Owen Dowling
LightNews LightNews
banner
owenjdowling.bsky.social
Owen Dowling
@owenjdowling.bsky.social
330 followers 400 following 10 posts
PhD @camhistory.bsky.social | International solidarity campaigns and the British left, 1960-1990 | Words in Tribune and Jacobin
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
owenjdowling.bsky.social
Owen Dowling @owenjdowling.bsky.social · Jan 23
CALL FOR INTERVIEWEES
I'm looking to conduct research interviews with people who were involved in Anti-Apartheid, anti-Vietnam War, &/or Chile solidarity politics in Britain, for my PhD on international solidarity & the Cold War-era UK left (see below).
PLEASE SHARE/get in touch!
Reposted by Owen Dowling
mrcwarwick.bsky.social
#CfP Call for Papers

Organised by Global History and Culture Centre, University of Warwick:

Between Thompson and the Global: Reflections on Labour History Today

Workshop: 26-27 June 2026, University of Warwick

Deadline for abstracts: 30 January 2026

Submit to [email protected]
Between Thompson and the Global: Reflections on Labour History Today We invite papers for a workshop entitled “Between Thompson and the Global: Rethinking Labour History Today”, to be held at the University of Warwick on 26-27 June 2026. This workshop will seek to bring together historians of labour to collectively reflect on a large historiographical shift that has taken place over the last two decades, from the social history of labour (in national contexts) to global and trans-national labour history. The social history of labour “from below” is a tradition initiated by E.P Thompson’s The Making of the English Working Class (1963), and extended over several decades by a robust tradition of politically engaged left-wing historical studies of the working classes: a tradition most powerfully entrenched in British historiography (but with many imprints elsewhere, ranging from the United States to Brazil to South Africa to India). The global history of labour, which revised and questioned many of the features of “Thompsonian” history-writing, has sought to overcome “methodological nationalism” in the writing of labour history, to investigate specific labour histories within a global frame, and to enable trans-national histories of workers and work. It has emerged as an increasingly dominant frame of reference for contemporary studies of labour around the world. This workshop seeks to place these two historiographical traditions in conversation with each other, to examine the stakes of the passage from the older, “Thompsonian” tradition to the “global turn”, and to think about the changed meanings of “doing labour history” today. Participants are urged to explicitly reflect on the methodological and conceptual issues at stake in the practice of labour history. We would like to invite submissions that address (but are not necessarily limited to) the following themes: 1. To what extent has the global labour history tradition that has flourished over the last 20 years drawn upon or rejected the methodological and conceptual approaches of Thompsonian social/labour history? What other methodologies and concepts have been deployed and proven fruitful? 2. How do we address the burgeoning critique of Thompsonian social/labour history as parochial and Anglocentric (Bressey, 2015; Satia, 2020), and how have historians responded to this challenge and reshaped British labour history accordingly? What can historians of British labour learn from broader global trajectories of workforce formation and labour movements? 3. How might integrating histories of consumption, environment, and reproduction enrich our understanding of labour and its global entanglements? 4. In what ways can collaboration between historians of Britain and the global south generate new analytical frameworks or unsettle established narratives of class, race, and empire? 5. What kinds of politically-engaged global social and labour history can best respond to the contemporary challenges of rising global inequality and the appropriation of class politics by some sections of the populist right? 6. The legitimacy of 'radical' forms of labour-history writing initially arose from politics, from the apparently established centrality of the industrial working class both in society and in projects of social emancipation. That centrality has now been in precipitous decline for a long time. In this context, how might we think about what the ‘politics of doing labour history’ actually implies today? 7. What has been gained and what has been lost in the shift from a labour history dominated by “history from below” to one dominated by global history? Please send abstracts to globalhistory@warwick.ac.uk
December 8, 2025 at 10:41 AM
owenjdowling.bsky.social
If you're at Historical Materialism this week, I'll be talking about my new chapter, 'British Marxism and the Coup in Chile' + chairing the launch event for our book, 'In Solidarity, Under Suspicious: the British Far Left from 1956' - Saturday, 10-11.45, Birkbeck.

