A power in the land.

On the Radio4 Today program this morning Paul Mason was talking about the Lancashire Cotton Famine that resulted from the Union blockade of Confederate ports during the American Civil War. Despite the hardship to themselves the Lancashire mill workers remained solid in their support of abolition. It's a heart warming tale and along with many other incidents from the past give the lie to the now accepted truth that social reform has always been the result of middle class do-gooders acting on behalf of working horses - or the equally helpless working class. The power of organised international labour is exactly the kind of history that gives the likes of Alien Gove the serious heeby-jeebies. But to be fair this all pre-dates Gove and his cronies; a whole generation have now grown up who think that international solidarity started with Band Aid.