Radical History Blog

Born on this day in 1926, Joe Slovo was a key player in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa “No matter what vision one has of South Africa, the first thing that must be done is to destroy racism.” Joe Slovo was born today in 1926, in Obeliai, in Lithuania.

Born in Wales on this day in 1771, Robert Owen took socialism to the United States “…the present arrangement of society is the most anti-social, impolitic, and irrational that can be devised…” The relationship between Wales and America has been in the news during the last few years thanks to the high-profile takeover of Wrexham football club by Hollywood stars Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds.

On this day in 1970, the National Guard opened fire on students protesting the Vietnam War The U.S. government was wrong to think that its war in Vietnam wouldn’t cause trouble at home.

Robert Tressell's great novel was a battle cry against a capitalist system based on exploitation and inequality Today marks 110 years since Robert Tressell's The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists was first published.

In eighteenth century Jamaica, Queen Nanny led liberated slaves in a guerrilla war against the British Empire Resistance can take many forms.

Enrique and Ricardo Flores Magón denounced the Díaz dictatorship and fought for revolution We are free, truly free, when we don’t need to rent our arms to anybody in order to be able to lift a piece of bread to our mouths.

Pasquale Paoli isn't a household name, but he was one of the greatest revolutionaries in European history Long before he became a famous general and declared himself Emperor of France, Napoleon Bonaparte thought of himself as a popular revolutionary.

Robert Frost may not have been a radical person, but his poetry is nevertheless part of radical history "I’d like to get away from earth awhile And then come back to it and begin over." Words have a funny and often mischievous place in radical history.

A shopworker from Somerset was radicalised to join a Labour governmentMargaret Bondfield in 1919 "I had no vocation for wifehood or motherhood, but an urge to serve the Union." Margaret ‘Maggie’ Bondfield was the first woman to become a cabinet minister in British history.

The Spanish Revolution of 1820 sought to re-establish an earlier radical liberal democratic experiment Francisco Goya's El Tres de Mayo commemorating the Spanish resistance to Napoleon Revolutions rarely move in a straight line.