Shirin Hirsch

Shirin Hirsch

@shirinhirsch.bsky.social

Anti racist historian. Views my own

1,375 Followers 368 Following 103 Posts Joined Nov 2024
4 days ago
Image of article abstract. Title: Thatcherism and the picket line.

Abstract:

This article explores the relationship between Thatcherism and the picket line. The picket line in late twentieth-century Britain was a space in which ideologies were directly contested, and the power of law, police, courts and trade unionism came into conflict. Reshaping picketing was essential to Thatcherism’s broader goal to restructure industrial relations. The paper first considers the new picketing regulations of the 1980s, focusing on how these directly responded to the often effective strike tactics of the 1970s. The new rules, however, were ignored in several major industrial disputes. The second part of the article shows how the picketing regulations were reinforced in the face of this challenge by intensive state, court and employer action, resistance to which was weakened by the labour movement’s internal divisions. As a result, the third section demonstrates how the new industrial relations regime came to be largely internalised by trade unions and their members in the 1990s. By the end of this period, the picket line had been transformed profoundly, becoming typically smaller, less mobile and more orderly. The history of picketing centres Thatcherism as a political project that used state power to reconfigure industrial relations in Britain, transforming the legal landscape within which trade unions operated and the broader cultural norms in which the power of picket lines was ultimately rooted. It emphasises that the weakening of workers as collective agents was a central, broadly coherent and, in many ways, successful feature of Thatcherism.

New article in English Historical Review (@enghistrev.bsky.social) on 'Thatcherism & the Picket Line'. Looks at relationship between picketing & Conservatives esp. in 1980s, but also the legacy into the 1990s. Of relevance, I think, to upcoming Orgreave inquiry.

academic.oup.com/ehr/advance-...

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1 month ago

Any recommendations for a general and good introduction to the origins and early history of Apartheid in South Africa?

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1 month ago

Congratulations, it looks brilliant!

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1 month ago
Writers Archive: George Padmore

Also shout out to the comrades who have made his writing accessible for future generations www.marxists.org/archive/padm...

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1 month ago
Photograph of George Padmore reading a newspaper

Reading the work of George Padmore for the first time. What searing, powerful and relentless writing exposing the horrors of colonialism and still so relevant today.

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1 month ago
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Hello, I have a new book out in the spring with Picador and I would love it if you could help me spread the word.

IF WE TOLERATE THIS draws on years of work, to help readers understand why British politics is hurtling rightwards and what to do about it.

Pre-orders: uk.bookshop.org/p/books/if-w...

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1 month ago
Photograph of Leon Trotsky

Simon Guttmann was mentor to many photographers, but my favourite story is Guttmann in 1932 sending a young Hungarian photographer Endre Ernö Friedmann to Copenahgen to photograph Trotsky in exile. Four years later he would be famous under the name Robert Capa jacobslibris.uk/2024/12/10/w...

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1 month ago
Lino print of Simon Guttman Photograph of woman sitting on chair and text under reads 'Tante Lotte, 1955' Photograph of Guttmann holding a series of photographs

Fam shared photo of German Jewish great aunt Lotte (Lucie) Guttmann. Ancestry dig we find her son Wilhelm Simon Guttmann revolutionary, friend of Walter Benjamin,early visitor to Soviet Russia,pioneer of photojournalism. Escaping Germany,he settled in UK worked on Picture Post before founding Report

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1 month ago
Quote from Professor Nicola Ranger, RCN General Secretary & Chief Executive, that says: "Nursing is a global family, and Alex Pretti’s death in such violent circumstances will be felt deeply. Those who join our profession do so because they are compassionate, and driven by an unrivalled commitment to public service."

We send our support to Alex Pretti's family and loved ones, and the global nursing community which has lost a devoted member. No matter where they are in the world, they - and the people they serve - deserve to be safe, both at work and in their communities.

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1 month ago
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400 jobs at risk. A campus set to close.

This film explains what’s happening at the University of Essex and why staff, students and the local community are organising to stop it.

📍 Southend rally | 5 February

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1 month ago
Preview
Israeli Strikes in Gaza Kill 11, Including Three Journalists

let's check in on that 'ceasefire'

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1 month ago
YouTube
Lambeth - "No Colour Bar" Dance (1955) YouTube video by British Pathé

No colour bar dance, 1955 www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HNl...

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4 months ago
Preview
CfP: The British General Strike of 1926: New Directions of Research To commemorate the centenary of the British General Strike and miners’ lock-out, Newcastle University’s Labour & Society Research Group (LSRG) is organising a conference that revisits the…

CfP: The British General Strike of 1926: New Directions of Research, 7-8 May 2026 @newcastleuni.bsky.social
Deadline: 6 February 2026

More details:
@sslh.bsky.social

sslh.org.uk/2025/10/13/c...

sslh.org.uk/wp-content/u...
Kindly supported by @leverhulme.ac.uk

#GeneralStrike1926 #GeneralStrike100

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3 months ago

www.wolverhamptonart.org.uk/whats-on/man...

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3 months ago
YouTube
Many rivers to cross - Jimmy Cliff YouTube video by TheSunAnge

Jimmy Cliff was touring the clubs of Wolverhampton in the year Enoch Powell made his Rivers of Blood speech. 50 years later artists Anand Chhabra, Jagdish Patel and Vanley Burke responded with the exhibition Many Rivers to Cross, the title of Cliff's 1969 track. RIP www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y9Q...

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3 months ago
Preview
Elspeth King obituary Museum director and curator of the People’s Palace in Glasgow who reshaped it into a living record of the city’s social history

I was reading about Elspeth King in Alasdair Gray's Poor Things - she features in the introduction. What a wonderful life www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

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4 months ago

Our two year old twin just said ‘he misses his mummy’ and the other explained ‘but he has balloon’ 🥹🥹🥹

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4 months ago

Sunday afternoon watching Up - what a great film 🎈 ❤️

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4 months ago

I’m in this piece talking about the Manchester links with the fifth Pan African Congress…

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4 months ago

Great news, congratulations!

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5 months ago

Last few tickets for this, next Friday!

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5 months ago

‘Would you let your daughter marry Enoch Powell?’ 😝 🥰

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5 months ago
Archives in Solidarity - People's History Museum

Beforehand there will also be a range of Manchester archives showcasing material documenting the Pan African Congress - free event but book tickets here phm.org.uk/events_new/a...

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5 months ago
What Peace? Whose Freedom? with Gary Younge - People's History Museum

This should be a great lecture @phm.org.uk to mark the 80th anniversary of the Fifth Pan African Congress with the wonderful Gary Younge. Tickets going fast here phm.org.uk/events_new/w...

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5 months ago

A brilliant first published journal article by Mohammed Khan, on an Indian Seamen’s Home in 1940s Liverpool - well worth a read! www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

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5 months ago

A ‘wake up call’ seems right way of putting it for our side. Majority in London surely horrified at what just took place.

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5 months ago

On the Tommy Robinson march… On the tram today and a man flicking through his Fb turns to his partner says ‘look Steve was on the march for common sense’, the tram passenger clicks ‘like’ and scrolls on. Huge potential for fascists to broaden and deepen their base further after yesterday

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6 months ago

Ten to one on Burnham as next Labour leader, pretty good odds right now...

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7 months ago

Thanks Catherine - be good to chat Henry :)

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7 months ago
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We are proud to announce that South Asian Britain: Connecting Histories, a landmark educational website on the histories of South Asians in Britain, is now live!

Visit southasianbritain.org

@qmul.bsky.social @bristoluni.bsky.social @britishlibrary.bsky.social #AHRC @uobartsmatter.bsky.social

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