23 November
The first recorded strike in history is said to have taken place on this day in 1170 BCE, during the sixth month of the 29th year of the reign of Rameses III.
Workers in the Valley of the Kings necropolis in Egypt downed tools after the government failed to pay them their agreed grain allowance for 20 days. It was to take several stoppages before they eventually won all that was owed to them.
They say the pharaohs built the pyramids.
Do you think one pharaoh dropped one bead of sweat?
We built the pyramids for the pharaohs
And we’re building for them yet.
– Anna Louise Strong
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#233: Democracy on the Wing ● Thelma Walker on regional autonomy ● An interview with Clive Lewis ● The World Transformed ● Gender, sexuality and witchcraft ● The globalisation of ‘Asian horror’ ● A tribute to Dawn Foster ● Latest book reviews ● And much more!
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The global spectres of ‘Asian horror’
Bliss Cua Lim looks at how the female ghost subgenre illuminates efforts to globalise ‘Asian horror’
Rudolf Rocker: an anarchist ‘rabbi’ in London
David J. Lobina rediscovers a forgotten but fascinating figure in London’s radical and Jewish history
Review – Falling Down: The Conservative Party and the Decline of Tory Britain by Phil Burton-Cartledge
Sabrina Huck argues that a generational shift away from the Conservative Party can’t be taken for granted
The driver of dispossession
Tina Ngata explains the social and legal legacies of a 15th-century Christian principle that paved the way for imperial violence in, and far beyond, New Zealand
Review – Just Us: An American Conversation
Claudia Rankine's collection perfectly illustrates the power of frank conversations with white people on race and racism, writes Kimberly McIntosh
Resisting India’s structural limits on suffrage
Voter suppression and systematic exclusion cast a pall over the world's biggest 'democracy', writes Kavita Krishnan
