Double podcast episode on the 1977 Bread Intifada, in which hundreds of thousands of working-class Egyptians rose up against the government’s termination of food subsidies. We speak to Egyptian journalist and revolutionary socialist, Hossam el-Hamalawy, about the uprising, the decade of worker-student militancy leading up to it, and its relevance today.
Continue reading “E59-60: The Bread Intifada”
We are excited to announce our new ‘T-Shirt of the Month’ project, a new collaboration with our friends at dna merch, a social enterprise based in Berlin and ally of the transnational workers’ network, ExChains and the Humana Nova worker-owned textile co-operative.
Continue reading “T-Shirt of the Month Collaboration”
Double podcast episode on the West Virginia mine wars 1902-1922. We speak with Catherine Moore and others from the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum, as well as some West Virginia teachers who had just been on strike about the conflicts, and how they are remembered today.
Continue reading “E57-58: The West Virginia mine wars”
Since 2014, Working Class History has been building a fact-checked archive of stories about events in people’s history, which now contains nearly 4000 stories. We have also been mapping exact physical locations of events, and collating sources. We need your help to be able to turn this currently-private archive into a powerful, interactive, accessible and easy-to-use website available to all.
Continue reading “Help us fund a free people’s history web app”
Podcast miniseries about the May 18 uprising in Gwangju, South Korea, in 1980 against the US-backed military dictatorship of Chun Doo Hwan. We speak with Kim Yong Ho, David Dolinger and Jeon Yong Ho, who took part in the events, as well as researcher and lead translator of the excellent book, Gwangju Diary, Kap Su Seol.
Continue reading “E53-56: The Gwangju uprising”
Episode two of the Working Class Literature podcast about Joseph Skipsey, a poet and coal miner from the North East of England. After entering the mines as a child, he would grow up to become a nationally-renowned poet, respected by some of the most famous artists of the nineteenth century. In this episode, we speak to researcher Dr Gordon Tait and musician Chris Harrison, both of whom have been doing lots of work around Skipsey’s life and poetry.
Continue reading “WCL E2: Joseph Skipsey – poet and pitman”
Podcast episode about the history of the revolutionary union the Industrial Workers of the World in Canada. We speak with historian and author Mark Leier about the union’s organising work amongst loggers, miners, road and railroad construction workers, First Nations dock workers and more.
Continue reading “E52: The IWW in Canada”
Podcast episode about two extremely influential South Korean worker organisers, Jeon Tae-il and Lee So-sun, and the autonomous self-organisation of women textile and garment workers in the country from the 1960s to the 1980s.
Continue reading “E51: Jeon Tae-il and Lee So-sun”
Podcast episode in which we talk about our new book, Working Class History: Everyday Acts of Resistance & Rebellion, with our friends at the Coffee with Comrades podcast, which they edited and put out as their episode 114. They kindly shared the audio with us, which we have lightly edited for brevity and include here as our latest episode.
Continue reading “E50: Working Class History, the book”
As a far-right mob storms the Capitol in Washington DC, learn more about the history of opposition to white supremacy in the US. This podcast episode tells the story of Anti-Racist Action, a militant anti-fascist organisation in Minneapolis, Minnesota founded in the 1980s. Continue reading “E49: Anti-Racist Action in Minneapolis”