In our continuing series on places in labour history, Mike Mecham argues that West Ham and Canning Town in East London form a cornerstone of the British labour movement. There is a good case for West Ham, in East London, being recognized as the cornerstone of the British labour movement and of political radicalism more generally. For Caroline Benn, in her biography of Keir Hardie, … Continue reading West Ham: a place in labour history
The Society for the Study of Labour History has created a guide to sources for co-operative history in the UK. Compiled by the Society’s Archives and Resources Committee, the guide includes information on the major archives and their holdings on this topic. First published December 2025. The guide aims to help researchers find material relating to the co-operative movement across UK archives and museums. It … Continue reading Sources for Co-operative History in the UK
It has been a big year for labour history journals with both the North West History Journal and Saothar marking their fiftieth issues, and Scottish Labour History publishing its sixtieth edition. This roundup looks at the latest journals published by: Scotland Introducing the 2025 issue of Scottish Labour History, Stewart Maclennan, chair of the Scottish Labour History Society notes that this year sees both the … Continue reading Labour history journals 2025
Liverpool University Press, the Society’s publishing partners in the Studies in Labour History book series, are offering up to 50% off print and ebooks in their Winter Sale. Use discount code 27WINTER at checkout on their website before Thursday 18 December 2025. Click here. Find out more about the Studies in Labour History book series. Continue reading Half price history books for Christmas 2025
In our continuing series on places in labour history, Mark Crail visits a rural churchyard to pay his respects to the first translator of the Communist Manifesto. Drive along the narrow country lanes of Cheshire for far enough that you begin to question whether your satnav is working properly and you will eventually come across St Michael’s Church in the small, scattered settlement of Baddiley. … Continue reading Baddiley churchyard: a place in labour history
In the second part of our series on places in labour history, Jane Donaldson recalls the great co-operative movement pageant held at Wembley Stadium in London in 1938. Wembley Stadium is known for hosting football tournaments and other sports events, but in 1938, it was host to a large Co-operative Pageant called ‘Towards Tomorrow.’ Held during International Co-operative Day, on 7 July 1938, it was … Continue reading Wembley Stadium: a place in labour history
In the first of a series of articles on places of significance in labour history, Duncan Hamilton tells the story of the Durham Miners’ Gala’s long association with the County Hotel. On the corner of Old Elvet and New Elvet in the city of Durham sits the Royal County Hotel. The Grade II listed building is an amalgam of upper-class housing from the late eighteenth … Continue reading County Hotel, Durham: a place in labour history
Florencia D’Uva of Universidad de Bueons Aires has been awarded the Labour History Review Post-Graduate Essay Prize for 2025. James Squires of Sheffield Hallam University has been named runner up. LHR editor Professor Peter Gurney presented Dr Uva with her winner’s cheque for £700 at an event held by the Society for the Study of Labour History at the Marx Memorial Library on Saturday 29 … Continue reading SSLH honours Labour History Review essay prize winners 2025
In the 1920s, the Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union of Africa (ICU) emerged as a significant force in Southern Africa, organising as many as a quarter of a million workers throughout throughout South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho and Zimbabwe. Its general secretary, Clements Kadalie, was like many of those in the ICU leadership, himself a migrant, from Malawi. A famed orator, journalist and trade union organiser, … Continue reading Book launch: Clements Kadalie and the militant migrant workers of South Africa
Gavin McCann is researching a book on trade unions and education. Here he writes about his visit to the South Wales Miners’ Library in search of a lost culture of socialist education. ‘I was in a second-hand bookshop in Cambridge — it would have been 73-74 — and came across two volumes of the history of the mining industry. I thought, bloody hell, where has … Continue reading Gavin McCann on the libraries of the South Wales miners
Society for the Study of Labour History 