Information about forthcoming conferences, calls for papers and invitations to register, plus reports on conferences, seminars and similar events that have already taken place.
Manchester Jewish Museum is hosting a performance of the one-woman play Chopped Liver and Unions on Thursday 1 May to mark International Workers’ Day. The play is based on the life of Sara Wesker, a Jewish trade unionist and activist in the Communist Party of Great Britain who led the “singing strikers” walk-out at the Rego Factory in London’s Bethnal Green in 1928, stood on … Continue reading Play: Chopped Liver and Unions
Professor Peter Gurney will deliver the fourth John L. Halstead Memorial Lecture at the John Rylands Library, Deansgate, Manchester, on Saturday 14 June 2025. He will be speaking on ‘The Chartist Revolution’. Book a free ticket for this event. The lecture is held annually in memory of the late John Halstead, who was among the earliest members of the Society for the Study of Labour … Continue reading John Halstead Memorial Lecture 2025: reserve your place
People’s History Museum (PHM), Manchester, is offering an opportunity to join its archive team in delving into the museum’s miners’ strike collections. The event takes place on the 40th anniversary of the final day of the 1984-1985 miners’ strike and tells the stories of a defining event in Britain’s history. Visitors can also explore the galleries where they will see objects such as a poster featuring the … Continue reading PHM offers end-of-the-miners’-strike archive exploration
A one-day symposium on the history and legacy of the miners’ strike of 1984/5 takes place at National Mining Museum England in Wakefield on 22 February 2025. The event is organised by National Mining Museum England and supported by the Society for the Study of Labour History. Attendance is free, but please register at the link below if you wish to attend. Programme 10am – … Continue reading Symposium: the history and legacy of the miners’ strike of 1984/5
People’s History Museum is hosting an evening event to mark the 40th anniversary of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM); an organisation that played a unique role in the events of the 1984 to 1985 miners’ strike. Taking place on Thursday 27 February, from 6pm to 9pm, as part of a programme of events for LGBT+ History Month, Solidarity Forever: 40 Years of LGSM … Continue reading Solidarity Forever: 40 Years of LGSM
The People’s History Museum 2025 Banner Exhibition opens on Saturday 18 January. Running until 29 December 2025, the exhibition includes banners produced by trade unions, political parties, the co-operative movement, peace campaigns and others over more than a century of campaigning. Among the historic trade union banners represented in this year’s exhibition is that of the National Union of Railwaymen, Hither Green branch banner, made … Continue reading PHM to unveil 2025 banners exhibition
Earlier this year, a one-day conference was held to mark 45 years since the publication of the seminal socialist-feminist text, Beyond the Fragments: Feminism and the Making of Socialism. Co-authored by Sheila Rowbotham, Lynne Segal and Hilary Wainwright, the book argued that the Women’s Liberation Movement offered a unique insight for socialist organising at the end of the 1970s, found not just in theory, but … Continue reading Beyond the Fragments: 45 Years On
One hundred and eighty years after was published in Leeds for the final time, the Chartist Northern Star newspaper now has a blue plaque in the heart of the city marking its importance as a voice of working-class radicalism. Unveiled by Shirley Chase, whose late husband, the Chartist historian Professor Malcolm Chase, long sought to have the paper commemorated in the city where it was … Continue reading Northern Star shines in Leeds once more
A photographic exhibition exploring how acts of resistance have shaped life in the UK, and the powerful role of photography in documenting and driving change, opens at the Turner Contemporary gallery in Margate in February 2025. Conceived by artist and filmmaker Steve McQueen and curated in collaboration with Clarrie Wallis, Resistance promises to be ‘a compelling exploration of overlooked histories, shedding light on the forgotten … Continue reading Exhibition: Resistance – exploring overlooked histories
Dr Natalie Thomlinson delivered the Society’s third annual John Halstead Memorial Lecture, Remembering the Strike: the miners’ strike of 1984-5 in popular memory at the University of Huddersfield on Saturday 9 November 2024. The lecture can be viewed on YouTube here. Dr Thomlinson is Associate Professor of Modern British Cultural History at the University of Reading, and co-author of Women and the Miners’ Strike (2023). She has … Continue reading Video: Remembering the Strike: the miners’ strike of 1984-5 in popular memory
Society for the Study of Labour History 