Roundtable: the politics of overseas labour migrations from India c1833 to 1967

‘Freedom and Whatever that Means: a roundtable discussion on the politics of overseas labour migrations from India between c1833 and 1967’ takes place on 23 October 2025 from 3pm to 6pm at the Graham Wallace Room, Old Building, London School of Economics. Attendance is in-person or online via Zoom. Please register using the links below. The event is supported by a grant from the Society … Continue reading Roundtable: the politics of overseas labour migrations from India c1833 to 1967

Exhibition: working-class community and mutual aid during the First World War

Remembering to Help, Helping to Remember, an exhibition funded by an SSLH grant, has opened at the Heugh Battery Museum in Hartlepool. Michael Reeve reports. Stories of the struggles, heroism and sacrifice of ordinary people in wartime continue to emerge in social history and war studies. While we have learned much from conventional military history about how wars were fought, social and cultural histories of … Continue reading Exhibition: working-class community and mutual aid during the First World War

Exhibition marks 200 years of trade union history

Two hundred years of trade union history is celebrated and commemorated in an exhibition now running at the LSE Library. Organised jointly by the London School of Economics and the TUC Libraries Collection at London Metropolitan Museum, the exhibition takes as its starting point the Combination Act of 1825 which permitted trade unions to organise but severely restricted their activities. The exhibition is built around … Continue reading Exhibition marks 200 years of trade union history

Chartism Day 2025 report: landscape and the crowd, emancipation and revolution

Academic and independent historians, Chartist enthusiasts and the Chartism curious gathered in Huddersfield for the annual Chartism Day event, the latest in a series of conferences that first ran in 1993. With centuries of history as a site of working-class radicalism from Luddism to Owenite socialism and beyond, Huddersfield proved to be the ideal venue for Chartism Day 2025. Taking place at Heritage Quay, a … Continue reading Chartism Day 2025 report: landscape and the crowd, emancipation and revolution

Marking the centenary of the General Strike

Next year marks one hundred years since the General Strike of 1926. The Society for the Study of Labour History is proud to be a part of a national partnership of fifteen museums, libraries and groups working together to commemorate the strike. Find out how you can support this partnership. This project is supported by: Beamish, the Living Museum of the North, Campaign for Trade … Continue reading Marking the centenary of the General Strike

Charles Glyde’s The Bradford Socialist Vanguard is now available online

Researchers and labour historians can now get access to The Bradford Socialist Vanguard via The British Newspaper Archive. Launched in 1908 by its editor Charles Glyde, the paper was to ‘be run in the interest of the wage-earners’ as an alternative to ‘chaotic capitalism’. Originaly costing just one halfpenny as a monthly edition, it is available in two runs from 1908-10 and 1912-1920. The Bradford … Continue reading Charles Glyde’s The Bradford Socialist Vanguard is now available online

Steven Cox (Liverpool John Moores) on the legacy of Labour Party Young Socialists

My dissertation focuses on the individual and political legacy of the Labour Party Young Socialists (LPYS) with particular emphasis on the period 1979 – 1991. This period covers the ideological polarisation of Britain under Thatcher’s premiership. It was also a time when the LPYS grew dramatically to nearly 600 branches by 1985, only to contract and ultimately be closed down by the Labour Party in … Continue reading Steven Cox (Liverpool John Moores) on the legacy of Labour Party Young Socialists

Blood in the Wear: the Sunderland sailors’ strike and the 1825 North Sands massacre

Buried in the records of the Durham Assizes are the proceedings of a coroner’s inquest on the body of a sailor named Thomas Aird. The document reveals details of a dramatic but little-known seamen’s strike that was brutally suppressed by troops under orders from a Sunderland magistrate. In an article for The National Archives website, Dr Joe Cozens, nineteenth century social and political records researcher … Continue reading Blood in the Wear: the Sunderland sailors’ strike and the 1825 North Sands massacre

Historical Studies in Industrial Relations: the General Strike of 1926

A special virtual issue of Historical Studies in Industrial Relations dealing with the General Strike and mining lockout of 1926 has been published to the Liverpool University Press website. Drawing on articles published in the journal over recent years, it includes an open access selective bibliography compiled by John McIlroy, Alan Campbell, Keith Laybourn, and Quentin Outram running to twenty-four pages. The virtual issue also … Continue reading Historical Studies in Industrial Relations: the General Strike of 1926

Home Secretary sets up statutory inquiry into 1984 ‘Battle of Orgreave’

The government has announced an independent statutory inquiry into the 1984 ‘Battle of Orgreave’, a key event in the year-long miners’ strike during which thousands of police and miners clashed, leaving 120 people injured. In all, 95 pickets at the South Yorkshire coking plant were arrested and charged with riot and violent disorder. But all charges were dropped after evidence was discredited. There has since been … Continue reading Home Secretary sets up statutory inquiry into 1984 ‘Battle of Orgreave’