There have been penalties for those who looked the other way when Epstein was convicted of child sex offences and decided to maintain relationships with the financier — but not for the British ambassador to Washington, reveals SOLOMON HUGHES
Life as a ‘Lady Insurrectionist’
LYNNE WALSH reports from the recent ‘Chartism Day’ conference at Reading University, where sisters of the 19th century Chartist struggle emerged from the pages of history
A Chartist mosaic in Rogerstone, Newport
[Robin Drayton/Creative Commons] 
Labour’s new Treasury unit will ‘challenge unnecessary regulation’ by forcing nominally independent bodies like Ofwat to bend to business demands — exactly what Iain Anderson’s corporate clients wanted, writes SOLOMON HUGHES
DR DYLAN MURPHY looks at a Big Brother Watch report which exposes the government as an enabler of DWP secret spying on benefit claimants
The EU faces a critical choice: will it remain in the shadow of an increasingly unreliable US ally, or will it forge its own path in a multilateral world where co-operation with China is essential, asks MARC VANDEPITTE as leaders meet for the EU-China Summit
A lot of discussion about how the left should currently organise – including debate on whether the Green Party is a useful vehicle for advance – runs the risk of refusing to engage with or learn from the reasons the left was defeated previously, argues KEVIN OVENDEN
For Egypt trade trumps the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians, but how long can the country’s ‘misleaders’ – and others in the region – continue their indifference against the popular will of their own people, asks ROGER McKENZIE
THE role of women in the Chartist movement has often been neglected, even though they ruffled the Establishment’s feathers in their work as Hen Chartists and Lady Insurrectionists.
This year’s Chartism Day conference, at the University of Reading, succeeded in shining a spotlight on key figures including Helen MacFarlane, Frances Wright, Susanna Fearnley, Mary Grassby, Elizabeth Hanson, Mary Ann Walker and Sarah Theobald.
The event, staged by the Society for the Study of Labour History (SSLH), platformed 16 speakers, although only two were women. The voices of long-dead female Chartists filled the room, thanks mainly to Dr Judy Cox, whose work has uncovered the tub-thumping speeches and excoriating quotes from the Hen Chartists, as they were dubbed by the press.
More from this author
Caroline Darian, daughter of Gisele Pelicot, took part in a conversation with Afua Hirsch at London’s Royal Geographical Society. LYNNE WALSH reports
This year’s Bristol Radical History Festival focused on the persistent threats of racism, xenophobia and, of course, our radical collective resistance to it across Ireland and Britain, reports LYNNE WALSH
LYNNE WALSH previews the Bristol Radical History Conference this weekend
With most of recorded history dominated by the voices of men, LYNNE WALSH encourages sisters to read the memoirs of women – and to write their own too
