Podcast and Twitter for musing on working-class writing, literature in general and the conditions which make them possible. Sister project to @wrkclasshistory
Joined July 2019
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Working Class Literature retweeted
A literary event like no other: the Florence Working-Class Literature Festival, held at a car parts factory under the control of the workers they tried to fire four years ago.
Listen tomorrow at 4pm BST on Patreon: patreon.com/posts/wcl-14-liv…
Working Class Literature retweeted
This Wed at 4pm BST: new @workingclasslit episode, Live from the Working-Class Literature Festival! We went to Florence to speak to authors, activists, and organisers about the festival, and what's next in the GKN struggle.
Listen on Patreon: patreon.com/posts/wcl-14-liv…
Working Class Literature retweeted
The festival takes place at the ex-GKN car parts factory in Florence, which was seized by workers after they were fired in 2021. They've held the factory for 4+ years and plan to reopen it as a coop making eco goods.
Learn more in our previous eps here:
workingclasshistory.com/podc…
Working Class Literature retweeted
Full episode here youtu.be/bRHBLsjDZVE?feature…
Working Class Literature retweeted
Listen to Maghiel van Crevel reading one of Mu Cao’s poems, from @workingclasslit instagram.com/reel/DBofJKJud…
Working Class Literature retweeted
The full series is available on our website or wherever you get your podcasts. The webpage for this series also contains more information including sources, further reading, images, videos, and soon a full transcript. Check them out here: workingclasshistory.com/podc…
Working Class Literature retweeted
'Working for the Boss in a Black Factory' by Mu Cao, a former migrant worker and China's first openly gay poet (who came out when being gay was still officially considered a mental illness in China)
Working Class Literature retweeted
'When I Watched the World Cup What Did I See' by Xiao Hai:
"Their million-dollar moving ads on the pitch have nothing to do with me
Youth slipped away is the only thing that’s mine"
Working Class Literature retweeted
'I Speak of Blood' by Xu Lizhi, a former Foxconn worker who, like many Foxconn workers at the time, was driven to suicide in 2014 by the harsh conditions of the factory:
"I speak of us, ants struggling through the swamp of life one by one"
Working Class Literature retweeted
'Life' by Zheng Xiaoqiong, probably the most successful of China's migrant worker poets: "My youth is set alight by memories / But dies out on the assembly line seven days a week"
Working Class Literature retweeted
Our three-part series on Chinese migrant worker poetry is out now for everyone. The series included readings of some of our favourite migrant worker poems. Here's a thread with just a few of them 🧵
Working Class Literature retweeted
Heeding the call made by the absolute majority of Palestinian civil society more than twenty years ago, the signatories of this declaration are taking a collective, sector-wide stance for Palestinian liberation.
Press release here: palfest.org/press-release-re…
Working Class Literature retweeted
BREAKING: Today, more than 1000 authors are launching a mass boycott of Israeli publishers who are complicit in the dispossession of the Palestinian people.
This declaration amounts to the largest cultural boycott of Israeli institutions in history.
lithub.com/hundreds-of-autho…
Working Class Literature retweeted
From the pencils in their hands to the spectacles on their faces to the toilet rolls they wipe their asses with we built everything necessary for the nerds to sit down and write their books - it doesn’t matter if it’s “meant” for us, it’s ours, don’t feel any guilt, take it
Working Class Literature retweeted
Did I mention it's a two-part event? 😱
Join me, Jayran, @GriotGabriel, and @srennie12 for a free panel at @RochdaleTH on 27th October, connecting radical poetry of the past to powerful poetry of the present.
Tickets here! 🎟️
bit.ly/PowerfulPoetryPanel
ALT Powerful Poetry Panel join our panel to discover the power of writers and local communities to stand up against injustice and give voices to those who need it most. Centering around Rochdale's historical involvement with fighting for abolition in the 1860s during the Lancashire Cotton Famine, historians will uncover the people and their poetry behind the town's radical history. Sunday 27th October Rochdale Town Hall 3 - 4pm Free workshop Booking is essential
This is what Weaving History was all about: connecting people to forgotten histories and inspiring new kinds of creativity 💪
I'll be at @RochdaleTH on 27th October for a FREE poetry workshop with the amazing Jayran Lear.
🎟️Tickets here 🎟️
bit.ly/powerfulpoetryworksho…
ALT Powerful Poetry Panel join our panel to discover the power of writers and local communities to stand up against injustice and give voices to those who need it most. Centering around Rochdale's historical involvement with fighting for abolition in the 1860s during the Lancashire Cotton Famine, historians will uncover the people and their poetry behind the town's radical history. Sunday 27th October Rochdale Town Hall 3- 4pm Free workshop Booking is essential
Working Class Literature retweeted
Ten years ago, Xu Lizhi, a Foxconn worker, took a lift to the 17th floor of an office building in Shenzhen and jumped.
His poem, "A Screw Falls to the Ground/一颗螺丝掉在地上": (Sun Wanning, "Bearing Witness to History: Dagong Poets from 1980s to the Present," Proletarian China)
This quoted post is unavailable.
Working Class Literature retweeted
Mu Cao is China's first openly gay poet. But what's ignored is he's also a migrant worker, raising questions about how we think about working-class writing (and class itself).
Listen to his poem, 'Working For The Boss In A Black Factory'. More in our pod: patreon.com/posts/wcl9-chine…
Part 3 of our three-part series on Chinese migrant worker poetry is out now on Patreon! We discuss censorship, 'unofficial publications'. We also discuss gay migrant worker poet, Mu Cao, and what he work tells us about working-class writing as a whole patreon.com/posts/wcl9-chine…
Working Class Literature retweeted
Part 3 of our three-part series on Chinese migrant worker poetry is out now on Patreon! We discuss censorship, 'unofficial publications'. We also discuss gay migrant worker poet, Mu Cao, and what he work tells us about working-class writing as a whole patreon.com/posts/wcl9-chine…
Working Class Literature retweeted
"Their million-dollar moving ads on the pitch have nothing to do with me / Youth slipped away is the only thing that's mine"
'When I Watched the World Cup What Did I See' by Xiao Hai. Learn more about Xiao and other migrant worker poets in our podcast: patreon.com/posts/wcl8-chine…
Working Class Literature retweeted
And to learn more about Chinese history and politics, be sure to check out some of the great books in our online store: shop.workingclasshistory.com…
