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, Notes & queries

‘Your Britain’: Labour’s programme for a general election that never was?

Labour’s policy document offers a radical programme for government, and presents it in persuasive language and an attractive package. But Mark Crail wonders whether anyone can put a firm date on it. ‘A Labour Council has built this pleasant estate of happy homes for the people,’ declares the caption on the front of this vintage Labour Party magazine. Printed in bright colours, and with its … Continue reading ‘Your Britain’: Labour’s programme for a general election that never was?

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Events

‘Singing Sweet Liberty’: Michael Sanders’ inaugural professorial lecture

Mike Sanders, Professor of Nineteenth Century Literature & Culture at the University of Manchester and a member of the Society’s executive committee, delivered his inaugural professorial lecture at the John Rylands Library on Wednesday 31 May. The lecture was titled ‘Singing Sweet Liberty’: John Stafford and the creation of radical memory from Luddism to Chartism. The lecture explored the role played by song in creating … Continue reading ‘Singing Sweet Liberty’: Michael Sanders’ inaugural professorial lecture

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Events

Collective action, associational culture and the politics of organisation in Britain and Ireland, c.1790-1914

Save the date for a two-day conference at Durham University this summer titled ‘Organise! Organise! Organise! Collective Action, Associational Culture and the Politics of Organisation in Britain and Ireland, c.1790-1914’. REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN. Registration closes 17 July 2023. All are also welcome to attend the book launch for Henry Miller’s A Nation of Petitioners: Petitions and Petitioning in the United Kingdom, 1780-1918 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023). … Continue reading Collective action, associational culture and the politics of organisation in Britain and Ireland, c.1790-1914

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Labour history news, SSLH news

The Gallows Pole: how a community of weavers nearly crashed the economy

A television drama that tells the extraordinary story of the Cragg Vale Coiners is now on BBC iPlayer. And you may just spot a familiar face in the cast. Even by the standards of the day, life in the Pennines weaving communities of Cragg Vale in the second half of the eighteenth century could be tough. But in the 1760s, this isolated valley, close to … Continue reading The Gallows Pole: how a community of weavers nearly crashed the economy

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Events, Grants

Compassion and care: emotions and experience in the care of children through history

Kate Gibson reports on a conference that explored the richness and diversity of current research into experiences of care, and the need for researchers to reflect on the way they approach and interpret archives of care. The Society for the Study of Labour History funded five bursaries to enable postgraduates to attend the conference ‘Compassion and Care: Emotions and Experience in the Care of Children … Continue reading Compassion and care: emotions and experience in the care of children through history

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Bursary reports, Grants

The Indian Factories Act 1881 and workers’ rights

Pressure to limit working hours in India’s textile factories came from a variety of sources, as Suramya Thekke Kalathil explains. I received a grant from the Society for the Study of Labour History to attend the European Social Science History Conference at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. The conference was jointly organized by the International Institute of Social History and University of Gothenburg and took … Continue reading The Indian Factories Act 1881 and workers’ rights

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Events

Commemorating British labour history: a triple anniversary

This is a year of labour history anniversaries. Both the Modern Records Centre at the University of Warwick and the South Wales Miners Library at Swansea University hit their fiftieth birthdays in 2023, while the august Marx Memorial Library reaches its ninetieth. The three organisations are organising a joint online symposium titled Commemorating British Labour History: Foundations and Future Plans with talks that celebrate the … Continue reading Commemorating British labour history: a triple anniversary

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Events

Visions of labour and class in Ireland and Europe

The Irish Labour History Society (ILHS), with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) and its Northern Ireland Committee, is holding its third international conference in Dublin from 14-17 September 2023. The event will feature national and international experts and labour movement practitioners in over 30 events at four venues. Titled Visions of Labour and Class in Ireland and Europe, the conference will include 10 … Continue reading Visions of labour and class in Ireland and Europe

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Labour history news

Ireland’s President marks fifty years of the Irish Labour History Society

The President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, has planted a tree and unveiled a commemorative plaque in memory of trade union and labour leader Tom Johnson, author of the Democratic Programme of the First Dáil, at an event to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Irish Labour History Society (ILHS). Tom Johnson, who was born in Liverpool on 17 May 1872, died sixty years ago … Continue reading Ireland’s President marks fifty years of the Irish Labour History Society

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