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.
Labour history news

The Independent Labour Party at fifty: a souvenir

The booklet shown here was published by the Independent Labour Party in 1943 to mark its fiftieth anniversary. Appearing in wartime, it was necessarily restricted in scale, but still managed to pack a great deal, including nearly fifty illustrations, into its 60 A5 pages. The membership of the ILP had been in decline since its decision to disaffiliate from the Labour Party in 1932, and … Continue reading The Independent Labour Party at fifty: a souvenir

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Events, Grants

Ascott Martyrs 150th anniversary events

Early in 1873, farmworkers who had formed a branch of the National Agricultural Labourers Union at Ascott-under-Wychwood in Oxfordshire were dismissed and strikebreakers from a neighbouring village brought in. Sixteen women from Ascott who tried to persuade the strike-breakers to switch sides and join the union were arrested, tried and sentenced to imprisonment with hard labour. In the uproar that followed, the women received a … Continue reading Ascott Martyrs 150th anniversary events

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Events

Robert Rumble and the PMILSA Petition Submission to the Governor of Jamaica

In April 1938, the Poor Man’s Improvement and Land Settlement Association sent a petition to the Governor of Jamaica demanding a minimum wage for agricultural workers and peasants, and to bring an end to exploitation by the landowner, Lord Penrhyn, who managed his properties through agents in Jamaica from his home at Penrhyn Castle in North Wales. Chaired by Robert Rumble, the campaign succeeded in … Continue reading Robert Rumble and the PMILSA Petition Submission to the Governor of Jamaica

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Events

Both Sides of the Barricade: Luddite Memorial Lecture 2023

During the Luddite and Peterloo period, many radical activists were ex-servicemen of the Napoleonic Wars. This year’s Luddite Memorial Lecture, titled Both Sides of the Barricade, looked at the soldiers and ex-servicemen in early nineteenth-century popular politics. During the evening, Professor Nick Mansfield of the University of Central Lancashire, the author of a two-volume labour history of rank-and-file soldiers, highlighted many of the ‘military radicals’ … Continue reading Both Sides of the Barricade: Luddite Memorial Lecture 2023

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Documents & objects

The Chartist, his lawyer and a matter ‘of vital importance’

In 1839, the radical London Chartist George Julian Harney was out on bail awaiting trial for sedition. Two letters to his lawyer reveal his anxiety about the case and his desperate lack of cash. Mark Crail tells the story of Harney’s anxious summer. The letter shown here is filled with the angst of a man facing a possible gaol sentence and badly in need of … Continue reading The Chartist, his lawyer and a matter ‘of vital importance’

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Commentary, Labour history news

Exploring the history of the National Union of Public Employees

A series of recent articles from Historical Studies in Industrial Relations (HSIR) which explore the history of the National Union of Public Employees (NUPE) are currently free to read for a limited time. The articles are being made freely available thanks to an initiative by HSIR and Liverpool University Press. Writing on the LUP website, Steve French, a member of the journal’s editorial committee, explains … Continue reading Exploring the history of the National Union of Public Employees

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Events

Newport Chartist Convention 2023

The annual Newport Chartist Convention takes place this year on Saturday 4 November at St Woolos Cathedral, Newport. The convention runs from 9.30am to 4pm. The Convention is part of the Newport Rising Festival, which celebrates the Chartist rising of 1839, and is held annually. Speakers will include: Tickets cost £15.00 including lunch, tea and coffee, and will be available nearer to the Convention date … Continue reading Newport Chartist Convention 2023

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Books etc

Artisans Abroad: British Migrant Workers in Industrialising Europe, 1815-1870

Fabrice Bensimon, Artisans Abroad: British Migrant Workers in Industrialising Europe, 1815-1870, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023, pp. 304, h/b, £83, ISBN: 9780198835844. Between 1815 and 1870, when European industrialisation was in its infancy and Britain enjoyed a technological lead, thousands of British workers emigrated to the continent. They played a key role in sectors such as textiles, iron, mechanics, and the railways. These men and … Continue reading Artisans Abroad: British Migrant Workers in Industrialising Europe, 1815-1870

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Labour history news

Cato Street: inside the building where London’s ultra radicals met their end

The picture above shows the former stable in which London’s ultra radicals met in 1820 to plan the murder of the Cabinet and the installation of a provisional government. From the outside, the building in Cato Street, now an expensive residential area close to the busy Edgware Road, appears much as it did two hundred years ago (see below). But behind the blue plaque on … Continue reading Cato Street: inside the building where London’s ultra radicals met their end

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