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, SSLH news

Emmet O’Connor on Jim Larkin: sign up now for the John Halstead Memorial Lecture

Dr Emmet O’Connor is to deliver the Society for the Study of Labour History’s first annual John Halstead Memorial Lecture on the topic of Jim Larkin, the Irish socialist and trade union leader. The event takes place on Saturday 29 October at 2.30pm, and all are invited to join us for the online event. REGISTRATION FOR THIS EVENT IS NOW CLOSED AbstractHow British was Big Jim Larkin? How … Continue reading Emmet O’Connor on Jim Larkin: sign up now for the John Halstead Memorial Lecture

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Labour History Review

Labour History Review Volume 87 (2022), Issue 2

Labour History Review Volume 87 (2022), Issue 2 has now been published. Contemporary images of the 1926 General Strike often show smiling volunteers good-naturedly going about the business of keeping the country running. In this issue of Labour History Review, Liam Ryan explores the involvement of often middle-class strike breakers in the period 1911-1926 and lifts the lid on the unexplored darker and often violent … Continue reading Labour History Review Volume 87 (2022), Issue 2

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Labour History Review

Citizen strike breakers: volunteers, strikes and the state in Britain, 1911-1926

Author: Liam RyanThis is the abstract of an article published in Labour History Review (2022), 87, (2), 109-140. Read more. This article provides the first systematic historical study of volunteer strike-breaking across a relatively broad time frame, focusing specifically on the period between 1911 and 1926. These years bore witness to the largest industrial conflict in British history, encompassing the Great Labour Unrest of 1911-14, … Continue reading Citizen strike breakers: volunteers, strikes and the state in Britain, 1911-1926

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Labour History Review

Bolshevization, Stalinization, and Party Ritual: The Congresses of the Communist Party of Great Britain, 1920-1943

Author: Kevin MorganThis is the abstract of an article published in Labour History Review (2022), 87, (2), 141-182. Read more. This paper examines the national congresses of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) in the period of the Communist International (1919-43). Both in Britain and internationally, communist party congresses in this period lost any independent decision-making role and became a mechanism activated and controlled … Continue reading Bolshevization, Stalinization, and Party Ritual: The Congresses of the Communist Party of Great Britain, 1920-1943

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Labour History Review

‘The Bricks and Mortar of All Policy Areas Which Concern Government’: Statistics and the Labour Force Survey at its UK Origins

Author: Linda ArchThis is the abstract of an article published in Labour History Review (2022), 87, (2), 183-211. Read more. On 1 January 1973, the UK joined the European Economic Community and, in its capacity as a member state, conducted a Labour Force Survey in that year for the first time. The purpose of this article is to contribute to the history of the Labour … Continue reading ‘The Bricks and Mortar of All Policy Areas Which Concern Government’: Statistics and the Labour Force Survey at its UK Origins

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Labour History Review

Book reviews in Labour History Review Volume 87 (2022), Issue 2

The books listed below are reviewed in Labour History Review (2022), 87, (2), 213-225. Find out more. Peter Gurney reviews Ian Gasse, Something to Build On: The Co-operative Movement in Dumfries, 1847-1914, Dumfries: the author, in association with the Scottish Labour History Society, 2021, pp. xvi + 240, h/b, £18, ISBN 978 19163 05021 Quentin Outram reviews Laura Humphreys, Globalising Housework: Domestic Labour in Middle-Class London Homes, 1850-1914, … Continue reading Book reviews in Labour History Review Volume 87 (2022), Issue 2

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Documents & objects

From Joe Hill to the Man Who Waters the Workers’ Beer: a Labour Party song book

In 1955, as Little Richard tore up the norms of popular music with the opening ‘a wop-bop-a-loo-bop-a-wop-bam-boom’ of Tutti Frutti, the Labour Party reissued its song book. Eschewing the musical revolution then making its way across the Atlantic, the party instead drew on the ‘old favourites’ Continue reading From Joe Hill to the Man Who Waters the Workers’ Beer: a Labour Party song book

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Bursary reports, MA & BA bursaries

Jay Kerslake (Leeds) on the role of poetry in The Woman Worker

Trade unionism, prior to the First World War, can easily appear a solely male occupation. Female workers were excluded from many unions on grounds of sex and subsequently despised by many of their male peers for driving down wages. This made women especially vulnerable to exploitative labour practices and also weakened male union action, which was undercut by cheap, unorganised female labour. In 1906 Mary … Continue reading Jay Kerslake (Leeds) on the role of poetry in The Woman Worker

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Bursary reports, Research bursaries

Siân Davies (Edinburgh) on the Pennant family and the labour history of their estates in North Wales and Jamaica c1780-c1900

The Pennant family owned and managed sugar plantations in Jamaica, worked on by enslaved, indentured and later free labourers. From the 1780s onwards the family also ran Penrhyn Quarry in North Wales. The Penrhyn Quarry lockout from 1900-1903 is notorious in the area. I knew from a young age that members of the community still resented the Pennant name for their treatment of the quarrying … Continue reading Siân Davies (Edinburgh) on the Pennant family and the labour history of their estates in North Wales and Jamaica c1780-c1900

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Events

The great strike of 1842: Halifax’s Peterloo?

Calderdale Trades Council and Calderdale Industrial Museum are teaming up this Sunday (17 July) to host a free public meeting at the museum on ‘The Great Strike of 1842: Halifax’s Peterloo?’ The event is supported by the Society for the Study of Labour History. This event is being held in person and there are limited tickets – please only book a ticket if you are … Continue reading The great strike of 1842: Halifax’s Peterloo?

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