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brisradhis.bsky.social

@brisradhis.bsky.social
166 followers 43 following 106 posts

This is the Bristol Radical History Group’s Bluesky account. We’ve been organising events in the West Country & beyond since 2006. We’re a publisher & manage several research projects. We organise a major annual Radical History Festival in central Bristol.

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brisradhis.bsky.social @brisradhis.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Radical History Zone (Central Friends Meeting House, Sat 24 October 10.00am-5.00pm) BRHG mark the 90th anniversary of the Spanish Revolution, when an anarchist inspired working-class movement successfully resisted a fascist coup & seized control of the fields & factories in a social revolution.
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brisradhis.bsky.social @brisradhis.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
James Yeoman will launch the special Radical History Zone on the Spanish Revolution with “Anarchism in Spain: From the Origins of the Movement to Revolution, 1870-1936” Friends Meeting House, BS2 9DB (Sat 24 Oct, 10:30- 11:30am): www.brh.org.uk/site/events/...
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brisradhis.bsky.social @brisradhis.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Film: Every Acre, Every Factory – Ideas for a necessary revolution. A film by Labournet TV & AngryWorkers. + post-screening Q&A with Johanna from Labournet TV & Marco from Angry Workers. Cube Microplex BS2 8JD (Tue 17 Nov 7:30-10pm www.brh.org.uk/site/events/...
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brisradhis.bsky.social @brisradhis.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Wendy Maggs, whose exhibition on the aspirations of 80s schoolgirls in the West was a popular & thought-provoking part of the Radical History Festival, has written a script based on oral histories she collected. It's being performed in Dorset on Sunday: www.dorchesterarts.org.uk/the-scripts-...
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brisradhis.bsky.social @brisradhis.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Radical History Zone (Central Friends Meeting House, Sat 24 October 10.00am-5.00pm) BRHG mark the 90th anniversary of the Spanish Revolution, when an anarchist inspired working-class movement successfully resisted a fascist coup & seized control of the fields & factories in a social revolution.
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pasttensehistories.bsky.social @pasttensehistories.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
#OnThisDay in London radical herstory, 1899: Women’s Suffrage pioneer Jessie Craigen dies wp.me/p74yfw-1gJ
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Today in radical herstory, 1899: working class Suffragist Jessie Craigen dies
Jessie Craigen (c.1835-99) was a working-class activist and public speaker in the earlier phases of the movement for women’s suffrage in Britain. Craigen’s background was relatively unusual, in a m…
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Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick @mrcwarwick.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
"Cable Street was a sight for sore eyes..." Fresh from the streets, this short, vivid account describes the Battle of Cable Street from the perspective of a young activist This edition of Trotskyist journal 'Youth Militant' was published within days of the anti-fascist action on 4 October 1936
Front cover of the Trotskyist publication 'The Youth Militant', 'the fighting journal for socialist youth', October 1936 (then on sale for one pence) [document reference: MSS.15X/1/343/1].Article about the Battle of Cable Street in 'The Youth Militant', October 1936: 
"THEY SHALL NOT PASS!
All who were present in East London on Sunday October 4th, at the great counter demonstration of the workers to Mosley's threatened march, will long remember the scenes they witnessed. Workers, Jewish and Gentile alike, rallied from all parts of London to bar the streets of working class London to the Fascist thugs.
At Gardiners Corner a dense mass of workers collected, flooding into the surrounding streets, and voicing their determination that Mosley should not pass. The Fascists had carried their provocating propaganda well into the East End, and in an attempt to invade the streets had called out the mass resistance of the workers.
It was obvious that the Fascists could not possibly get through, and the crowd on the whole was apparently perfectly prepared to wait until he tried. The Police however thought otherwise. It seemed that the Police Chiefs were frightened that if their men were allowed to stand about doing nothing they would become demoralised, and in consequence much unnecessary batoning took place. The "Cossacks" in fact did not trouble about trying to push the crowds back with their horses, but came at the crowds with drawn batons on every opportunity.
Cable Street was a sight for sore eyes. Barricades made up of anything that came to hand, paving stones torn up, the concrete of the road littered with broken glass, it would have required more than a demonstration to get down that Street.
Leman Street - tall and forboding, cordons of Police thrown across the road at regular intervals. 5 policemen swing down the road frogmarching one girl, and protected by about fifteen other cops on foot and some half-dozen cossacks. As they pass an open window a cossack mounts the pavement and shouts at the occupant. Five or six policemen charge through the door and come out in a few minutes with the occupant, struggling furiously..."
