Blood in the Machine by Brian Merchant ..... one to listen to ..... on the wireless

Now this is one I am listening to.*

It is runs to five episodes and will be available for 33 days.

"In Brian Merchant's acclaimed account it's 1811. 

The rise of the machine threatens the craftsmanship and the livelihoods of traditional cloth workers and they take action. Hugo Speer reads.

In the first two decades of the nineteenth century, the cloth trade was at the forefront of the industrial revolution. 

As machines were brought in traditional skills, acquired by cloth workers over years of hard graft, became obsolete. Working men and women were left without the means to feed their families, and without purpose or pride in their identities as workers.

Meanwhile, around them they could see that a handful of entrepreneurs, the first tech titans, were accumulating wealth by replacing them with machines. The response was the Luddites.

Blood in the Machine draws on a number of primary sources, as well as historical accounts based on interviews recorded later on in the nineteenth century with those who participated in and had first hand knowledge of the rebellion.

In his book, Brian Merchant finds parallels between technology's impact on today's workforce and the first time machines replaced the jobs done by human beings.

Brian Merchant is the technology columnist for the Los Angeles Times, and author of the bestseller, The One Device: The Secret History of the iPhone. His writing appears in the New York Times, Wired, The Atlantic and Harper's Magazine. He is also the founder of Gizmodo's Automaton project examining AI and the future of work.

Hugo Speer known for playing DI David Bradford in London Kills, Lucius in Britannia, Captain Treville in The Musketeers and Guy in The Full Monty. He also plays DCI Stone in the acclaimed Radio 4 series, Stone.

Abridged by Richard Hamilton

Produced by Elizabeth Allard"

*Blood in the Machine, BBC Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001x4p2

*Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech, Brian Merchant, £21.20

The Outing …….

I can be exactly certain when I happened on the woman with the shopping bag.

The Outing, 1980

It was August 2nd, 1980 which was a Saturday, and I happened on the “Great Railway Exposition" on Liverpool Road.

And the rest as they say was a series of images which over 40 years later I return to.

Location; Castlefield

Picture; The Outing, Liverpool Road, Manchester, 1980 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Madge Addy ....... nurse, and war hero was remembered in Chorlton .... one year ago

Over 50 gathered

The sun shone and over 50 people gathered to watch the unveiling of a plaque to Madge Addy.*

I have written about Madge who was the last British nurse to leave Republican Spain as the legitimate and democratically elected Government was about to be defeated by the forces of a military insurrection led by Franco.

She went on to work as a secret agent in occupied France during the last war and despite being awarded the OBE has slipped into the shadows.

And there are only a few references to Madge Addy.

Cllr Eddy Newman

She appears in newspaper accounts in the Daily Worker and wrote of her own experiences in Spain to raise awareness of the Civil War and the brutal actions of the Franco forces and crops up in books on the International Brigade.

But given that she worked here in Chorlton as a hairdresser in the 1930s it seemed fitting that she should be remembered with a plaque on the place where she worked.

Chris Hall and others dedicated to maintaining the memory of those who went to Spain to fight for democracy have worked hard to raise the money and organise the placing of the plaque at 34 Manchester Road.

Chris had originally asked the late Shelia Newman to help and it was fitting that the plaque was unveiled by her three children, and that amongst the speakers was Cllr Eddy Newman who was Shelia’s husband and the present Lord Mayor.

Chris Hall and Jeff Smith MP

The unveiling was followed by a social event across the road in the Library where there was food, music, and information panels telling the story of the Spanish Civil War, the involvement of the International Brigade and the men and women who went from Greater Manchester.

Anyone wishing to know more about the plaque can contact Chris at, christoff_hall@yahoo.com or on 0161 861 7448





Location; Chorlton

The plaque

Pictures, the plaque unveiling on May12 2018, pictures from the collection of Andrew Simpson
















*Madge Addy, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Madge%20Addy

Algeria, ...... French rule ....... and The Mokrani Revolt of 1871 ...... one to listen to

 Now this is one I enjoyed listening to.

The Battle of Somah, 1839

It was part of the In Our Time series on Radio 4.*

"Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the revolt that broke out in 1871 in Algeria against French rule, spreading over hundreds of miles and countless towns and villages before being brutally suppressed. 

It began with the powerful Cheikh Mokrani and his family and was taken up by hundreds of thousands, becoming the last major revolt there before Algeria’s war of independence in 1954. 

In the wake of its swift suppression though came further waves of French migrants to settle on newly confiscated lands, themselves displaced by French defeat in Europe and the loss of Alsace-Lorraine, and their arrival only increased tensions. 

The Mokrani Revolt came to be seen as a watershed between earlier Ottoman rule and full national identity, an inspiration to nationalists in the 1950s.

With, Natalya Benkhaled-Vince, Associate Professor of the History of Modern France and the Francophone World, Fellow of University College, University of Oxford, Hannah-Louise Clark, Senior Lecturer in Global Economic and Social History at the University of Glasgow, and, Jim House, Senior Lecturer in French and Francophone History at the University of Leeds

Producer: Simon Tillotson."

Picture; The Battle of Somah, Horace Vernet, 1839, Musée Rolin d'Autun, hotographer, Own work Moustachioed Womanizer

*The Mokrani Revolt, In Our Time, Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001wymz

Two cameras …… and a heap of demonstrations

During the 1970s into the 1980s I spent a great chunk of time photographing demonstrations.

London, 1981

They ranged from those against the far right along with several under the banner of the Anti-Nazi League.

Along with these there were plenty calling for a halt in public spending cuts, policies to reverse the staggering rise in unemployment and protests at the proliferation of a new generation of nuclear war heads and their delivery systems.

I missed recording the big anti Vietnam demonstration of 1968 and the White City Springbok  one.

And by the mid 90s I was balancing being a single parent with work so it wasn’t until the new millennium that kitted out with a digital camera I was back joining protests on another series of Conservative Governments who were cutting public services all over again and more recently rallies against antisemitism.

Birmingham, 1983

These three pictures come from a demonstration in Liverpool organised by the Labour Party in 1980 against job losses, London in 1981 against the deployment of US Cruise Missiles, and another  Labour march in Birmingham two years later demanding policies which would halt the spiralling number being made unemployed.

Liverpool, 1980

Back then I had two K Pentax cameras which were pretty indestructible and performed under a hot Greek sun, steamy holidays in Paris and indifferent wet British weather.

Location; the 1980s, in London and Birmingham

Pictures, Liverpool, 1980, London, 1981 and Birmingham,  1983, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

When history meets jazz ...the Noga Ritter Trio

 I have been a long time fan of the Manchester Jewish Museum, and the diverse events they sponsor.*

These include everything from the record of Jewish life in the area, the story of the Synagogue to hosting school trips and fun "things".

And on Sunday jazz comes to the museum.

I came across Noga Ritter after getting the invite from the museum to the concert, and have been hooked ever since.

There is a Facebook site and of course her music is there to listen to and buy.*

Enough said.

Location; Manchester Jewish Museum

Picture; Poster by the Manchester Jewish Museum.

*Manchester Jewish Museum, 

https://www.manchesterjewishmuseum.com/

**Noga Ritter, https://www.facebook.com/NogaRitterMusic

Steam and stuff ......... forty four years ago on Princess Street

It was 1980 and having followed a steam cavalcade of vintage cars, lorries and buses I came acroos the Super Sentinel.

Location; Princess Street, Manchester

Picture; Steam and stuff .....forty four years ago on Princess Street, 1980 from the collection of Andrew Simpson