This cotton flag or banner is a rare survivor of thousands of banners carried at meetings calling for electoral reform and suffrage. It has a remarkable story. It was designed and made in 1819, to honour the victims of the Peterloo massacre in Manchester. It was mounted on poles and taken to meetings throughout the 19th Century, starting with a reform meeting at Almondbury Bank … Continue reading Skelmanthorpe Banner 1819
The Society is sorry to hear of the death of the eminent historian Asa Briggs who was a founder member of the SSLH. He was a pioneer of labour history and a man of many talents. You can read more about his influence on modern social and cultural history in obituaries published in the Guardian and the Yorkshire Post. John McIlroy, a former secretary of the SSLH, has written a … Continue reading Asa Briggs (1921-2016): historian and founder member of the SSLH
Can you imagine what a Communist Britain would look like? An exciting new project between the People’s History Museum and the University of Manchester is uncovering previously inaccessible archive collections on leading figures in the Communist Party of Great Britain. The project, which includes two exhibitions, a day school and an international conference, will be setting out to challenge familiar concepts of communism. The archive collections … Continue reading Imagining a Communist Britain
We regret to announce the death of Irene Wagner on February 4th at the age of 99. Irene, as Labour Party archivist, was an original member of the Society’s Archive Committee, formed in 1965. She played an important role in Society affairs and was the driving force in moves to create the International Association of Labour History Institutions [IALHI]. Read The Guardian’s obituary written by … Continue reading Irene Wagner
My doctoral thesis, ‘Multilingualism and Language Politics in Post-War Creole Louisiana’, studies the rapid integration of multilingual, Roman Catholic, Latin Southwest Louisiana in the 20th century’s interwar period. More specifically, it traces how French- and Creole-speaking Latins, in this zone, were absorbed into national consciousness through Jim Crowism, Anglicization, Protestantization and infrastructural projects, culminating in a faux-bifurcation of these Creoles along hardened racial lines, of … Continue reading Christophe Landry (Sussex) on a research trip to South Louisiana
In 1913 the worst mining disaster ever to occur in the UK happened at the Universal Colliery in the small village of Senghenydd. This disaster, in which 440 men died, followed just twelve years after another explosion in the same colliery in which 81 men perished. This double tragedy in Senghenydd makes it a significant site of research, not only because of the death toll, … Continue reading Ann-Marie Foster (Northumberland) on the Senghenydd mining disasters and the ephemera of remembrance
The Joseph A. Labadie collection, the oldest public collection of radical history has been used to create a digital archive of more than 2,000 posters. The University of Michigan Library announced this month that its posters on anarchism, civil liberties, feminism, labor, and other political movements are online for the first time. The collection’s strongest holdings are in anarchism, and go back to founder Joseph … Continue reading The revolution has been digitized: explore the oldest archive of radical posters
Belfast born William Walker (1870-1918) is considered the most significant labour leader in Ireland in the early 20th century. As a young trade union activist, he established the first union of women linen workers (1893) and helped organise workers in other sectors. A joiner in shipbuilder’s Harland and Wolf, he became a full-time organiser for the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners (1901), delegate to … Continue reading Mike Mecham visits Belfast to research Irish labour leader and social activist William Walker
Northern ReSisters: Conversations with Radical Womenby Bernadette Hyland Publication date 1 May 2015Published by the Mary Quaile Club ISBN 987-0-9932247-0-6 £5.95 In the first part of this book Bernadette speaks to nine women from Greater Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds who have been active in radical movements over the past forty years, including trade unionism, Ireland Women’s Liberation, radical bookselling, anti-racism and the peace movement. Bernadette says: “In … Continue reading Conversations with Radical Women
My doctoral thesis is entitled ‘Civil-Military Relations and Popular Protest in England, 1790- 1805’. It addresses issues such as the recruitment of the armed forces, the experiences of ordinary soldiers in the army and militia, and the use of the military by the state to suppress instances of popular protest during the Revolutionary French Wars. In particular, I am interested in the way in which … Continue reading Joe Cozens (Essex) on civil-military relations and popular protest, 1790-1805
Society for the Study of Labour History 