I would like to take this opportunity to talk to you about “Spirit of Revolt”, this is an archive of struggles by the ordinary people, no party political material or support, no trade union history or support, simply a record of the direct actions by people in their daily battles for a better life and for justice. The material we collect is from and about, activists dead and living, events major and small, mainly from the Glasgow/Clydeside area. Why do we feel passionate about, collecting and preserving this material? It is obvious that if you write a history and a large slice of that history is ignored or lost, then you are getting an inaccurate record, a false history, a jigsaw with parts missing. If history fails to record the day to day struggles of the ordinary people, which in many cases it does, then that people become a people without a history. However the ordinary people are certainly not without a history, they have a rich history of ingenuity, resilience, imagination, courage and endless struggles against injustice. It is important to have this recorded and preserved and made easily accessible to the people, it is a history of which we can all be very proud.
We at Spirit of Revolt feel we do a very important job, all of us are volunteers, most are deeply involved in that history. Our aim is to collect and preserve this material, but not to have it gather dust on some shelves in dark corners of a back room. We wish to bring it alive, make it easily accessible to the public at large, by digitalising it and putting on our website for all to see, read, and hopefully learn from. We also hold exhibitions highlighting events from that grass-roots working class history, hoping that it will help people to see the value of their own history and learn from that history.
We at Spirit of Revolt feel we do a very important job, all of us are volunteers, most are deeply involved in that history. Our aim is to collect and preserve this material, but not to have it gather dust on some shelves in dark corners of a back room. We wish to bring it alive, make it easily accessible to the public at large, by digitalising it and putting on our website for all to see, read, and hopefully learn from. We also hold exhibitions highlighting events from that grass-roots working class history, hoping that it will help people to see the value of their own history and learn from that history.
From our poster collection.
Sadly we live in a capitalist world, and though we are volunteers, we do have costs. Our biggest cost being the need to have a qualified archivist to catalogue this material to international standards, for ease of access and study. There are other cost involved, web design and hosting, computers, scanners and other miscellaneous equipment. All of this trying to raise funds, takes up our time, time that we could devote to the archive itself, improving access, and developing outreach projects. So now the pitch, if you think we do a good job, which you think is valuable, and you would like to see us continue, then perhaps you can be tempted to support us financially in some small way, no donation is too small. It can be a one of donation, or better still a small monthly direct debit donation of say two, or five pounds a month, or what ever you feel you can afford. We will be extremely grateful for every donation, you can rest assured it will help us to prolong and improve the archive and its accessibility.
Unity Trust Bank plc.
Account name: Spirit of Revolt
Account number: 20290793
Sort code: 60-83-01
Contact us with any questions and enquiries.
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