History is made at night

When Pete Seeger (1919-2014) was born the First World had only just finished. I don't feel so much sad that he has died this week almos...

The Idle No More movement for indigenous rights started out in Canada last year, and has been marked by protests across the country and sim...

Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little on this day, 19th May 1925. The Autobiography of Malcolm X, written by him with Alex Haley, was p...

From the 'Black Panther' newspaper, January 17, 1970, adverts for Black Panther Party records. Seize the Time was a collection...

Well I was going to join today's 'internet strike' and close down the site for the day in solidarity with the movement against ...

Last week in Iowa, Michele Bachmann launched her bid to become the Republican candidate in the nex US presidential election. On the Tea Part...

Some heavy-handed arrests at the Jefferson Memorial in Washington DC on Saturday. It was the latest in a saga that started in 2008 when Mary...

Controversy in the States about the participation of Common in a poetry night at the White House this week. The usual Fox News right wing p...

'These were bright new monied times in which society people were encouraged to enjoy the primitive theatrics of those who appeared to be...

Langston Hughes was born on this day (1 February) in 1902. Here's his great poem Dream Variations (1926): To fling my arms wide In some...

The ballroom in the Lee Plaza Hotel , Detroit, from the excellent Ruins of Detroit by Yves Marchard and Romain Meffre. Interesting article...

Geraldine Hoff Doyle (pictured) died in Lansing , Michigan on December 26 th at the age of 86. Nearly 70 years ago she was working as a 17 ...

When Walter Hill's film The Warriors was released in 1979, there were fears that it would lead to an explosion of gang related violenc...

F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1922 short story The Popular Girl is centred around the figure of Yanci Bowman and her desire for more than the l...

All I need in this creation Is 3 months work, 9 vacation Tell the boss, any old time The daytime is his, but the nighttime's mine Photo:...

Is there a more obscene media spectacle at the moment than British newspapers like the Daily Express whipping up people to rally round BP ...

A while ago I went to a talk by the great radical historian Peter Linebaugh on 'The Invisibility of the Commons' . In the course of ...

Most of the obituaries to Lena Horne (1917-2010), who died last weekend, mention her involvement in the civil rights movement. But what is ...

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (1890-1964), lived to see many May Days as a key figure in the US workers movement for more than 50 years. In 1939, ...

Last night I floated the idea of voting for Amerie in the UK elections (even though she's not standing!), on the basis that her critiqu...