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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#235: Educate, agitate, organise: David Ridley on educational inequality ● Heba Taha on Egypt at 100 ● Independent Sage and James Meadway on two years of Covid-19 ● Eyal Weizman on Forensic Architecture ● Marion Roberts on Feminist Cities ● Tributes to bell hooks and Anwar Ditta ● Book reviews and regular columns ● And much more!
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Struggle, spies and ’68
Diane Langford recalls some of her most memorable experiences of feminist organising, union activism and solidarity campaigning
Lashing together a life raft: Covid-19 strategies for the left
Reflecting on two years of Covid-19, James Meadway lays out the challenges the British left will have to adapt to and confront
Northern Ireland’s new political terrain
Tommy Greene maps the wider context of the momentous recent Stormont election results
The Red Wall: a political narrative
The term represents a wider establishment discourse which is being used to guide the UK in an increasingly conservative direction, argues Daniel Eales
Simon Hedges winning here
As the local elections get underway, Red Pepper's Simon Hedges shares his own experiences with the trials and tribulations of electoral politics
The Tower Hamlets story
After years of false allegations, former Mayor Lutfur Rahman is running on a radical program to tackle the cost of living crisis. Ashok Kumar reports
