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Reposted by Patrick WJ Thompson

Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick @mrcwarwick.bsky.social · 6d

In 1968, against the backdrop of the Race Relations Act and Powell's 'Rivers of Blood' speech, local Birmingham groups campaigned against racism and in support of civil rights

The archives of activist Margaret Stanton capture some of the grassroots activities mrc-describe.epexio.com/records/MSP/...

Ticket for the inaugural meeting of the Birmingham Area Civil Rights Campaign.

Photograph from the Birmingham Post, 6 May 1968, captioned 'A grim struggle for the police as they link arms to hold back the large crowd of demonstrators in Victoria Square, Birmingham, yesterday during the Prime Minister's visit'. The most visible placard says 'Would you let your daughter marry Enoch Powell'.

Letter sent to newspaper editors in August 1968 by the Birmingham Committee of the International Year for Human Rights. It deplores "the recent recommendations of the Birmingham City Council that all immigration into the city should be stopped, and we affirm that this policy is both morally wrong, and unworkable in practise. We remind the Council that the prosperity of this great city has been built on a long tradition of welcoming immigrants of all races. ... The proud motto of Birmingham is "Forward". Let the Council abandon its present backward-looking policy, and go forward to lead the nation in creating a society in which all races can work together in harmony."

Circular issued by the Birmingham Area Civil Rights Campaign Steering Group in 1968. It identifies four main fields of activity for the newly formed Birmingham Area Civil Rights Campaign: education, research, community action and political activity.

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Caitríona Beaumont @caitbeaumont.bsky.social · 6d

Very excited launch of #Saothar50 is today 🥳 🥳. Looking forward to attending later as part of #DublinFestivalHistory & being in fab company of @drmarymcauliffe.bsky.social @sonjatiernan.bsky.social @fionnualawalsh.bsky.social @helenbeaumont.bsky.social. Hope to get quick 🌊🏊‍♀️ in as well 🥶. ❤️Dublin.

Caitríona Beaumont @caitbeaumont.bsky.social · 14d

So grateful to @sonjatiernan.bsky.social & editors of #Saothar50 for opportunity to write on Irish housewives. By mad coincidence my ma was interviewed about her everyday experiences in 1968 & that features in my new article. #familyhistory #femaleactivism
dublinfestivalofhistory.ie/event/specia...

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David Klemperer @dmk1793.bsky.social · 7d

I enormously enjoyed this conversation with David Runciman about the history of compulsory voting, how it came to be adopted in countries like Belgium and Australia, and what it could for British politics today.

Past Present Future Podcast @ppfideas.bsky.social · 7d

NEW EPISODE OUT NOW!

In today’s episode David talks to political historian @dmk1793.bsky.social about whether voting should be required by law and what might change if non-participation was no longer an option. Why have some countries made voting compulsory?

Find us at...🎧 ppfideas.com

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Patrick WJ Thompson @patrickwjthompson.bsky.social · 29d

Delighted to be on the @ihr.bsky.social / @ihrbritainseminar.bsky.social seminar programme for this autumn!

Come and hear me talk about my work on Britain and the NI Civil Rights Movement on 20th November. Or join online via Teams.

More details here 👇

www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

‘Out of sight and out of mind?’: British Perceptions of the Northern Irish Civil Rights Movement

www.history.ac.uk

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Reposted by Patrick WJ Thompson

Renewal @renewaljournal.bsky.social · 29d

NEW ISSUE: Renewal Vol. 33 No. 2

Published amidst far-right mobilisation and a Reform surge, the new issue of Renewal (guest co-edited by @sachahilhorst.bsky.social) features activists, journalists, and academics analysing the radical right threat and debating how social democrats can respond

Volume 33, Issue 2

A quarterly journal of politics and ideas, committed to exploring and expanding the radical potential of social democracy.

renewal.org.uk

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Patrick WJ Thompson @patrickwjthompson.bsky.social · 29d

Delighted to be on the @ihr.bsky.social / @ihrbritainseminar.bsky.social seminar programme for this autumn!

