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Shirin Hirsch @shirinhirsch.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I am researching boxing and race and the professionalism of sport in the early twentieth century. Any good reading recommendations?

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Shirin Hirsch @shirinhirsch.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

1 July 1959, Daily News (London newspaper) on the British colony of Bermuda. How quickly things fall apart.

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Nick Gould @profng.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

The VC of the Uni of Greater Manchester has just been sacked for misuse of over £1m of university funds. Hardly a mention in the media. Not black so not newsworthy.

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Shirin Hirsch @shirinhirsch.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Unbearably sad news of Prof Arday’s death. I am thinking of him and everyone close to him. I hope all those who took part in the hunt are ashamed. A broken and heartless media and academic system.

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Tom Scriven @pigsmeat.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

I'm looking for some extra work this summer so if anyone has anything - e.g. remote research (especially London archives or Cambridge area), transcription, editing, proofing, etc, or knows of anyone looking, then feel free to let me know!

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Tom Scriven @pigsmeat.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Also working-class autodidacts didn't just read alone - they read in groups, set up libraries and reading rooms, and battled for Mechanics' Institutes (many long ago merged into unis) to teach music, history, and politics. They built the public adult education infrastructure that's being destroyed

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Shirin Hirsch @shirinhirsch.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

15 billion just pulled out of thin air for ‘defence’ suddenly. No votes, no debate, just a speech made by a resigned PM. 15 billion.

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David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

For those of us who see Palestinians as human beings, this was Starmer's defining moment. It is not sustainable to behave in this way while leading the nominally progressive party in a two party system. Starmer's unpopularity is not one of life's great mysteries. www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8_s...

youtube.com

Keir Starmer denies saying Israel 'has the right' to withhold water and power from citizens in Gaza

YouTube video by LBC

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Shirin Hirsch @shirinhirsch.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Kenneth Goodman was a African American 'distinguished organist' who comes up a lot in the newspapers in the 1950s as he tours Europe to great acclaim including huge shows in Birmingham in 1954. But I can't find any recordings of him online - any ideas?

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Wolfson History Prize @wolfsonhistory.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

WIN! This month we're giving you the chance to win a copy of 'Multicultural Britain: A People’s History' by @kieranconnell.bsky.social! 📚 To enter: Follow us Like and reshare this post Entries close 11/06/2026 10AM GMT. UK only.

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Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick @mrcwarwick.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

New 1926 General Strike map online! Using early 20th century Ordnance Survey maps, the online resource shows strike events (through archive sources) in their contemporary landscape. Explore the map, digitised sources and more at warwick.ac.uk/services/lib...

Map of Britain made from early 20th century Ordnance Survey maps. It includes pins which link to digitised documents and links to a timeline.

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Joe Redmayne @joeredmayne.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

@newcastleuni.bsky.social will be hosting the British General Strike of 1926: New Directions of Research conference on 7-8 May. Tickets (no charge) for the event go live today at 9am. We have an excellent programme of speakers. Supported by @leverhulme.ac.uk @sslh.bsky.social @ialhi.bsky.social

Conference Poster: https://www.ticketsource.com/null/t-yzzmpzr

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Shirin Hirsch @shirinhirsch.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

Ameen Hadi is a brilliant youth worker, anti racist and trade unionist. He was defending newly elected MP Hannah Spencer from violent far right transphobes and for that he has been suspended from Salford Council. Please sign and share the petition here actionnetwork.org/petitions/de...

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Diarmaid Kelliher @diarmaidkelliher.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

New article in English Historical Review (@enghistrev.bsky.social) on 'Thatcherism & the Picket Line'. Looks at relationship between picketing & Conservatives esp. in 1980s, but also the legacy into the 1990s. Of relevance, I think, to upcoming Orgreave inquiry. academic.oup.com/ehr/advance-...

Image of article abstract. Title: Thatcherism and the picket line.

