Isabella Ford presentation now available

We were delighted that so many people turned out to hear June Hannam’s talk on Isabella Ford which was very informative and entertaining. June’s book on Isabella is no longer in print but she has shared her presentation with us which you can view below. If you prefer to download it click here.

Our next events:

April: Rock against Racism – a talk by Paul Furness

May: Centenary of the General strike – a guided walk around Leeds

September: The battle of Holbeck Moor – a meeting to celebrate Leeds’s antifascist history

Attendance of our public events are usually without charge, as is membership of the Society. However our work is financed solely by the contributions of our members and supporters. All donations are gratefully received. If you’re able to, please make a donation direct to our bank account.

Ford Maguire Society
Virgin Money
82-12-08
00184472

Please follow us on Facebook (Leeds Ford-Maguire Society)

For further information: Tony Maguire 079503647612

Isabella FordDownload

Celebrating Isabella Ford on International Women’s Day

1pm Sunday 8th March at the Hyde Park Book Club

27-29 Headingley Lane LS6 1BL

Speaker: June Hannam, Isabella’s biographer

The Ford Maguire Society (Leeds socialist and labour history) invites you to come and learn more about Isabella (1855-1924), internationally recognised Leeds socialist campaigner, suffragist and peace activist. For more information contact frances.jones@franjam.org.uk

Attendance of our public events are typically without charge, as is membership of the Society, However our work is financed solely by the contributions of our members and supporters. All donations are gratefully received.

A People’s History of the Anti-Nazi League by Geoff Brown

20th November 2025 7pm-8.30pm
Location: Swarthmore Centre (Room 3)
2-7 Woodhouse Square, Leeds, LS3 1AD

Written as a total history, from below and from above, using interviews, archives and private collections, the book covers the prehistory of the ANL, the Grunwick strike and the ‘Battle of Lewisham’, the ANL’s formation as a united front, its relationship to its sister organisation, Rock against Racism, the origins and impact of the April 1978 Carnival against the Nazis, turning the ANL into a mass organisation with a presence in schools, colleges, workplaces, unions, challenging every manifestation of a fascist presence. This included the campaign to reduce the fascist profile in the media, the ‘Battle of Brick Lane’, the struggle to win significant Jewish support, the general election of 1979, the breakup of the NF concluding with the 1980-1 relaunch of the ANL, the Leeds Carnival against Racism and the black and white youth anti police riots of July 1981 in Liverpool, Manchester and elsewhere.

Geoff Brown was active in the Vietnam Solidarity campaign and member of the Revolutionary Socialist Students Federation 1968-69, working with People’s Democracy in Belfast, August-September 1969, International Socialism member from 1971, Anti-Nazi League Manchester organiser, 1977-1979, helping with the Northern Carnival against the Nazis in Manchester, July 1978. Union tutor from 1979 working with union reps, preparing and delivering courses on many issues including courses in Pakistan and the former Soviet Union. Union secretary at the Manchester College of Arts & Technology till he was victimised for trade union activities 2004 after which he became an official for his union, UCU. Still active politically, now working as a historian, his publications include ‘Pakistan: failing state or neoliberalism in crisis?’ International Socialism 150, 2016, ‘John Tocher and the limits of commitment’, North West Labour History, 2018, ‘Not just Peterloo – The Anti-Apartheid march to the Springbok match, Old Trafford,’ Socialist History, Autumn 2019, ‘Apartheid is not a game’, Geoff Brown and Christian Høgsbjerg, Redwords, 2020. ‘Breaking the ‘colour bar: Len Johnson, Manchester and anti-racism’, Shirin Hirsch and Geoff Brown, Race & Class, 2022.

Click here for our future events

Talk By Kaynan Hudson On Poet, Trade Unionist And Socialist, Tom Maguire, 7.30pm Monday 15th September

A recent graduate of Leeds University, Kaynan, like Tom Maguire, is an East Leeds working class socialist of Irish descent, who has made a particular study of the career of Tom Maguire. Kaynan will explore the development of Maguire’s trade union and political career, his role in the seamstresses’ strike of 1869 and the successful gas workers’ struggle of 1870 and his part in the formation of the forerunner of the modern day Labour Party. Points of interest to Kaynan include:

  • How did a working class poet f’rom Leeds change British politics?
  • What does a 19th Century socialist teach us about Labour organisation today?
  • Why 30,000 workers took to Leeds streets in 1890

The talk will be in Room 3, Swarthmore Centre, Woodhouse Square, LS3 1AD Map teas and coffees will be provided.

Attendance of our public events are typically without charge, as is membership of the Society, However our work is financed solely by the contributions of our members and supporters. All donations are gratefully received.

Please follow us on Facebook (Leeds Ford-Maguire Society)

For further information: Tony Maguire 079503647612

Radical History Walk – Sunday 10th August, 1pm

We invite you to join us on a new guided tour of the City Centre to explore further hidden aspects of the radical history of Leeds. Your host, local activist, researcher and historian Shaun Cohen, will illuminate forgotten history of Leeds and some aspects not normally heard about:

  • We will walk in the steps of those that fought for the rights of children workers in the Victorian mills and fought for a 10 hour working day
  • We will explore the birth of the Socialist League Of William Morris, Eleanor Marx, et al
  • The extent Of socialists’ opposition to the Boer War
  • The history of the Chartists in Leeds
  • How did the Peterloo Massacre impact Leeds society?
  • Investigate unknown aspects of Anarchism in Leeds
  • When and why did Friedrich Engels visit Leeds?

