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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

"Paris is free! The glorious news has been received with joy throughout our land. It is being welcomed by every token which we can contrive to felicitate our beloved neighbour." Daily Herald report on the liberation of Paris, which took place #OnThisDay 1944. #WW2

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

The Communist Party of Great Britain was founded #OnThisDay 1920. Formed by the merger of several small Marxist parties, the CPGB would go on to become the largest communist party in Britain, with 60,000 members at its peak in 1945.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

The Independent Labour Party, an influential socialist organisation and co-founder of the Labour Party, disaffiliated from Labour #OTD 1932. Nye Bevan described the disaffiliation as a decision to remain "pure, but impotent." In just 3 years the ILP lost 75% of its members.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

William Wilberforce, a leader of the campaign to abolish the British slave trade, died #OnThisDay 1833. Despite his abolitionist stance on slavery, Wilberforce was accused by William Cobbett of never having done "one single act in favour of the labourers of this country."

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 28/07/2025

Louisa Garrett Anderson, surgeon and militant suffragette, was born #OnThisDay 1873. On the outbreak of WW1, Anderson founded the Women’s Hospital Corps and set up a hospital in London to treat wounded soldiers, where she served as chief surgeon.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 27/07/2025

"Surely the time was coming when the law, which was the representative of the organised will of the people, would declare that workers should no longer work for less than they could live upon." Clementina Black, writer, feminist and trade unionist, was born #OnThisDay 1853.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 27/07/2025

"The people are the fountain of all power, honour, trust and distinction." John Thelwall, radical journalist and writer, was born in Covent Garden, London #OnThisDay 1764. Thelwall supported the ideals of the French Revolution and sought similar political reforms in Britain.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 27/07/2025

"He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself." Thomas Paine, 1795.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 26/07/2025

#OnThisDay 1858: Lionel de Rothschild, banker and philanthropist, became the first practising Jew to sit as an MP in the House of Commons. Rothschild took his seat just 3 days after the Jews Relief Act, which removed previous barriers to Jews entering Parliament, took effect.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 26/07/2025

Lionel de Rothschild, banker and philanthropist, became the first practising Jew to sit as an MP in the House of Commons #OnThisDay 1858. Rothschild took his seat just 3 days after the Jews Relief Act, which removed previous barriers to Jews entering Parliament, took effect.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 26/07/2025

Common Wealth, a socialist party which stood for common ownership, morality in politics and ‘vital democracy’, was formed #OTD 1942. Famous members included playwright J. B. Priestley, Spanish Civil War veteran Tom Wintringham and Liberal-turned-socialist Sir Richard Acland.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 25/07/2025

"We form ourselves into a Society for the melioration of the unhappy children of Africa..." Lucy Townsend, founder of the first Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society, was born in Birmingham #OnThisDay 1781. Townsend’s organisation became the model for similar organisations in the USA.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

Ira Aldridge, actor and playwright, was born in New York #OnThisDay 1807. Faced with persistent racial discrimination in the US, Aldridge emigrated in 1824 to England, where he became the UK’s first black Shakespearean actor. He was later appointed manager of Coventry Theatre.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 23/07/2025

"Most of the fights for the maintenance of freedom of speech and freedom to print were fought for by people on the Left, not by the Right." Michael Foot, Labour Party leader 1980-83, was born #OTD 1913. Foot began his career as a journalist on Tribune and the Evening Standard.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 23/07/2025

Jessica Mitford, author, died in California #OnThisDay 1996. Unlike her sisters Unity and Diana, both of whom joined the British Union of Fascists, Jessica was an adherent of communism who was involved in several U.S. civil rights campaigns in the 1950s and 1960s.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 23/07/2025

Skirmishes broke out in London #OnThisDay 1866 after supporters of the Reform League clashed with police outside Hyde Park. Protestors had hoped to meet to demonstrate their support for manhood suffrage, but the park’s gates were closed after the meeting was declared illegal.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 23/07/2025

"Reynolds’s Weekly News will be devoted to the cause of freedom & in the interests of the enslaved masses. In its political sentiment it will be thoroughly democratic..." G. W. M. Reynolds, founder of the most popular radical paper of the post-Chartist era, was born #OTD 1814.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 23/07/2025

