Why we need a history from below

HubMP2012

DECEMBER 5, 2024

In our last episode of 2024, the Labour Left Podcast  delves into why we need a bottom-up history with Prof Harvey J Kaye – who wrote the important book The British Marxist Historians. In the second half of the podcast, we turn our attention to the aftermath of the Trump tragedy and ask the question – How can we make America radical again?

Harvey J Kaye is an important socialist figure. Christopher Hill described him as “easily the world’s greatest authority on the British Marxist historians,” the group who coined the important phrase “a history from below”.  The British Marxist historians included Rodney Hilton who wrote about the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 and introduced us to the likes of Watt Tyler and Colchester’s John Ball; Christopher Hill himself who wrote about the English Revolution of the 17th Century and introduced us to the Levellers and the Diggers; Eric Hobsbawm, whose best-known works spanned the long 19th Century; and, EP Thompson who wrote the seminal The Making of the English Working Class.

The podcast considers why the ruling classes fear history – which takes us straight back to the podcast with Corinne Fowler, who was inspired by EP Thompson, and helped us consider how our colonial and labour histories are very much two sides of the same coin.

The podcast includes some fascinating insights into the history of the British left.  Harvey describes the pivotal moment of 1956 when Soviet tanks destroyed a workers’ uprising and the British Marxists broke from the Stalinist Communist Party. The British Marxists went on to play an important role in the creation of a New Left and later the introduction of Antonio Gramsci to our country.  The leaders of what we might call a humanitarian Marxism or New Left went on to play a decisive role in the formation of a mass movement and against the siting of American nuclear weapons in the 1980s.  It is impossible to understand the story of the British left without grasping the intellectual contribution made by the subjects of this podcast. 

The podcast with Harvey not only explores why we need a history from below but why it is so important to us today.  In the second half of the podcast, we move on to examine how the Democrats were defeated by Donald Trump.  Drawing on the legacy of Tom Paine and Roosevelt, Harvey explains why we might need an economic Bill of Rights on both sides of the Atlantic to bring about the defeat of the world’s resurgent populist right.  In my last article for Labour Hub (link here), I argued that “if we can’t deliver noticeable improvements for our British working-class voters, who feel abandoned, no number of pleas for patience or references to the terrible Tory legacy will help us one jot.  Trump’s victory means that we know exactly where a failure to deliver will lead.” It is for this reason that I think we need to focus on the economic issues that matter to our working-class voters on both sides of the Atlantic and give a clear political offer and Harvey explains a compelling case for the Economic Bill of Rights (see below).

To accompany our deep dive into our history from below we’ve created a Spotify playlist with songs from the likes of Norma Waterson, the Young Uns, Chumbawamba, Leon Rosselson and of course Billy Bragg. Link here

If you’re new to the Labour Left Podcast – maybe an American listener to Harvey J Kaye – and want to find more about Britain’s history, please have a look at our back catalogue. Previous episodes have included historian Prof Corinne Fowler, talking about her book Our Island Stories: Country Walks Through Colonial Britain; Jeremy Gilbert, a Professor of Cultural and Political Theory, a champion of Gramsci talking about Thatcherism; Mike Jackson, co-founder of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners, on the Great 1984-85 Miners’ Strike; political activist Liz Davies telling her story as the dissenter within Blair’s New Labour; Rachel Garnham, a current co-Chair of the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy looking back at the history of the fight for democracy in the British Labour Party; and finally myself telling the story of Brighton Labour Briefing, a local Bennite magazine in the early 1980s.

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Bryn Griffiths is an activist in Colchester Labour Party and North Essex World Transformed. He is a member of both Momentum’s National Coordinating Group and the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy’s Executive. 

Bryn hosts Labour Hub’s spin off – the Labour Left Podcast.  You can find all the episodes of the Labour left Podcast here or if you prefer audio platforms (for example. Amazon, Audible Spotify, Apple, etc.,) go to your favourite podcast provider and just search for Labour Left Podcast.