Labour History Review

Book reviews in Labour History Review Volume 87 (2022), Issue 2

The books listed below are reviewed in Labour History Review (2022), 87, (2), 213-225. Find out more. Peter Gurney reviews Ian Gasse, Something to Build On: The Co-operative Movement in Dumfries, 1847-1914, Dumfries: the author, in association with the Scottish Labour History Society, 2021, pp. xvi + 240, h/b, £18, ISBN 978 19163 05021 Quentin Outram reviews Laura Humphreys, Globalising Housework: Domestic Labour in Middle-Class London Homes, 1850-1914, … Continue reading Book reviews in Labour History Review Volume 87 (2022), Issue 2

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Documents & objects

From Joe Hill to the Man Who Waters the Workers’ Beer: a Labour Party song book

In 1955, as Little Richard tore up the norms of popular music with the opening ‘a wop-bop-a-loo-bop-a-wop-bam-boom’ of Tutti Frutti, the Labour Party reissued its song book. Eschewing the musical revolution then making its way across the Atlantic, the party instead drew on the ‘old favourites’ Continue reading From Joe Hill to the Man Who Waters the Workers’ Beer: a Labour Party song book

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Bursary reports, MA & BA bursaries

Jay Kerslake (Leeds) on the role of poetry in The Woman Worker

Trade unionism, prior to the First World War, can easily appear a solely male occupation. Female workers were excluded from many unions on grounds of sex and subsequently despised by many of their male peers for driving down wages. This made women especially vulnerable to exploitative labour practices and also weakened male union action, which was undercut by cheap, unorganised female labour. In 1906 Mary … Continue reading Jay Kerslake (Leeds) on the role of poetry in The Woman Worker

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Bursary reports, Research bursaries

Siân Davies (Edinburgh) on the Pennant family and the labour history of their estates in North Wales and Jamaica c1780-c1900

The Pennant family owned and managed sugar plantations in Jamaica, worked on by enslaved, indentured and later free labourers. From the 1780s onwards the family also ran Penrhyn Quarry in North Wales. The Penrhyn Quarry lockout from 1900-1903 is notorious in the area. I knew from a young age that members of the community still resented the Pennant name for their treatment of the quarrying … Continue reading Siân Davies (Edinburgh) on the Pennant family and the labour history of their estates in North Wales and Jamaica c1780-c1900

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Events

The great strike of 1842: Halifax’s Peterloo?

Calderdale Trades Council and Calderdale Industrial Museum are teaming up this Sunday (17 July) to host a free public meeting at the museum on ‘The Great Strike of 1842: Halifax’s Peterloo?’ The event is supported by the Society for the Study of Labour History. This event is being held in person and there are limited tickets – please only book a ticket if you are … Continue reading The great strike of 1842: Halifax’s Peterloo?

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Labour history news

Castles of the labour movement: inside the trade union head office building boom

By the early twentieth century, an increasingly confident trade union movement was building statement ‘castles’ in which to house their headquarters. Mark Crail looks at what came close to being a trade union quarter in central London. As trade unions grew in size and complexity in the 1920s, so increasingly they moved into larger, more imposing, and often purpose-built headquarters – some leaving their original … Continue reading Castles of the labour movement: inside the trade union head office building boom

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Labour history news

Help preserve the Marx Memorial Library socialist newspaper archive

Ninety years of socialist newspaper history is at risk from the ravages of time. Meirian Jump, Archivist & Library Manager at the Marx Memorial Library, explains how you can help. The Marx Memorial Library is the proud custodian of a complete archive of the Daily Worker/Morning Star newspaper dating back to the first issue in January 1930. For decades copies of the paper have been … Continue reading Help preserve the Marx Memorial Library socialist newspaper archive

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Labour history news

‘The beginning of a flowing tide for Labour’? Labour’s Wakefield by-election victory

James Parker tells the story of Labour’s by-election victory in the Wakefield by-election of 1932. A by-election victory at Wakefield ninety years ago marked the start of the Labour Party’s slow recovery from electoral disaster in 1931. In opposition after the unhappy experience of minority government from 1929-31 and the loss of some of its key leaders to the National Government in August 1931, Labour … Continue reading ‘The beginning of a flowing tide for Labour’? Labour’s Wakefield by-election victory

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Documents & objects

Commemorating the ‘Tolpuddle Martyrs’: a trade union origin story in brick and stone

There can be few visitors to Tolpuddle over the past twenty years who have resisted the temptation to sit on the bench that forms part of sculptor Thompson Dagnall’s statue the ‘Tolpuddle Six’. Unveiled in 2002 and depicting an anguished George Loveless awaiting transportation to Australia, the work, carved from local Portland stone, has proved a popular addition to the small circuit of sites in … Continue reading Commemorating the ‘Tolpuddle Martyrs’: a trade union origin story in brick and stone

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Bursary reports, Research bursaries

David Isserman (Edge Hill) on transnational syndicalism and industrial unionism in Liverpool and Glasgow, 1905-1926

My research focuses on the history of syndicalism and industrial unionism among maritime workers in Liverpool and Glasgow during the early twentieth century. Both cities were centres of labour unrest during the Edwardian and inter-war years, with Liverpool experiencing the 1911 transport strike and Glasgow being the host city to the dual unionist British Seafarers Union (BSU) and Scottish Union of Dock Labourers (SCUDL). Thanks … Continue reading David Isserman (Edge Hill) on transnational syndicalism and industrial unionism in Liverpool and Glasgow, 1905-1926

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