“Great Britain was one of the richest countries in the world. The Empire had most of the world’s rubber and tin; about 20% of the people lived at starvation level. Great Britain indeed! I don’t think any country should be called great that couldn’t manage their affairs better than that.

I have seen men bullied into accepting an average when going before the Means Test that would make the money they received even less than the Government allowed.”

— Eddie Britland, Life in the 1930s

This powerful issue of Write On is defiantly political. Examining the state of things now and comparing it with life half a decade ago, it’s clear that the working class struggle for liberation is far from over. Eddie Britland recalls unemployment of his youth and the humiliation of the Means Test. B. J. Hill remembers the General Strike of 1926 and how it changed life for him and many other workers for the rest of their lives. Then there are calls to action in the present in the face of apathy : socialist collective Red Flu bring attention to the cause of Michael Young locked up without consideration of his poor mental health. An anonymous writer experiences similar being treated for mental health and addiction. Phil Boyd highlights the case of Kieran Nugent, the first of over 400 people convicted in non-jury courts of political offences in Northern Island.  Paul Sharp describes the appalling conditions of Strangeways (now Her Majesty’s Prison Manchester) which will cause inmates to riot just over a decade later.

Publication date: 1978