Update: this article was published to publicise and promote the event. A full report of Chartism Day 2022 can be found here. Chartism Day returns in March 2022 after an enforced absence of two years. This year’s event, held jointly with the Social History Society, is in honour of Professor Malcolm Chase, who died in February 2020. Malcolm was a great historian of Chartism, a … Continue reading Chartism Day 2022: programme online
The PDF document below includes an overview of new collections which were reported by archives to the Society for the Study of Labour History’s Archive and Resources sub-committee (SSLH-ARC) and which may be of interest to labour historians. Among the numerous collections noted by the SSLH-ARC are: Continue reading Additions to labour history archive collections 2021
The medallion shown here was awarded by the TUC for ‘organising services’, as the text on the clasp makes clear. The ‘farewell to the convicts’ design had been commissioned by the TUC for a commemorative badge issued to all delegates to the 1934 Congress, marking the centenary of the Toldpuddle Martyrs’ arrest and transportation to Australia. It depicts a sailing ship under a night sky … Continue reading ‘Farewell to convicts’: the long life of a classic trade union image
John Taylor draws on the research behind his two books on conscientious objection in the London borough of Southwark to tell the story of the men and women who resisted the first world war Continue reading Against the tide, against the war: conscientious objection in South London, 1914-1918
David Hanson shares a leaflet from his collection of political memorabilia to help tell the story of the Union of Democratic Control Founded at the very start of the first world war by an alliance of socialists, liberals and pacifists, the Union of Democratic Control represented a brave attempt to stand against jingoism and to demand alternatives to conflict based on new international structures and … Continue reading ‘War to end war’: the Union of Democratic Control and the call for alternatives to conflict
The Working Class Movement Library’s new series of Invisible Histories free talks starts up again on Wednesday 9 February at the later than usual time of 3pm, when Kirstie Blair and Iona Craig from the Piston, Pen & Press project will give a free online only talk on the topic ‘Industrial workers and reading spaces in Manchester, Salford and the North’. This first talk in … Continue reading WCML free talks programme kicks off for Spring 2022
The sinking of the RMS Titanic in the early hours of 15 April 1912 was a shocking and traumatic event, felt particularly deeply in Belfast where the ship had been built and in Southampton which had been the home port for many of its crew. As news emerged that at least 1,500 people had died, there was a sense of anger throughout the country at … Continue reading A ‘vicious class antagonism’ at the heart of the Titanic disaster: the dockers’ union’s response
A small green booklet published as a souvenir of the United Society of Boilermakers’ centenary celebrations shows members’ pride in their union’s achievements By 1934, the United Society of Boilermakers and Iron and Steel Shipbuilders was able to trace its history back a full hundred years, to the birth at a meeting in Manchester of the Friendly Society of Boilermakers. Although the new organisation had … Continue reading Steam power: boilermakers mark 100 years of trade unionism, 1834-1934
Dr Mike Mecham introduces the new-look website of the Irish Labour History Society The Irish Labour History Society has rebuilt and relaunched its website, offering free access to biographies and articles on labour history, information on labour history resources, and a collection of book reviews published by the society’s journal Saothar in 2021. The website consists of seven categories: Society: information about the society, membership, … Continue reading A fresh look for Irish labour history
Britain’s biggest-ever rights of way dispute took place outside Bolton 125 years ago. Martin Challender tells the story of the Winter Hill mass trespass, and of plans to commemorate it with a specially commissioned signpost. Continue reading Will yo’ come o’ Sunday mornin’? Winter Hill and the 1896 fight to access the moors
Society for the Study of Labour History 