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.
Bursary reports, Research bursaries

Emma Dewhirst (Liverpool) on the interaction between Irish republican organisations, 1912-1923

A number of Irish republican volunteer groups participated in the events that made up the Irish Revolution from 1912-1923, including the Easter Rising, War of Independence, and the Irish Civil War. My PhD thesis does not focus solely on one organisation but the myriad of organisations active during this period: the Irish Citizen Army (ICA), Na Fianna Éireann (Irish Nationalist Boy Scouts), Irish Volunteers, Cumann … Continue reading Emma Dewhirst (Liverpool) on the interaction between Irish republican organisations, 1912-1923

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Bursary reports, Research bursaries

Carin Peller Semmens (Sussex) on the legacies of slavery in North Louisiana’s Red River region

My doctoral work examines the ideological, political, economic and behavioural legacies of slavery in North Louisiana’s Red River region from the early entrenchment of slavery in the 1820s through the violent and charged 1870s and 1880s. It investigates the foundation and significance of white dominated power structures in the shaping of black and white relations. The rigid power dynamic established by slavery proved particularly resilient … Continue reading Carin Peller Semmens (Sussex) on the legacies of slavery in North Louisiana’s Red River region

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Obituaries

Dr Sigrid McCausland

The SSLH is saddened to learn of the passing of the Australian archivist and activist Dr Sigrid McCausland. Sigrid served as University Archivist at both the University of Technology, Sydney and the Australian National University, where she successfully spearheaded the fight to save the Noel Butlin Archives Centre.(The Noel Butlin Archive centre is a repository for labour movement records in Australia and the Pacific). Continue reading Dr Sigrid McCausland

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Books etc

Grunwick: the workers’ story

Commemorating 40 years since the beginning of the Grunwick Dispute, this seminal text examines the intersection of trade unions, race and the law during one of the most defining events for unions of the twentieth century. The Grunwick Dispute fundamentally changed the way trade unions operated, and brought migrant labour concerns to the fore. This second edition of Jack Dromey and Graham Taylor’s work is … Continue reading Grunwick: the workers’ story

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Labour history news

Mapping the 1926 General Strike

Staff at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick, have digitised more than 450 documents on Britain’s only General Strike of May 1926. The digitised documents include internal reports from the Trades Union Congress (the strike’s co-ordinator), bulletins issued by newspapers and strike committees, and the TUC’s transcripts of BBC radio broadcasts. As well as presenting the sources as a database of digitised documents, the team has been … Continue reading Mapping the 1926 General Strike

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Documents & objects, Labour history news

Skelmanthorpe Banner 1819

This cotton flag or banner is a rare survivor of thousands of banners carried at meetings calling for electoral reform and suffrage. It has a remarkable story. It was designed and made in 1819, to honour the victims of the Peterloo massacre in Manchester. It was mounted on poles and taken to meetings throughout the 19th Century, starting with a reform meeting at Almondbury Bank … Continue reading Skelmanthorpe Banner 1819

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Obituaries, SSLH news

Asa Briggs (1921-2016): historian and founder member of the SSLH

The Society is sorry to hear of the death of the eminent historian Asa Briggs who was a founder member of the SSLH. He was a pioneer of labour history and a man of many talents. You can read more about his influence on modern social and cultural history in obituaries published in the Guardian and the Yorkshire Post. John McIlroy, a former secretary of the SSLH, has written a … Continue reading Asa Briggs (1921-2016): historian and founder member of the SSLH

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Labour history news

Imagining a Communist Britain

Can you imagine what a Communist Britain would look like? An exciting new project between the People’s History Museum and the University of Manchester is uncovering previously inaccessible archive collections on leading figures in the Communist Party of Great Britain. The project, which includes two exhibitions, a day school and an international conference, will be setting out to challenge familiar concepts of communism. The archive collections … Continue reading Imagining a Communist Britain

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Obituaries

Irene Wagner

We regret to announce the death of Irene Wagner on February 4th at the age of 99. Irene, as Labour Party archivist, was an original member of the Society’s Archive Committee, formed in 1965. She played an important role in Society affairs and was the driving force in moves to create the International Association of Labour History Institutions [IALHI]. Read The Guardian’s obituary written by … Continue reading Irene Wagner

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Bursary reports, Research bursaries

Christophe Landry (Sussex) on a research trip to South Louisiana

My doctoral thesis, ‘Multilingualism and Language Politics in Post-War Creole Louisiana’, studies the rapid integration of multilingual, Roman Catholic, Latin Southwest Louisiana in the 20th century’s interwar period. More specifically, it traces how French- and Creole-speaking Latins, in this zone, were absorbed into national consciousness through Jim Crowism, Anglicization, Protestantization and infrastructural projects, culminating in a faux-bifurcation of these Creoles along hardened racial lines, of … Continue reading Christophe Landry (Sussex) on a research trip to South Louisiana

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