@d-j-frost
Historian of the near-present ✍️ Co-editor, In Solidarity, Under Suspicion: The British Far Left from 1956 (@manchesterup.bsky.social, 2025) Co-convenor, IHR Contemporary British History seminar (@cont-brit-hist.bsky.social) #cpfc 🔵🔴
In anticipation of International Women’s Day, here’s something I wrote a few years ago on the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and the surveillance of the Women’s Liberation Movement in the early 1970s.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Westminster Meeting House raided by Metropolitan Police again. Statement: “For Quakers, faith and action are inseparable. Peaceful protest, prayer and nonviolent action are integral parts of many Quakers' religious life. Whilst we take the planning of criminal acts very seriously, we believe that this incident is a deliberate targeting of committed young people who want to make our country a more equitable place. This raid is part of a systematic stifling of dissent. That this is the second time in a year that the police have raided our meeting house dramatically illuminates the broader trend in the UK of cracking down on those who disagree with the government. The right to protest is fundamental to our democracy. It's a key part of how people make their voices heard between elections.” – Oliver Robertson, Head of Witness and Worship Quakers in Britain, 5 March 2026
Yesterday evening, for the second time in a year, the Met Police raided Westminster Quaker Meeting House and arrested a number of young nonviolent activists.
STATEMENT: www.quaker.org.uk/news-and-eve...
The Radical Left and the Movement in Australia against the First Gulf War, 1990–91: Anti-Imperialism at the End of the Cold War Evan Smith The Gulf War in 1990–91 came at the end of the Cold War and at a time when the Left across the globe was reassessing itself as the Soviet Bloc collapsed. In this period of flux, the Australian Radical Left had also experienced a series of debates about its configuration, with several different attempts at unity, as well as reconsiderations about the relationship between the extra-parliamentary Left, the trade unions and the Australian Labor Party. After Saddam Hussein’s Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990 and several Western powers, led by the USA and Britain, sought to intervene, Bob Hawke’s Labor government supported the coalition against Iraq. A movement against Western intervention in the Gulf and Australia’s involvement in the coalition was built, including sections of the Labor Left, the trade unions, the peace movement, students and the organisations of the Far Left. Most looked back to the decade-long movement against the Vietnam War for the framework for the anti-war campaign, but the Left, in all its guises, had faded in influence since the 1970s. This article will look at how the movement against the First Gulf War developed between August 1990 and March 1991 and how it reflected a fractured and weakened Left in Australia in the dying days of the Cold War.
It is 35 years since the end of the First Gulf War in 1991. I wrote this article for Labour History in 2024 about the anti-war movement in Australia in 1990-91 and its relationship with the radical left.
www.researchgate.net/publication/...
www.academia.edu/164969896/Th...
A clipping from The Leninist, titled 'State of the art'. On the left, an engraving of some workers marching with tools. On the right: 'The recession has not hit the busy office where we prepare *The Leninist*, indeed the workload continues to increase. To prevent any potential bottlenecks from delaying production of the paper we have taken delivery of a brand new computer. For the technically minded, we now use an 80846 based machine with 16 megabytes of RAM. Although PC prices have been tumbling and we drove a very hard bargain, we are still left with a 4-figure dent in our finances. So this month it is vital that the paper's fighting fund achieves the £600 target. When the chips are down (sorry), we know we can rely on our readers to help. Please send cheques, payable to November Publications. Vernon Douglas, Fund organiser'
Looking at digitised far-left papers for a possible thing on the left and digital technology, and found this in *The Leninist* (1992):
'Although PC prices have been tumbling and we drove a very hard bargain, we are still left with a 4-figure dent in our finances.'
www.marxists.org/history/inte...
Excited that my chapter on the history of anti-fascism in Croydon will be included in a new volume to be published by
@histmat.bsky.social / @degruyterbrill.bsky.social!
helsinkinotebooks.com/2026/03/02/f...
@helsinkinotebooks.bsky.social
@kasperbrasken.bsky.social
@shanealittle.bsky.social
I briefly mentioned Fred Harris in this essay, but he was a 'Suez rebel' and a manufacturer with businesses in Britain and East Africa, and spent much of his time in Kenya.
renewal.org.uk/articles/sub...
A young white woman (Disa Duivestein) and an older white man (Fred Harris) stand outside the Houses of Parliament; the man points at something out of shot.
Old Britain (28 April 2025): "A moment of elegance at the Houses of Parliament, 1967! On November 14, 1967, Mr. Fred Harris, Conservative MP for Croydon North West, shows Miss South Africa, Disa Duivestein, a famous London landmark during a special tour of Parliament for the Miss World contestants. A timeless snapshot of diplomacy, beauty, and London’s historic charm! #MissWorld #London1967 #HistoryInPictures #TimelessElegance"
It is ~interesting to come across this pic of Fred Harris, a Conservative MP for Croydon North West, with the 1967 'Miss South Africa', posted by one of those strange nostalgic Facebook pages.
www.facebook.com/OldBritain/p...
The @vittles.bsky.social Chinatown project I guest-edited is out! No other neighbourhood has undergone a greater transformation. We have essays on who Chinatown is for? Have students reshaped UK food culture? And ofc a bumper guide on the best places to eat: www.vittlesmagazine.com/p/the-vittle...
