Radical History Blog

Begun on this day in 1894, the Pullman Strike was one of the most significant strike actions in US history “It seems to me that if it were not for resistance to degrading conditions, the tendency of our whole civilization would be downward; after a while we would reach the point where there would be no resistance, and slavery would come.” – Eugene Debs, 1894 By the 1890s, the US was being turned into an industrial powerhouse at breakneck speed.

Born on this day in 1921, Daniel Berrigan was a tireless campaigner for peace and justice “Our apologies, good friends, for the fracture of good order, the burning of paper instead of children.” So said the Reverend Daniel Berrigan after burning 378 draft files in Catonsville, Maryland.

When we think of the Civil Rights Movement we think of the United States - but it happened here too...'s refusal to leave her seat in 1955 made waves not just across the United States, but also across the world.

Born on this day in 1822, Ulysses S. Grant used his presidency to fight for racial equality... A photograph from the 1869 Inauguration of Ulysses S.

It's a word we throw around a lot... but what do we actually mean?Lamartine in front of the Town Hall of Paris rejects the red flag on 25 February 1848.

It's a word we throw around a lot... but what do we actually mean? Lamartine in front of the Town Hall of Paris rejects the red flag on 25 February 1848.

Killed on this day in 1919, Zapata's radical legacy lives on...“Little star in the nightthat rides the sky like a witch,where is our chief Zapatawho was the scourge of the rich?" - Mexican BalladEmiliano Zapata, the Mexican revolutionary hero, was assassinated today in 1919.Alongside the likes of and , he symbolises the revolutionary tradition in Latin America.

How one man led a ship of black slaves into freedom... The Underground Railroad shuttled countless enslaved black people out of the South during the mid-19th century, but it was not the only way to freedom.

On this day in 1820, a Radical Insurrection swept across ScotlandWhen the Napoleonic Wars came to an end in 1815, Radical politics was at a low ebb across the British Isles.

Elected to the British Parliament in 1922, Saklatvala was born on this day in 1874 What is it that connects Battersea in South London, the Indian corporate giant Tata Steel, and the Communist Party of Great Britain?