‘It’s Not a Lot of Boring Old Gits Sitting About Remembering the Good Old Days’: The Heritage and Legacy of the 1987 Caterpillar Factory Occupation in Uddingston, Scotland

Author: Ewan GibbsThis is the abstract of an article published in Labour History Review (2021), 86, (1), 117-143. Find out more. This paper examines the construction of a factory occupation’s “usable past”. It analyses how the political culture of the multinational “branch plant” has combined with the optics of class and nation that predominate in accounts of Scottish deindustrialization. During 2017, the Caterpillar Workers Legacy Group commemorated the … Continue reading ‘It’s Not a Lot of Boring Old Gits Sitting About Remembering the Good Old Days’: The Heritage and Legacy of the 1987 Caterpillar Factory Occupation in Uddingston, Scotland

Book reviews in Labour History Review Volume 86 (2021), Issue 1

The books listed below are reviewed in Labour History Review (2021), 86, (1), 145-164. Find out more. W.W.J. Knox (University of St Andrews) and A. McKinlay (Newcastle University). Response by the authors to the review of Jimmy Reid: A Clyde-Built Man by Roger Seifert in Labour History Review, 85 (2-2-), 212-15 Dr Joan Allen (Newcastle University) reviewsMarie Fedelma Cross, In the Footsteps of Flora Tristan: A … Continue reading Book reviews in Labour History Review Volume 86 (2021), Issue 1

In search of Peter Keating and the (Belfast) Expelled Workers’ Representative Committee

I would be obliged for information on: 1) Peter Keating, Labour councillor, London, 1921-1922, associate inter alia of Shapurji Saklatvala and Rev. Herbert Dunnico, a prominent Baptist minister, future Labour MP and General Secretary of the Peace Society. Keating may also have been connected with Marylebone Trades Council; and 2) the activities in London of the (Belfast) Expelled Workers’ Representative Committee, who had an office at 2 … Continue reading In search of Peter Keating and the (Belfast) Expelled Workers’ Representative Committee

Additions to labour history archive collections 2020

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: Archive material relating to the Pilkington strike and to pottery workers – now in the Working Class Movement … Continue reading Additions to labour history archive collections 2020

SSLH backs campaign to save Luddite pub from demolition

An 18th century pub that played a central part in the story of Luddism in West Yorkshire faces demolition after plans to replace it with housing were submitted to the local council. The Shears Inn at Liversedge was host to regular gatherings of local croppers at the start of the 19th century, and in early 1812 was the venue for a meeting at which plans … Continue reading SSLH backs campaign to save Luddite pub from demolition

Looking for records on Egerton Wake

I am currently researching a PhD at St Andrews University on the demise of the Liberal Party in Scotland in the 1920s. Egerton Wake played a very active role in building up the Labour Party in Scotland, first as the party’s Organising Secretary, active in Scotland, and latterly as Labour’s National Agent. He was prominent in the Union of Democratic Control during the First World War, … Continue reading Looking for records on Egerton Wake

Dr Gordon J Barclay and Dr Louise Heren on the Battle for George Square 1919: myth, memory and reality in Red Clydeside

A demonstration in Glasgow during the 40-hours strike in January–February 1919 descended into violence – the ‘Battle of George Square’: either ‘a vicious and unprovoked attack’ by the police, or a consequence of the week-long, occasionally violent, conflict between the strikers and ‘traitor’, ‘blackleg’ tram-workers, many of them women. The ‘Battle’ is simultaneously the most iconic event of Red Clydeside, the most mythologised event in … Continue reading Dr Gordon J Barclay and Dr Louise Heren on the Battle for George Square 1919: myth, memory and reality in Red Clydeside