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Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com · 05/10/2026
#OtD 5 Oct 1988 a popular uprising broke out in Algeria after thousands protested deteriorating economic and social conditions. Protesters attacked government buildings, and the army then intervened, killing 2-500 people in the ensuing repression
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Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com · 05/10/2026
#OtD 5 Oct 1934 miners in Asturias, Spain, rose up seizing military barracks and occupying the provincial capital with worker & peasant assemblies taking over. They were savagely crushed: 3k killed & 35k jailed. But revolution broke out 2 years later stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1056...
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Auschwitz Memorial @auschwitzmemorial.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
5 October 1944 | The number of women prisoners in the female sector of Auschwitz II-Birkenau was 42,990. --- Women at Auschwitz Lesson: lekcja.auschwitz.org/2022_kobiety_en Podcast: youtu.be/ijTxtbNlJO8
Historical black and white photo depicting some Auschwitz prisoners - women and men -  engaged in construction work in a rural setting.
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Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com · 05/10/2026
#OtD 5 Oct 1915 Bulgarian soldiers of the 27th Brigade at Chepino mutinied during the fighting of World War I. Most of the mutineers were subsequently shot, but this did not quell the rebellion of Bulgarian troops stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1056...
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Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com · 05/10/2026
#OtD 5 Oct 1789 thousands of women in Paris, angry over the high price and scarcity of bread, ransacked the city armoury for weapons and besieged the Palace of Versailles in one of the opening salvos of the French revolution shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/...
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brisradhis.bsky.social @brisradhis.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Anarchist agitator, Ian Bone, co-founder of Class War in the 1980s, & the ‘smiter of the high and mighty’ The Bristolian scandal sheet around 2000, played a major part in getting Bristol Radical History Group off the ground in 2006. www.brh.org.uk/site/2026/09...
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brisradhis.bsky.social @brisradhis.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Congratulations to Trevor Houghton on the publication of 'Bristol, a city born out of slavery', the 71st BRHG pamphlet. Bristol’s 11th C. slave market "flourished with the connivance of the Godwin family—the power brokers of Anglo–Saxon England.” Available now: www.brh.org.uk/site/pamphle...
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Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com · 02/10/2026
#OtD 2 Oct 1944 the Warsaw Uprising against Nazi occupation was finally crushed after two months of vicious fighting
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brisradhis.bsky.social @brisradhis.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
We look forward to the Bristol Radical History Group Radical History Zone on the Spanish Revolution. Quaker Central, Champions Sq BS2 9DB 24 October 2026 (10am-5pm). A tie-in with the Bristol Anarchist Bookfair. Watch this space! www.brh.org.uk/site/event-s...
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Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com · 14/09/2026
#OtD 14 Sep 1944 Jewish-Italian resistance fighter, Franco Cesana, was killed in action fighting Nazi occupation forces in Gombola, aged 12. Fighting with the nom de guerre of "Balilla", he was one of the youngest Italian partisans to die in battle workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e77-...
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Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com · 14/09/2026
#OtD 14 Sep 1889 a rebellion of Black miners began on Navassa Island, a US territory. Guano miners rebelled against dangerous, racist and abusive conditions, and killed some white managers. US troops arrested 18 miners and charged them with murder stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/7759...
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Weird Bristol @weirdbristol.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
In the folklore tale on the creation of Bristol two giants, Vincent & Goram were challenged by the beautiful maiden Avona to drain a lake which covered the land. Goram tried to dig a gorge near Henbury but fell asleep in what’s now known as Goram’s Chair in Blaise Castle Estate.
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brisradhis.bsky.social @brisradhis.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Bristol RHG & Bookhaus are delighted to present Katrina Navickas speaking about her recent book Contested Commons: A History of Protest & Public Space in England. With Q&A chaired by Prof. Steve Poole. Free event Thu 5 Nov (6-8pm), Bookhaus BS1 6ZJ. Booking: www.brh.org.uk/site/events/...
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brisradhis.bsky.social @brisradhis.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Excited to announce the second in the Bristol Radical History Group’s podcast series where Chris Bowkett interviews Lorraine Fish about growing up in Bristol in the 1960-70s (Patchway, Horfield, Filton): www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib10...
youtube.com
Bristol Radical History Podcast: Interview with Lorraine Fish
YouTube video by Bristol Radical History Group
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Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com · 14/09/2026
#OtD 14 Sep 1960 a US-backed coup took place in Congo against the country's first democratically elected PM, socialist independence leader Patrice Lumumba. He was tortured, shot and had his body dissolved in acid. Learn more about colonialism in Congo: shop.workingclasshistory.com/products/lor...
