In this two-part episode, Working Class Literature speak to DD Johnston about his new novel, Disnaeland, about a working-class Scottish community’s response to societal collapse. We also discuss his previous novels and his participation in McDonald’s Workers’ Resistance, a radical collective of angry employees at the world’s biggest fast food chain.
Continue reading “WCL 5-6: DD Johnston’s proletarian apocalypse”
Double podcast episode about the life and work of Howard Zinn, historian, World War II veteran and activist, in his own words, 100 years since his birth.
Continue reading “E69-70: Howard Zinn 100”
Double podcast episode about the iconic strike of mostly East African Asian women workers at the Grunwick photo processing plant in London in 1976-8. Featuring Amrit Wilson, Jayaben Desai and Colum Maloney, who took part in the dispute, and Sujata, chair of the Grunwick 40 group.
Continue reading “E67-68: The Grunwick strike”
Double podcast episode on the 1972 building workers’ strike and subsequent backlash from employers and the state, which resulted in one of the biggest miscarriages of justice experienced by the labour movement in twentieth-century Britain. In conversation with two participants from the strike, Tony O’Brien and actor Ricky Tomlinson.
Continue reading “E65-66: Building workers’ strike w/ Ricky Tomlinson”
Double podcast episode about Mildred Fish-Harnack, the US-born woman at the centre of the underground resistance to Nazism in Berlin during World War II. In conversation with Rebecca Donner, Mildred’s great-grandniece and author of All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days.
Continue reading “E63-64: Mildred Fish-Harnack”
A Working Class Literature podcast double-episode in which we talk to acclaimed author, poet and Professor of Children’s Literature, Michael Rosen, about his anthology, Workers’ Tales: Socialist Fairy Tales, Fables, and Allegories from Great Britain, which gathers together short stories from the labour and socialist press between 1880 and 1920.
Continue reading “WCL E3-4: Michael Rosen’s socialist fairy tales”
Double podcast episode about the League of Revolutionary Black Workers in Detroit in the late 60s/early 70s. We hear from former members of the group including Herb Boyd, General Baker, Darryl “Waistline” Mitchell, as well as Dan Georgakas, co-author of Detroit I Do Mind Dying.
Continue reading “E61-62: The League of Revolutionary Black Workers”
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: Bread Intifada”
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.
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”