Category: Labour history news

News and information of interest to labour historians.

Labour history news, SSLH news

General Strike 100: planning for the centenary

As the centenary of the 1926 General Strike approaches, the Society for the Study of Labour History has joined a group of museums, libraries, archives, and history groups in a national collaboration to mark the occasion. The General Strike 100 project is working in partnership with the trade union and wider labour movement to develop an interactive map of sites for public visitation throughout 2026. This … Continue reading General Strike 100: planning for the centenary

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Labour history news

Gertrude Tuckwell and the Women’s Trade Union League papers online

From 1885 when she first arrived in London aged twenty-four to become secretary to her aunt, the writer, suffragette and trade unionist Emily Dilke, until her retirement in January 1921, Gertrude Tuckwell was among the most prominent and influential figures in the women’s trade union movement. In nearly four decades of activism, she first became active in the Women’s Trade Union League, serving as its … Continue reading Gertrude Tuckwell and the Women’s Trade Union League papers online

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Labour history news

Historical Studies in Industrial Relations 2024 now online

The latest issue of Historical Studies in Industrial Relations (Vol. 45, September 1, 2024) is now available online via Liverpool University Press (subscription required). Table of contents Research ArticlesSmashing the Subversive Unemployed: State Containment and Coercion of the National Unemployed Workers’ Movement, 1921–39Emanuel Bourges Espinosa Nancy Seear and the Investigation of Women’s EmploymentSusan Milner The British Labour Movement’s Involvement in West Indian Labour Struggles, 1934–39: … Continue reading Historical Studies in Industrial Relations 2024 now online

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Labour history news

Mining union records feared destroyed are rediscovered after a decade in the damp

The National Association of Colliery Overmen, Deputies and Shotfirers (NACODS) was never a large trade union, but it was of major significance and importance in the coal industry because of the safety functions of its members. When the union ceased to exist in 2015, with the closure of Kellingley Colliery, the last deep coal mine in Britain, its central records were thought to have been … Continue reading Mining union records feared destroyed are rediscovered after a decade in the damp

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Labour history news

Lottery grant promises to open up Co-operative College Archive for all

The National Lottery Heritage Fund has awarded a six-figure sum to the Co-operative Heritage Trust for its ‘Seeds of Change’ project, which aims to fully catalogue and open up the Co-operative College Archival Collection The £131,653 grant will enable the Trust to recruit a project archivist to work with community volunteers over the next two years, to conserve and protect the collection and make it … Continue reading Lottery grant promises to open up Co-operative College Archive for all

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Labour history news, SSLH news

Victory in campaign to save historic wills from destruction

Ministers have ditched proposals made under the previous government to destroy millions of wills dating back to 1858 as a money-saving measure. The Society for the Study of Labour History was among 1,600 organisations and individuals to respond to a Ministry of Justice consultation document, issued in December 2023, which put forward proposals to digitise 110 million wills before destroying the original documents in a … Continue reading Victory in campaign to save historic wills from destruction

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Labour history news

Ten labour history anniversaries in 2025

Our annual review of labour history anniversaries takes in the shifting legal framework for trade unions, the first legislation on sex discrimination and equal pay, and the lead up to the General Strike. It starts, however, in 1775 with Thomas Paine, the author of The Rights of Man, and ends in 2000 with the Human Rights Act coming into force. Continue reading Ten labour history anniversaries in 2025

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Labour history news

Labour history journals round-up, 2024

Labour history societies throughout the UK and beyond have published the year-end editions of their journals for 2025. Here we offer a summary of their contents. The round-up includes the journals of : North West Labour History SocietyNorth East Labour History SocietyScottish Labour History SocietyIrish Labour History SocietyAustralian Labour History Society North West History Journal – North West Labour History Society The front cover of … Continue reading Labour history journals round-up, 2024

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Labour history news

NUM archives project hits milestone with Women Against Pit Closures and predecessor union indexes online

Work to index the records of the National Union of Mineworkers and its predecessor unions has hit an important milestone, with more than a dozen catalogues now searchable online. In addition to the trade unions listed below, catalogues have also been completed for Women Against Pit Closures, including financial information for the period of the 1984-85 strike, and organisational records from 1984 to 1995, and, … Continue reading NUM archives project hits milestone with Women Against Pit Closures and predecessor union indexes online

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Labour history news

ILHS publishes directory of historic trade unions online

The Historical Directory of Trade Unions in Ireland, first published in 2017 by the Irish Labour History Society and the Working Class Movement Library, is now online. Both the original 616-page directory, edited by Francis Devine and John B. Smethurst, and a substantial 38-page update compiled by Devine, can be found on the ILHS website, and are free to download in PDF format. The directory, … Continue reading ILHS publishes directory of historic trade unions online

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