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12th Aug 2014: ‘Plebs’; The Ruskin College ‘Strike’ of 1909 by Colin Waugh
Come along to The Central Library (George Washington Browne Conference Room which is one floor down from the front entrance) for 5pm to listen to Colin’s talk. There will be some food provided and an opportunity to talk…
Colin Waugh (Independent Working-Class Education Network)
Subject of Talk:
‘Plebs’: the Ruskin College ‘strike’ of 1909
A Short Description:
Colin Waugh, author of the pamphlet ‘Plebs’: The Lost Legacy of Independent Working-Class Education, will explain how trade unionists, mainly miners and railway-workers, who were students at Ruskin College, Oxford in 1909, went on ‘strike’ (actually a boycott of specific lectures and lecturers) in an attempt to prevent the principal from being sacked, in the process creating a national system of socialist adult education genuinely independent of the powers-that-be, parts of which survived until the 1960s. He will say why he thinks there is an urgent need to rebuild this tradition today, and talk about some of the efforts that are being made to do this.
