There is an oft-repeated saying along the lines of "If you don`t learn from history, you are doomed to repeat past mistakes".  In recognition of this, there has been increasing interest in this subject during recent years and a number of similar groups have appeared around the country.   Following successful pilot events events such as a Featherstone Massacre commemorative guided walk [07/9/13] and the Dublin Lock Out centenary commemoration [19/10/13] ,  Wakefield Socialist History Group was formally established on Saturday 26th October 2013.

There is no membership.  The group is open to anyone interested in the class struggle and the fight against oppression and who is generally on the Left politically. It is non-sectarian and not linked with any particular party.

The focus has varied from local to international  and "history" has been interpreted very broadly to include events which are still unfolding today as well as those that happened decades or centuries ago.  When we look back to earlier times, we always have regard to the relevance of those events to our own time.
 
Topics covered at events and meetings have included :

• The Kinsley Evictions (1905)
• The Miners`Strike (1984-85). 
• The Luddites . . . an unjustly maligned group of workers.
• World War 1.  An alternative story from a working class point of view on what was essentially an imperialist war.
  
• Eco-Socialism (the development of green socialist ideas)
• Housing and the Class struggle
• Democracy and the Media
• The Chartists
  
• The Independent Labour Party
• Europe and the Left - how should socialists vote in the referendum on EU membership ?
• The Levellers and the Diggers
• William Morris : Revolutionary Socialist or Utopian Dreamer ?
• The Yorkshire Rebellion of 1820
• The Tolpuddle Martyrs (unfortunately we had to cancel the meeting on 16/7/16  but we have an article which would have been part of it)
• Syndicalism and the great unrest
• James Connolly and the Dublin Easter Uprising (1916)
• The politics of Antonio Gramsci
• Robert Burns and other radical poets
  

Forthcoming events :

All on hold until further notice...

  wakefield socialist history group

This page last updated : 4^th April 2021

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