Category Archives: Communism

My review of “Common Cause” by Kate Hunter

Posted on June 27, 2019 by lipstick socialist

  KATE Hunter, a working class writer and political activist, recognises the massive barriers facing any person   from her background who wants to write. At the age of  nine she won a  National Essay prize,  but there was no encouragement … Continue reading →

Posted in anti-cuts, book review, Communism, education, feminism, labour history, Manchester, novels, political women, Socialism, Socialist Feminism, trade unions, Uncategorized, women, working class history, young people | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

My review of “Labour Women in Power Cabinet Ministers in the Twentieth Century by Paula Bartley

Posted on June 13, 2019 by lipstick socialist

    In the mid 1970s I was the first person in my family and  the first on my council estate to get a place at University. Our elderly neighbour Mrs Hall said to me. “Ooh you’ll be another Barbara … Continue reading →

Posted in anti-cuts, book review, Communism, feminism, labour history, Manchester, political women, Socialism, Socialist Feminism, trade unions, Uncategorized, women, working class history, young people | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

My review of “second world second sex” Kristen Ghodsee

Posted on April 20, 2019 by lipstick socialist

    In this new history book Kristen rescues an important episode in the history of women’s activism at the United Nations – the contribution of women from the state socialist countries in Eastern Europe (“the Second World” as they … Continue reading →

Posted in Betty Tebbs, book review, Communism, education, feminism, human rights, labour history, Manchester, Northern ReSisters Conversations with Radical Women, peace campaigns, political women, Socialism, Socialist Feminism, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

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 “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 →

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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”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