Labour history news

HLF funding for Working Together

Working Together: recording and preserving the heritage of the workers’ co-operative movement Working Together, aims to identify and make accessible for the first time records from some of the major workers’ co-operatives of the time, together with co-operative support organisations. A trained archivist will be employed for a twelve month period to undertake the work of finding the material, and then in ensuring that where … Continue reading HLF funding for Working Together

Unknown's avatarEditorMC
Bursary reports, MA & BA bursaries

Joe Hopkinson (Huddersfield) on the bussing of Black and Asian pupils in the 1960s and 1970s

For an MA by research at the University of Huddersfield I submitted a portfolio of work from an oral history study of Commonwealth immigrant children in Huddersfield. The project focussed on immigrant children’s experiences of dispersal school bussing in the town. This was a policy where Black and Asian pupils were bussed away from the own district to schools that were almost entirely populated by … Continue reading Joe Hopkinson (Huddersfield) on the bussing of Black and Asian pupils in the 1960s and 1970s

Unknown's avatarEditorMC
Bursary reports, Research bursaries

Marc Collinson (Bangor) on the Labour Party, post-war immigration and the politics of race

From the late 1950s, mass immigration had a major impact on British, predominantly urban, society. This caused problems for the Labour Party, not least because it claimed to represent a white working-class that often felt threatened and angered by immigration. Areas like the West Midlands, Merseyside and declining northern mill towns like Blackburn, Batley and Oldham saw racist agitation from an early date. These regions … Continue reading Marc Collinson (Bangor) on the Labour Party, post-war immigration and the politics of race

Unknown's avatarEditorMC
Bursary reports, Research bursaries

Amy Cross (Central Lancashire) on Labour’s immigration policy in the 1960s

The political response towards Commonwealth immigration to Britain has been the subject of considerable historical debate. Initially, when the first Commonwealth Immigrants Act was introduced in 1962 the Labour Party opposed it believing restrictions to be both unnecessary and racially motivated. However, within a short period of time they had conceded the need for controls and went on to increase restrictions twice during their time … Continue reading Amy Cross (Central Lancashire) on Labour’s immigration policy in the 1960s

Unknown's avatarEditorMC
Bursary reports, MA & BA bursaries

Lewis Hayes visits Holyoake House to research the co-operative movement’s transnational links

As the location of the first Rochdalian co-operative store, Manchester has always been regarded as the co-operative movement’s heartland and its archives are no exception. Located at Holyoake House in central Manchester, the British Co-operative Union was exceptionally diligent in maintaining the movement’s enormous output of documentation. These archives contained a complete collection of papers retaining to its federal structures, individual societies and the work … Continue reading Lewis Hayes visits Holyoake House to research the co-operative movement’s transnational links

Unknown's avatarEditorMC
Bursary reports, MA & BA bursaries

Colm Murphy on researching Labour’s view of the 1980s ‘loony left’

Thanks to the generous support of the Society, I was able to visit the Labour History Archive and Study Centre, located at the People’s History Museum in Manchester. This trip was for my research into the Labour Party in the 1980s. I focus on the Labour leadership’s perceptions of the ‘loony left’ Labour councils, leading up to the 1987 election and Margaret Thatcher’s third victory. … Continue reading Colm Murphy on researching Labour’s view of the 1980s ‘loony left’

Unknown's avatarEditorMC
Bursary reports, Research bursaries

Lara Green (Northumbria) on the international networks developed by Russian revolutionaries

My research focuses on transnational networks established by Russian revolutionaries who promoted terrorism in emigration between 1881 and 1915, looking at how they represented themselves in relation to contemporary debates about socialism, anarchism and terrorism abroad in their publications aimed at both English- and Russian-speaking audiences. Émigré communities played an important role in the Russian revolutionary movement from the second half of the nineteenth century … Continue reading Lara Green (Northumbria) on the international networks developed by Russian revolutionaries

Unknown's avatarEditorMC
Bursary reports, Research bursaries

David Strittmatter (Buffalo) on the erasure of St Peter’s Field as a site of commemoration

The great E.P. Thompson wrote in his magisterial The Making of the English Working Class that ‘1819 was a rehearsal for 1832’. Thompson drew a direct line from the Peterloo Massacre to the Great Reform Act. Indeed, the crowd of 60,000 that gathered in an open space near St. Peter’s Church in central Manchester on August 16, 1819, came to hear reform-minded speakers. Famously, the … Continue reading David Strittmatter (Buffalo) on the erasure of St Peter’s Field as a site of commemoration

Unknown's avatarEditorMC
Bursary reports, Research bursaries

Sophie Roberts (Northumbria) on anti-Vietnam War activist and Labour MP Ann Kerr

I am extremely grateful for the bursary received from the Society for the Study of Labour History (SSLH), which enabled me to undertake archival research at the Hull History Centre in August 2016. The materials I consulted at Hull are essential for my thesis, which looks at a number of British female anti-Vietnam War protesters in the period roughly from 1965-74. The money kindly granted … Continue reading Sophie Roberts (Northumbria) on anti-Vietnam War activist and Labour MP Ann Kerr

Unknown's avatarEditorMC
Bursary reports, Research bursaries

Emma Dewhirst (Liverpool) on the interaction between Irish republican organisations, 1912-1923

A number of Irish republican volunteer groups participated in the events that made up the Irish Revolution from 1912-1923, including the Easter Rising, War of Independence, and the Irish Civil War. My PhD thesis does not focus solely on one organisation but the myriad of organisations active during this period: the Irish Citizen Army (ICA), Na Fianna Éireann (Irish Nationalist Boy Scouts), Irish Volunteers, Cumann … Continue reading Emma Dewhirst (Liverpool) on the interaction between Irish republican organisations, 1912-1923

Unknown's avatarEditorMC