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 Review

Book reviews in Labour History Review Volume 86 (2021), Issue 1

The books listed below are reviewed in Labour History Review (2021), 86, (1), 145-164. Find out more. W.W.J. Knox (University of St Andrews) and A. McKinlay (Newcastle University). Response by the authors to the review of Jimmy Reid: A Clyde-Built Man by Roger Seifert in Labour History Review, 85 (2-2-), 212-15 Dr Joan Allen (Newcastle University) reviewsMarie Fedelma Cross, In the Footsteps of Flora Tristan: A … Continue reading Book reviews in Labour History Review Volume 86 (2021), Issue 1

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Notes & queries

In search of Peter Keating and the (Belfast) Expelled Workers’ Representative Committee

I would be obliged for information on: 1) Peter Keating, Labour councillor, London, 1921-1922, associate inter alia of Shapurji Saklatvala and Rev. Herbert Dunnico, a prominent Baptist minister, future Labour MP and General Secretary of the Peace Society. Keating may also have been connected with Marylebone Trades Council; and 2) the activities in London of the (Belfast) Expelled Workers’ Representative Committee, who had an office at 2 … Continue reading In search of Peter Keating and the (Belfast) Expelled Workers’ Representative Committee

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Labour history news, SSLH news

SSLH backs campaign to save Luddite pub from demolition

An 18th century pub that played a central part in the story of Luddism in West Yorkshire faces demolition after plans to replace it with housing were submitted to the local council. The Shears Inn at Liversedge was host to regular gatherings of local croppers at the start of the 19th century, and in early 1812 was the venue for a meeting at which plans … Continue reading SSLH backs campaign to save Luddite pub from demolition

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Notes & queries

Looking for records on Egerton Wake

I am currently researching a PhD at St Andrews University on the demise of the Liberal Party in Scotland in the 1920s. Egerton Wake played a very active role in building up the Labour Party in Scotland, first as the party’s Organising Secretary, active in Scotland, and latterly as Labour’s National Agent. He was prominent in the Union of Democratic Control during the First World War, … Continue reading Looking for records on Egerton Wake

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Bursary reports, Research bursaries

Dr Gordon J Barclay and Dr Louise Heren on the Battle for George Square 1919: myth, memory and reality in Red Clydeside

A demonstration in Glasgow during the 40-hours strike in January–February 1919 descended into violence – the ‘Battle of George Square’: either ‘a vicious and unprovoked attack’ by the police, or a consequence of the week-long, occasionally violent, conflict between the strikers and ‘traitor’, ‘blackleg’ tram-workers, many of them women. The ‘Battle’ is simultaneously the most iconic event of Red Clydeside, the most mythologised event in … Continue reading Dr Gordon J Barclay and Dr Louise Heren on the Battle for George Square 1919: myth, memory and reality in Red Clydeside

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Obituaries

Lewis Minkin (1936-2021)

Lewis Minkin, who has died aged 84, wrote three authoritative, even definitive, books on the exercise of power and political influence inside the Labour Party. In researching The Labour Party Conference (1978), The Contentious Alliance (1991), and The Blair Supremacy (2014), Minkin accessed records available to few and clearly spoke to everyone; equally clearly, everyone spoke to him. Taken together, these three monumental works are … Continue reading Lewis Minkin (1936-2021)

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Labour history news

Keeping our history alive: the work of the GFTU on history, memory and tradition.

The General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU) took part in an international conference initiated by the University of Bochum and the German trade union centre the DGB to explore how trade unions preserve and transmit labour history across the generations. This is the contribution given by Doug Nicholls, General Secretary of the GFTU. “You do not know where you are going to if you do … Continue reading Keeping our history alive: the work of the GFTU on history, memory and tradition.

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