Category Archives: trade unions

Read my weekly roundup of radical arts and politics.. Mustang, Dare to be Free,Tom Paine and Will and Anne

Posted on May 29, 2016 by lipstick socialist

  Watch Mustang, a Turkish film that mirrors the deepening crisis of  democracy in that country and its effect on the lives of girls and young women. Five sisters live with their grandmother and, because of one innocent incident at … Continue reading →

Posted in anti-cuts, drama, feminism, films, human rights, labour history, Manchester, Middle East, political women, Socialist Feminism, trade unions, Uncategorized, women, working class history, young people | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Read my weekly roundup of radical arts and politics..Johnny Guitar,Dare to be Free, People before Profit and John McGahern

Posted on May 8, 2016 by lipstick socialist

Watch Johnny Guitar (Home). A classic film, looks like a western but isn’t. Made in 1954 by Nicholas Ray it reflects on US society at that time, McCarthyism and the witchhunt of radicals in society. Joan Crawford, 49, plays Vienna, … Continue reading →

Posted in anti-cuts, book review, Catholicism, drama, feminism, films, human rights, Ireland, Irish second generation, labour history, Manchester, novels, political women, Socialist Feminism, trade unions, women, working class history | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Stop,Look,Listen…my weekly selection of favourite films, books and events to get you out of the house

Posted on April 25, 2016 by lipstick socialist

Watch Dheepan (Home)…how much do we really know about the refugees who escape war in their country and arrive in the west? Few people know about the war in Sri Lanka and the role of militants, the Tamil Tigers, who … Continue reading →

Posted in anti-cuts, book review, drama, feminism, films, human rights, Ireland, Irish second generation, labour history, Manchester, music, novels, political women, trade unions, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Celebrating women of the Easter Rising; my review of We Were There 77 Women of the Easter Rising

Posted on April 25, 2016 by lipstick socialist

Today is the actual day of the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising in Dublin when revolutionaries tried to kick the British government out of Ireland. Not an anniversary that the Irish government really wants to celebrate properly; it might … Continue reading →

Posted in anti-cuts, book review, feminism, human rights, Ireland, Irish second generation, labour history, Manchester, political women, Socialist Feminism, trade unions, Uncategorized, working class history | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Stop,Look,Listen…my weekly selection of favourite films, books and events to get you out of the house

Posted on April 17, 2016 by lipstick socialist

      Watch  Public Eye (DVD.) As drama on our television screens seems to be dominated by murder and violence, it’s good to remind ourselves that there was a time when stories about the seediness and smallness of  people’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Blacklisting campaign, book review, drama, education, films, human rights, labour history, Manchester, peace campaigns, trade unions, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Stop,Look,Listen…my weekly selection of favourite films, books and events to get you out of the house

Posted on April 10, 2016 by lipstick socialist

      Watch Ladies who Do (free on this link ) a fascinating comedy set in London in 1963 about women cleaners from the east end of London who use their inside knowledge to play the stock market, well, … Continue reading →

Posted in anti-cuts, book review, drama, education, films, human rights, labour history, Manchester, May Day, political women, Socialism, trade unions, Uncategorized, women, working class history | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Stop,Look,Listen…my weekly selection of favourite films, books and events to get you out of the house

Posted on March 27, 2016 by lipstick socialist

Watch The Pearl Button (Home)….another brilliant documentary by Chilean filmmaker Patricio Guzman, once more looking at the brutal history of his country; this time in Chilean Patagonia. At one time the nomadic Kaweskar (or “Water People”) paddled up and down … Continue reading →

Posted in anti-cuts, biography, book review, Communism, feminism, films, labour history, Socialist Feminism, trade unions, Uncategorized, women, working class history | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Stop,Look,Listen…my weekly selection of favourite films, books and events to get you out of the house

Posted on March 13, 2016 by lipstick socialist

    Watch Underground, (only one showing on April 6 at Home) – a classic British film about the lives of working class Londoners. Nell is a shop girl ( a prestigious job at that time), Bert is an Underground … Continue reading →

Posted in anti-cuts, drama, feminism, films, human rights, labour history, trade unions, Uncategorized, women, working class history | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Why we need to reclaim International Women’s Day from the middle class feminists!

Posted on March 8, 2016 by lipstick socialist

I have grown to hate International Women’s Day. As the lives of women (and the partners we live with) deteriorate under the Tory government with the collaboration of Labour councils, the meaning  of the annual Day, started by Socialist women … Continue reading →

Posted in anti-cuts, book review, Communism, education, feminism, human rights, International Women's Day, Palestine, political women, Socialist Feminism, trade unions, working class history | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Book review; 1916 Ireland’s Revolutionary Tradition by Kieran Allen

Posted on February 18, 2016 by lipstick socialist

It is 2016 and this year is the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising in Dublin. It was on 24 April 1916 that a group of socialists and republicans struck a blow against the imperial power of Britain and its … Continue reading →

Posted in anti-cuts, book review, Catholicism, Communism, education, feminism, human rights, Ireland, Irish second generation, labour history, North of Ireland, trade unions, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment