Bread or Batons? a talk by Roger Ball
Bread or Batons?
Roger's talk on the 1932 Riots was full of surprises. After a clear and incisive contextualization of the Riot, Roger gave us a lively and provocative story of the clashes between the Police and the unemployed workers. Along the way he revealed the fractures in the Labour movement which led to the marginalisation of the Unemployed Workers, the sheer brutality of the police attacks, and the resilience of the unemployed workers as they continued to protest despite sustained harassment.
Although Old Market was a crucial point, this was in fact a Bristol story as crowds of Bristolians came out to support the unemployed workers, sometimes even joining in the riots on the side of the rioters.
In the Q & A that followed, it became clear there were striking continuities & differences between the public response to austerity then and now.
Roger was the first of our talks for the Vice & Virtue project. See here the full list of upcoming talks and details of the project.