Come and hear me talk about my work on Britain and the NI Civil Rights Movement on 20th November. Or join online via Teams.

More details here 👇

www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

‘Out of sight and out of mind?’: British Perceptions of the Northern Irish Civil Rights Movement

www.history.ac.uk

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Patrick WJ Thompson @patrickwjthompson.bsky.social · Sep 13

Classism aside...Scotland is famously a country that has never produced any literature. Just football. Apparently.

Patrick WJ Thompson @patrickwjthompson.bsky.social · Sep 12

Presumably, votes at 16 will add a further level of unpredictability into the mix for 2029.

Rob Ford @robfordmancs.bsky.social · Sep 12

In other words, what's happening now is unprecedented in universal franchise Westminster elections. First past the post breaks down entirely in these circumstances. Voters already know this - support for reform to the Westminster electoral system is higher now than it has ever been before

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Patrick WJ Thompson @patrickwjthompson.bsky.social · Sep 10

A clear and authoritative rebuttal from @alanlester.bsky.social here, that's worth reading for anyone working on subjects that might become fodder for dubious public commentary...

Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · Sep 10

Clue to help spot the difference between serious historical writing and historical propaganda: Is the author a specialist historian or a non-specialist connected with think tanks & lobbying companies?

alanlester.co.uk/blog/accusat...

Accusation in the Mirror? Distinguishing Scholarship From Propaganda

Alan Lester The Truth About Empire, a collection of essays for a public readership by fourteen leading historians of British colonialism that I edited and introduced, was the subject of Alexander M…

alanlester.co.uk

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Alex Hanna-ween @alexhanna.bsky.social · Sep 8

Something I see often in defenders of "AI" in the classroom (especially those who discuss "responsible" uses) is that, in using LLMs and then "critiquing" its output, we can then teach students to become more AI literate.

This irks me to no end.

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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · Sep 8

‘As hereditarian thinking began to spread across the medical profession in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, anxieties emerged about the “feeble-minded” passing on their “defects” to future generations.’

Richard J. Evans on German eugenics before and after Nazism
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Richard J. Evans · Alien to the Community: Eugenics in Germany

In Hitler’s mind, eugenics was part of Germany’s long-term preparation for victory in the struggle between races....

www.lrb.co.uk

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Dave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · Sep 8

The broadsheet commentariat continue to be the most toxic and least accountable section of the body politic. They’re just paid to tell vicious lies with absolutely no personal consequences, ever.

Jonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · Sep 8

Unpleasant, ignorant and error-ridden rubbish from Jenni Russell in the Times, arguing for the "remigration" agenda of Jenrick/Lowe

Below quotes nonsense numbers from the Centre for Policy studies that the CPS has itself admitted are fictional..

archive.ph/S6YuV

his February, the Centre for Policy Studies used OBR figures and ONS data to calculate the likely effect. More than two million people will qualify for ILR over the next four years. The CPS reckons 800,000 will settle, at a rate of 624 a day by 2028. At a conservative estimate the net cost to the Treasury over this cohort’s lifetimes will reach £234 billion, or £8,200 for each household in Britain.

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Patrick WJ Thompson @patrickwjthompson.bsky.social · Sep 4

Out and about at the moment, so can't double check for sure, but think there might be some answers in the 'Citizenship on the ethnic frontier' chapter here - www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv...

Enfranchising Ireland?: Identity, citizenship and state on JSTOR

The rights and duties associated with the concept of citizenship are a central aspect of the process of identity-building and state formation. This book explore...

www.jstor.org

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Sophie Cooper @sophcocooper.bsky.social · Sep 4

A reminder that this @historylabplus.bsky.social event is coming up @qubhistory.bsky.social on Thursday 25 September. If you know any final year History PhDs, recent PhD graduates, or postdocs who want to join us in Belfast, please spread the word!

www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

HL+ Network Northern Ireland 2025

www.history.ac.uk

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Patrick WJ Thompson @patrickwjthompson.bsky.social · Sep 4

A mid-week plug for my recent article in 'Transactions of the Royal Historical Society' (@royalhistsoc.org) examining the influence of the Campaign for Democracy in Ulster and its role in 'parliamentary activism' 📝

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Parliamentary Activism? Northern Irish Civil Rights and the Campaign for Democracy in Ulster | Transactions of the Royal Historical Society | Cambridge Core

Parliamentary Activism? Northern Irish Civil Rights and the Campaign for Democracy in Ulster

www.cambridge.org

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Daniel Trilling @trillingual.bsky.social · Aug 27

Regardless of whether Reform's deportation plan "works", if they get a chance to try it - like the Tories' Rwanda policy, or Trump's deportations - it will ostentatiously torment thousands of people and further engrain racism in British politics. It must be opposed on that basis.

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Paul Collins @paulcollins.bsky.social · Aug 27

The daughters of Hermann Göring's aide - who refused for years to talk with art-theft investigators - put their home in Argentina up for sale, and GUESS WHAT.

Old master painting looted by Nazis spotted in Argentinian property listing

Dutch newspaper AD says it has traced Giuseppe Ghislandi’s Portrait of a Lady to house near Buenos Aires

www.theguardian.com

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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · Aug 22

Members of my family were tortured and killed in the Holocaust because countries like Britain said it wasn't their problem. Everyone said never again. And here we are. It's sickening beyond belief.

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Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · Aug 21

think that if "we must debate the fascists not no-platform them!" is your view then we have probably reached the stage, globally, where you may wish to wonder if your preferred way of doing things is actually working

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Musa Okwonga @okwonga.bsky.social · Aug 20

Family in fear after Tommy Robinson shares video of black man with white granddaughters.

Exclusive: Olajuwon Ayeni racially abused and falsely labelled a paedophile as far right weaponises clip of family in park

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

Family in fear after Tommy Robinson shares video of black man with white granddaughters

Exclusive: Olajuwon Ayeni racially abused and falsely labelled a paedophile as far right weaponises clip of family in park

www.theguardian.com

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Patrick WJ Thompson @patrickwjthompson.bsky.social · Aug 15

Spend some time at @ulstermuseum.org yesterday, taking in Akihiko Okamura's stunning photos from the early years of the Troubles. They offer a fascinating alternative perspective on some key moments during the civil rights era, in particular.

www.ulstermuseum.org/whats-on/aki...

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Tom Hulme @tomhulme.bsky.social · Aug 15

The 2nd Lurgan Pride is tomorow. A relatively small town, it experienced a 1950s show trial so bad it shocked homophile activists in Britain. That event is now forgotten but we should think about the long ramifications of the virulently homophobic postwar years. www.irishnews.com/news/norther...

The long battle for equality: Northern Ireland’s LGBTQ+ history

The Ulster Museum is taking significant steps to integrate LGBTQ+ history into its broader historical exhibits

www.irishnews.com

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History Workshop @historyworkshop.org.uk · Aug 14

OTD 1791, the Haitian Revolution began. By 1793, slavery had been abolished in this French colonial island.

From 2020, after the toppling of the Colston statue in Bristol, Diana Paton on why slavery was more often abolished through violence than reform:

Proper Channels

How did Atlantic slavery end? Diana Paton argues that erasing the Haitian Revolution preserves the fiction that Britain is and was a progressive outlier in relation to race and racism

www.historyworkshop.org.uk

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Royal Historical Society @royalhistsoc.org · Aug 12

New in 'Transactions of the Royal Historical Society':

'Parliamentary Activism? Northern Irish Civil Rights and the Campaign for Democracy in Ulster', by Patrick Thompson bit.ly/4mnLv6Y

Patrick's article charts the role of the Campaign for Democracy in Ulster in relations with Westminster, 1/2

Front page of 'Parliamentary Activism? Northern Irish Civil Rights and the Campaign for Democracy in Ulster' in TRHS, by Patrick Thompson.

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