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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.

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.

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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.

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For further information: Tony Maguire 079503647612

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

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

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’

Sunday 18th February 2024
Swarthmore Education Centre
2 Woodhouse Square
Leeds LS3 1AD
All Welcome

 26th October 2023: 7.00-8.30
Professor Ralph Darlington
The Hall, Swarthmore Centre, 2-7 Woodhouse Lane,
Leeds LS3 1AD
The ‘Labour Revolt’ that swept Britain between 1910-14 was one of the most sustained, dramatic and violent explosions of industrial militancy and social conflict the country has ever experienced. It involved large-scale strikes by miners, seamen, dockers, railway workers and many other workers. It was a revolt dominated by unskilled and semi-skilled workers, many acting independently of national trade-union officials. It led to widespread solidarity action, phenomenal union membership growth, breakthroughs in both industrial unionism and female union organisation, and a dramatic increase in the collective power of the working-class movement. And it encouraged a process of political radicalisation that celebrated ‘direct action’ and directly challenged the Liberal government and police and military, as well as the parliamentary reformism of the Labour Party.
With new archival research and fresh insights, and combining history from below and above, Ralph Darlington provides a multi-dimensional portrayal of the context, causes, actors, dynamics, and significance of the Labour Revolt. In the process, he also explores the role of the radical left and the relationship between industrial struggles and political organisation, which remains of contemporary relevance.
Ralph Darlington is Emeritus Professor of Employment Relations at Salford University, Fellow and Honorary Member of the British Universities Industrial Relations Association, and executive board member of the International Association of Strikes and Social Conflicts journal Workers of the World. He is the author of a number of books, including The Dynamic of Workplace Unionism, The Political Trajectory of JT Murphy and Radical Unionism: The Rise and Fall of Revolutionary Syndicalism, co-author of Glorious Summer: Class Struggle in Britain 1972, and editor of What’s the Point of Industrial Relations?: In Defence of Critical Social Science.