"I think the House of Lords ought to be abolished and I don't think the best way for me to abolish it is to go there myself." Michael Foot, born #OnThisDay 1913, explaining his decision to decline a peerage after retiring from the House of Commons in 1992.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

The Colne Valley Labour Union, the first labour party organised on the basis of a parliamentary constituency, was formed #OnThisDay 1891. The Union stunned the political world in 1907 when its candidate, the socialist Victor Grayson, won a by-election contest.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

Joseph Gales, journalist, publisher and Mayor of Raleigh, North Carolina, died #OnThisDay 1841. Born in Eckington, Derbyshire, Gales advocated religious tolerance, Parliamentary reform and the abolition of slavery. He left England in the 1790s out of fear for his safety.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 21/07/2025

#OnThisDay 1931: MPs voted down a bill, introduced by Labour MP Archibald Church, which would have paved the way for the compulsory sterilisation of "mental defectives." Similar laws were passed in the early 1930s in the U.S. and, with the most terrible consequences, in Germany.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 20/07/2025

"SHARPEN the sickle! The fields are white, ‘Tis the time of the harvest at last…" The Eastern Counties Agricultural Labourers and Small Holders Union, which later became the National Union of Agricultural and Allied Workers, was formed in North Walsham, Norfolk #OnThisDay 1906.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 20/07/2025

"The cultivation of flowers and trees is a civic duty." Ada Salter, social reformer, environmentalist and Quaker, was born #OnThisDay 1866. Salter became President of the Women’s Labour League in 1914 and the first woman mayor in London in 1922.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 20/07/2025

"Join with us to exterminate tyranny and foul oppression from the face of our native country..." The Manchester Female Reform Society, which aimed to spread democratic ideals among women, was formed #OnThisDay 1819, just one month before the Peterloo massacre.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 20/07/2025

The National Charter Association, a national political organization of Chartists, was founded in Manchester #OnThisDay 1840. The historian Dorothy Thompson later described it as "the first nationally organised party of the working class to exist in the world."

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 19/07/2025

#OnThisDay 1919: Ex-servicemen unhappy with unemployment and other grievances rioted and burnt down Luton Town Hall. During the riot, people dragged pianos into the streets and began singing and dancing to ‘Keep the home fires burning’.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

The Ballot Act, which required that elections be held by secret ballot, became law #OnThisDay 1872. Before the Act, voters had to declare their choice of candidate openly, which led to intimidation and bribery by employers and landlords. The ballot was a key Chartist demand.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

"The notion that the husband ought to have the headship or authority over his wife is the root of all social evils…Husband & wife should be co-equal. In a happy marriage there is no question of ‘obedience’." Lydia Becker, women’s suffrage campaigner, died #OnThisDay 1890.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

Feargus O'Connor, a leading Chartist member of the London Working Men's Association and founder of the Northern Star newspaper, was born in Ireland #OTD 1796. Elected MP for Nottingham in 1847, O'Connor helped to organise the large Chartist meeting on Kennington Common in 1848.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

"I will go on conquering until you have the land and the People's Charter becomes the law of the land..." Feargus O'Connor, leading Chartist member of the London Working Men's Association and founder of the Northern Star newspaper, was born in Ireland #OTD 1796.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

The Spanish Civil War began #OnThisDay 1936 when army officers launched a coup against the democratically elected government. It is estimated that between 2,500 and 4,000 Britons departed for Spain to fight fascism and defend the republic.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

Herbert Smith, President of the Miners’ Federation of Great Britain 1922-29, was born in a workhouse in Kippax, West Yorkshire #OnThisDay 1862. A miner from the age of 10, Smith was the miners’ chief spokesman during the 1926 General Strike.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

"We are out to stop the profits of private capitalists who are denying us justice." John Bromley, Labour MP for Barrow-in-Furness 1924-31 and general secretary of @ASLEFunion 1914-36, was born in Hadnall, Shropshire #OnThisDay 1876.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

"The toleration of [animal cruelty] is repugnant to the dictates of humanity & to the spirit and precepts of the Christian religion." Rev. Arthur Broome, priest and co-founder of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (@RSPCA_official), died #OnThisDay 1837.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

