Author: EditorMC

I am a former journalist by trade, turned labour and family historian with a special interest in Chartism. I launched the Chartist Ancestors website since 2003, and am currently a member of the Society for the Study of Labour History executive committee, managing its website and social media in my free time.
Documents & objects, Events

PHM to unveil 2025 banners exhibition

The People’s History Museum 2025 Banner Exhibition opens on Saturday 18 January. Running until 29 December 2025, the exhibition includes banners produced by trade unions, political parties, the co-operative movement, peace campaigns and others over more than a century of campaigning. Among the historic trade union banners represented in this year’s exhibition is that of the National Union of Railwaymen, Hither Green branch banner, made … Continue reading PHM to unveil 2025 banners exhibition

Unknown's avatarEditorMC
Books etc

The Journalism and Writing of Madeline Alberta Linford

Michael Herbert (ed.), “M.A.L” The Journalism and Writing of Madeline Alberta Linford, self-published through Lulu.com and available here, 2024, p/b, pp. 540, £15.99, ISBN 978 14452 05465 Madeline Linford (1895-1975) was a pioneer. She was the first woman on the editorial staff of the Manchester Guardian and edited the first women’s page for the paper from 1922 to 1939. (‘Women’s World’ columns, often merely sops … Continue reading The Journalism and Writing of Madeline Alberta Linford

Unknown's avatarEditorMC
Labour history news

Ten labour history anniversaries in 2025

Our annual review of labour history anniversaries takes in the shifting legal framework for trade unions, the first legislation on sex discrimination and equal pay, and the lead up to the General Strike. It starts, however, in 1775 with Thomas Paine, the author of The Rights of Man, and ends in 2000 with the Human Rights Act coming into force. Continue reading Ten labour history anniversaries in 2025

Unknown's avatarEditorMC
Labour history news

Labour history journals round-up, 2024

Labour history societies throughout the UK and beyond have published the year-end editions of their journals for 2025. Here we offer a summary of their contents. The round-up includes the journals of : North West Labour History SocietyNorth East Labour History SocietyScottish Labour History SocietyIrish Labour History SocietyAustralian Labour History Society North West History Journal – North West Labour History Society The front cover of … Continue reading Labour history journals round-up, 2024

Unknown's avatarEditorMC
Events, Grants

Beyond the Fragments: 45 Years On

Earlier this year, a one-day conference was held to mark 45 years since the publication of the seminal socialist-feminist text, Beyond the Fragments: Feminism and the Making of Socialism. Co-authored by Sheila Rowbotham, Lynne Segal and Hilary Wainwright, the book argued that the Women’s Liberation Movement offered a unique insight for socialist organising at the end of the 1970s, found not just in theory, but … Continue reading Beyond the Fragments: 45 Years On

Unknown's avatarEditorMC
Commentary

Class Encounters: Thomas Hepburn, pitmen’s union leader

In the final part of our series on meetings with figures from labour history, Quentin Outram tells the story of miners’ leader Thomas Hepburn’s encounter with mine owner Lord Londonderry, and the two men’s very different lives. Thomas Hepburn (1796-1864) and Charles William Vane, formerly Stewart, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, KG, GCB, GCH, PC (1778-1854) ‘Where is this great man of yours, your leader Hepburn?’ … Continue reading Class Encounters: Thomas Hepburn, pitmen’s union leader

Unknown's avatarEditorMC
Commentary

Class Encounters: Walter Hannington unemployed workers activist

In the twelfth of our series on meetings with figures from labour history, Gregory Billam encounters Walter Hannington of the National Unemployed Workers’ Movement. Walter Hannington was a young toolmaker from Camden, best known as the National Secretary of the National Unemployed Workers’ Movement (NUWM) during the interwar period. The 1930s, often popularly referred to as the ‘Hungry Thirties’, was a period marked by high … Continue reading Class Encounters: Walter Hannington unemployed workers activist

Unknown's avatarEditorMC
Commentary

Class Encounters: A.V. Alexander, co-operator

In the eleventh of our series on meetings with figures from labour history, Jane Donaldson encounters co-operator, government minister and peer A.V. Alexander. My place of work at the Co-op Archives in Holyoake House in Manchester is among many buildings in an area still known sometimes as the Co-operative Quarter and I am surrounded by collections which tell the history of the co-operative movement. Holyoake … Continue reading Class Encounters: A.V. Alexander, co-operator

Unknown's avatarEditorMC
Commentary

Class Encounters: Gwendolyn Adams de Puertas, Spanish civil war activist

In the tenth of our series on meetings with figures from labour history, Liz Wood encounters the Shropshire-born nurse and anti-Franco activist Gwendolyn de Puertas. I first encountered the distinctively named Gertrude Gwendolyn Adams de Puertas about twelve years ago, when digitising Trades Union Congress archives on the Spanish Civil War. Gwendolyn Adams, a Shropshire plumber’s daughter and teenage milliner’s apprentice, was born in 1895. … Continue reading Class Encounters: Gwendolyn Adams de Puertas, Spanish civil war activist

Unknown's avatarEditorMC