English Radical History

The Treason Act, which made it high treason to assassinate the Prince Regent, gained Royal Assent #OTD 1817. The Act was one of two 'Gagging Acts' which banned meetings of over 50 people and instructed magistrates to arrest anyone suspected of spreading seditious libel.

"To say that we could not work without a capitalist is as false as to say that we could not mow a meadow unless all the scythes belonged to one man." Robert Blatchford, one of the most influential English socialists of the 19th century, was born in Maidstone #OTD 1851.

"Any social revolutionary upheaval in Europe must necessarily miscarry, unless the English bourgeoisie or the industrial and commercial supremacy of Great Britain is shaken." Karl Marx, a revolutionary who lived in England for over 30 years, died #OTD 1883.

"God never gave [the Earth] to any sort of people, that they should have it all to themselves, and shut out all the rest." Diggers in Wellingborough, Northants, who had begun to sow corn on a wasteland known as Bareshank, published the ‘Wellingborough Declaration’ #OTD 1649.

Kitty Marion, actress and suffragette, was born #OTD 1871. Marion grew to minor prominence singing in music halls, where she fought to improve the treatment of female performers. Imprisoned multiple times for suffrage activities, Marion emigrated to the US during WW1.

"A Yorkshire girl with a gift of ready wit and repartee which, linked with imperturbable good humour, made her irresistible to the crowd." Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence on Mary Gawthorpe, suffragette, socialist, and trade unionist who died #OTD 1973. #WomensHistoryMonth

"If I can get job security & decent pay for my members I couldn't give two hoots about being unpopular." Bob Crow, General Secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) from 2002 until his death, died #OTD 2014.

#OTD 1811: The first major Luddite riot took place in Arnold, Nottingham as framework knitters, objecting to the popularity of automated textile equipment, destroyed 60 stocking frames between dusk and dawn. The movement spread across England over the following 2 years.

#OTD 1817: 5000 spinners & weavers set off from Manchester to present a petition to the Prince Regent over the poor state of the textile industry. Marchers carried blankets to sleep under at night, giving the march its nickname: 'The March of the Blanketeers'.

"Rise mighty nation! in thy strength, And deal thy dreadful vengeance round; Let thy great spirit rous’d at length, Strike hordes of Despots to the ground." Anna Laetitia Barbauld, poet, author of children’s literature and supporter of the French Revolution, died #OTD 1825.

"Good government is known from bad government by this infallible test: that under the former the labouring people are well fed and well clothed, and under the latter they are badly fed and badly clothed." William Cobbett, pamphleteer, journalist and MP, was born #OTD 1763.

The Woman’s Dreadnought, a newspaper started by Sylvia Pankhurst after her expulsion from the Women’s Social and Political Union, was first published #OTD 1914. The paper was renamed Workers’ Dreadnought in 1917 with the slogan: "Socialism, Internationalism, Votes for All."

"Our Traders in MEN (an unnatural commodity!) must know the wickedness of the SLAVE-TRADE." ‘African Slavery in America’, one of the first anti-slavery articles published in the American colonies, was published #OTD 1775. The article is often attributed to Thomas Paine.

Henry Hyndman, a Tory-turned-socialist who formed Britain's first socialist political party (the Social Democratic Federation), was born #OTD 1842. Always a controversial figure, Hyndman was an anti-semite who supported Britain's involvement in the First World War.

"[The British] have a capacity for making the irrational work, and if a thing works, we tend to like it, or at any rate to put up with it." Herbert Morrison, Labour cabinet minister who organised the party’s successful 1945 election campaign, died #OTD 1965.

The Democratic Federation was founded by an eclectic mix of radicals #OTD 1881. In 1884 the group was transformed into the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) when it adopted an explicitly socialist platform. Early members included William Morris and Eleanor Marx.

Nina Boyle, militant campaigner for women’s suffrage and women’s rights, died #OTD 1943. In April 1918 she became the first woman to submit a nomination to stand for election to the House of Commons. Like Emmeline Pankhurst, Boyle moved to the right politically after WW1.

The Betrayal of the Left, a book of essays which condemned the Communist Party of Great Britain for backing the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, was published #OTD 1941. The book included contributions from George Orwell, John Strachey and Harold Laski.

"Few words have been more sadly debased than the name ‘Radical’. Once it could strike terror into the ranks of wealth and privilege. Now it has been purloined even by the palest and pinkest critics of current orthodoxy." Michael Foot, Labour Party leader 1980-3, died #OTD 2010.

"I would do anything that is in my power toward the extirpation of that trade which is a scandal not only to Christianity but humanity." John Wesley, clergyman, evangelist, founder of the Methodist movement and strong opponent of the slave trade, died #OTD 1791.