Had he lived to see it, Edward Palmer (E.P.) Thompson would have turned 100 on Saturday 3 February. To mark the occasion Calderdale TUC, with support from the Society for the Study of Labour History, Yorkshire CND, Calderdale National Education Union, and the Independent Working Class Education Network, organised a celebratory commemorative event.

The venue, Trinity Sixth Form Academy, located in the town centre of Halifax – the West Yorkshire town where Thompson lived with his wife Dorothy, the historian of Chartism and fellow activist, for 17 years (1948-65) – was perfect. The large open meeting room had space for the crowd of more than 150, whilst the adjoining communal space hosted book stalls, local history stalls and stalls from Yorkshire CND, the Working Class Movement Library, IWCEN, the British Association of Local History, General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU), and others. Attendees ranged from college students relatively new to the work of the author of The Making of the English Working Class, through to those who had known the Thompsons personally.

A broad range of speakers sought to capture the diversity of Thompson’s thought and political practice. Poignantly, Julian Harber opened the event by reflecting on his personal association with Thompson, covering especially well aspects of Thompson’s life in Halifax, his educational work and his CND activism. Julian’s fine talk has since been published by Verso here. Next, Hugo Radice gave an excellent account of Thompson’s time at Warwick and his work on the book Warwick University Ltd, as well as his activism around the question of the ‘business university’ and the corporate capture of education. Following this, Judy Cox discussed Thompson’s work in the context of socialist-feminist historiography, engaging with critiques of Thompson but arguing ultimately that his approach to history from below provided a framework and an inspiration – imperfect but nevertheless important – for socialist-feminist work that followed The Making.

Gawain Little, General Secretary of the GFTU, argued that Thompson serves as an inspiration for the political-educational and organising work that trade unions must recommit to, and Colin Waugh situated Thompson within competing traditions of independent working class education. Then followed Jane Mayes discussing short but fascinating extracts from the correspondence between her and Thompson during and after her time as chair of the international committee of CND. Penelope Corfield closed the central session with a powerfully charged argument for the importance of passion, perseverance and power to any attempt at understanding Thompson, his life and legacy.

One thing that quickly became clear from this session was that Thompson’s letters could be deeply personal, provocative and at times hurtful… but that this was a reflection of his passionate political and intellectual commitment, and that any hurt derived from such correspondence could sometimes – though certainly not always – be overcome or, at least, reduced through continued engagement and correspondence. Corfield, herself on the receiving end of such letters, noted that writing – including in correspondence – was how Thompson thought, and that setting down his disagreements on paper was fundamental to his passionate engagement with ideas and with the world.

The day ended with two perfectly pitched contributions. First, Tariq Ali joined us to deliver a wide-ranging, politically incisive and hugely engaging remotely-delivered presentation that situated Thompson firmly within the socialist and internationalist politics of the past and present, drawing on his writings about Blake and quoting also Thompson’s reflections on Tommy Steele’s song Doomsday Rock as a route in to understanding how Thompson engaged with the politics of war, violence, and nuclear weapons, and how such thinking might help us find clear political lines in our own turbulent and conflict-ridden times.

The day closed with Katrina Navickas, whose superb contribution engaged with the historiography around Thompson’s work and made an argument about neo-Thompsonian directions for future politically-engaged historical work. In her advocacy for place-based but diverse and diffuse approaches to labour and social histories that attend sensitively to the importance of culture without descending into non-materialist and apolitical abstraction, Navickas captured the mood of the day. During the discussion, it was agreed to explore using this event to try and initiate a network of politically-engaged educators, trades unionists and others across the country to communicate and share resources and materials around local labour history studies and commemorative events. A proposal was also made by Trevor Fisher to collaborate on a renewed digital repository to collect Thompson’s writings, some of which have become difficult to access over time.

Attendees came from far and wide, and included retired politics teachers from Exeter and representatives of Bridgwater TUC in Somerset, whose solidarity message and incisive contributions were much-valued. Others included former miners who had been first given E.P. Thompson’s The Making to read as part of an NUM educational course, alongside West Yorkshire residents who keenly recalled the value Thompson placed on local worker-intellectuals such as Tim Enright, from Halifax, and Dorothy and Joseph Greenald from the Spen Valley, all of whom are acknowledged early on in The Making.

Once the conference formalities were complete, many delegates retired to the Grayston Unity pub for a social, during which Calderdale TUC’s film Bread Not Bayonets, about Halifax Chartists and the Great Strike of 1842, was shown. For those that couldn’t attend, the film can be seen below. A film is also being made to capture aspects of the E.P. Thompson centenary, and thanks are due to Dave Hackney and Mark Metcalf for their efforts with this.

Since the event, several pieces have been published about Thompson, including by Kenan Malik in the Observer and Owen Dowling in Tribune.

Calderdale TUC and the SSLH thank all involved in organising, attending or speaking at the event.

Daniel Whittall is Chair of Calderdale TUC.