Sean Creighton, who has died aged 76, was a community activist and independent historian who worked extensively on the working-class history of his native South London, and in particular on Black history in the area, but also made a significant and lasting contribution to the study of labour history in the North East of England. Born in Wandsworth, Sean gained a history degree from the … Continue reading Sean Creighton (1947 – 2024)
Billed as ‘a day-long, co-productive community conversation, about Abolition, Birmingham, and Commemoration’, and convened and chaired by Dr Nathaniel Adam Tobias Coleman, Undoing 2007; Preparing for 2038 will take place on Saturday 1 June at The Exchange, 3 Centenary Square, Birmingham B1 2DR. The event takes as its starting point the ‘deception’ of the abolition of the slave trade in 1807, and of ‘the state-sponsored jingoistic jamboree … Continue reading Undoing 2007; Preparing for 2038: Abolition, Birmingham and Commemoration
In 1966, the last general election to be captured on black and white newsreel by British Pathé saw Harold Wilson’s Labour government win a landslide victory, taking 48% of the vote and winning an overall majority of 98. A newsreel from election night shows revellers thronging Trafalgar Square and splashing through the fountains, while at the party’s headquarters in Transport House, Minister of Labour Ray … Continue reading ‘Labour Romps Home’ in last black and white general election
Two panel discussions hosted by the Marx Memorial Library and Workers’ School on the legacy of the 1984-85 miners’ strike are now available as podcasts on the Library’s Spotify channel The Miners’ Strike 40 Years On: State Repression, Solidarity and Civil Defence explores the role of the law, the state and communities in the 1984-85 miners’ strike with Lord John Hendy KC on the role … Continue reading Solidarity, the law and how history preserves the memory of the 1984-85 miners’ strike
Mike Sanders reports from a conference and exhibition marking a nine-months long industrial dispute that shaped the work of Charles Dickens and Elizabeth Gaskell. 2023 sees the 170th anniversary of the start of the Preston Lockout which began as a series of isolated strikes in August/September 1853 and became a general lockout in October 1853 before reverting to a strike in February 1854 which lasted … Continue reading Remembering the Preston Lockout 170 years on
This year, Liverpool University Press (LUP) is celebrating its 125th anniversary. To mark this occasion, it has created a conference attendance bursary for early career researchers in cooperation with the Society for the Study of Labour History (SSLH). LUP and SSLH have longstanding links as the press publishes the society’s journal, Labour History Review as well as its ‘Studies in Labour History’ book series. The bursary is worth £ 300, which can … Continue reading LUP anniversary: labour history conference bursary for early-career researchers
The Irish Labour History Society (ILHS) embarked on an ambitious programme to mark its fiftieth anniversary involving an international conference in Dublin titled ‘Visions of Labour and Class’ and a collection of essays exploring the role of labour history in Irish historical narratives – Labour History in Irish History (reviewed in Labour History Review). Both were graced by the involvement of Irish President, Michael D. … Continue reading Visions of labour and class in Ireland and Europe: conference proceedings
My dissertation considers how innovative theatre and cinema produced across Spain and Britain during the Spanish Civil War mobilised new audiences to engage with political propaganda. The final chapter considers the actions of Unity Theatre to reach working-class communities and contest national policies of non-intervention. The bursary allowed me to visit four archives in Manchester and London: the Working Class Movement Library (WCML) in Salford, … Continue reading Callum Campbell (Northumbria) on Unity Theatre and the Spanish Civil War
May Day 1978 dawned cold and wet. In terms of the weather at least, and in typical bank holiday style, it then went downhill from there, as meteorologists reported the rainiest 1 May since records began, while temperatures struggled to rise above 6C. Scotland had enjoyed (if that is the word) a public holiday at the start of May since 1871, but it was not … Continue reading Britain celebrates its first May Day bank holiday, 1978
Seventeen volumes of papers, photographs and other records collected by the former Labour Party leader George Lansbury and his biographer and son-in-law Raymond Postgate have now been digitized and made available online by the LSE Library. This vast archive, which covers the period 1877 to 1955 (from when Lansbury turned eighteen until sometime after his death in 1940 at the age of eighty-one), includes both … Continue reading George Lansbury archives are now online
Society for the Study of Labour History 