With my immune system becoming increasingly at risk of catching infections I can no longer attend meetings or restaurants, cinemas, events or travel by public transport. I am therefore unable to run bookstalls for the time being and have stood down as Secretary of the Croydon Unite Retired Members Branch. I have had to decline leading a walk on slavery and abolition in Durham on 18 October, and pull out of delivering a paper on friendly societies at the One Name Guild conference in Wakefield on 20 October. My talk is to be recorded and played at it. As I was not in any case able to go to Canada for the Black History Conference at Dalhousie University being held at the same time I have submitted a background paper on Black British and Canadian history for use by the delegates.
Black History Month
For details, inc. BHM Magazine and Black Sisters see
Black Victorians
York University
https://www.york.ac.uk/about/equality/news-events/2023/bhm/
North East
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/departmentofhistorydurhamuniversity/1029208
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-67010533
The Somerset Case
Wednesday 18 October 2023. 5.30-7.00 p.m. Professor Simon P. Newman on ‘With a View to Gain His Freedom’: Freedom Seekers and The End of Slavery in Britain’. On line:
If you wish to attend in person, please email wilberforce@hull.ac.uk
Simon P. Newman is the author of Freedom Seekers: Escaping from Slavery in Restoration London, University of London Press (2022), which is available on Open Access.
Croydon Events
Monday 16 October. 8pm. Croydon Amnesty open meeting with speaker on the curtailment of trade union rights in the UK. All welcome. Free. Ruskin House.
Monday 30 October. 12.30pm. Violence Against Women
Croydon Police event at Croydon Voluntary Action (CVA), 82 London Road, Croydon, CR0 2TB. A light lunch will be provided. Please register your attendance below. https://eventbrite.co.uk/e/vawg-action-plan-meeting-croydon-tickets-732795108897
https://www.croydonites.com/so/30OijPOcx
Tayo Aluko Events
20 October, Liverpool: Just An Ordinary Lawyer@ St. George’s Hall
25 October, Liverpool: Words Behind 4Wings @10. Performance by 4Wings members and staff of a drama written by Tayo Aluko, inspired by stories shared by the women. St. George’s Hall.
26 October: Participant, Book Launch, Liverpool. Pastor Daniels Ekarte and the African Churches Mission. Liverpool, 1931-1964. Writing on the Wall BHM23
27 October, Bolton: This Little Light (A Paul Robeson presentation). Bolton Socialist Club
29 October, Faversham: Art As A Weapon – Some Pan-Africanist Examples. Faversham Guild Hall.
31 October, London: Just An Ordinary Lawyer. The Courtyard Theatre, Shoreditch, London.
7 November, Cambridgeshire: Call Mr. Robeson. St. Ives Library.
8 November, Cambridgeshire: Call Mr. Robeson. St. Neots Library.
10 November, online: Art As a Weapon – Some Pan-Africanist Examples. Yorkshire Festival of Story
A recording of Tayo’s George Taylor of Freetown can be seen at
Croydon News
Climate Action
https://www.croydonclimateaction.com/so/5aOiZSTDZ
Building Up To The General Election
With the Party Conferences over and the election stalls set out preparations continue by Labour and Tory to select their candidates for the new constituencies. Steve Read has already been imposed on the new North Croydon and Streatham by Labour, and Sarah Jones in Croydon West, the Tories have just selected Jason Cummings for Croydon East. (For background see Inside Croydon. 29 October). The Labour Conference is discussed by Croydon Labour member Andrew Fisher who concludes ‘While party conference started on a high, it has ended on a low – back in the moral depravity of the Blair years with a disregard for international law.’ (Inside Croydon. 12 October) At Conference is became clear that up to 60,000 people in Croydon could be denied their right to vote under new election ID rules. (Inside Croydon. 9 October)
The Croydon Knife Crime Crisis
There has been enormous media coverage on the Croydon knife crime crisis. South Norwood councillor Stella Nabukeera spoke about it at the Labour Party Conference. (Inside Croydon. 13 October). Hopefully the Safer Neighbourhood Board which meets on 26 October for the first time for many months will be discussing why all the efforts and money put into anti-knife crime work do not seem to be working. I have sent the senior officer organising the meeting the link to my comments back in 2018 – https://historyandsocialaction.blogspot.com/search?q=knife+crime
The Croydon Bus Shelter Scandal
Norbury Village Resident’s Association was to have a question answered on the bus shelter fiasco presented the Council meeting. The scandal is much bigger than NVRA thought as revealed by Inside Croydon (11 October) with a potential £0.5m loss to the Council. The Council explanation can be read at https://news.croydon.gov.uk/statement-on-bus-shelters-contract-with-valo-smart-city.
Incompetence at Croydon College and Whitgift Foundation
Its not just Croydon Council which is incompetent but also Croydon College which has been given an ‘inadequate assessment by OFSTED’ and 12 recommendations by a Government-appointed intervention team. (Inside Croydon. 10 October). Meanwhile it is clear that the Whitgift Foundation’s decision to close Old Palace Girls School is due to its loss of income from the Whitgift Centre development crisis. (Inside Croydon. 9 October) Meanwhile the Council has completed another meaningless tick box exercise – this time on equalities: https://news.croydon.gov.uk/croydon-commits-to-creating-a-fairer-borough/
History Miscellaneous
A Chain of Sympathy: Voluntary and Charitable Action in English Football,
1914-1918
Talk by Alexander Jackson, National Football Museum, for Voluntary Action History Society. This event will be both in-person and online. Register on the IHR website
Wandsworth Chronicles October
https://www.historyofwandsworthcommon.org/chronicles/10/10-2023-1.html
Croydon 500 Years Ago
David Morgan explains in Inside Croydon 8 October.
Labour Movement History
Full details at https://sslh.org.uk/
Saturday 28 October. ‘The Rising Sun of Socialism: The emergence of the Labour Movement in the textile district of the the West Riding of Yorkshire. c.1884–1914’. Professor Keith Laybourn is to deliver the second annual John L Halstead Memorial Lecture at the Marx Memorial Library, 37a Clerkenwell Green, London EC1R 0DU. Although entry is free, you need to reserve a place as numbers are limited by the size of the venue.
Trade unions and friendly society benefits in the UK and US at the turn of the 20th century.
History & Social Action News and Events 
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