Abstract:

This article explores the relationship between Thatcherism and the picket line. The picket line in late twentieth-century Britain was a space in which ideologies were directly contested, and the power of law, police, courts and trade unionism came into conflict. Reshaping picketing was essential to Thatcherism’s broader goal to restructure industrial relations. The paper first considers the new picketing regulations of the 1980s, focusing on how these directly responded to the often effective strike tactics of the 1970s. The new rules, however, were ignored in several major industrial disputes. The second part of the article shows how the picketing regulations were reinforced in the face of this challenge by intensive state, court and employer action, resistance to which was weakened by the labour movement’s internal divisions. As a result, the third section demonstrates how the new industrial relations regime came to be largely internalised by trade unions and their members in the 1990s. By the end of this period, the picket line had been transformed profoundly, becoming typically smaller, less mobile and more orderly. The history of picketing centres Thatcherism as a political project that used state power to reconfigure industrial relations in Britain, transforming the legal landscape within which trade unions operated and the broader cultural norms in which the power of picket lines was ultimately rooted. It emphasises that the weakening of workers as collective agents was a central, broadly coherent and, in many ways, successful feature of Thatcherism.

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Shirin Hirsch @shirinhirsch.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

Any recommendations for a general and good introduction to the origins and early history of Apartheid in South Africa?

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Shirin Hirsch @shirinhirsch.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

Reading the work of George Padmore for the first time. What searing, powerful and relentless writing exposing the horrors of colonialism and still so relevant today.

Photograph of George Padmore reading a newspaper

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Shirin Hirsch @shirinhirsch.bsky.social · 27/01/2026

Fam shared photo of German Jewish great aunt Lotte (Lucie) Guttmann. Ancestry dig we find her son Wilhelm Simon Guttmann revolutionary, friend of Walter Benjamin,early visitor to Soviet Russia,pioneer of photojournalism. Escaping Germany,he settled in UK worked on Picture Post before founding Report

Photograph of woman sitting on chair and text under reads 'Tante Lotte, 1955'

Photograph of Guttmann holding a series of photographs

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Royal College of Nursing @rcn.org.uk · 27/01/2026

We send our support to Alex Pretti's family and loved ones, and the global nursing community which has lost a devoted member. No matter where they are in the world, they - and the people they serve - deserve to be safe, both at work and in their communities.

Quote from Professor Nicola Ranger, RCN General Secretary & Chief Executive, that says: "Nursing is a global family, and Alex Pretti’s death in such violent circumstances will be felt deeply. Those who join our profession do so because they are compassionate, and driven by an unrivalled commitment to public service."

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University and College Union (UCU) @ucu.org.uk · 26/01/2026

400 jobs at risk. A campus set to close. This film explains what’s happening at the University of Essex and why staff, students and the local community are organising to stop it. 📍 Southend rally | 5 February

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Shirin Hirsch @shirinhirsch.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

Jimmy Cliff was touring the clubs of Wolverhampton in the year Enoch Powell made his Rivers of Blood speech. 50 years later artists Anand Chhabra, Jagdish Patel and Vanley Burke responded with the exhibition Many Rivers to Cross, the title of Cliff's 1969 track. RIP www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y9Q...

youtube.com

Many rivers to cross - Jimmy Cliff

YouTube video by TheSunAnge

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Shirin Hirsch @shirinhirsch.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

I was reading about Elspeth King in Alasdair Gray's Poor Things - she features in the introduction. What a wonderful life www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

theguardian.com

Elspeth King obituary

Museum director and curator of the People’s Palace in Glasgow who reshaped it into a living record of the city’s social history

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Shirin Hirsch @shirinhirsch.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

Sunday afternoon watching Up - what a great film 🎈 ❤️

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Shirin Hirsch @shirinhirsch.bsky.social · 02/11/2025

I’m in this piece talking about the Manchester links with the fifth Pan African Congress…

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Shirin Hirsch @shirinhirsch.bsky.social · 09/10/2025

Last few tickets for this, next Friday!