Applications to become a Fellow @royalhistsoc.org are welcome at any time, from historians of all backgrounds within and beyond the UK.
Our next closing dates for applications are 9 March and 11 May 2026 bit.ly/4b5Ei8x 2/2
I’m chairing an online seminar by Sue Bishop (University of Leicester) tonight at 5.30pm. ‘Considering ‘mixed’ romantic relationships, female choices and everyday multiculturalism in Britain, 1960s-1980s: Love beyond boundaries’. All welcome. Please book in advance. www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...
Red Pepper returns to print. 'Striking back' explores 100 years since the 1926 General Strike, migration justice, repression in Latin America and wars for oil in Nigeria and Iran. Culture critics take on film, TV, music and books.
Order by 28 February to guarantee pre-launch delivery to your door!
On Wednesday! Sue Bishop speaks to the IHR Contemporary British History seminar (@cont-brit-hist.bsky.social) about ‘mixed’ romantic relationships in 1960s-80s Britain.
This seminar is **ONLINE**, starting at 5.30pm, and you can still sign up here: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...
Channelled the energy from #cpfc finally winning at home to go on my first ever proper run 🥲🦅
Entries are invited for the Labour History Review postgraduate essay prize. The deadline for entries is 30 June 2026
(Please share widely)
sslh.org.uk/2026/02/19/l...
'in England, and Northern Ireland – it is not mandatory to return data about staff that are not on academic contracts. This severely limits our overall understanding of what is happening with staff at providers in these countries. This will change from 2029. 1/3
Join us online this afternoon for a discussion on the Black radical press from the 1970s. Hear from the editor of Race Today Leila Hassan Howe and Sophia Siddiqui, co-editor of Race and Class along with Nigel De Noronha of Manchester Uni. Our very own archivist Sarah Garrod will be there also! 👇
My article with @booklearning.bsky.social on using membership forms from the National Front of Australia to analyse the demographics of far right support in the 1970s-80s was published open access last week.
It has already had 200 reads!
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Fantastic & fascinating paper from Margo Rashba this evening for @cont-brit-hist.bsky.social seminar @ihr.bsky.social. Great insights into designs of Westwood & use of tartan as clever & ironic commentary on Englishness & mash up with highland culture. & great chairing by @d-j-frost.bsky.social.
Mark Ashton wearing a 'Pits and Perverts: Lesbian and Gays Support the Miners' t-shirt, holding two banners, a white one with red writing (the writing is cut off), and a pink banner with black writing 'Pinko commie queers COMMUNIST PARTY', which also has an outline of an upside down triangle. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
#OTD in 1987, activist Mark Ashton passed away.
Mark Ashton was born in 1960. He was an activist, involved in the Communist Party of Great Britain, the Young Communist League (YCL), and co-founded Lesbian and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM), which is what he was known for primarily.
This evening!
A long time in the making, @booklearning.bsky.social and I have published this article in AJPH on exploring the question of who joins far right political groups, using membership application forms for the National Front of Australia in the 1970s-80s. 🧵
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Still time to book to come along to next @cont-brit-hist.bsky.social seminar at @ihr.bsky.social. Next Weds 11 Feb, 5.30pm, in-person with Margo Rashba on 'Vivienne Westwood's Punk & Britishness' 🧷 🇬🇧. Maybe see you there? #skystorians @d-j-frost.bsky.social
www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...
New collections added!
• Union of Socialist Geographers Newsletter
• Limerick Socialist (Ireland 1970s)
• Ann Arbor Argus (US 1960s)
• Nottingham Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (UK 1960s)
• Catholic Worker (US 1930s)
• Opiniao Socialista (Brazil 1990s-2020s)
hatfulofhistory.com/radical-onli...
Looking forward to this, next Wednesday! Margot Rashba will be joining the IHR Contemporary British History seminar to talk about Vivienne Westwood, punk and Britishness – sign up to attend here: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...
@ihr.bsky.social @cont-brit-hist.bsky.social @bostonu.bsky.social
Very cool talk on Vivienne Westwood and Britishness by Margot Rashba on Feb 11th. Corsets and safety-pins optional.
www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...
Emily Benn (Labour's Croydon South candidate in 2015) was elected as an independent in the City of London in 2022, but I'm not totally sure that counts because the City of London is weird
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_B...
I *think* that I'm coming towards the end, though I'm also sure that I've missed some.
Charlie Burling (Labour's Croydon South candidate in 1997) had been a Liberal Democrat in the 1990 council elections, and then resigned from the council in 1999: www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/80356.l...
And a complete Tory->Labour->Liberal Democrat "somersault", back in Croydon Central: Andrew Pelling (Conservative MP from 2005-07, independent 2007-10) was a Labour councillor (2014-22) and then a Liberal Democrat candidate in Croydon East in 2024: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_...
The 1948 Croydon North by-election is also worth a quick mention: The Conservatives' Fred Harris (mentioned in renewal.org.uk/articles/sub...) beat Labour's former New Party member Harold Nicolson, and the Liberals' Don Bennett, who later joined various far-right groups.
And now a short jump to neighbouring Croydon North, where Reg Prentice (no relation) was the candidate in 1950 and 1951.
During his 1977 switch to the Conservatives, as MP for Newham North East (1957-1979), he hid in Selsdon Park Hotel:
manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9780719088698/