Online talk 'The nurse who became a spy: Madge Addy's war against fascism in Spain and France'
This Wednesday, 2 March at 2pm we welcome Chris Hall to speak on his new book The nurse who became a spy, about the remarkable Nurse Addy, who fought fascism in Spain and France 1937-1944. He will tell us about the life of Manchester's Madge Addy and how a truly international effort led to the uncovering of her hidden life story.
For logistical reasons this free Invisible Histories talk will run online only. Please click on the link below shortly before 2pm on Wednesday:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88079112894?pwd=VTcxMWJYYlphRUlPT0ZZUktCTlNhUT09
Or use:
Meeting ID: 880 7911 2894
Passcode: 133827
The last talk in the current series sees us mark International Women's Day; this 9 March talk will be live-streamed and also be available to a live audience in our annexe. We welcome Joanna Williams whose topic is 'The great Miss Lydia Becker'.
Then on Wednesday 23 March at 2pm we have a musical treat in store as Johnny Campbell sings Winter Hill Trespass - more at www.wcml.org.uk/events.
Guest exhibition, Working class readers in Victorian Manchester & Salford
A reminder that we have a new exhibition running, organised in partnership with the Piston, Pen & Press project, which tells the story of how working class readers in Victorian Manchester and Salford got hold of reading material. It explores both the range of institutions open to working class readers and the motivations behind their creation.
Alongside the exhibition boards created by the Piston Pen & Press project the Library is displaying related material from its own collections, including items with links to mechanics’ institutes and to the temperance movement. There are also examples from the Library’s huge range of material on the broader topic of working class adult education, from the 19th century to the present day.
The exhibition is viewable on Friday afternoons, while the Library is open to drop-in visitors. Admission is free.
Two of our recent online talks developed the theme of this exhibition, and recordings of these can be viewed online at www.youtube.com/wcmlibrary/videos.
Trespassers will be celebrated - marking the anniversary of the Mass Trespass
April 2022 sees the 90th Anniversary of the Mass Trespass on Kinder Scout, the highest moorland plateau in the Peak District. It was organised by the Lancashire region of the British Workers’ Sports Federation and has become an iconic day of direct action in the long – and still ongoing – struggles and campaigns for popular access to open countryside.
To celebrate this anniversary, WCML is hosting a symposium on the 'Red' politics of the Mass Trespass in the 1930s and its resonance and legacy for the 'Green' politics of the climate emergency of the 2020s. This will take place on Thursday 21 April from 7 to 9pm, at The Eagle Inn, 19 Collier Street, Salford M3 7DW, and will also be live-streamed. Free tickets will be available shortly for those who wish to attend in person.
The symposium will be led by a panel of current and former activists and researchers familiar with the historic politics of land ownership and landscape belonging, and the contemporary politics of land and climate justice.
More details will follow - in the meantime, please save the date in your diaries!
Sing PoliticalFurther to our talk last week on street ballads' role in working people's enfranchisement (a recording of which can been watched at https://youtu.be/06yv-mq1cok), we have been contacted by folk from a current initiative set up from Birmingham but now on Zoom. They say: 'Once a month we run “Sing Political”, a session where people sing and share political songs, some from the days of the broadside ballads, some newly written for today, and everything in between. There’s some info on the Sing Political Facebook page, and emails are sent out each month giving the link for the Zoom meeting - the next one will be on 9 March. Anyone can sign up for our emails from our web page tradartsteam.co.uk, and we also publish many songs online, with tunes and links to performances, at https://www.tradartsteam.co.uk/Political-Songster.html'.
Help sought researching British soldier in wartime GreeceWe have had a request from a Greek educator and journalist, Panagiotis Zavoudakis, who is researching the life of a former soldier, Colin Wright, who served with the British army in Greece from 1944 to 1945. Wright wrote about his experiences in a book called British soldier in Greece, which was published in 1946 by Lawrence & Wishart. In the book Wright is supportive of the Greek resistance organisation, EAM, and is highly critical of Churchill’s wartime policy in Greece.
Zavoudakis has translated the book into Greek and has been searching for biographical information about Wright. All that is known is that he was born in 1904, was married and had children. He served in the army for four years, first being sent to Italy and then moved with his unit to Greece. In Athens – which he compared to Edinburgh, perhaps indicating that he may have lived in Scotland’s capital – he worked on a newspaper for the British forces in Greece and was not involved in military action. He may have once belonged to the Scottish Workers Party, from a phrase in the book about “joining the Scottish”.
Any suggestions or assistance can be sent to Panagiotis at panzavoudakis@gmail.com.