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

West Yorkshire textile workers’ strike: one hundred years on

In the summer of 1925, all eyes were on the coal industry, where employers had been forced to back off from their threat to cut miners’ wages. But in the parlous economic circumstances of that year, the miners were not alone in fighting to preserve their living standards from attack. That July and August, more than 150,000 workers in West Yorkshire’s textiles industry came out … Continue reading West Yorkshire textile workers’ strike: one hundred years on

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Bursary reports, MA & BA bursaries

Jamila Squire (Westminster) on international solidarity with Italian political prisoners: 1979-84

My MA dissertation research focuses on a wave of state repression of Italian militants from the late 1970s to mid-1980s. On 7 April 1979 several Italian militants and intellectuals of Potere Operaio (workers’ power), Autonomia Operaia (workers’ autonomy), and unaffiliated activists critical of the Italian Communist Party, were arrested for participation in the armed group ‘The Red Brigades’ and the suspected kidnapping and killing of … Continue reading Jamila Squire (Westminster) on international solidarity with Italian political prisoners: 1979-84

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Bursary reports, Research bursaries

Bowen Ran (Rotterdam) on E. P. Thompson and the formation of The Making of the English Working Class

It is one thing to read E. P. Thompson’s published, polished texts; it is quite another to handle the papers he once worked on, to see the rust left by paper clips, the gum pressed between pages, the coffee stains on letterheads, and the quirky cat he drew (surely the same cat he invoked in The Poverty of Theory, where he wrote with characteristic scorn, … Continue reading Bowen Ran (Rotterdam) on E. P. Thompson and the formation of The Making of the English Working Class

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Events

The Chartist Revolution: a challenge to liberalism and market capitalism

Liberal interpretations of the Chartist movement continue to dominate the views of historians and of general society, Professor Peter Gurney argued in delivering the Society’s fourth annual John Halstead Memorial Lecture at the John Rylands Library in Manchester in June. Setting out to challenge the dominance of liberal readings which commonly argued that those Chartist demands which had proved feasible had eventually found their way … Continue reading The Chartist Revolution: a challenge to liberalism and market capitalism

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Commentary

Co-operative Party campaigning in the constituencies at the 1945 election

The 1945 general election saw the Co-operative Party return a record twenty-three MPs in alliance with the Labour Party. Here, Ellie Townsend introduces research that shows how candidates tailored their electoral message about co-operation to suit local circumstances. The Co-operative Party, set up in 1917, was an attempt to protect the interests of the consumer co-operative movement in parliament.1 From its outset, the Co-operative Party … Continue reading Co-operative Party campaigning in the constituencies at the 1945 election

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Events

Remembering Coal: Legacy, Memories, Heritage

The University of Birmingham is hosting a one-day event titled Remembering Coal: Legacy, Memories, Heritage to mark its links with the mining industry. The event takes place on Monday 16 June,  from 10 am to 6.30 pm at the Arts Building (Level 1, LR1), Edgbaston campus. The event is free to attend and can be viewed online subject to registration. Download the full conference programme … Continue reading Remembering Coal: Legacy, Memories, Heritage

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Bursary reports, MA & BA bursaries

Ben Howarth (LJMU) on anti-fascist mobilisation in 1930s Merseyside

My MA dissertation focuses on the ways in which anti-fascism manifested in 1930s Merseyside, a topic that has received little attention in existing scholarship. I am particularly interested in identifying the key individuals and organisations active in the region, and in exploring how class, religion, and ethnicity intersected in shaping local anti-fascist responses. I am also examining what made Merseyside a significant battleground for fascist … Continue reading Ben Howarth (LJMU) on anti-fascist mobilisation in 1930s Merseyside

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Documents & objects

‘Mr Attlee is confident’: a Limehouse declaration

Towards the end of October 1945, Prime Minister Clement Attlee was back in his Limehouse constituency for a victory rally. It had been less than six months since the end of the war in Europe, and just weeks later in the UK a Labour government had been swept to power. A world reshaped by conflict was being remade once again in a new era of … Continue reading ‘Mr Attlee is confident’: a Limehouse declaration

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