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brisradhis.bsky.social @brisradhis.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Catch Bristol Central Library’s Gulliver’s Travels 300 exhibition by 27th September 2026! Collaboration between the Long John Silver Trust and Bristol Radical History Group: www.brh.org.uk/site/events/...
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brisradhis.bsky.social @brisradhis.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Forthcoming event: BASE Cafe & 'Making Anarchism Mainstream Again' Talk 20 September 2026 (6 - 9:30pm) After the Cafe – at 7pm in the Events Room there'll be a talk and discussion with Tony from the Rebel City London collective.
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Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick @mrcwarwick.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
School meals! Solid glaring from this child of 1960, as she waits for her dinner to be flung onto a plate The National Union of Teachers' archive is a great source on changing attitudes and campaigns relating to food in schools over the past 100 years
Front cover of 1960 National Union of Teachers' pamphlet on school meals. It is illustrated with a photo of a child glaring at the camera, past the hand of an adult about to fling a lump of mash onto an underwhelming looking dinner.
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Municipal Dreams @municipaldreams.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
The Bristol Record Society has digitised and shared publicly Rosamond Jevons and John Madge, 'Housing Estates: a Study of Bristol Corporation Policy and Practice Between the Wars' (1946). This is a fascinating account of interwar council housing and its residents: archive.org/details/jevo...
archive.org
Housing Estates: a Study of Bristol Corporation Policy and Practice Between the Wars
Rosamond Jevons and John Madge, Housing Estates: a Study of Bristol Corporation Policy and Practice Between the Wars (University of Bristol, 1946)A study of housing development in Bristol in the perio...
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Auschwitz Memorial @auschwitzmemorial.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
7 September 1902 | A Polish Jew, Trajtel Szklarz, was born in Siedlce. He emigrated to France. He arrived at #Auschwitz on 23 July 1942 in a transport of 827 Jews deported from Angers. He perished in the camp on 26 August 1942. --- 📖 Jewish prisoners at KL Auschwitz: bit.ly/3Mqw3dT
Vintage black and white family portrait featuring seven individuals. There are two adults and five children, with one adult sitting in the center holding two babiesBlack and white photo of a man, smiling slightly at the camera.
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Municipal Dreams @municipaldreams.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
The first social housing in Amsterdam built under the breakthrough 1901 Housing Law was built in Van Beuningenstraat in 1909 by the Rochdale Cooperative Building Association formed by municipal tram workers and named after the Rochdale Pioneers. It was designed by JE van der Pek.
Undated black and white photograph of six-storey corner block courtesy of Amsterdam City Archives
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Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com · 07/09/2026
#OtD 7 Sep 2011 700 longshore workers in the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and their supporters blockaded a grain train from entering a non-ILWU terminal, facing down violent police attacks. After a long struggle, they won concessions stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1076...
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Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com · 07/09/2026
#OtD 7 Sep 1977 violent clashes took place between workers and bosses' thugs at a machine-tool factory in Mohan Nagar, India. After the thugs opened fire, workers and local residents burned the factory and killed them stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1075...
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Scarlet Ingstad @scarlet-ingstad.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
COMPLETE!!!! Finished the rough draft of the Reclaiming 1776 Project and sent it off to the editors. They're busy combing through my other #AmRev novel at the momment; once we publish that one in Oct, Reclaiming 1776 is next & will be published by January!!! #author #history
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Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com · 07/09/2026
#OtD 7 Sep 1893 thousands of striking Yorkshire miners clashed with police in the village of Chidswell. They were fighting against a 25% pay cut by mine bosses. The strikers had been on their way to Westfield colliery, where scabs were still working. stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1075...
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Weird Bristol @weirdbristol.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
When the breathtaking Everard building was unveiled in 1901, it was such a sensation that people travelled from miles away and flooded Broad Street to see it. Fights broke out as people jostled for a better view and the police had to regulate the street for two days.
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Auschwitz Memorial @auschwitzmemorial.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
7 September 1904 | A Pole, Maksymilian Kudela, was born. A teacher. In #Auschwitz from 17 August 1942. No. 59551 He perished in the camp on 6 September 1942. --- Online lesson "Poles at KL Auschwitz”: lekcja.auschwitz.org/en_2020_06_pol…
A mugshot registration photograph from Auschwitz. A man with a shaved head wearing a striped uniform photographed in three positions (profile and front with bare head and a photo with a slightly turned head with a hat on). The prisoner number is visible on a marking board on the left.
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Codfather #FBPE 🇫🇷🇪🇺 @codfather.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Perfect description of what's going on.
