Miners: it was a showdown that divided the nation ... The miners raised the stakes as their overtime ban became an all-out strike. Dominic Sandbrook, The 70s II: Doomwatch 73-74
The golden boy who single-handedly ended the Peasants’ Revolt. But Richard II became the most vicious Plantagenet of all. And his reign of terror brought the whole Plantagenet dynasty crashing down. Dan Jones, Britain’s Bloodiest Dynasty s1e4: Richard II: Tyranny, Channel 5 2014
1377: England had suffered a decade of turmoil under the ailing King Edward III. His grandson Richard II succeeds him at the age of 10. He is hailed as the country’s saviour. But just four years later thousands of impoverished peasants storm London. ibid.
King Richard II had ridden out to meet rebel leader Wat Tyler. Richard’s men have just murdered Tyler. ibid.
Fear and paranoia stalk the land. ibid.
Henry takes him to London and bangs him up in the Tower. ibid.
What the Match-girls did next: In July 1888 1,400 women and girls walked out through the gates of the Bryant and May match factory here in Bow, East London. Amanda Vickery, Suffragettes: Forever! The Story of Women and Power II, BBC 2015
At the bottom this erodes the importance of the vote for people in this country … It prevents people using the ballot box … to change taxes and laws … We are being invited to give up those rights. Panorama, Tony Benn vs Roy Jenkins ***** with David Dimbleby, Benn, BBC 1975
Will destroy all that is most valuable in Britain. ibid.
Absolute sovereignty is nonsense. ibid. Jenkins
I think it’s about democracy. ibid. Benn
Pool our sovereignty. ibid. Jenkins
It would create jobs for our people – that was his [Heath] phrase. ibid. Benn
Common Market membership has been a disaster. ibid.
We’ve really got to have confidence in this country’s capacity to survive. ibid.
An economic and monetary union is a long way off … I think as a long-term objective, yes, it could be highly desirable. ibid. Jenkins
In 1968 Dagenham’s women workers decided they’d had enough and walked out. Ford’s Dagenham Dream, BBC 2009
Ford of Britain can produce 3,100 cars a day. Made in Dagenham 2010 starring Bob Hoskins & Miranda Richardson & Sally Hawkins & Geraldine James & Rosamund Pike & Andrea Riseborough & Jaime Winstone & Daniel Mays & Richard Schiff & Phil Cornwell et al, director Nigel Cole, Ford advert
Now occupy more than seven square miles. ibid.
‘Those for industrial action hands up.’ ibid. Albert
‘Machinists threatening strike action – they couldn’t believe it.’ ibid.
‘That is not unskilled work.’ ibid. Rita convenor
‘Everybody out.’ ibid.
‘26,000 strikes in the United Kingdom.’ ibid. Barbara Castle
‘Because they can. They’re allowed to pay women a lower wage than men. All over the country women are getting less because they’re women.’ ibid. Albert
‘It’s a glimpse innit of what it could be.’ ibid. woman
‘This strike is about one thing and one thing only – fairness.’ ibid.
‘In six months’ time your union won’t exist. Industry cannot afford to pay women the same rates as men ... It will collapse under the weight of the extra wages.’ ibid. Ford boss
Ford Women Fight On ... Tide Turns Against Dagenham Women. ibid. newspaper headline
‘Rights is not privileges.’ ibid. Rita
‘It was a matter of principle. You had to stand up and do what was right otherwise you wouldn’t be able to look yourself in the mirror ... When did we in this country decide to stop fighting? ... We are the working classes, the men and the women ... Equal pay for women is right.’ ibid. Rita at conference
‘What’s worth fighting for?’ ibid. Rita to Barbara Castle
‘The government is in full support of the creation of an Equal Pay Act.’ ibid. Barbara Castle
‘Nobody expected us to come out on strike.’ ibid. striker
40th anniversary of the Great GM Sit-Down Strike: ‘… faced the buckshot, faced the tear-gas, this armband still has the tear-gas on it. The Women’s Emergency Brigade of Flint, Michigan, made American history …’ With Banners & Babies: Story of the Women’s Emergency Brigade, conference speaker, 1979
We were the pioneers of the labour movement. ibid. striker
The more you produced, the more likely you would keep their job. ibid.
