More than sixty years after his death, Aneurin Bevan remains a core figure in the story of the Labour Party and the left. A book by Nye Davies that sets out to explore Bevan’s political thinking appears this autumn and is to be launched at an event hosted by Llafur, the Welsh People’s History Society, in Bevan’s home town of Tredegar. Published by the University … Continue reading Book launch: the political thought of Aneurin Bevan
Chartism Day 2024 took place at the University of Reading. One hundred years on from the birth of the great Chartist historian Dorothy Thompson, the event sought to honour her intellectual legacy with a wide-ranging selection of papers that highlighted the field’s continuing vigour. Dorothy Thompson was ‘formidable’, and would not have minded in the least being described as such, Dr Joan Allen told delegates … Continue reading Chartism Day 2024 report: centennial event in honour of Dorothy Thompson’s intellectual legacy
The Northern Star was the paper that made Chartism. In addition to providing news of the movement’s activities locally and nationally, and a forum for ideas and debate, it created a great national political community, and both organised and mobilised its readers behind the Charter and other radical causes. From its launch at the tail end of 1837 until its relocation to London in 1844, … Continue reading A blue plaque for the Chartist Northern Star
‘Are you a socialist?’ enquired the Independent Labour Party in a recruitment leaflet published in March 1909. It went on to list six questions about the reader’s beliefs, to which, if the answer were to be ‘yes’, the appropriate course of action would be to join the ILP and help carry its principles into effect. The leaflet itself is of little significance. It includes an … Continue reading Are you a socialist? The ILP’s six-point test for would-be members
A photographic exhibition marking the fortieth anniversary of the miners’ strike of 1984-85 opens on 20 September 2024 at Four Corners in Bethnal Green, London. It offers free entry, and runs until 19 October. Continue reading ONE YEAR! Photographs from the miners’ strike, 1984-1985
The Society for the Study of Labour History has halted its use of the X social media platform (formerly known as Twitter). We will, instead, focus social media efforts on Facebook and Bluesky, where the Society already has a significant presence. The Society has published the statement below to the X account along with links to other places where we can be found online. The … Continue reading Society quits X for more positive online spaces
My dissertation project aims to understand how peace activists at the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp in Berkshire, interacted and worked with fellow political activists at local and national levels, but also across national borders during the Cold War of the 1980s. An important aspect of this concerns the link between the peace women of Greenham Common and female activists in the National Union of … Continue reading Will Graham (Northumbria): Greenham Common peace camp activists, the NUM and Women Against Pit Closures
Chartism Day 2024 takes place on 7 September 2024. Online registration is now open. Continue reading Register now for Chartism Day 2024
The Scottish Labour History Society has published seven videos from its John Maclean Centenary Conference to its YouTube channel. Continue reading Conference videos: John Maclean, Celtic Communism and Red Clydeside
The small copper token shown here is one of a vast number produced by the Newcastle-born radical Thomas Spence and distributed from his London bookshop, The Hive of Liberty, in High Holborn. Continue reading Thomas Spence and a radical propaganda token from eighteenth century London
Society for the Study of Labour History 