<p>Trends may shift, but the joy of giving remains constant. Elevate your retail space with our curated selection of fun, quirky, and thoughtful wholesale gifts, all designed to bring delight. Discover seasonal options for your store, as well as year-round gifting staples, from independent brands across the UK, Europe and the US.</p>

<h2><strong>What kind of wholesale gifts can I find on CREOATE?</strong></h2>
<p>We’ve curated our wholesale gifting options by occasion or theme. There are perfect presents for new babies, gifts for weddings, as well as a selection of novelty gifts which make great Secret Santa options. We also have a wide selection of <a href="https://www.creoate.com/product-category/keepsakes-memory-books">keepsakes and memory books</a> for recording all of life’s special moments.</p>
<p>If you’d rather shop by product, you’ll find plenty of great gifting options in our <a href="https://www.creoate.com/product-category/stationery">stationery</a> category, including high quality <a href="https://www.creoate.com/product-category/notebooks-journals">notebooks and journals</a>, and <a href="https://www.creoate.com/product-category/boxes-and-wrapping">wrapping paper and wholesale gift boxes</a>s from independent artists. And of course, we have thousands of colourful <a href="https://www.creoate.com/product-category/greeting-cards">wholesale greetings cards</a> waiting to brighten up your shelves, too.</p>
<p>Looking for edible wholesale gifting options? Take a look at our range of <a href="https://www.creoate.com/product-category/gourmet-food">wholesale gourmet food</a> and <a href="https://www.creoate.com/product-category/gourmet-drinks">gourmet drinks</a> from independent, artisan suppliers across the globe. Perfect for chocolate-lovers, and for gift hamper options galore.</p>
<p>Our network of suppliers extends across the globe. Shop thousands of independent brands in one place, and check out only once. And with many vendors able to ship in just a few days, you can replenish your shelves without delay. Plus, our generous 60-day returns policy allows you to experiment with new products risk-free.</p>
<h3><strong>Top picks & emerging trends in wholesale gifts</strong></h3>
<p>Whether you’re staying abreast with the latest trends or down for creating your own unique offerings, stay informed about what’s trending in the world of wholesale gift shop supplies</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Personalised gifts</strong> are leading the charge, with everything from custom engraved <a href="https://www.creoate.com/product-category/jewellery">wholesale jewellery</a> to monogrammed <a href="https://www.creoate.com/product-category/accessories">accessories</a>.</li>
<li><strong>Eco-friendly products</strong> are gaining popularity, as consumers look for sustainable gifts that are both thoughtful, useful, planet-conscious, like <a href="https://www.creoate.com/product-category/reusable-bags">reusable bags</a>, <a href="https://www.creoate.com/collections/sustainable-home">sustainable homeware</a>, and <a href="https://www.creoate.com/collections/eco-friendly-beauty-products">eco-friendly beauty products</a>.</li>
<li><strong>Gourmet food gifts</strong> continue to be a favourite, with artisanal <a href="https://www.creoate.com/product-category/chocolate-sweets">wholesale chocolates</a>, curated snack boxes, and <a href="https://www.creoate.com/product-category/tea">specialty teas</a> offering a delicious gift experience.</li>
<li><strong>Home fragrance sets</strong>, including <a href="https://www.creoate.com/product-category/scented-candles">scented candles</a>, <a href="https://www.creoate.com/product-category/reed-diffusers">reed diffusers</a>, and wholesale perfume gift sets are also in high demand, providing a perfect blend of luxury and sensorial appeal.</li>
<li>For the gift that keeps on giving, subscription gift boxes remain a popular choice, offering everything from monthly book deliveries to self-care kits, catering to various interests and lifestyles.</li>
</ul>
<h3><strong>Sustainable choices</strong></h3>
<p>As consumers become more eco-conscious, the demand for gifts that reflect these values continues to rise, particularly among Millennials and Gen Z. Expect to see a surge in popularity for products made from natural, organic, or recycled materials. Whether it's a handcrafted wooden keepsakes, or a set of beeswax wraps, gifts that combine sustainability with thoughtful design are sure to be a hit.</p>
<h2><strong>FAQs</strong></h2>
<h3><strong>When am I most likely to sell the most gifts?</strong></h3>
<p>Luckily gifts are in demand year-round, and are suitable for all kinds of occasions such as birthdays, stag and hen do’s, and more. Unsurprisingly, Christmas is the most popular time to buy these items, so be sure to stock up on gifts wholesale before then so you’re prepared. Be sure to browse our selection of <a href="https://www.creoate.com/collections/novelty-christmas-gifts">wholesale novelty Christmas gifts</a> for ideas, and check out our <a href="https://blog.creoate.com/how-to-manage-seasonal-inventory-for-your-store">guide to seasonal stock-ups</a> for tips and advice on avoiding deadstock over the holiday period.</p>
<h3><strong>What are the biggest gifting holidays and events?</strong></h3>
<p>Christmas, as we mentioned before, is by far the biggest holiday in terms of spending on gifts. So, it stands to reason that this is typically the busiest time of year for retailers, with <a href="https://www.creoate.com/product-category/christmas-decor">wholesale Christmas decorations</a> also making for highly popular gifts at this time of year. Searches for Christmas products on CREOATE can start as early as August, and Black Friday tends to be the biggest day of spending in the lead up to the holiday period. Aside from Xmas, Thanksgiving (USA only), Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day are also popular.</p>
<h3><strong>Why shop wholesale gifts on CREOATE instead of directly from wholesalers?</strong></h3>
<p>CREOATE makes buying for your shop as easy as buying for yourself, with thousands of independent brands in one place, and not an order form in sight. You’ll get access to emerging brands and artists who are just starting to sell wholesale, so you won’t wind up stocking the same stuff as every other shop on the street. We also offer 60-day returns for products from brands you haven’t bought from before, and seamless cross-border shipping. </p>
<h3><strong>What’s the minimum order quantity for wholesale gifts?</strong></h3>
<p>Brands selling through CREOATE set their own minimum order quantity, which you’ll need to hit for each brand before heading to check out. Brand minimum order quantities start at just £75.</p>
<h3><strong>What is the recommended profit margin when selling gifts?</strong></h3>
<p>When selling gifting items, we typically suggest a margin of around 45-55%. This is an ideal range for managing costs and further growing your business.</p>
<h3><strong>Help! I left my stock-up to the last minute, what do I do?</strong></h3>
<p>Firstly, don’t panic! We’ve got you. Many sellers on CREOATE can ship items in 3-5 business days. For extra speedy turn-around and shipping times, shop our Super Shipper brands, and use our filters to find wholesale gift suppliers local to you.</p>
<p>-</p>



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Gifts

Shop unique & trending wholesale gifts from independent brands and suppliers across the UK, Europe, and the US. Shop wholesale gift sets, valentine products, christmas giftware, gifts for men and more.

Shop Wholesale Gifts | Buy Wholesale Gift Shop Supplies | CREOATE

<h2>What kind of wholesale seasonal products can I find on CREOATE?</h2>
<p>CREOATE is a one stop shop for all your seasonal wholesale needs. Whether you’re looking for clover clad St Patrick’s Day products, Easter chocolates, <a href="https://www.creoate.com/product-category/christmas-decor">Christmas decor</a>, or to tap into a one-off event, like the <a href="https://www.creoate.com/product-category/royal-coronation">Royal Coronation</a>. There are also plenty of <a href="https://www.creoate.com/product-category/valentines-day">Valentine’s</a> and <a href="https://www.creoate.com/product-category/halloween">Halloween</a> options to explore. </p>
<p>Seasonal stock can be tricky to get right. You ideally need to start planning your stock for the holiday or event at least a few months ahead of the day itself to make sure it arrives with enough time for people to buy it. If you’ve left it a bit close to the wire, try using the filters at the top of the page to show only brands in your country, and then filter to show only brands with the shortest lead times; you’ll be left with products that will arrive to you the fastest. </p>
<p>If you’re looking for gifting options, our curated <a href="https://www.creoate.com/collections">Collections</a> will help you shop by theme; whether you’re looking for little stocking fillers, novelty gifts, or gifts for men. </p>
<h2>FAQs </h2>
<h3>How should I plan for my seasonal stock? </h3>
<p>Buying the right stock, in the right amounts, is a challenge for any retail business. But when that stock is clearly tied to a particular event, this becomes even trickier to get right. Think twice before you stock up on those wholesale chocolate advent calendars, or advent candles in bulk, since seasonal products are often considered the most common example of dead stock.</p>
<p>Ideally you’ll have data from previous years to help you forecast what you need. But don’t be afraid to take risks, too; you have 60 days to return anything that doesn’t sell to us for a refund (as long as it’s from brands you haven’t bought from before), removing the risk of losing money by overstocking. </p>
<h3>When should I start stocking up for Christmas?</h3>
<p>We start seeing retailers shopping for their Christmas wholesale products in August, with searches increasing into the autumn months. Remember that people will need products like Christmas cards and Christmas decorations up to a month before the day itself, so be sure to factor that into your timeline. </p>
<p>Want to get a headstart on your Christmas stock up, but low on space? Remember you can request to delay your order shipment until a future date that works for you. This option will be shown at checkout. </p>
<h3>What other holidays and events are worth stocking up for?</h3>
<p>This depends on your brand, and where you’re based. Christmas is the most popular spending holiday by far, with Black Friday being one of the most popular shopping days. Thanksgiving (USA only), Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day are also popular gifting holidays.</p>




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Seasonal Products

Discover wholesale seasonal products online suppliers from UK and Europe at Creoate. Choose from 12000+ bulk seasonal products online for resale on Easter, Halloween, Christmas Décor, Mother’s Day, and Valentines Day.

Wholesale Seasonal Products Online for Resale from Independent Retailers & Brands, UK

From spiritual <a href="https://www.creoate.com/product-category/easter">Easter greetings</a> to Christmas cheer, discover a range of wholesale holiday items and seasonal treasures for that special occasion. Make your customers laugh out loud or help them remember those special times of year with unique decor, designs, holiday gift items, and more. If you're looking for specific gift ideas, be sure to check out our selection of wholesale gifts and wholesale greeting cards, along with wholesale wrapping and boxes to tie everything up in a bow.

A family business since 2011, Radical Tea Towel's collection of history, literature and politics-inspired tea towels and gifts has expanded to hundreds of unique items. All of them UK-designed and manufactured. Our items are stocked by the People's History Museum in Manchester, the National Archives, the US's Library of Congress, and Amnesty International shops throughout the UK.

Super Shipper

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"And still like air, I'll rise"...

Long before the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements brought sexual assault into the conversation, Maya Angelou wrote in her first book,&nbsp;I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings&nbsp;(1969), about her own experience with sexual trauma, and how her mother&rsquo;s boyfriend raped her when she was a child. After she testified against him in his trial, he was convicted and imprisoned, and after his release he was beaten to death, a series of events that led her to stop talking for a period. Angelou silenced her voice because she thought her voice was so powerful that it could kill people. Far from the truth. Angelou&rsquo;s voice was so powerful that it could make people feel alive, feel heard, feel peace. It was not until 1969, at 41 years of age, that Angelou deployed her voice again, and she soon established it as one of the most important in American literature. She went on to write 30 more books &ndash; memoirs, poetry, plays, screenplays, short stories, and cookbooks &shy;&ndash; winning 3 Grammys and receiving 50 honorary degrees in the process. Her voice spoke to countless readers &ndash; especially black Americans and women &ndash; who in 1969 were crying out for literature by black authors writing intimately and truthfully about growing up and living in the &lsquo;other&rsquo; America. She wrote with honesty about racism growing in the Jim Crow South, rape, her pregnancy at 16, and womanhood. Angelou was also active in the Civil Rights movement and worked with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X to obtain justice for her community. 

This stunning new design celebrates her and her powerful voice.

The seeds of the UK's Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) were sown in&nbsp;1957 in the wake of widespread fear of nuclear conflict and the effects of nuclear tests. A group of concerned individuals came together and chose Canon John Collins as their chairman, the philosopher Bertrand Russell&nbsp;as their president and political activist Peggy Duff&nbsp;as their organising secretary.&nbsp;The Campaign was launched at a public meeting at Central Hall, Westminster,&nbsp;on 17 February 1958,&nbsp;chaired by Collins and addressed by Michael Foot, Stephen King-Hall,&nbsp;J.B.Priestley, Bertrand Russell and A.J.P.Taylor.&nbsp;It was attended by 5,000 people. At&nbsp;Easter 1958 the first Aldermaston March attracted a great deal of attention and the CND symbol appeared everywhere. Today CND campaigns non-violently to achieve British nuclear disarmament - to get rid of the Trident nuclear weapons system and stop its replacement. Recognising that Britain's nuclear weapons are only a small part of the problem it also campaigns for a global nuclear weapons ban. We will donate &pound;1 to CND for every one of these tea towels sold. &nbsp;

After the Second World War ended, Britain had desperately needed workers to rebuild the country, and it enlisted the help of its colonies to do so, passing the Nationality Act, which gave Commonwealth citizens the right to settle in Britain. So, on a Tuesday, 22nd June 1948, a former German cruise ship, the&nbsp;Empire Windrush, steamed up the Thames to the Tilbury Dock, London, where she disembarked some 500 hopeful settlers from Kingston, Jamaica... it was the beginning of a new, multicultural Britain. Or, such was the dream. More recently we've all been hearing the shocking stories in the news about our government's dreadful treatment of the &lsquo;Windrush Generation&rsquo;, those British citizens who were invited to the UK from the Caribbean to make a new life for themselves and a new post-war Britain.&nbsp;Linked by commentators to the Home Office hostile environment policy instituted by British Prime Minister Teresa May&nbsp;during her time as Home Secretary,&nbsp;the scandal led to the resignation in 2018 of Amber Rudd as Home Secretary.&nbsp;This tea towel is in part protest for this generation&rsquo;s unfair treatment, and in part celebration of their value in our shared community.

Our Labour Greats of History tea towel includes six inspirational politicians from the 20th century: 
 Tony Benn&nbsp;-&nbsp;Labour MP between 1950 and 2001 and once dubbed by the Daily Mail as 'the most dangerous man in Britain". Keir Hardie&nbsp;- the first Labour Party leader, and&nbsp;supporter of issues such as women's rights, free schooling, pensions, and Indian self-rule. Aneurin Bevan&nbsp;- Minister for Health (1945-1951) and inspired by whose vision, the Labour Party established the NHS in 1948. Ellen Wilkinson - who led the Jarrow marchers on their march to London in 1936, 
 Clement Attlee&nbsp;-&nbsp; UK Prime Minister from 1945 to 1951who brought in the NHS and the Welfare State.
 Mo Mowlam -&nbsp;MP (1987 to 2001) and as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, she "oversaw the negotiations which led to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.&nbsp; Four of these firebrand politicians also appear in our&nbsp;Labour Grandees magnet collection and have their own tea towels!

"Love is not a gift. It is a diploma. A diploma conferring certain privileges: the privilege of expressing love and the privilege of receiving it." Born in February 1931, Toni Morrison was an American novelist, professor and activist. Having come of age during the years of Jim Crow and racial segregation, Morrison&rsquo;s work explores the prevalence of racism across the United States. Her first novel, 'The Bluest Eye', published in 1970&nbsp;when Morrison was 39, tells the story of a young African-American girl who wishes she had blue eyes &ndash; a feature which she equates with the superior beauty of whiteness. Seventeen years later, Morrison published her most famous novel, 'Beloved', which focuses on a family of former slaves in the late 19th century. By the 1990s, Morrison had become one of the most highly-acclaimed living American writers. She won nearly every major literary award there is: the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1977, the Pulitzer Prize in 1988, and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. She was even presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama in 2012. Despite the focus on racism and white supremacy, her work never gave up on the generative power of love and hope to change the world &ndash; a legacy that we&rsquo;re celebrating in this tea towel! &nbsp;

&lsquo;Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.&rsquo; There you go &shy;&ndash; if Albert Einstein said it, it must be true! It appears that Einstein was a vegetarian for the last 18 months of his life although his writings suggest that he was a proponent of vegetarianism for many years before that. Rightly so too &ndash; billions of animals are slaughtered for consumption every year, and this requires vast amounts of land, fuel, and water. Faced with a global climate emergency, we&rsquo;ve all got to do our part. And if Einstein says vegetarianism is part of the answer &shy;&ndash; well, they didn&rsquo;t call him a genius for nothing&hellip;

W. E. B. Du Bois (1868-1963)&nbsp;was an African-American sociologist, activist and co-founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He was the first African American to gain a doctorate at Harvard. He argued that capitalism was one of the causes of racism and was an early advocate of nuclear disarmament. He wrote movingly and passionately in his writings about the tension between the U.S. ideals of freedom and the injustice that so often befell non-whites. He wrote:&nbsp; My country tis of thee,
Late land of slavery,
Of thee I sing.
Land where my father&rsquo;s pride
Slept where my mother died,
From every mountain side
Let freedom ring! The words on this tea towel come from his 1905 speech at the founding of the Niagara Movement calling for equal rights.

On 28th&nbsp;June 1969, in the early hours of the morning, New York&rsquo;s besieged LGBTQ community rioted against homophobic police raids at the Stonewall Inn. That was the first Pride. The Stonewall Inn, in the Greenwich Village&nbsp;neighbourhood of Manhattan, New York City, is now considered an iconic landmark for activism, LGBT rights, and equality.&nbsp;But, on 27th&nbsp;June 1969, it was just another bar, &lsquo;a bar for the people who were too young, too poor or just too much to get in anywhere else&hellip;&rsquo; as one patron would recall it later. It had been opened two years earlier as a gay bar, making it one of a few dotted around the area. Days before the Stonewall uprising, the police had raided five gay bars in Greenwich Village, shutting three of them down, and the eruption at Stonewall was a result of this mounting tension.&nbsp; When the police arrived at 1:20 am and expelled the clientele in order to arrest the employees, it was expected that they would quietly hurry home. That&rsquo;s not what happened. The patrons resisted, protested, and when a woman was forcibly arrested, the protests grew stronger into a full-blown riot. The crowds grew. And not just that day either &shy;&ndash; the Stonewall riot was perhaps the most important event leading to the LGBT rights movements in the US. Within a few years, gay rights organisations were founded across the US and the world. On June 28, 1970, the first gay pride marches&nbsp;took place in the US commemorating the anniversary of the riots. Similar marches were organised in other cities. Today, LGBT Pride events are held annually throughout the world toward the end of June to mark the Stonewall riots, and the Stonewall National Monument&nbsp;was established at the site in 2016. We&rsquo;ve designed this tea towel to commemorate the 50-year anniversary of the Stonewall Riots and celebrate the freedom of all to love. &nbsp;

Feeling rebellious? Well, here&rsquo;s a practical anarchist gift: the famous A and O symbol daubed onto a rather hastily painted red and black background &ndash; let's face it, if you're an anarchist you don't stand on ceremony. That&rsquo;s not to say anarchism is without tradition though. These colours were used by Italian anarchists as early as 1864, and diagonally divided red and black flags were popularised as anarchist symbols during the&nbsp;Spanish Civil War. The letters signify &lsquo;anarchism&rsquo; and &lsquo;order.&rsquo; Together, they stand for the notion that &lsquo;society seeks order in anarchy.&rsquo; Although the symbol first gained currency in Spain in the late 19th century, it became particularly well known when it was taken up by the British anarcho-punk movement in the 1970s and now features on our crossbody bag!

&lsquo;Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.&rsquo; A gift for those who love, those who hope, those who believe. The striking design on this tea towel combines the dove of peace and hope with the rainbow of diversity and features a quote from Desmond Tutu, a South African social rights activist who became the first black Archbishop of Cape Town and rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid.

Tutu, who died on 26th December 2021,&nbsp;continued his defence for the oppressed&nbsp;until well into old age, campaigning against sexism, homophobia and transphobia as well as spearheading the fight against HIV, AIDS, tuberculosis, and poverty.

In all the darkness we may face today, we hope his message and work help provide a little light. Click on the 'specifications' tab for more information about this product, including material, size and care instructions. &nbsp;

This tea towel echoes the style of the original published Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which&nbsp;was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris in 1948. The Declaration consists of 30 articles (summarised on this tea towel in the interests of brevity) such as "the right to equality" and "freedom from discrimination". Although they are not considered legally binding, the rights have been incorporated into various international treaties, human rights instruments, and national constitutions. Additionally, some legal experts have argued that because countries have constantly invoked the Declaration for more than 50 years, it has become binding as a part of customary international law. The Declaration was also the first step in the process of formulating the International Bill of Human Rights, which was completed in 1966, and came into force in 1976. &nbsp;

Want to drive progress? Well, no right turns ahead! There&rsquo;s a cheeky message worth bearing in mind when you're tempted to follow those diversion signs&hellip;  Here&rsquo;s the perfect political gift for your liberal friends (and your not-so-liberal enemies!) &nbsp;

"But we know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians". This quote from Nelson Mandela comes from a speech he made during the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Pretoria, South Africa, on 4th December 1997. While we are all aware of Nelson Mandela's lifelong fight in South Africa against the horrific apartheid regime of the time, we should not forget his support and fight for the liberation of all oppressed peoples around the world, and in particular his opposition to the Israeli military occupation of Palestine, involving limits to movement of Palestinians, the displacement of thousands of families, the destruction of homes and the establishment of illegal settlements on the West Bank. UPDATE: Since the outbreak of war In October 2023, following the vicious attacks by Hamas on Israel which killed 1139 Israelis, tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed, of which, according to UNICEF, an unprecedented 40% are children. Nearly 2 million (85% of the population) are now displaced from their homes and many lack basic food and water or are starving. The United Nations has described the crisis as a "political and humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions."  For every tea towel sold we will donate &pound;1 to Medical Aid for Palestinians.

&lsquo;There is&nbsp;no gate,&nbsp;no lock,&nbsp;no&nbsp;bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.&rsquo; In 19th&nbsp;and early 20th&nbsp;century England, where women were expected to be silent, Virginia Woolf let her mind and voice be free. And it was pretty radical: experimental novels, pioneering feminism, outspoken commentaries on homosexuality and mental illness. There was no gate, no lock, no social convention, no glass ceiling that would stop her. One of the foremost modernists of the 20th century, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a central figure in the influential Bloomsbury Group of intellectuals, a group which also included the economist John Maynard Keynes and fellow writer E. M. Forster. Among her best-known works are A Room of One&rsquo;s Own, a formative series of feminist lectures, and the widely acclaimed To the Lighthouse and Mrs. Dalloway. And if you think she hadn&rsquo;t done enough for the literary world already, she also founded and ran a publishing house Hogarth, with her husband, publishing novels by Katherine Mansfield, T. S. Eliot, and Forster. Set your mind free with this inspiring literary gift!

"I will always be on the side of people who have nothing and who are not even left in peace to enjoy the nothing they have." /&nbsp;"Yo siempre ser&eacute; partidario de los que no tienen nada, y hasta la tranquilidad de la nada se les niega." So declared, Federico Garc&iacute;a Lorca (1898-1936) a Spanish theatre director,&nbsp;poet and playwright -&nbsp;arguably the most important Spanish writer of the 20th century. His works are full&nbsp;of melancholy and tragedy.&nbsp;The folklore and Gypsy culture of his native Andalusia provided much of his inspiration and subject matter, as did love, Flamenco and mortality. His best-known plays today are his trilogy 'Blood Wedding', 'Yerma' &amp; 'The House of Bernarda Alba',&nbsp;which all rebelled against the norms of bourgeois Spanish society,&nbsp;challenged the accepted role of women in society and explored taboo issues of homoeroticism and class. Among his most well known poetry are 'Poet in New York', 'Gypsy Ballads' and 'Lament for Ignacio S&aacute;nchez Mej&iacute;as'.&nbsp; Lorca was also a talented musician and artist. The design on this tea towel is based on a one of his drawings 'Self portrait in New York, 1929'. Lorca was murdered by Nationalist&nbsp;forces at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, probably&nbsp;on 19 August 1936. There is some controversy about the motives and details of Garcia Lorca's murder but it was likely a combination of his outspoken socialist views and his sexual orientation.&nbsp;His remains have never been found.

With this tea towel we have combined an image of 'The Great Wave off Kanagawa', a woodblock print by Japanese&nbsp;artist Hokusai, created in late 1831, with a quotation by Sir David Attenborough:&ldquo;The living world can&rsquo;t operate without a healthy ocean, and neither can we." Attenborough's words sum up the challenge facing our planet and remind us of the importance of the oceans in its surival. Our marine ecosystems are under enormous pressure, over a third of the world&rsquo;s fish stocks are being fished to unsustainable levels and climate change is resulting in unprecedented changes to marine biodiversity. But despite this, independent research shows the public is more aware than ever &ndash; and more worried than ever &ndash; of the threat to our oceans and there has been a marked increase in those making the connection with their own buying habits.But given the scale of the challenge, it is also essential that governments play their part in managing marine ecosystems so we can produce healthy, low-carbon protein for the world&rsquo;s growing population. The print depicts three boats moving through a storm-tossed sea, with a large wave forming a spiral in the centre and Mount Fuji visible in the background. It has been described as "possibly the most reproduced image in the history of all art", as well as being a contender for the most famous artwork in Japanese history.

Feeling rebellious? Well, here&rsquo;s a practical anarchist gift: the famous A and O symbol daubed onto a rather hastily painted red and black background &ndash; let's face it, if you're an anarchist you don't stand on ceremony. That&rsquo;s not to say anarchism is without tradition though. These colours were used by Italian anarchists as early as 1864, and diagonally divided red and black flags were popularized as anarchist symbols during the&nbsp;Spanish Civil War. The letters signify &lsquo;anarchism&rsquo; and &lsquo;order.&rsquo; Together, they stand for the notion that &lsquo;society seeks order in anarchy.&rsquo; Although the symbol first gained currency in Spain in the late 19th century, it became particularly well known when it was taken up by the British anarcho-punk movement in the 1970s. So rock on, you rebels! Let's hope that this tea towel can bring some order to the washing up!

In 1937, in the aftermath of the devastating bombardment of the town of Guernica by the Nazi and Italian fascist forces, Pablo Picasso painted his iconic masterpiece, 'Gernika' (we are using the Basque spelling). This monumental artwork stands as a powerful testament to the horrors of war and a poignant condemnation of the enemies of the Republican Spain, who supported General Franco's brutal campaign. Picasso's words echo the profound sentiment captured within the painting: "My work is a cry against war and the enemies of the Republic... I am expressing my revulsion towards the military establishment which has drowned Spain in an ocean of suffering and death." Through his artistry, Picasso channels his deep-seated revulsion and outrage, denouncing the devastating impact of conflict on innocent lives.

&lsquo;Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.&rsquo; There you go &shy;&ndash; if Albert Einstein said it, it must be true! It appears that Einstein was a vegetarian for the last 18 months of his life although his writings suggest that he was a proponent of vegetarianism for many years before that. Rightly so too &ndash; billions of animals are slaughtered for consumption every year, and this requires vast amounts of land, fuel, and water. Faced with a global climate emergency, we&rsquo;ve all got to do our part. And if Einstein says vegetarianism is part of the answer &shy;&ndash; well, they didn&rsquo;t call him a genius for nothing&hellip; Click on the 'specifications' tab for more information about this product, including material, size and care instructions. &nbsp; &nbsp;

If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.The quotation on this poster comes from the unused preface to George Orwell's 1945 novella Animal Farm.&nbsp; The quotation appears on the wall behind a&nbsp;statue of George Orwell&nbsp;by the British sculptor Martin Jennings, outside Broadcasting House, the headquarters of the BBC, in London. In his lifetime, Orwell wrote six novels and hundreds of articles, the most celebrated being Nineteen Eighty-Four&nbsp;and Animal Farm. A democratic socialist, he was deeply opposed to totalitarianism and aware of social injustice, as reflected in his works. His writing remains as pertinent today as it did when he was alive. &lsquo;Orwellian&rsquo; is now a universal shorthand for anything repressive or totalitarian; &lsquo;Big Brother&rsquo; (the totalitarian ruler from Orwell's novel Nineteen-eighty-four novel) has been the inspiration and title for a widely-known reality TV program for 20 years; and &lsquo;Newspeak&rsquo;&hellip; well, see the ongoing attempts to spread &lsquo;alternative facts&rsquo;.&nbsp;

The coronation of King Charles III in May 2023 has concentrated minds again on the legitimacy or otherwise of a monarchy in a modern, democratic state. Those lacking imagination lament that they can't think of a better system, quite forgetting that Ireland gets on very well with an elected president. And the example our monarchy sets of inherited privilege must surely meet with the disapproval of anyone who believes in a broadly equal society. Here's a tea towel that won't let you forget the issue in your kitchen - and you can always take it along with you to your next demonstration...

Along with "The Masque of Anarchy" and "England in 1819", &ldquo;Song to the&nbsp;Men of England&rdquo; was one of three highly political poems that Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote in 1819 - the year of the Peterloo Massacre in Manchester.&nbsp;

In "Song to the Men of England" Shelley urges ordinary workers to rise up and fight against the exploitation of the many by the wealthy few. The exploited working classes are compared to 'worker bees' in a hive, who collect pollen and produce honey. The wealthy class, on the other hand, are compared to 'stingless' and 'ungrateful drones' who extract labour from worker bees and reap the rewards while doing no work. Workers, meanwhile, gain nothing in return.&nbsp; Here are the first two verses, which we reproduce on our tea towel:&nbsp; &nbsp; Men of England, wherefore plough For the lords who lay ye low? Wherefore weave with toil and care The rich robes your tyrants wear? &nbsp; Wherefore feed and clothe and save From the cradle to the grave Those ungrateful drones who would Drain your sweat&mdash;nay, drink your blood? &nbsp; The image is inspired by a painting 'Farm workers sowing and tilling a hillside' by Hubert von Herkomer.

&lsquo;Was the Earth made to preserve a few covetous, proud men to live at ease; or was it made to preserve all her children?&rsquo; Civil wars and bad harvests had led to widespread unemployment and discontent during the 1640s. Disorder was reported around the country as those suffering seized grains, tore down enclosures and threatened landowners. Discontent spread to the Army as well, culminating in the&nbsp;Leveller mutinies&nbsp;of 1649. And it was against this background of protest that the True Leveller movement emerged. The True Levellers, or &lsquo;Diggers&rsquo; were the most radical of the sects that arose in the aftermath of the civil wars. Whereas other groups sought political reform or religious freedom, the True Levellers called for the overthrow of the monarchy and the abolition of private property rights in favour of the communal ownership of land. Regarding the earth as a "common treasury", the True Levellers took direct action to put their ideals into practice. The group occupied&nbsp;common land that had been enclosed, pulling down hedges and filling in ditches to plant crops, in the hope that this would begin the process of restoring the land to its rightful owners, the common people, rather than the nobility who had usurped it. This wash bag features a quote from&nbsp;Gerrard Winstanley, an English Protestant, religious reformer, political activist and one of the founders of this group.&nbsp;

It would make a brilliant bathroom accessory for left wing or progressive friends and family!&nbsp;With its sturdy lining it would also make a great pencil case.&nbsp; Click on the 'specifications' tab for more information about this product, including material, size and care instructions. &nbsp; &nbsp;

The Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth&nbsp;amendments to the US Constitution were&nbsp;adopted between 1865 and 1870 and&nbsp;were a part of implementing the Reconstruction&nbsp;of the American South&nbsp;after the war.

The illustration on our tea towel is inspired by an engraving of the celebrations in the House of Representatives after the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment on January 31st 1865.&nbsp; The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. It&nbsp;was necessary because the Emancipation Proclamation,&nbsp;issued by President Abraham Lincoln in January of 1863, did not end slavery entirely; those enslaved in border states had not been freed. The Amendment can be seen as going some way towards the fulfilment of the original ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence of 1776 which stated: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The 13th&nbsp;Amendment to the Constitution did not end&nbsp;discrimination&nbsp;against those who had been enslaved and blacks. However, it ended slavery and began the long-term goal of achieving equality for all Americans.

"Bread and Roses" is a political slogan&nbsp;as well as the name of an associated poem and song. It originated from a line in a speech given by American women's suffrage activist Helen Todd:&nbsp; "bread for all, and roses too" which also&nbsp;inspired the title of the poem&nbsp;Bread and Roses&nbsp;by James Oppenheim. The poem was first published in The American Magazine in December 1911, with the attribution line "'Bread for all, and Roses, too'&mdash;a slogan of the women in the West."&nbsp;The poem has been translated into other languages and has been set to music by at least three composers.&nbsp; Our tea towel features the original poem by James Oppenheim. There have since been other updated versions.&nbsp; The poem is closely associated with the Lawrence textile mill strike of 1912,&nbsp;which was in protest of a reduction in pay. During the strike the women mill workers carried signs that quoted the poem, reading &ldquo;We want bread, and roses, too&rdquo;.

'Bread and Roses' was set to music by Mimi Fari&ntilde;a in the 1970s, and has become an anthem for labour rights, and especially the rights of working women, in the United States and elsewhere. The 2014 film 'Pride'&nbsp;depicts the members of a Welsh mining community singing "Bread and Roses" at a National Union of Mineworkers lodge&nbsp;during the UK Miners' strike (1984-1985).&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;

Joan of Arc, the 15th century French heroine of the 100 Years War, was the obvious choice as patron saint of the Suffragettes in the early 20th century. Empowered, courageous, and a leader &shy;&shy;&ndash; what more could they want?&nbsp; The Women&rsquo;s Social and Political Union (WSPU) had split off from the National Union of Women&rsquo;s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) under the leadership of Emmeline Pankhurst in 1903, disillusioned with the low key approach of the latter. Nicknamed the &lsquo;Suffragettes&rsquo; in 1906 by a Daily Mail reporter trying to belittle their efforts, the women were persuaded that only militant tactics could win equal voting rights for women. They embraced their new nickname, even adopting it for use as the title of their newspaper in 1912. In the Suffragette colours of purple, green and white, this tea towel is based on a poster advertising this official WSPU newspaper. It was originally named 'Votes for Women', but when its editors and financers were dismissed from the movement over their growing doubts about its militant tactics in 1912, the paper was renamed and placed under Christabel Pankhurst&rsquo;s editorship. So, if you want to add a little &lsquo;Extra, extra!&rsquo; to your kitchen, this is the feminist tea towel for you!

A premium apron (measures approx length 94 x width 72cm) with adjustable neck loop and extra long ties that can be fastened in front or behind. Will fit adults of all shapes and sizes! &lsquo;When class-robbery is abolished every man will reap the fruits of his labour.&rsquo;&nbsp; With this apron we&rsquo;ve combined one William Morris&rsquo; classic designs The Strawberry Thief and a radical quote by him in a perfect marriage of his two passions: art and activism. A British artist, poet, novelist, and ardent socialist, Morris is best known as the 19th century's most celebrated textile designer, responsible for the some of the most recognisable textile patterns from the century. He was a radical in both his art and politics, refusing to follow the consensus. Disillusioned by the Victorian era's focus on dehumanising industrial systems that produced poor-quality, 'unnatural' objects, Morris championed a principle of handmade production, establishing the British Arts and Crafts Movement.&nbsp;Aware of the deep divisions in contemporary society, he declared himself a socialist, and in 1884 he helped set up a new group called the Socialist League, making frequent street-corner speeches and using his fame and artwork to further these objectives.&nbsp; Click on the 'specifications' tab for more information about this product, including material, size and care instructions.

The striking design on this tote bag is taken from a vintage 1908 poster design by Caroline Marsh Watts. It features a girl marching with a bugle, an instrument historically used to relay instructions during battle. The Bugler Girl certainly trumpeted her battle message loud and clear: against injustice, for equality. She came to be a figure which represented the suffrage movement in the ongoing struggle for the vote in early twentieth century Britain. We see these same efforts by the Bugler Girls of today: the ones who sign petitions, the ones who protest, the ones who march, the ones who persist. We now have more figures than ever to represent our feminist values. Keep the list growing, let this feminist gift serve as a reminder to speak out. Click on the 'specifications' tab for more information about this product, including material, size and care instructions.  &nbsp;

Paint the town red! The bold design on this scarlet wash bag is a handy reminder to Keep Left &shy;&ndash; while driving on the road, while walking up an escalator, and um, no other subliminal messaging of course&hellip; Here&rsquo;s the perfect political gift for liberals, left-wingers and political enthusiasts awash with some revolutionary ideas!&nbsp; This would make a great bathroom accessory for progressive or politically aware friends and family. With its sturdy lining it would also make a great pencil case.&nbsp; Click on the 'specifications' tab for more information about this product, including material, size and care instructions.

&lsquo;Was the Earth made to preserve a few covetous, proud men to live at ease; or was it made to preserve all her children?&rsquo; Civil wars and bad harvests had led to widespread unemployment and discontent during the 1640s. Disorder was reported around the country as those suffering seized grains, tore down enclosures and threatened landowners. Discontent spread to the Army as well, culminating in the Leveller mutinies of 1649. And it was against this background of protest that the True Leveller movement emerged. The True Levellers, or &lsquo;Diggers&rsquo; were the most radical of the sects that arose in the aftermath of the civil wars. Whereas other groups sought political reform or religious freedom, the True Levellers called for the overthrow of the monarchy and the abolition of private property rights in favour of the communal ownership of land. Click on the 'specifications' tab for more information about this product, including material, size and care instructions. Regarding the earth as a "common treasury", the True Levellers took direct action to put their ideals into practice. The group occupied&nbsp;common land that had been enclosed, pulling down hedges and filling in ditches to plant crops, in the hope that this would begin the process of restoring the land to its rightful owners, the common people, rather than the nobility who had usurped it. This tea cosy features a quote from Gerrard Winstanley, an English Protestant, religious reformer, political activist and one of the founders of this group.

&lsquo;For there is no friend like a sister in calm or stormy weather.&rsquo; This magnet celebrates Christina Rossetti (1830-1894), considered by many to be the greatest female poet of the 19th-century. At a time when women were largely expected to be seen, not heard, she made her mark, influencing many poets and writers that followed. Although ambivalent about women&rsquo;s suffrage itself, sisterhood and solidarity were an important part of her values. Rossetti was opposed to slavery (ongoing in the American South), cruelty to animals (animal experimentation was very common at the time), and the exploitation of girls in under-age prostitution. Her empathy and compassion for her fellow sisters, humans, and living creatures are attitudes we can all endeavour to adopt.

&ldquo;C&rsquo;est une id&eacute;e qui peut faire rire mais la seule fa&ccedil;on de lutter contre la peste, c&rsquo;est l&rsquo;honn&ecirc;tet&eacute;.&rdquo;&nbsp;&ldquo;It may seem a ridiculous idea, but the only way to fight the plague is with common decency.&rdquo; 

These words are from Albert Camus's famous novel La Peste (The Plague) published in 1947, which tells the story of a plague sweeping the French Algerian city of Oran, from the point of view of an unknown narrator. The novel, which can be read as an allegory of the struggle against Nazism,&nbsp;is considered an existentialist&nbsp;classic and&nbsp;stresses the powerlessness of the individual characters to affect their destinies, the very stuff of absurdism.&nbsp; The central character, Dr Rieux works to combat the plague simply because he is a doctor and his job is to relieve human suffering. He does not do it for any grand, religious purpose, or as part of a high-minded moral code. He is a practical man; for him decency means doing his job without any fuss, but he knows that the struggle against death is something that he can never win. Dr Rieux's words strike a chord more than ever today as we all struggle with the realities of life under lockdown, as NHS workers, carers and other key groups put their lives at risk to keep us all safe and we try to do the right thing by our families and fellow human beings.&nbsp;&nbsp;

This tea towel is based on a 1909 poster advertising Votes for Women, the official Suffragette newspaper. The design is by Hilda Dallas&nbsp;(1878-1958) and incorporates the Suffragette colours of purple, green and white. "The Suffragettes" was the nickname of the Women&rsquo;s Social and Political Union, who had broken away from the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies to pursue militant tactics under Emmeline Pankhurst. Despite the depiction of Suffragettes by their critics as &lsquo;unladylike monstrosities&rsquo;, our heroine stands empowered and elegant, comfortable in both her femininity and politics. One hundred years on, thanks to suffrage movements across the world, women can vote almost everywhere, but often their voices are still drowned out &ndash; and when they are heard they&rsquo;re threatened to be shut down as nasty women, like Hillary Clinton was in the third presidential debate of the 2016 American presidential elections. Here&rsquo;s to you, &ldquo;unladylike monstrosities&rdquo; and &ldquo;nasty women.&rdquo;&nbsp;

From humble beginnings with Keir Hardie, the first Labour party leader, to Welfare reform and the establishment of the NHS with Clement Attlee and Aneurin Bevan, to the wonderfully optimistic Tony Benn &ndash; it&rsquo;s hard to take to take your pick of your favourite historical Labour radical. Well, now you don&rsquo;t have to! Top of Form This magnet collection, containing four of our regular sized magnets, celebrates your favourite names from the history of the Labour Party, right from the party&rsquo;s foundation. It&rsquo;s not a party until the gang all show up! Cost when bought separately: &pound;24. &nbsp;

The art on this oven glove comes from a 1909 vintage poster advertising the &lsquo;official&rsquo; suffragette paper, Votes for Women. Although a simple design at first glance, the poster belonged to a wider visual campaign produced by the Women&rsquo;s Social and Political Union: one which combined colour, fashion, and radical politics. Despite the depiction of suffragettes by their critics as &lsquo;unladylike monstrosities&rsquo;, our heroine stands empowered and elegant, comfortable in both her femininity and politics.&nbsp;One hundred years on, thanks to suffrage movements across the world, women today can vote almost everywhere, but often their voices are still to be heard&nbsp;&ndash; and when they are heard they are frequently misrepresented or ignored. So here&rsquo;s your chance to show solidarity with your sisters in the fight for female equality!&nbsp; Click on the 'specifications' tab for more information about this product, including material, size and care instructions.

For the English artist and book illustrator Walter Crane, art &lsquo;was at once creative and adaptive, capable of lifting men's thoughts onto the loftiest plane.&rsquo;&nbsp; The first half of his career was dedicated to inspiring children with his book illustrations. He is considered one of the most influential children&rsquo;s book creator of his generation, substantially raising standards of book illustration. In the second half of his career he used his art to inspire the workers. He became interested in liberal politics in the 1860s and in 1884, he joined the Social Democratic Federation. A didactic element began to underlie much of his work, and he contributed weekly illustrations to the socialist periodicals&nbsp;Justice&nbsp;and&nbsp;The Commonwealth, as well as producing annual illustrations celebrating May Day &ndash; such as the one featured on this poster &shy;&ndash; for the socialist magazine&nbsp;The Clarion. As a member of the Arts and Crafts movement, Crane was in favour of social reform at the same time as condemning the dehumanising effects of industry. In this illustration for May Day 1895, Crane includes slogans that reflect this philosophy: &lsquo;the land for the people&rsquo;, &lsquo;no child toilers&rsquo;, &lsquo;production for use not for profit&rsquo;, &lsquo;the plough is a better backbone than the factory&rsquo;, &lsquo;shorten working day and lengthen life&rsquo; to name a few.

This feminist bag celebrates Emily Davison, one of Britain&rsquo;s most famous (and radical) suffragettes. It features the cover of the Suffragette Newspaper, published the day before her funeral procession in London. Davison had died on 8th June, 1913, from injuries sustained at Epsom racecourse where, four days earlier, she had stepped in front of the King's horse apparently in an attempt to attach a votes for women scarf to it. After her death, she became a martyr for the suffragette cause &ndash; but she was making waves in first-wave feminism long before then. Davison adopted radical messages to get her message out, getting more involved in the Suffragette movement&rsquo;s more militant side. After joining the WSPU in 1906, she gave up her job to become a full-time activist. She went on hunger strike a reported 49 times and was arrested 9 times. In 1911, while the Government was taking a census, she hid in a cupboard in the Houses of Parliament overnight, thus being registered as living in the palace. She used this to claim the same political rights as men. Although Davison died before she could see the fruit of her efforts, women finally gained limited voting rights in 1918 and the same rights as men in 1928. Here&rsquo;s the perfect gift for her legacy!

I am no bird; and no net ensnares me. I am a free human being with an independent will.&rsquo; The quote featured on this tea towel comes from the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bront&euml;. At 16, Bront&euml; was told to give up her dreams of being a writer because &lsquo;literature cannot be the business of a woman&rsquo;s life: and it ought not to be.&rsquo; She replied, &lsquo;I trust I shall never more feel ambitious to see my name in print.&rsquo;&nbsp; And she didn&rsquo;t falter. Despite having her first novel rejected by every publisher in England, Bront&euml; finally published Jane Eyre in 1847 under the pen name, Currer Bell. Although Jane Eyre is not a feminist novel as we would understand it, the central character has many feminist traits. She&nbsp;has the courage to defy&nbsp;the rules of the patriarchal society she inhabits.&nbsp;Her major aim in life is&nbsp;not to get married, but&nbsp;to preserve her identity and her freedom. Jane shared this aim with her creator too &ndash; Bront&euml; herself had formed a pact with her friends when she was young never to never get married, and resisted all proposals until aged 38. We hope this empowering literary gift serves as a reminder to not write women off&hellip;

&lsquo;I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.&rsquo;&nbsp; American writer, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, and historian, Henry David Thoreau explained this in his 1854 book Walden, named after the Walden Woods in which he had built his home nine years previously. The book was a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings where he declared his love of nature, simplicity, and independence. His minimalist lifestyle, he wrote, calmed the mind and provided time for thinking. And he certainly did a lot of thinking: Thoreau showed a great deal of consideration for the world around him, writing about plant specimens, animal behaviour, political philosophy, history, and for abolition. Much of his natural collection and writing was donated to the Boston Society of Natural History upon his death. So, if you&rsquo;re interested in philosophy, politics, history, or the natural world, we Thoreau-ly&nbsp;recommend this radical tea towel.

Today, women walk through the houses of Parliament, voted for by the public, by men and women with equal political rights. But it wasn&rsquo;t an easy journey to get here, and it was one that started a little further up north, more than a century ago, in the city of Manchester. This industrial city was the birthplace of the suffragettes, claiming that legacy when Emmeline Pankhurst and five other women first established the Women's Social and Political Union on&nbsp;10 October 1903 at her home in Manchester. They aimed to wage a militant campaign for women's suffrage, frustrated as they were with the cautious approach of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies. This magnet is based on a historical banner used by the Manchester branch of the WSPU; surviving banners like this from the time are extremely rare, and the original is now in the care of the People's History Museum, Manchester. Discovered in a charity shop in Leeds, where it had been for over ten years, it recently became a part of the museum&rsquo;s collection and it is recognised as one of the nation&rsquo;s most important suffragette banners. The banner provided the backdrop for some of Emmeline Pankhurst&rsquo;s most famous speeches, including a rally in Manchester&rsquo;s Heaton Park on 19 July 1908, when she spoke to a crowd of 50,000 people. Embroidered with the legend &lsquo;Manchester &ndash; First in the Fight&rsquo;, it was a powerful reminder in its day about where the suffragette movement began. Bring a bit of suffragette history into your home with this feminist gift!

William Morris was a&nbsp;British artist, poet, novelist and ardent socialist, as well as as&nbsp;the 19th century's most celebrated textile designer, who created some of the most recognisable textile patterns of the century. He&nbsp;was also a radical in both his art and politics, refusing to follow the consensus.&nbsp; Disillusioned by the Victorian era's focus on dehumanising industrial systems that produced poor-quality, 'unnatural' objects, Morris championed a principle of handmade production, establishing the British Arts and Crafts Movement.&nbsp;Aware of the deep divisions in contemporary society, he declared himself a socialist, and in 1884 he helped set up a new group called the Socialist League, making frequent street-corner speeches and using his fame and artwork to further these objectives. This pot stand is a perfect marriage of Morris's two passions: art and activism. The design is&nbsp;inspired by his 'Cherwell' design, named after a river&nbsp;whose attendant foliage had fascinated him and the&nbsp;quote comes from his surviving correspondence.&nbsp; &lsquo;I want a real revolution, a real change in society.&rsquo; &nbsp;

The tea towel design is inspired by&nbsp;Black-figure pottery, a type of Greek pottery&nbsp;that originated in Corinth around&nbsp;700&nbsp;BCE&nbsp;and continued to be popular until the advent of red-figure pottery in around&nbsp;530&nbsp;BCE.&nbsp;
 The ancient Games&nbsp;were staged in Olympia, Greece, from 776 BC through 393 AD, and the first modern Olympics&nbsp;were held in Athens, Greece, in 1896. But it wasn't until after World War II that Paralympics were first introduced, with the hope of rehabilitating injured veterans and civilians.&nbsp;The first official Paralympic Games took place in Rome, Italy, in 1960.&nbsp;
 Joey Reiman is&nbsp;an American advertising businessman and author. Following a car accident in Italy he was partially paralysed and&nbsp;lost the use of his right arm.&nbsp;Six months after his accident, Reiman entered the world of advertising and took over the&nbsp;advertising campaign for the Atlanta 1996 Paralympic Games. He was tasked with creating a campaign that would explain the Paralympics and its competitors to a US audience with no prior awareness of the Games and a predominant misunderstanding of disability. 

Reiman always considered&nbsp;the campaign for the 1996 Paralympic Movement to be one of his proudest achievements. &nbsp;

New Zealand was the first country in the world to give women the vote, in 1893, and Kate Sheppard was&nbsp;the country's most famous suffragist. She was born in Liverpool&nbsp;and&nbsp; emigrated to New Zealand with her family in 1868.&nbsp;There she became an active member of various religious and social organisations and started&nbsp;promoting women's suffrage by organising petitions and public meetings, writing letters to the press and developing contacts with politicians.&nbsp;She was the editor of 'The White Ribbon', the first woman-operated newspaper in New Zealand. Through her skilful writing, for example her pamphlets 'Ten Reasons Why the Women of New Zealand Should Vote'&nbsp;and 'Should Women Vote?'&nbsp;and her persuasive public speaking, culminating in a petition presented to parliament with 30,000 signatures calling for women's suffrage,&nbsp;there's no doubt that Kate Sheppard played a key role in the successful extension of the franchise to women&nbsp;on 19th September,&nbsp;1893.&nbsp;


"The enemy within" - that was how Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her government saw trades unions in 1980s Britain. They&nbsp;threatened the power and wealth of the rich, and must be suppressed. The Miners' Strike began&nbsp;in March 1984 when, after the Coal Board announced the closure of 20 collieries (i.e. 20,000 jobs) with five earmarked for accelerated closure. Yorkshire miners first walked out and&nbsp;on 12th&nbsp;March 1984, Arthur Scargill, leader of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), declared Union support for the Yorkshire men, effectively making the strike national.&nbsp;The last great Miners&rsquo; Strike in British history had begun.&nbsp; Thatcher&rsquo;s government used the police like an occupying army in mining areas, most infamously at the Orgreave police riot of 18th June 1984. But solidarity poured in from all sides. Other unions &ndash; the dockers, the railway workers &ndash; stood in solidarity with the NUM.&nbsp;You can read more about this support in our blog post.

This tea towel is designed in the fashion of a miners' union banner, and features the five pits earmarked for accelerated closure.

The Goose and the Common was a protest rhyme probably first coined at the end of the 17th&nbsp;century. It rails against the process of enclosure, whereby land which had been traditionally farmed&nbsp;by peasants or grazed by their livestock was enclosed for the use of the landed gentry who technically held the deeds. It thereby ceased to be land for communal use and was often made into private pasture or hunting grounds. As a consequence, vast numbers of poor were deprived of a means of feeding themselves and&nbsp; there was steady depopulation of the countryside. Various versions of this anonymous verse exist &ndash; it&rsquo;s a cry against the effects of unbridled private ownership and neoliberal values. Still relevant today, perhaps? The backdrop on this tea towel is from a painting by a 19th&nbsp;century Italian artist, Antonio Montemezzo.

Before women got the vote, men had to get it. In 1832, the Reform Act gave voting rights to the property-owning men in Britain, but the poor remained excluded. Many people wanted to go one step further, demanding universal male suffrage. These demands emerged in 1838 in the form of Chartism, a working class-movement which got its name from the People&rsquo;s Charter, featured here on this tea towel. In its six main aims, it called for more equality and transparency in the electoral system, and the first four of these goals were eventually achieved. It wasn&rsquo;t an easy battle though, despite mass support and petitions which received millions of signatures, their demands were consistently rejected by parliament. The illustration on this historical gift shows such demands in action, depicting the Chartist storming of the Westgate Hotel in Newport &shy;&ndash; probably the last large-scale armed rebellion in mainland Britain. Some 10,000 chartists with rudimentary weapons marched on the hotel, intent on freeing fellow Chartists who had been taken prisoner.&nbsp;Chartism? It&rsquo;s got our vote. We&rsquo;ve got more on the Chartist&rsquo;s fight for democracy in our blog post here! &nbsp;

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