Jules Durand (1880-1926) was a French longshoreman who led a strike of coal-porters in Le Havre in 1910, and was condemned to death after a frame-up organized by the Compagnie générale transatlantique, the leading shipper. June 15 2018 will be the one hundredth anniversary of his judicial rehabilitation and the association – Amis de Jules Durand – is planning a series of events to commemorate the … Continue reading Jules Durand, unsung human rights hero
This trip to Paris was a central part of the archival research for my PhD, an entangled comparison of the strike photography of 1936 and 1968. I will analyse the common threads running through the representation of both movements, but also how the medium contributed to the substantial legacies and mythologies each has taken on, and how this responded to their changing historiographies. It has … Continue reading Ben Partridge visits Paris to compare strike photography in 1936 and 1968
The General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU) has published a collection of plays inspired by the trade union movement. Volume One features work by playwrights, directors and theatre companies that do not enjoy a large public profile, due to their basis in working-class communities: ‘They have been the anonymous writing about the anonymous – yet this is often the great strength of their work.’ This … Continue reading Workers’ playtime
The former trade union leader and champion of the national living wage, Rodney Bickerstaffe, has died aged 72. In news that has shocked the labour movement and left, tributes have been led by current union leaders and prominent Labour politicians, including UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis and Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell. It has also come to light that, in addition to his work as a campaigner and union … Continue reading Rodney Bickerstaffe (1945-2017): labour historian
Conway Hall, once the home of an eighteenth-century dissident congregation at historic Red Lion Square, has been awarded £88,000 by the Heritage Lottery Fund to support a new digitisation project. As Conway Hall states:Victorian Blogging – The Pamphleteers Who Dared to Dream of a Better World will digitise and open online access to over 1,300 19th century pamphlets, many extremely rare. Victorian radicals used this cheap … Continue reading Victorian Blogging – The Pamphleteers Who Dared to Dream of a Better World
The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick, has completed a project to digitise some of its archive holdings on the relationship between Britain and Russia / the Soviet Union in the decade after the Russian Revolution. The digital collection contains just over 650 documents (with full text transcriptions) – reports, correspondence, photographs, memoranda, ephemera and more – including documents from the archives of the Trades … Continue reading Britain and the Russian Revolution, 1917-1928
With generous financial backing from SSLH, in the summer of 2017 I was able to travel to various sites to undertake research for my MA dissertation entitled ‘Notes on a Community Struggle:’ Big Flame, Women, and The Kirkby Resistance. Big Flame were a radical New Left organisation, whose unique commitment to both socialism and feminism renders them vital to the narrative of 1970s activism in … Continue reading Kerrie McGiveron (Liverpool) on Big Flame, women and the Tower Hill Base Group
In March 2017, a bursary from the Society for the Study of Labour History enabled me to visit the Bishopsgate Institute in London and the People’s History Museum in Manchester. This was to conduct research for my Dissertation entitled A Comparison Between the Two Recent Swings to the Left Within the British Labour Party, 1979-1981 and 2015. My visit to London was focussed upon discovering … Continue reading Aidan Gibbons delves into the archives to compare Labour’s swings to the left in 1979-1981 and 2015
The family of Sarah Chapman, one of the leaders of the 1888 Matchgirls Strike in East London, have devised a petition to save her grave and install a fitting memorial. Graham Johnson, the husband of Chapman’s great-granddaughter, Sam, told the SSLH:‘[Chapman] was a leader in the Matchgirls Strike of 1888 in East London. After a few weeks on strike, 129 years ago on 17th July, she … Continue reading Save 1888 Matchgirl Strike leader Sarah Chapman’s grave
The Society for the Study of Labour History are set to sponsor a ‘Radical Hero’ in support of the People’s History Museum, Manchester. Opting for the radical orator and hero of the Peterloo Massacre, Henry Hunt, the Society will provide £3,000 towards the continued work of the ‘national museum of democracy’. The museum hopes to attract sponsors for ’100 Radical Heroes’ and lists many unsponsored … Continue reading SSLH to sponsor radical hero Henry Hunt at People’s History Museum
Society for the Study of Labour History 