Class Movement Library in the 1950s. They wanted  to encourage  future generations to … Continue reading →

Posted in anti-cuts, Communism, drama, education, feminism, human rights, labour history, music, political women, Salford, Socialism, trade unions, Uncategorized, women, working class history, young people | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Political Women; Lauren, Trade Union Activist and Revolutionary Socialist

Posted on November 6, 2017 by lipstick socialist

Lauren, aged 22 years, represents a new generation of young workers who are following in the footsteps of past activists such as  Mary Quaile,  who never wavered in her belief that trade unions were the key to women and men … Continue reading →

Posted in anti-cuts, feminism, human rights, labour history, Manchester, political women, Salford, Socialist Feminism, trade unions, Uncategorized, women | Tagged , | 2 Comments

My review of “Workers’ Playtime”, edited by Doug Nicholls

Posted on October 12, 2017 by lipstick socialist

In this new book Workers’ Play Time  seven scripts written about the struggle for workers and trade union rights are published.  The editor Doug Nicholls reminds us of the importance of culture to the struggle for trade union freedom. “Cultural … Continue reading →

Posted in book review, Communism, drama, education, feminism, human rights, labour history, political women, Socialism, Socialist Feminism, trade unions, Uncategorized, women | Tagged , | 2 Comments

My review of “Hanna Sheehy Skeffington: Suffragette and Sinn Feiner” by Margaret Ward

Posted on October 6, 2017 by lipstick socialist

In the 1980s massive changes were taking place in this country. One event was the arrival of 40,000 Irish people each year looking for work. It was not a new occurrence, but the latest in a series  of waves of … Continue reading →

Posted in Bernadette McAliskey, biography, book review, feminism, human rights, Ireland, Irish second generation, labour history, North of Ireland, political women, Socialist Feminism, trade unions, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 2 Comments

My review of Women Who Blow on Knots by Ece Temelkuran

Posted on September 20, 2017 by lipstick socialist

  Ece Temelkuran is a Turkish journalist and writer. Her books and writings have taken up issues at the heart of the state of Turkey,  exposing human rights abuses against Kurdish people, the Armenian dispute and, closer to home, the … Continue reading →

Posted in book review, Communism, feminism, human rights, Middle East, novels, political women, Socialism, Socialist Feminism, Uncategorized, women | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Letter from Another America……

Posted on August 31, 2017 by lipstick socialist

  Jane Latour is a freelance writer and author of Sisters in the Brotherhoods Working Women Organizing for Equality in New York City. I asked her to give an activist’s view, both personal and political, on the impact of the … Continue reading →

Posted in anti-cuts, education, human rights, labour history, political women, Socialism, trade unions, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

My review of Lovers & Strangers An Immigrant History of Post-War Britain Clair Wills

Posted on August 27, 2017 by lipstick socialist

      Clair Wills has written a fascinating and insightful book  about the role of immigrants in Britain between 1940s and 1960s. Popular history and culture frames post war migration  around the images of the West Indian community and … Continue reading →

Posted in book review, education, feminism, human rights, Ireland, Irish second generation, labour history, Manchester, NHS, North of Ireland, political women, trade unions, Uncategorized, women | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

My review of “Why We March: Signs of Protest and Hope”.

Posted on August 6, 2017 by lipstick socialist

    On 21 January 2017 several hundred women (and  some men) gathered in Albert Square in Manchester in support of women’s rights,  and in solidarity with similar events taking place in Washington DC on Trump’s first full day as … Continue reading →

Posted in anti-cuts, book review, education, feminism, human rights, labour history, Manchester, political women, Socialist Feminism, trade unions, Uncategorized, women, working class history | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

My review of Milosz: A Biography by Andrzej Franaszek. (Edited and Translated by Aleksandra Parker Michael Parker)

Posted on August 2, 2017 by lipstick socialist

  Andrzej Franaszek’s biography of  the great Polish poet Czeslaw  Milosz is more than the story of one man’s life: it is a compelling history of Eastern Europe in the  twentieth century.  Milosz was born in 1911 in Lithuania but … Continue reading →

Posted in biography, book review, Catholicism, Communism, human rights, labour history, poetry, trade unions, Uncategorized, working class history | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Days of Hope: an article by Mary Quaile on her visit to the Soviet Union in 1925

Posted on July 26, 2017 by lipstick socialist

2017 is the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution and it is difficult today to understand the hope that the revolution gave to ordinary women and men across the world. One of those women was Mary Quaile. An Irish immigrant … Continue reading →

Posted in Communism, feminism, labour history, political women, Socialism, Socialist Feminism, trade unions, Uncategorized, women, working class history, young people | Tagged , | Leave a comment