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Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com · 07/09/2026
#OtD 7 Sep 1976 Ian Davies, a gay social worker in London, won reinstatement after being demoted for a "gross indecency" conviction. First 25 colleagues walked out, then 1300 workers said they would strike and the council relented. Learn more in our book: shop.workingclasshistory.com/products/be-...
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Weird Bristol @weirdbristol.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
This 1982 fountain on Broad Quay is inexplicably a memorial to George V. When it was noted that Bristol had no memorial to the king (who had died nearly 50 years previously) it was hastily cobbled together with remnants from the recently demolished Co-operative Society HQ nearby. 1/2
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Weird Bristol @weirdbristol.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Around Whiteladies Road you may spot these charming metal monkey sculptures. Designed by sculptor Julian Warren in 2016, they may be a playful reference to the day in 1934 when 12 rhesus monkeys escaped the zoo and were sighted all over Clifton for two weeks before they were caught.
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brisradhis.bsky.social @brisradhis.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Excited to announce the second in the Bristol Radical History Group’s podcast series where Chris Bowkett interviews Lorraine Fish about growing up in Bristol in the 1960-70s (Patchway, Horfield, Filton): www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib10...
youtube.com
Bristol Radical History Podcast: Interview with Lorraine Fish
YouTube video by Bristol Radical History Group
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brisradhis.bsky.social @brisradhis.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Bristol Radical History Group & Bookhaus are delighted to present Rory Cormac speaking abt Fakers, a history of the governmental disinformation & propaganda unit, the Information Research Department. Mon 7 September (6pm) Bookhaus, BS1 6ZJ Free tickets from: bookhausbristol.com/events/#e159...
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Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com · 03/09/2026
#OtD 3 Sep 1791 post-revolutionary France completed its new penal code. It became the first Western European country to decriminalise homosexuality, as it no longer made any mention of prohibitions against sodomy in private. More about the rev here: shop.workingclasshistory.com/en-gb/collec...
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Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com · 03/09/2026
#OtD 3 Sep 1934 65,000 textile workers in North Carolina joined the strike of workers in Alabama against pay cuts. Strikers used their cars to drive to working mills and spread the strike. More in this great history of US mass strikes: shop.workingclasshistory.com/products/str...
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rain-singer.bsky.social @rain-singer.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
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Weird Bristol @weirdbristol.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT! Just in time for Halloween: “THIRTEEN CHILLING TALES OF BRISTOL HORROR” A creepy compendium of bloodshed, madness and terror - pulled from the darkest corners of our city. More information (including story titles, settings and release date) coming soon.
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pasttensehistories.bsky.social @pasttensehistories.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
‪#OnThisDay in London tourist history, 1850: 'Down with the Austrian butcher!' Brutal Austrian General Haynau beaten up by South Londoners wp.me/p74yfw-Ba
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Today in London tourist history, 1850: ‘Down with the Austrian butcher!’
Field Marshal Baron von Haynau, a brutal commander of the Austrian Empire, was known as ‘the Hyena’; he had earned this nickname by torturing prisoners and flogging women, while suppres…
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brisradhis.bsky.social @brisradhis.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Book launch: Rory Cormac’s Fakers: a top-secret tale of phantoms & forgeries on the disinformation front line (on little known governmental disinformation & propaganda unit, Information Research Department). Mon 7 Sep, 2026 (6pm). Free BRHG event at Bookhaus BS1 6ZJ: www.brh.org.uk/site/events/...
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brisradhis.bsky.social @brisradhis.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Bristol Radical History Group’s forthcoming day of talks on the 90th anniversary of the Spanish Revolution. 24 October ’26 (10am-5pm) at the Quaker Central meeting hall, Champion Sq BS2 9DB. Tie in with Bristol Anarchist Bookfair.
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brisradhis.bsky.social @brisradhis.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Jeremy Clarke & Richard Leonard’s beautiful tribute to activist & Bristol Radical History Group supporter, Hedley Bashforth who sadly died in May: www.brh.org.uk/site/2026/08...
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pasttensehistories.bsky.social @pasttensehistories.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
#OnThisDay in London radical history: Chartists rally on Kennington Common, 1842, in solidarity with ‘plug riots’ General Strike in north of England wp.me/p74yfw-dT
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Today in London radical history: Chartists rally on Kennington Common, 1842.
On 22nd August 1842, 40,000 Chartists defied a ban to rally on Kennington Common & fought police who attempted to clear them. In 1842, a series of wage reductions in factories around North Staf…
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Weird Bristol @weirdbristol.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
The plot of land on which the Shirehampton branch of Co-op now stands was once occupied by a cottage named Chapel House. In 1798 this house was home to the celebrated Romantic poet William Wordsworth, who lived there for two months with his sister Dorothy.
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