Please do come along!
November 7, 2025 at 10:37 AM
Reposted by Owen Dowling
parrconnal.bsky.social
My book about the Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement is published in October. Hope people find it relevant and a good read.
global.oup.com/academic/pro...
July 8, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Reposted by Owen Dowling
flyingrodent.bsky.social
2021 vs 2025 here, and I do kind of admire how insulting it all is. Nobody gives a damn any more about being convincing or putting on a decent show, it’s all just half-arsing it all the way every day.
Labour's Rachel Reeves on why 'Red Tory' jibes hurt "If Rachel went, who would you put in her place?" says one Labour official. To the question of whether Starmer would then have to appoint someone even more rightwing to placate the City, the official shot back: "There is nobody more rightwing than Rachel." Elected MP for Leeds West in 2010, Reeves refused to serve in the shadow cabinet of leftwinger Jeremy Corbyn when he became leader. She and Ellie fought fierce battles with the Labour left, who claimed the sisters were not proper socialists.
July 6, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Reposted by Owen Dowling
evansmithhist.bsky.social
Our new volume 'In Solidarity, Under Suspicion: The British Far Left from 1956', co-edited with Daniel Frost, is now available for pre-order from @manchesterup.bsky.social.

Hardback is out Nov 2025, with a paperback edition to follow in 2026-27.

manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526179593/
Manchester University Press - In solidarity, under suspicion
In solidarity, under suspicion - Browse and buy the Hardcover edition of In solidarity, under suspicion by Daniel Frost
manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
March 12, 2025 at 7:43 AM
Reposted by Owen Dowling
evansmithhist.bsky.social
Proofs and index submitted!
Proof title page of 'In Solidarity, Under Suspicion: The British Far Left from 1956' edited by Daniel Frost and Evan Smith (Manchester University Press, 2025)
June 17, 2025 at 3:15 AM
Reposted by Owen Dowling
kieranhurley.bsky.social
These people have to account for the deep hatred and revulsion they feel when watching others act out of sincerity, courage and compassion. It threatens and bewilders them, so they must explain it away as something they recognise and understand: moral vapidity and self-absorption
Jonathan Sacerdoti: Greta Thunberg should thank Israel for intercepting her Gaza selfie ship Brendan O'Neill: Greta Thunberg’s narcissism has escalated to terrifying levels This is a self-serving stunt masquerading as a daring act of charity Julie Burchill: Greta Thunberg’s pathetic Gaza voyage Suzanne Moore: Left-wing activists like Greta Thunberg care more about fame than facts Her vacuous Gaza ‘mission’ is typical of the way selfie-obsessed protesters flit from one cause to another without studying the detail
June 9, 2025 at 7:26 PM
owenjdowling.bsky.social
Really enjoyed presenting my research paper, 'Anti-Apartheid in Britain: From Classical Anti-Colonialism to the New Anti-Imperialism, 1960-1975', at Friday's 'Investigating Anti-Apartheid Networks' workshop. Thanks so much to
Connal Parr & @padraigdurnin.bsky.social for the invitation!
May 13, 2025 at 12:38 PM
Reposted by Owen Dowling
owenjdowling.bsky.social
I've reviewed Brigitte Studer's masterful recent history of the Comintern and the "professional revolutionaries" who dedicated their lives to its service, 'Travellers Of The World Revolution' (@versobooks.bsky.social) for @jacobinmag.bsky.social.

jacobin.com/2025/02/comi...
The Communist International’s Failure Still Haunts the Left
Although it ended in tragic defeat, the Communist International was one of the most ambitious exercises in transnational political activism ever conceived. Its rise and fall gives us a crucial window ...
jacobin.com
February 21, 2025 at 12:03 PM
owenjdowling.bsky.social
I've reviewed Brigitte Studer's masterful recent history of the Comintern and the "professional revolutionaries" who dedicated their lives to its service, 'Travellers Of The World Revolution' (@versobooks.bsky.social) for @jacobinmag.bsky.social.

jacobin.com/2025/02/comi...
The Communist International’s Failure Still Haunts the Left
Although it ended in tragic defeat, the Communist International was one of the most ambitious exercises in transnational political activism ever conceived. Its rise and fall gives us a crucial window ...
jacobin.com
February 21, 2025 at 12:03 PM
owenjdowling.bsky.social
CALL FOR INTERVIEWEES
I'm looking to conduct research interviews with people who were involved in Anti-Apartheid, anti-Vietnam War, &/or Chile solidarity politics in Britain, for my PhD on international solidarity & the Cold War-era UK left (see below).
PLEASE SHARE/get in touch!
January 23, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Reposted by Owen Dowling
tribunemagazine.bsky.social
Ofer Cassif — currently suspended from the Knesset for opposing genocide in Gaza — discusses Israel’s descent into fascism, building the movement that can defeat Netanyahu, and why he will never give up the fight for Palestinian freedom.
Anti-Zionist Israeli MP: ‘I Will Never Surrender’
Ofer Cassif — currently suspended from the Knesset for opposing genocide in Gaza — discusses Israel’s descent into fascism, building the movement that can defeat Netanyahu, and why he will never give ...
tribunemag.co.uk
November 28, 2024 at 11:44 AM