The 1909 ‘strike’ (actually a boycott of specific lectures) by trade union-sponsored students at Ruskin College, in Oxford but not part of the university, is, to my knowledge, unique. As I tried to show in my 2009 pamphlet ‘Plebs’: The Lost Legacy of Independent Working-Class Education, these students, mainly mineworkers and railway-workers – in short, core members of the working class – took on the ruling class, in the shape of an alliance between the Oxford University Extension Delegacy and the Workers’ Educational Association, over the nature of adult education.
Was it to be, as these organisations hoped, a means for producing a compliant layer amongst working-class activists, and thereby for blunting the edge of class struggle? Or was it to be a means by which workers could pursue that struggle more effectively? In the lead-up to the ‘strike’, the students, with former students, organised the League of the ‘Plebs’, and began to put in place a national structure of ‘labour colleges’ (ie part time classes in working-class heartlands), while after it they set up the Central Labour College (in effect an institution for training tutors for those classes) and a publications structure. Read more…

Podcast: Colin Waugh Talks About The Ruskin College Strike of 1909

This is a podcast of Colin Waugh talking about the history of the International Working Class Education movement and the strike of Ruskin College which took place in 1909. He explains the roots of the movement and the origins of the Oxford based college, as well as how it was funded.

13th Nov 2014: 3D Printing; No-hype, Promise, Just Extraordinary Art and Design! by Ann Marie Shillito

Come along to The Counting House at 7pm to listen to Ann Marie’s talk. Share a crust of bread, and hear the reflections he has to share…

Title of talk:

‘3D Printing: no-hype, promise, just extraordinary art and design!’
Read more…

Memory of a Poacher: Royal Archers on the Meadows by Bob Redwater

A familiar sight for Edinburgh folk heading home from work across the Meadows on a late summer’s afternoon. I have always admired those splendid chaps in their green uniforms and eagle feathers in their bonnets. The Queen’s Bodyguard in Scotland, practising the noble art of archery in an effort to keep her majesty safe when she does her annual flying visit to distant Caledonia, God bless her.

Music: Pat Dennis

Pat Dennis is a singer composer originally from Detroit, Michigan. He has 2 albums, ‘Mystery Train To infirmary Street’ and ‘Blessings…And Curses’, released in 2012 and 2013 severally. He and Sean have been playing together since June 2013. Pat sings and plays guitar, Sean plays lead guitar and mandolin. They play a mix of Americana, country, and folk. They play in and around Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The Banking Game: Literature Review Part One by Doreen Soutar

Contrary to many claims at the time, there is a considerable literature prior to the 2007 crash which demonstrates that the circumstances necessary for impending crisis existed. For example, Taylor (1999) noted that “….in a decade perhaps only a dozen mammoth financial institutions may remain….

in the next three to five years, European banks profits will come under severe pressure” (p.60), Nabudere (2009) noted that there are many similarities between the crashes of the 1980s and 2007, and in a history of financial crises, Winter (2005) suggests that they typically have a signature context of a tendency to speculate and lax credit controls. In short, many commentators and researchers suggest that it could have and indeed was predicted, but the portents were ignored. Read more…

Rationality, Religion and Modernity Part B: A Social and Environmental Philosophy by Kenneth Wilson

I now turn to a detailed discussion of the alleged legacy of the middle ages in the context of the work of Hans Blumenberg. Blumenberg begins his monograph The Legitimacy of the Modern Age with a discussion of the meaning of secularisation. Blumenberg is interested in the status of the modern age. This obviously leads to a contrast with pre-modern ages, in this case the Christianity of the middle ages.

When one contrasts the middle ages with the modern era it seems clear that our world has undergone a process of secularisation, which Blumenberg points out is incomplete, and that this is a condition of our being able to discuss it at all.[7] In other words, if the process of secularisation had been completed, then perhaps it would not be on the horizon of thought.
Read more…

Experiences of Food Poverty: Results and Discussion by Samuel Lindskog

Eight out of nine participants interviewed were unable to “acquire or eat an adequate quality of sufficient quantity of food in socially acceptable ways” (Dowler and O’Connor 2011:44) or were worried about not being able to do so. All participants attributed this to growing gap between incomes and expenses(BHFP 2012b: 3-4: Family Action:3; Church Action on Poverty and Oxfam 2013:3; Dowler 1998:59), with other factors further compounding the problem. Read more…