"The most persuasive Marxist who has ever influenced this country’s thinking." Kingsley Martin on John Strachey, Labour politician and writer who died #OTD 1963. A Communist sympathiser in the 30s, Strachey served as Food Minister and War Secretary in the post-war Labour govt.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

"We have faced hostile mobs at street corners. We have been misrepresented, ridiculed, had contempt poured upon us…[but] we are determined to go on with this agitation because we feel in honour bound." Emmeline Pankhurst, women’s suffrage campaigner, was born #OnThisDay 1858.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

#OTD 1966 British Railways announced that colour bars at stations in London would be abandoned. The decision followed a campaign by Asquith Xavier, a train guard & member of the Windrush Generation whose application for a promotion was rejected because of the colour of his skin.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

"When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?" John Ball, a Lollard priest who took a prominent part in the Peasants' Revolt, was hanged, drawn and quartered at St Albans #OnThisDay 1381.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

"The cradle land of Shakspere, made sacred by the ashes of Wickliffe, the soil on which were reared Milton, Byron & Shelley...will [you] do your part to render the future England worthy of such glorious memories?" Thomas Cooper, Chartist poet, died #OnThisDay 1892.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 12/07/2025

"Break up the present world order & make a new in the power of the Outlaw of Galilee..." Conrad Noel, socialist and Anglican priest, was born #OTD 1869. As the 'Red Vicar' of Thaxted, Noel hung the red flag, the Sinn Féin flag and St. George's flag in Thaxted church.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 12/07/2025

Josiah Wedgwood, English potter and founder of the Wedgwood company, was born #OnThisDay 1730. Wedgwood was a prominent abolitionist and created the famous ‘Am I Not a Man And a Brother?’ anti-slavery medallion.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 12/07/2025

In late June 1450, Jack Cade led a 40,000 strong march from southeast England to London to protest against laws introduced by King Henry VI. After executing the Lord Treasurer, Cade and his supporters were driven out of the London. Cade was mortally wounded on 12 July.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 12/07/2025

"The masses of the people in this country were in the forefront of our struggle." South Africa’s first black president and anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela drew a crowd of over 10,000 people on a visit to Brixton, London #OnThisDay 1996.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

#OTD 1991: Labour MP Terry Fields was sentenced to 60 days in prison for refusing to pay his poll tax. Fields was expelled from the party in Dec 1991 with the rest of the Militant group. He stood against the Labour candidate in the ‘92 election, but achieved only 14% of the vote.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

The Battle of Britain, which marked the first major defeat of Germany's military forces during WW2, began #OnThisDay 1940. Victory allowed Britain to establish itself as an Allied stronghold, later serving as a base from which the Liberation of Western Europe was launched.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

"Defiance is our only remedy..." ‘The Poor Man’s Guardian’, a radical weekly, was first published #OnThisDay 1831. Sold for 1 penny, the paper defied the stamp duty of 4d per copy. Over 500 sellers of the paper, as well as its publisher, were imprisoned for distributing it.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

"I left the Movement as I joined it, penniless. Though I had no money I had reaped a rich harvest of joy, laughter, romance, companionship, and experience that no money can buy." Annie Kenney, working-class suffragette, died #onthisday 1953.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

"No lord of no mannor shall comon uppon the Comons." Kett's Rebellion, a revolt in Norfolk in response to the enclosure of land, began #OnThisDay 1549 when a group of rebels destroyed fences put up by wealthy landowners. Led by Robert Kett, the rebels were defeated on 27 August.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

"Rise like Lions after slumber In unvanquishable number, Shake your chains to earth like dew Which in sleep had fallen on you - Ye are many - they are few." Percy Bysshe Shelley, one of the major English Romantic poets, died in Italy #OnThisDay 1822.

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English Radical History @englishradical.bsky.social · 06/07/2025

One of Britain’s first non-white MPs was elected #OnThisDay 1892 when Dadabhai Naoroji won the Central Finsbury seat for the Liberals. Naoraji was a founding member of the Indian National Congress, a political party that has dominated Indian politics since independence in 1947.

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