York researcher probes the history of the ’68 generation
Posted on 4 April 2008
Geoff Wall, from the University of York’s Department of English, was commissioned by the BBC to produce a report for politics show The Westminster Hour — examining why people join the SWP, how their commitment is maintained, and why they sometimes leave.
They all told compelling stories that added up to a vivid moral history of the generation that came of age in 1968
Geoff Wall
The resulting talks, entitled ‘From Trotsky to Respect: a history of the SWP’, will be broadcast this month.
Mr Wall interviewed members and ex-members of the SWP from all walks of life, including a railway worker, a psychiatric nurse, an organic farmer and two professors of politics.
"They all told compelling stories that added up to a vivid moral history of the generation that came of age in 1968, when an obscure Trotskyist group grew into an organisation that would eventually become the SWP," he said.
"I learned about their everyday political intelligence, inside or outside the party. Listening to them was encouraging. There was genuine, unembittered loyalty to the idea memorably expressed on a banner in 2001: ‘Let’s replace capitalism with something nicer’."
Geoff Wall’s two fifteen-minute talks will be broadcast on Sunday 6 and Sunday 13 April at 10:45pm on BBC Radio Four.
ENDS
Notes to editors:
- More information on the University of York’s Department of English at www.york.ac.uk/depts/engl/