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Shirin Hirsch @shirinhirsch.bsky.social · 09/10/2025

‘Would you let your daughter marry Enoch Powell?’ 😝 🥰

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Shirin Hirsch @shirinhirsch.bsky.social · 29/09/2025

This should be a great lecture @phm.org.uk to mark the 80th anniversary of the Fifth Pan African Congress with the wonderful Gary Younge. Tickets going fast here phm.org.uk/events_new/w...

phm.org.uk

What Peace? Whose Freedom? with Gary Younge - People's History Museum

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Shirin Hirsch @shirinhirsch.bsky.social · 14/09/2025

A brilliant first published journal article by Mohammed Khan, on an Indian Seamen’s Home in 1940s Liverpool - well worth a read! www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

tandfonline.com

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Shirin Hirsch @shirinhirsch.bsky.social · 14/09/2025

On the Tommy Robinson march… On the tram today and a man flicking through his Fb turns to his partner says ‘look Steve was on the march for common sense’, the tram passenger clicks ‘like’ and scrolls on. Huge potential for fascists to broaden and deepen their base further after yesterday

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Shirin Hirsch @shirinhirsch.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

Ten to one on Burnham as next Labour leader, pretty good odds right now...

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Remaking Britain: South Asian Connections and Networks @remakingbritain.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

We are proud to announce that South Asian Britain: Connecting Histories, a landmark educational website on the histories of South Asians in Britain, is now live! Visit southasianbritain.org @qmul.bsky.social @bristoluni.bsky.social @britishlibrary.bsky.social #AHRC @uobartsmatter.bsky.social

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Shirin Hirsch @shirinhirsch.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

This is a brilliant history from below by @grsbrown.bsky.social. The ANL had a defining impact on the contours of racism and anti-racism and was that rare thing, a success, defeating the National Front. Now more than ever we need to return to this history bookmarksbookshop.co.uk/product/a-pe...

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Shirin Hirsch @shirinhirsch.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

Thinking of Neil Davidson today and his untimely death. He was the best kind of academic, someone who hated the academy as an institution, who was so generous with his vast knowledge, who spent his time encouraging others to read and think. A working class intellectual and revolutionary.

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Zarah Sultana MP @zarahsultana.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

Today, after 14 years, I’m resigning from the Labour Party. Jeremy Corbyn and I will co-lead the founding of a new party, with other Independent MPs, campaigners and activists across the country. Join us. The time is now. Sign up here to stay updated: actionnetwork.org/forms/join-t...

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Shirin Hirsch @shirinhirsch.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

Just one of the huge pickets in the pouring rain striking over low pay by our colleagues @unisonmmu.bsky.social

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Carsten Timmermann @ctimmermann.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

The historic Hotspur Press building on fire this afternoon, after the owners let it rot for years. (Son took the picture from the top floor of a nearby multi-storey car park)

Old cotton mill building completely on fire.

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Shirin Hirsch @shirinhirsch.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

Spent yesterday watching Zohran Mamdani speeches and then came across his father, Mahmood Mamdani's book on Ugandan Asians coming to Britain. A great read and just happens to be very useful for the article I'm writing!

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Shirin Hirsch @shirinhirsch.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

I feel like every meeting needs to have the word Palestine uttered right now. Boring, bureaucratic meetings, still worth it, someone reminding us of the genocide. Palestine, Palestine, Palestine.

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Shirin Hirsch @shirinhirsch.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

That's it, marking all submitted. My teaching year all done since returning from mat leave with three little kids. First day thinking through research again.

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Shirin Hirsch @shirinhirsch.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

Emotional hearing the flotilla has been captured. And then reading the BBC report and the way they so casually repeat Israel's propaganda. It jars so much with the reality of what is happening.

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Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

"My name is Greta Thunberg and I am from Sweden. If you see this video, we have been intercepted and kidnapped in international waters by the Israeli occupational forces, or forces that support Israel."

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Shirin Hirsch @shirinhirsch.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

What a wonderful book launch and conversation with the brilliant @sadiahqureshi.bsky.social and @davidolusoga.bsky.social Very pleased I now have my copy of Vanished: An Unnatural History of Extinction

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