We’re always interested in receiving material from radical political campaigns people are involved in. We don’t have much capacity here to be pro-active in going out and getting it, so it’s great when people think of us. Leaflets, flyers and correspondence may seem ephemeral, but they can tell future researchers such a lot about how it really felt to be part of an activist campaign, or about the political feel of the time. That sort of thing is what our readers always get excited about when they find it here!
Last week, for instance, volunteer Stuart brought us in the programme of the Chesterfield May Day gala he’d been to over the Bank Holiday – and a nice badge to go with it. We’ve got a great collection of May Day programmes from 1920 onwards, and this is a welcome addition. Cheers Stuart.
We’ve also been sifting through the papers and books of activist and WCML reader Keith Hodgson, which were kindly sent across to us from Liverpool by his partner Janice after the sadness of his death in February.
Keith packed a lot into his 50 years – he was part of the Liverpool Anarchist Groups of the 1980s and early 1990s, was a founder member of Liverpool Anti-Fascists, and was involved in the Troops Out Movement and the Phoenix Support Group for Irish Republican prisoners amongst many other campaigns.
A couple of random snippets to show the flavour of the papers from Keith which we’re adding to our collection:
* an interesting exchange between Merseyside anarchists in a squatted building and a representative from the Labour council on the question of getting building insurance to legitimise their presence;
* an anarchist critique of the Provisional IRA, discussing historical associations with Franco and the Nazis;
* a range of Troops Out movement material, including delegation papers and benefit concerts, correspondence and attempts to reach across the sectarian divide.
Thanks for thinking of us, Janice.
Working Class Movement Library 