Left-Wing and the ‘Other’ History: The 1906 Cananea Strike

The timeline of revolutions is never clear in regards to when we can say it began or ended. For example, we traditionally mark the storming of the Bastille as the start of the French Revolution, but there were agricultural strikes in the year preceding this. Likewise, the Mexican Revolution (dated roughly 1910 to 1920) is

The Making of Today: Tacky’s War, April-June 1760

On Easter Monday, April 7 1760, across the plantations of Jamaica recently enslaved Africans rose up in rebellion. Although technically several rebellions in one the iconography of the war came to surround one figure – a former warlord in what is now Ghana called Tacky. While not the first enslaved uprising in the Caribbean, or

Left-Wing and the ‘Other’ History: The El Paso Bath Riots, 1917

This blog is written just after 2024’s International Women’s Day and it is important to acknowledge that International Women’s Day was founded to celebrate working class women and their involvement in fighting for a just war. Every radical movement in world history has had women at the centre, in some way, and in 1917 along

The Making of Today: The Birth and Life of Radical Feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, April-June 1759

On April 27 1759 one of the most remarkable feminists of history was born: Mary Wollstonecraft. We often imagine feminism as emerging in the 1800s with the suffrage movement, but women throughout history have been fighting against patriarchal dominance with Wollstonecraft being a revolutionary example. Today we will be looking at her remarkable life and

The Casta Paintings: Creating Race in Colonial Mexico

Photo D Espanol y Negra se produce un Mulato by Juan Rodriguez Juarez, c.1715. Taken by author at the Leicester Museum A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to visit the Leicester Museum’s special exhibition on the Casta paintings. A series of these paintings, largely painted by Juan Rodriguez Juarez around 1715, were found

Voodoo: How a Religion became a Horror Trope

In October in the UK it is Black History Month, and of course October is ‘Month of Horror’ on this blog. It is a trope in horror media, and popular culture as a whole, that depicts Voodoo as a Satanic, blood-sacrifice, black magic cult based on purposeful and general misunderstandings of the religion. Born through

The Other 9/11: The Day Chilean Democracy Died

Decades before the terror attacks on the Twin Towers September 11 had been a day of infamy. On September 11 1973 a US-backed coup toppled Chile’s democratically elected socialist government and issued in one of the most brutal dictatorships of Latin America. As I am writing this the fiftieth anniversary of the coup was just

Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners: A Case of Solidarity and Resistance

In the 1980s the government of Margaret Thatcher had been targeting the rights of various communities. Stricter controls on immigration were put in place, black and Asian communities were being over-policed, and neoliberal policies cut the welfare keeping many poor and working class families from falling into poverty. As mining communities faced destitution during the

Left-wing and the ‘Other’ History: The First Recorded Strike

Throughout history strikes have been an important way for the exploited classes to fight back against their oppression. From railway workers to sex workers, from students to teachers, to screenwriters to farmers in each inhabited continent workers have went on strike to defend or obtain their rights. Strikes have been present throughout history, and today

How Pinkwashing and Rainbow Capitalism harms marginalised communities

Above: A die-in queer protest in Israel against the state’s pinkwashing Growing up as a LGBTQ+ teen I cried out for mainstream acceptance of LGBTQ+ identities. As a pansexual, non binary adult every June I see institutions, companies, and even governments deck themselves out in the rainbow flag for Pride Month. I have just come