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.
Events

Marking the Great Preston Lockout 170 years on

The Great Preston Strike and Lockout was a momentous national event. It began as a series of isolated strikes at a small number of mills in August/September 1853, and became a general lockout involving most textile operatives that October. It once again became a strike in February 1854, though this time on a much larger scale, and continued until May 1854. The dispute was immortalized … Continue reading Marking the Great Preston Lockout 170 years on

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Events, Grants

Conference report: Essex and the 1984-85 miners’ strike

Paul Topley reports on a one-day event that brought together Essex trade unionists and others involved in supporting the 1984-85 miners’ strike. A one-day conference on the role of the Essex labour movement in supporting striking miners during the strike of 1984-85 took place on Saturday 9 March. Organised by Essex Association of Trades Councils, with financial support from the Society for the Study of … Continue reading Conference report: Essex and the 1984-85 miners’ strike

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Commentary, Labour history news

‘The most fruitful period in the history of the British left’?: Communists and the Popular Front in the 1930s

In ‘“The most fruitful period in the history of the British left”[1]?: Communists and the Popular Front in the 1930s’, John McIlroy and Alan Campbell introduce a brace of recent articles examining the Comintern, the British Communist Party (CPGB) and the Popular Front in Britain, France and Spain between 1935 and 1939. The Popular Front policy which was put together through 1934 and formally adopted … Continue reading ‘The most fruitful period in the history of the British left’?: Communists and the Popular Front in the 1930s

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Labour history news

WCML gets £100k Big Flame grant

The Working Class Movement Library has been awarded £99,847 to fund a project opening up access to its records of the Big Flame revolutionary group. Started in Liverpool in 1970, Big Flame was a revolutionary socialist group with a feminist, anti-racist, internationalist vision that emphasized mass class engagement and prioritized non-sectarian, non-authoritarian community organizing and political methods. It spread to Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Nottingham and … Continue reading WCML gets £100k Big Flame grant

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Events

Online classes in labour history at MML

The Marx Memorial Library is offering a course of six consecutive online classes in labour movement history spanning two centuries and with a focus on race and empire. Run by Professor Mary Davis, professor of labour history and secretary of the Marx Memorial Library, the first lecture is on 19 March, at a cost of £30 (£15 concessions) for all six classes. The series covers: … Continue reading Online classes in labour history at MML

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Commentary, Labour history news

Inside the NUM archive: 150 years of coal mining history

With the National Union of Mineworkers’ archive now transferred to the Modern Records Centre, work is under way to catalogue this vast collection and decide how it can best be made available to researchers and mining communities. Mark Crail reports on the story so far. On a chilly morning in January 2023, a lorry drew up outside the Modern Records Centre at the University of … Continue reading Inside the NUM archive: 150 years of coal mining history

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Documents & objects, Labour history news

Forty years on: selections from the NUM archive mark the start of the miners’ strike

Forty years on from the start of the 1984-85 miners’ strike, a selection of material from the National Union of Mineworkers’ archive has gone online. Digitised and published by the Modern Records Centre at the University of Warwick, the selection runs to 95 leaflets, bulletins and other items of ephemera. The collection’s emphasis is on the NUM at local and national level, and the support … Continue reading Forty years on: selections from the NUM archive mark the start of the miners’ strike

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Books etc, Commentary

British society in crisis: from 1970s globalisation to the Brexit referendum

Britain has experienced continual crises for half a century, argues Neville Kirk. His new book examines the development of neo-liberal globalisation from the 1970s; the financial crash and its systemic effects from 2007 to 2009; and the ‘present crisis’ beginning in 2010. Here he introduces the book and the three crises at its heart. We currently live in a period often described, since 2022, as … Continue reading British society in crisis: from 1970s globalisation to the Brexit referendum

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Advice & reference, Annual guides

Additions to labour history archive collections 2023

Every year the SSLH-Archives and Resources Committee publishes a guide to new labour history accessions in UK archives for the previous twelve months. The latest guide, for 2023, has now been published and can be freely downloaded below. Among the largest new additions to the archives this year is a collection of 100 boxes of material on political songs, including songsheets, vinyl records, journals and … Continue reading Additions to labour history archive collections 2023

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