Category Archives: trade unions

My review of Malgorzata Mirga-Tas; Romani textile artist and activist exhibition and book

Posted on May 11, 2025 by lipstick socialist

What is your image of a Romani woman? A woman selling the Big Issue? A group of young women wearing brightly coloured long dresses with babies begging on the street? Artist and activist Malgorzata Mirga-Tas in this exhibition at the … 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 , , , , , | Leave a comment

My interview with Rose Hunter of the North Staffs Miners Wives Action Group

Posted on December 1, 2024 by lipstick socialist

After the end of the Miners’ Strike in 1985 Rose Hunter says: “Men lost their freedom; the women gained theirs.” Rose and her sisters in the  North Staffs Miners Wives Action Group  then embarked on forty years of  raising  issues … Continue reading →

Posted in art exhibition, biography, drama, education, feminism, human rights, Ireland, labour history, North of Ireland, political women, Socialist Feminism, trade unions, women, Women Against Pit Closures, working class history | 4 Comments

My review of “The Wearing of the Green a Political History of the Irish in Manchester” by Michael Herbert

Posted on November 23, 2024 by lipstick socialist

Published in 2001 by the Irish in Britain Representation Group   “The Wearing Of The Green” is part of a radical tradition of history, a  history that is written by the people who make the history and one that  seeks to … Continue reading →

Posted in book review, education, human rights, Ireland, Irish second generation, labour history, Manchester, North of Ireland, Salford, trade unions, working class history, young people | Tagged | 1 Comment

My review of “Reasons to Rebel My Memories of the 1980s” by Sheila Rowbotham

Posted on October 29, 2024 by lipstick socialist

    Reading Sheila Rowbotham’s latest memoir, I feel I am inside  her  head as we spin through the 1980s  on a rollercoaster of emotions, feelings, and activities.   Sheila is a socialist feminist, historian, activist, mother, partner,  lover, comrade, friend… … Continue reading →

Posted in biography, book review, feminism, labour history, political women, Socialist Feminism, trade unions, Uncategorized, women, Women Against Pit Closures, working class history | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

My review of “No Going Back” 40 years of the  North Staffordshire Miners’ Wives Action Group.

Posted on August 29, 2024 by lipstick socialist

In May 1993 as part of the Kate Magee Support Group I headed over to Stoke to meet up with the North Staffordshire Miners Wives Action Group. I arrived at Trentham colliery as Bridget Bell, Brenda Proctor and Gina Earle … Continue reading →

Posted in book review, Catholicism, Communism, drama, education, films, human rights, Ireland, labour history, Lorenza Mazzetti, North of Ireland, novels, political women, Socialist Feminism, trade unions, Uncategorized, women, working class history, young people | Leave a comment

My review of “Mater 2-10” by Hwang Sok-yong. Translated by Kim-Russell & Youngjae Josephine Bae

Posted on July 27, 2023 by lipstick socialist

How many novels have been written about Korea, communism, and trade unions? Few, if any.  This award-winning novel by HSY is a revelation to many of us in the west who, like me, might be trade unionists, have worked  alongside … Continue reading →

Posted in anti-cuts, book review, Communism, human rights, labour history, Socialism, trade unions, Uncategorized, women, working class history, young people | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Kath Grant; Journalist and Trade Unionist

Posted on May 9, 2023 by lipstick socialist

Kath is from a Lancashire radical working-class tradition. Born in Rochdale in 1950,  she spent her first five  years living with her parents and grandfather in “The Mount”,  the Irish area in the centre of the town. Her grandparents were … Continue reading →

Posted in human rights, labour history, Manchester, Middle East, North of Ireland, Northern ReSisters Conversations with Radical Women, political women, trade unions, Uncategorized, women, working class history, young people | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Following in My Mother’s Footsteps; the lives of Lily Wild and Hilary Jones.

Posted on February 6, 2023 by lipstick socialist

    In these two articles I want to highlight the lives of Lily Wild and Hilary Jones: a mother and daughter. How did they cope with being  mothers, wives and being politically active in political parties, their trade union, … Continue reading →

Posted in anti-cuts, book review, Communism, education, feminism, human rights, interesting blog, Ireland, Irish second generation, labour history, Socialism, Socialist Feminism, trade unions, Uncategorized, women, working class history, young people | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

History of the Irish in Britain Representation Group Part nine: 1989

Posted on September 20, 2020 by lipstick socialist

Patrick Reynolds was one of the founders of IBRG and played a key role in its history. He is now writing up that history and putting it into the context of radical history in Britain and Ireland in the C20th. … Continue reading →

Posted in anti-cuts, Bernadette McAliskey, education, feminism, films, human rights, Ireland, Irish second generation, labour history, Manchester, North of Ireland, political women, Salford, Socialism, trade unions, Uncategorized, women, working class history, young people | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

History of the Irish in Britain Representation Group Part eight: 1988

Posted on September 7, 2020 by lipstick socialist

    Patrick Reynolds was one of the founders of IBRG and played a key role in its history. He is now writing up that history and putting it into the context of radical history in Britain and Ireland in … Continue reading →

Posted in education, feminism, films, human rights, Ireland, Irish second generation, labour history, Manchester, North of Ireland, peace campaigns, political women, Socialism, trade unions, Uncategorized, women, working class history, young people | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment