Labour history news

Ireland’s President marks fifty years of the Irish Labour History Society

The President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, has planted a tree and unveiled a commemorative plaque in memory of trade union and labour leader Tom Johnson, author of the Democratic Programme of the First Dáil, at an event to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Irish Labour History Society (ILHS). Tom Johnson, who was born in Liverpool on 17 May 1872, died sixty years ago … Continue reading Ireland’s President marks fifty years of the Irish Labour History Society

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Labour history news

How the ASRS supported the bereaved families of the ‘heroes of the footplate’

When the driver and firemen of an express train were killed in an horrific railway accident in 1898, the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants was on hand to offer financial and moral support to their families. Somewhere in the vast expanse of Kensal Green Cemetery there are two near-identical gravestones. Carved from Portland stone, with plaques depicting a train and green slate ‘rails’ to represent … Continue reading How the ASRS supported the bereaved families of the ‘heroes of the footplate’

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Labour History Review

Labour History Review Volume 88 (2023), issue 1

Labour History Review Volume 87 (2022), Issue 3 has now been published. This issue sees the publication of Greg Billam’s ‘‘Uncomradely and Un-communist’: Breakdown in the Communist Anglosphere? The Communist Party of Great Britain and Communist Party of Australia Debate, 1947–1948’, which was the winner of the Labour History Review Essay Prize in 2022. The article delves into the content of the debate between the … Continue reading Labour History Review Volume 88 (2023), issue 1

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Labour History Review

The First International Seen from the Periphery: The Portuguese Case (1871–1876)

Author: João LázaroThis is the abstract of an article published in Labour History Review (2023), 88, (1), 1-25. Read more. This article discusses the influence the Spanish workers’ movement had in the creation of the Portuguese section of the First International (the International Working Men’s Association) and the political struggles faced by the First International in Portugal. From 1871 until 1876, a battle for the periphery … Continue reading The First International Seen from the Periphery: The Portuguese Case (1871–1876)

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Labour History Review

Peadar Ó Maicín, the Irish Left and the Irish Language

Author: Aindrias Ó CathasaighThis is the abstract of an article published in Labour History Review (2023), 88, (1), 27-41. Read more. This article examines the involvement of Peadar Ó Maicín (1878–1916) in the Socialist Party of Ireland/Cumannacht na hÉireann from 1909. It discusses the part played by the Irish language in Ó Maicín’s initial development of a class consciousness; its role in finally converting him … Continue reading Peadar Ó Maicín, the Irish Left and the Irish Language

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Labour History Review

‘Uncomradely and Un-communist’: Breakdown in the Communist Anglosphere? The Communist Party of Great Britain and Communist Party of Australia Debate, 1947–1948

Author: Gregory BillamThis is the abstract of an article published in Labour History Review (2023), 88, (1), 43-74. Read more. 2022 LABOUR HISTORY REVIEW ESSAY PRIZE WINNER The communist parties of Britain’s empire were notably excluded from the newly established Cominform in September 1947. In their absence, previous hierarchical relationships became less clear, as the fiery exchange between the CPA (Australia) and CPGB (Great Britain) … Continue reading ‘Uncomradely and Un-communist’: Breakdown in the Communist Anglosphere? The Communist Party of Great Britain and Communist Party of Australia Debate, 1947–1948

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Labour History Review

Book reviews in Labour History Review Volume 88 (2023), Issue 1

The books listed below are reviewed in Labour History Review (2023), 88, (1), 323-337. Read more. Edda Nicolson reviews Matthew Roberts, Democratic Passions: The Politics of Feeling in British Popular Radicalism, 1809–48, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2022, pp. vi + 262, h/b, £80, ISBN 978 15261 37043 Colin Heywood reviews Elisabeth Anderson, Agents of Reform: Child Labor and the Origins of the Welfare State, Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, … Continue reading Book reviews in Labour History Review Volume 88 (2023), Issue 1

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Labour history news

The Independent Labour Party at fifty: a souvenir

The booklet shown here was published by the Independent Labour Party in 1943 to mark its fiftieth anniversary. Appearing in wartime, it was necessarily restricted in scale, but still managed to pack a great deal, including nearly fifty illustrations, into its 60 A5 pages. The membership of the ILP had been in decline since its decision to disaffiliate from the Labour Party in 1932, and … Continue reading The Independent Labour Party at fifty: a souvenir

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Events, Grants

Ascott Martyrs 150th anniversary events

Early in 1873, farmworkers who had formed a branch of the National Agricultural Labourers Union at Ascott-under-Wychwood in Oxfordshire were dismissed and strikebreakers from a neighbouring village brought in. Sixteen women from Ascott who tried to persuade the strike-breakers to switch sides and join the union were arrested, tried and sentenced to imprisonment with hard labour. In the uproar that followed, the women received a … Continue reading Ascott Martyrs 150th anniversary events

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Events

Robert Rumble and the PMILSA Petition Submission to the Governor of Jamaica

In April 1938, the Poor Man’s Improvement and Land Settlement Association sent a petition to the Governor of Jamaica demanding a minimum wage for agricultural workers and peasants, and to bring an end to exploitation by the landowner, Lord Penrhyn, who managed his properties through agents in Jamaica from his home at Penrhyn Castle in North Wales. Chaired by Robert Rumble, the campaign succeeded in … Continue reading Robert Rumble and the PMILSA Petition Submission to the Governor of Jamaica

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