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

Round Table: The Starmer Labour Government in Historical Perspective

Contributors: Peter Gurney, Laura Beers, Lawrence Black, Malcolm Petrie, and Martin WrightThis is the abstract of an article published in Labour History Review (2025), 90, (1). Read more. The full text of this roundtable article is open access. The election of Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party on 5 July 2024 after fourteen years of Conservative (mis)rule may represent an important turning point in British political history. At any … Continue reading Round Table: The Starmer Labour Government in Historical Perspective

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Labour History Review

The Limits to Solidarity: Trade Union Responses to European Workers in Britain, 1945–1948

Author: Avram TaylorThis is the abstract of an article published in Labour History Review (2025), 90, (1). Read more. During the first years of the post-war Labour government (1945–8), three groups of foreign workers were incorporated into the labour force: prisoners of war (POWs), Polish soldiers who had fought with the British, and European volunteer workers (EVWs). This article examines the responses of the trade union movement to … Continue reading The Limits to Solidarity: Trade Union Responses to European Workers in Britain, 1945–1948

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Labour History Review

Workforce Disability and the 1949 ‘Ineffectives’ Strike in London Docks

Author: Jim PhillipsThis is the abstract of an article published in Labour History Review (2025), 90, (1). Read more. In April 1949 the employment of thirty-two registered dock workers in London was terminated because they were regarded as ‘ineffective’, incapable physically of performing the job. Their redundancies were briefly resisted through strike action. This ended when the Labour government threatened to prosecute strike leaders. The episode highlighted the … Continue reading Workforce Disability and the 1949 ‘Ineffectives’ Strike in London Docks

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Labour History Review

Professor John Samuel Shepherd (5 May 1942–20 November 2024): A Reflection

Author: Keith LaybournThis is the abstract of an article published in Labour History Review (2025), 90, (1). Read more. Professor John Samuel Shepherd has been one of the leading historians of British Labour history and of the British Labour Party for more than thirty years. He was something of a late developer who felt that he had had to overcome the constraints of his working-class background to pursue … Continue reading Professor John Samuel Shepherd (5 May 1942–20 November 2024): A Reflection

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Labour History Review

Book reviews in Labour History Review volume 90 (2025), Issue 1

The books listed below are reviewed in Labour History Review (2024), 89, (3). Read more. Joseph Stanley reviews John Sanders, Workers of Their Own Emancipation: Working-Class Leadership and Organisation in the West Riding Textile District, 1829–1839, London: Breviary Stuff Publications, 2024, pp. xii + 536, p/b, £24.99, ISBN 978 19161 58672 John Cunningham reviews Peter Gray, William Sharman Crawford and Ulster Radicalism, Dublin: UCD Press, 2023, pp. xix + 467, … Continue reading Book reviews in Labour History Review volume 90 (2025), Issue 1

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Events

Play: Chopped Liver and Unions

Manchester Jewish Museum is hosting a performance of the one-woman play Chopped Liver and Unions on Thursday 1 May to mark International Workers’ Day. The play is based on the life of Sara Wesker, a Jewish trade unionist and activist in the Communist Party of Great Britain who led the “singing strikers” walk-out at the Rego Factory in London’s Bethnal Green in 1928, stood on … Continue reading Play: Chopped Liver and Unions

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Labour history news, SSLH news

General Strike 100: planning for the centenary

As the centenary of the 1926 General Strike approaches, the Society for the Study of Labour History has joined a group of museums, libraries, archives, and history groups in a national collaboration to mark the occasion. The General Strike 100 project is working in partnership with the trade union and wider labour movement to develop an interactive map of sites for public visitation throughout 2026. This … Continue reading General Strike 100: planning for the centenary

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Labour history news

Gertrude Tuckwell and the Women’s Trade Union League papers online

From 1885 when she first arrived in London aged twenty-four to become secretary to her aunt, the writer, suffragette and trade unionist Emily Dilke, until her retirement in January 1921, Gertrude Tuckwell was among the most prominent and influential figures in the women’s trade union movement. In nearly four decades of activism, she first became active in the Women’s Trade Union League, serving as its … Continue reading Gertrude Tuckwell and the Women’s Trade Union League papers online

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Events, SSLH news

John Halstead Memorial Lecture 2025: reserve your place

Professor Peter Gurney will deliver the fourth John L. Halstead Memorial Lecture at the John Rylands Library, Deansgate, Manchester, on Saturday 14 June 2025. He will be speaking on ‘The Chartist Revolution’. Book a free ticket for this event. The lecture is held annually in memory of the late John Halstead, who was among the earliest members of the Society for the Study of Labour … Continue reading John Halstead Memorial Lecture 2025: reserve your place

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