Labour History Review

Classics of labour history: The Making of the English Working Class

It is almost impossible today to think about labour history without some reference to E.P. Thompson’s classic work The Making of the English Working Class. Read by millions in the fifty years since its publication, and loved by many, it is by any measure a core text of social and economic history, and its importance was recognised from the start. The review republished here, written … Continue reading Classics of labour history: The Making of the English Working Class

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Events, SSLH news

Chartism Day 2022: report from a day of research, song and a missing friend

From ‘Shabby Feargus’ to the impact of the Northern Star’s move south and Chartists as ‘premature liberal democrats’, the first Chartism Day since 2019 was as entertaining as it was informative and thought-provoking. It had been a long-time coming. But finally, after two years in which Chartism Day did not happen as the world went into lockdowns and social distancing, more than 70 delegates were … Continue reading Chartism Day 2022: report from a day of research, song and a missing friend

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Documents & objects

GCHQ: a badge of honour for trade unionism

On 14 May 1997, just a fortnight after the landslide election of a Labour government, Foreign Secretary Robin Cook stood up in the House of Commons to announce that a thirteen-year ban on trade union membership at the Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ) was to be rescinded. The long-promised move brought to an end one of the longest-running industrial disputes in British history, and one of … Continue reading GCHQ: a badge of honour for trade unionism

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Labour history news

Unveiled: statues for the twenty-first century

Professor Angela V. John introduces the Monumental Welsh Women project to commemorate five ‘hidden heroines’ chosen by popular vote Statues make statements. They become symbolic, not only for the time when they are erected but also for the future. The toppling of the statue of slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol in 2020 and the publicity this generated speaks about current anger and attitudes and … Continue reading Unveiled: statues for the twenty-first century

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Events, SSLH news

Chartism Day 2022: programme online

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

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Advice & reference, Annual guides

Additions to labour history archive collections 2021

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

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Documents & objects

‘Farewell to convicts’: the long life of a classic trade union image

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

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Documents & objects

‘War to end war’: the Union of Democratic Control and the call for alternatives to conflict

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

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Events, Labour history news

WCML free talks programme kicks off for Spring 2022

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

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