“A SONG for the Free-the brave and the free-
    Who feareth no tyrant’s frown:
Who scorneth to bow, in obeisance low,
    To mitre or to crown…”

Not interested in Charles Mountbatten-Windsor having a hat put on his head? Read Thomas Cooper’s ‘Chartist Song’ instead🧵👇 Who owneth no lord with crosier or sword,
    And bendeth to Right alone;
Where'er he may dwell, his worth men shall tell,
    When a thousand years are gone!

The Putney Debates began in St. Mary’s Church, Putney #OnThisDay 1647. The debates were a series of discussions among members of the New Model Army - including Oliver Cromwell and several Levellers - concerning a new constitution for Britain.

A few of the best quotes 👇🏻 “I think that the poorest he that is in England hath a life to live as the greatest he ... the poorest man in England is not at all bound in a strict sense to that Government that he hath not had a voice to put himself under.”

Thomas Rainsborough (1610-1648)

Gerrard Winstanley, political/religious reformer, was born #OnThisDay 1609. Regarding the earth a ‘common treasury’, Winstanley led the Civil War-era ‘Diggers’ movement that established communities across England to cultivate waste and common land.

Thread of his best quotes 👇🏻 “Since William the Conqueror came in, all the kings did confirm the old laws to uphold that Conquest [which] still bind the hands of the enslaved English from enjoying the freedom of their creation.”

An Appeal to the House of Commons, 1649.

“Wilkes and Liberty! Old English Liberty!”

John Wilkes, journalist and politician, was born in London #OnThisDay 1725. A hugely influential figure in the history of English radicalism, Wilkes was seen as a champion of liberty, the rights of constituencies and a free press. [1/4] In 1763 Wilkes published a satirical pamphlet called ‘The North Briton’. His attacks on the Government in that publication, particularly in the 45th edition, led to his arrest under a general warrant. In January 1764 Wilkes was expelled from the House of Commons. [2/4]

William Morris, textile designer, poet, novelist & socialist, died #OTD 1896. Here are some excerpts from Robert Blatchford’s moving obituary to Morris published in The Clarion:

“It does not matter what goes into the Clarion this week, because William Morris is dead.”

Thread👇🏻 “And what socialist will care for any other news this week, beyond that one said fact? He was our best man, and he is dead ... It is true that much of his work still lives, and will live. But we have lost him, and, great as was his work, he himself was greater.” [2/4]

The evacuation of over 300,000 Allied soldiers from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, France, began #OnThisDay 1940. On 5 June, the left-wing playwright J. B. Priestley used a BBC radio broadcast to pay tribute to the part played by the ‘little steamers’. Here’s what he said 👇🏻 “Here at Dunkirk is another English epic. And to my mind what was most characteristically English about it - so typical of us, so absurd and yet so grand and gallant - was the part played - not by the warships magnificent though they were - but by the little pleasure steamers.”

The Putney Debates began in St. Mary’s Church, Putney #OnThisDay 1647. The debates were a series of discussions among members of the New Model Army - including Oliver Cromwell and several Levellers - concerning a new constitution for Britain.

Thread of the best quotes 👇🏻 “I think that the poorest he that is in England hath a life to live as the greatest he ... the poorest man in England is not at all bound in a strict sense to that Government that he hath not had a voice to put himself under.”

Thomas Rainsborough (1610-1648)

William Morris, textile designer, poet, novelist & socialist, died #OTD 1896. Here are some excerpts from Robert Blatchford’s moving obituary to Morris published in The Clarion:

“It does not matter what goes into the Clarion this week, because William Morris is dead.”

Thread👇🏻 “And what socialist will care for any other news this week, beyond that one said fact? He was our best man, and he is dead ... It is true that much of his work still lives, and will live. But we have lost him, and, great as was his work, he himself was greater.” [2/4]

“In the guise of transferring power from the politicians to the public, #ProportionalRepresentation really transfers power from the public to the politicians. Once the ballot boxes were locked away the coalition govt would be assembled behind closed doors.”

Tony Benn, 1982. “By opening up the possibility of endlessly reshuffling the governmental combination, coalitions endanger the absolutely fundamental capacity of the electorates to remove governments completely.”

Mary Heys from Manchester. Ridden over by cavalry. Mother of 6 and pregnant at the time of the meeting. Disabled following her injuries. Died from the premature birth of her child after 7 months of pregnancy.

Thread of fatalities resulting from the Peterloo Massacre #OTD 1819 👇 William Fildes, a 2-year-old from Manchester. Ridden over by cavalry. 1st victim of the massacre. William's mother was carrying him when she was struck by a Manchester Yeomanry trooper.

The unborn child of Elizabeth Gaunt, who was beaten and trampled on while heavily pregnant.

“A radical in politics [but] a conservative in feeling.”

Writer Joseph Epstein on George Orwell, who died #OnThisDay 1950. How have others interpreted Orwell and his politics?

Thread 👇🏻 “He was not only a socialist but profoundly liberal. He hated regimentation wherever he found it, even in the socialist ranks” — Jennie Lee

“He was a man of the left, but he attacked its holy images as fervently as he did those of the right” — George Woodcock

Richard Carlile, radical journalist, was born #OnThisDay 1790. An important champion of the freedom of the press, Carlile was repeatedly imprisoned for publishing pamphlets, journals and newspapers at a time when the government tried to stamp out ‘seditious’ literature. [1/5] An eyewitness of the Peterloo Massacre in 1819, Carlile published the first full report of what had happened in Sherwin’s Weekly Political Register. The government responded by closing the paper, so Carlile changed its name to The Republican. [2/5]