The foremen were using the girls and holding it over their heads that if they didn’t do what they wanted to do, they wouldn’t have a job. ibid.
That’s all we had in Flint, Michigan – churches and bars. ibid.
We met in a little coalshed. ibid.
They would have done anything to turn one against the other. ibid.
That’s when we decided to form the Women’s Auxiliary. ibid.
General Motors’ goons – our lives were in danger – they actually prepared with guns. (Activism & Strike & Industrial Action & Women & Michigan & Labour & Factory & Solidarity & Dispute) ibid.
First they turned the heat off on ’em, then they turned the water off on ’em. ibid.
The victory was won and the UAW was born. ibid.
We’re a Family Not a Cartel. Sarah O’Connor: Hutch v Kinahan: Ireland’s Deadliest Feud, Hutch newspaper headline, ITV3 2018
‘Their business is the business of death and it’s a lucrative business of death.’ ibid.
In February 2016 a gang burst into the Regency Hotel in north Dublin during a boxing weigh-in … they entered the venue and opened fire. ibid.
Their [Garda] seeming lack of intelligence around this well-publicized boxing event … It triggered an all-out bloody war. ibid.
In May that year Gareth Hutch, the Monk’s [Gerry’s] nephew, was shot dead in broad daylight … outside the flat complex where he lived. ibid.
The gangs and the community are intrinsically linked together. ibid.
From a young age we’re taught fidelity to the system and to the state … In almost every industrialised country in the world socialist parties have huge representations … but in America everyone knows that being called a socialist or a communist carried an immediate negative connotation. Abby Martin: The Empire Files: America’s Unofficial Religion: The War on an Idea, Youtube 2015
In the late 1800s there was an intense battle between organised labour and the country’s industrial capitalists. ibid.
It’s been a real battle with real weapons. ibid.
Repression … was reinforced by hired gangs and lynch-mobs. ibid.
But with the new law every single union officer was required to sign an affidavit pledging that they did not believe in socialism. If you did not sign, you lost your job. ibid.
Under the Smith Act it was deemed illegal for anyone to be a member of the communist party. ibid.
The old guard will use every weapon in its arsenal. ibid.
LeMond-Armstrong dispute heads to court: The long-standing allegations of drug use that have sullied the world of professional bicycle racing have led to a public falling out between Tour de France winner Greg LeMond and Trek Bicycle Corp, over seven-time tour winner Lance Armstrong. Storyville: Lance II, Minneapolis Star Tribune article David Phelps, BBC 2014
The miners’ strike was a war between the Thatcher government and the unionised miners. Melvyn Bragg on Class & Culture III, BBC 2012
It all started in north London at a small photographic processing lab called Grunwick … He [Ward] sacked the strikers … He still wouldn’t deal with the unions: it was the Freedom Association … There were over 50 vehicles involved in [Operation] Pony Express … 20,000 pickets came to Grunwick … The Freedom Association kept George Ward in business. Tory! Tory! Tory! II: Path to Power, BBC 2006
In 1980 there was a massive strike in the steel industry; inflation was high and workers wanted a pay rise to match it … The strike went on for three months. ibid.
In September last year Armenia and Azerbaijan went to war. In 44 days of fighting, the fortunes of the two countries and their peoples were turned upside down … So who really won this war? And what does the future hold for people who have lived through and lost so much? Our World: Who Won the Karabakh War? BBC 2021
Two neighbours, two wars, the bitterest of enemies. Nagorno Karabakh is an Armenian-majority area inside Azerbaijan’s international borders. In 1992 a long-running dispute over who should control it turned into war. Armenia invaded taking over Najorno Karabakh and the surrounding areas. ibid.