These and many other unknowns will be illuminated by Shaun on his trip through Leeds, expected to last around 90 minutes. If you’ve enjoyed Shaun’s walk in the past, please come again as he has much new information to share.

We will start from Leeds Corn Exchange, LS1 7BR at 1pm Sunday 10th August.

This event is entirely free of charge, although all contributions to sustain the work of the Leeds Ford-Maguire Society are always very welcome!
More information: 07950 364761

Check our Upcoming Events page for future meetings

Unions’ Struggling with Computers: the multi-faceted relationship with computers in the 20th century 

Dr. Steve Walker will be talking about how trade unions have responded to and used computers from the 1950s to the present day.

Venue: The Hall, Swarthmore Centre, 2-7 Woodhouse Square, Leeds LS3 1AD
Date: 23rd April 2025 7.00pm-8.30pm

Workers were among the very first to encounter computers as they emerged from the military into the workplace. Unions debated the significance from their emergence in the 1950s through the 1960s and beyond. In the late 1960s unions began to use computers to support their own administration and research activities, with implications for their own organisation. In the workplace post-60s radicalism led to attempts not just to resist new technologies but also to shape their use as part of more humane workplaces and contributing to socially useful production. Some of their ideas went on to inform more radical technology policies among local authorities, most notably the GLC.

The appearance in the late 1970s of the ‘microchip’ initiated another round of concern about their implications for work and jobs. The personal computer and communications devices also created opportunities for unions, initially in international work; by the 1990s labour networks were becoming widespread globally, highlighted by the Electronic Communications and the Labour Movement conference in Manchester in 1992 with participants from across the international labour movement. This talk will sketch this history as a basis for discussion of our experiences.

Dr. Steve Walker, who recently retired from the OU has worked as both a practitioner and an academic with technologies in trade unions and other social organisations. He was founder and for 10 years, a member of the worker co-operative operating the Poptel and Manchester Host networks. As an academic he was evaluator for a series of European projects lead by ETUC Education exploring international distance trade union education.

Right Wing Think Tanks

Right wing Think Tanks
6 November 7 pm

Swarthmore LS3 1AD

Speaker Dr Stephen Mustchin
The sinister influence of these think tanks often financed from the USA have exerted considerable influence on UK politics. This meeting will explore their history and help us understand their attempt to shift British politics to the right.
 
Please come along and bring your friends.

A Walk through History

We invite you on a guided tour of the City Centre to explore hidden aspects of the radical history of Leeds. Your host, local activist, researcher and historian Shaun Cohen, will illuminate forgotten history of Leeds and some aspects not normally heard about:

  • The Leeds connection with Sylvia Pankhurst and Keir Hardy
  • What happened when Suffragettes and Anarchists were in the same place at the same time?
  • What links have Leeds, the Blanketeers Uprising and the Yorkshire Rebellion?
  • Are you aware of the Marx, Engels and Lenin connections to Leeds?

These and many other unknowns will be illuminated by Shaun on his trip through Leeds, expected to last around 90 minutes. If you’ve enjoyed Shaun’s walk in the past, please come again as he has much new information to share.

We will start from the steps of the LEEDS CITY MUSEUM, Millenium Square, LS2 8BH Click here for map
At 1 pm Sunday 4th August 2024

This event is entirely free of charge, although all contributions to sustain the work of the Leeds Ford – Maguire Society are always very welcome!

More information : 07950 364761

‘Cuts, Compliance and Resistance: a brief history of the labour movement’s approaches to welfare and democratic practice’.

Dave Lowes
28th May 2024
7pm-8.30pm
Location: Swathmore Centre (Room 2)
2-7 Woodhouse Square, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS3 1AD

The talk will trace the PLP’s acceptance of austerity (Fiscal Rules in today’s parlance) through the 1970s back to the May Committee in 1931. It will look at the different approaches to welfare spending within the labour movement historically and outline the different attitudes to democratic theory and practice. Given the current political context and the ongoing dominance of austerity politics the talk will address this issue in a historical context and focus on earlier legacies within the PLP.
The talk is based on a book and doctoral thesis – ‘In defence of local government: an immanent critique of labour movement campaigns to defend jobs, services and local democracy in the 1980s.’ It was subsequently published by Merlin: Cuts, Privatisation and Resistance: Neoliberalism and the local state 1974-1987
Dave Lowes is an independent scholar, whose activism as a shop steward in Liverpool during the 1980s and 1990s informed his book Cuts, Privatisation and Resistance: Neoliberalism and the local state 1974-1987. Other publications include The Anti-capitalist Dictionary (Zed, 2006), and ‘Mugsborough Then & Now: Robert Tressell’s ‘The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists’