Immediately after the second World War a lot of left-wing activism was centred around the Spinners Hall. Some of the Bolton demonstrators at a 1968 anti-Vietnam war demo in London
However, as the cotton industry went into terminal decline, more unions and groups began to use the Club for their committee and general meetings and to organise in various ways.
In the mid-60s an anti-Vietnam war group met at the club to organise local demonstrations and coach trips to take people to the national ones.
Similarly, the Bolton committee of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) met informally in the club to produce and organise leaflet drops, demonstrations and trips to national marches and rallies.
In 1969, a group called 'The Libertarian Circle' met at the club for about four years.
A rare photograph of Paul HarrisThe brain-child of Paul Harris, it began as a broad based coalition composed of Anarchists, Labour Party Young Socialists, SPGB members, International Socialists, non-aligned individuals and, perhaps surprisingly, some young Liberals. With so many predictably diverse points of views, it would seem obvious that the group was doomed to fail eventually but, even though there was a great deal of heated exchanges, it was surprisingly successful.
Apart from Bill McKinney and Paul Harris who were in their mid-twenties, most of the people involved were under twenty years old, though most had already been involved in counter-culture politics for some time.
The group aimed to develop a radical presence in town and, amongst other things, instigated:
a campaign agaist the Biafra genocide, A Claimants Union (with SPGB), a successful free speech campaign, a work creating initiative (Workpiece), a debating chamber (Mouthpiece), a help bureau for young people (Concern), a shelter for young people (Nightpiece) and an alternative newspaper (Bolton Free Press).