Resource : Red Flag

Today the red flag has, predominantly, become a symbol of socialism and communism. Its European origins date back to the Middle Ages, when a red streamer flying from the mast of a warship signalled a willingness to fight to the death, with no surrender. But its radical political roots lie firmly in the Age of Revolution.

Resource : View of New Lanark by John Winning

Throughout the 1800s Britain became a busy industrial nation. People migrated in increasing numbers from the countryside to towns and cities to work in new factories and mills. Working conditions were poor and dangerous, injuries from machinery were common and workers – including children as young as six – worked long hours. Overcrowding, limited diets and polluted water led to widespread disease and early death. New Lanark, a village on the River Clyde near Glasgow, was a revolutionary industrial and housing complex, combining a cotton mill with purpose-built housing, education and social care for its workers and their families. The ideas put into practice here marked the beginning of cooperative socialism.

Resource : Karl Marx’s headstone

Karl Marx is regarded by many as one of the greatest of political thinkers and one of the most influential voices of modern times. His famous work written with Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto, was a call to arms to the oppressed of the world and forms the basis for the modern communist movement that exists today.

Resource : Revolutionary ideas

Radical thinkers of the Age of Revolution and the seismic impacts of their extraordinary ideas about equality, rights and freedoms.