Category: Labour history news

News and information of interest to labour historians.

Events, Labour history news

Radical Halifax exhibition: from the Luddites to peace campaigners

Runing until 20 October 2024, Radical Halifax is a unique art exhibition, historical enquiry, and political intervention that seeks to recover hidden histories of the Yorkshire town’s radical past and demonstrate how people from, or with a strong connection to, Halifax have played important roles in transformative movements that sought to build a better world. The exhibition will include artworks by local artist Marcus Jack, … Continue reading Radical Halifax exhibition: from the Luddites to peace campaigners

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Labour history news

Transactions: 170th anniversary of the Preston strike and lock-out of 1853–1854

Six months into the Preston lock-out, the most famous novelist of the day visited the town in search of a story for Household Words and inspiration for his novel-in-progress, Hard Times. After three days at the Bull Hotel Charles Dickens declared Preston a ‘nasty place’ and the whole situation a ‘deplorable calamity’. He returned to London with his suspicions of trade union leaders intact and … Continue reading Transactions: 170th anniversary of the Preston strike and lock-out of 1853–1854

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Labour history news

First tranche of NUM archives now indexed online in huge Warwick MRC project

Just over half way through its three-year project to conserve and catalogue the archives of the National Union of Mineworkers, the Modern Records Centre at the University of Warwick has published the first five catalogues relating to early workers’ organisations in the mining industry. The vast archive collection, previously held at the NUM headquarters in Barnsley, was relocated to Warwick in January 2023 following specialist … Continue reading First tranche of NUM archives now indexed online in huge Warwick MRC project

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Events, Labour history news

Chartism Day 2024 report: centennial event in honour of Dorothy Thompson’s intellectual legacy

Chartism Day 2024 took place at the University of Reading. One hundred years on from the birth of the great Chartist historian Dorothy Thompson, the event sought to honour her intellectual legacy with a wide-ranging selection of papers that highlighted the field’s continuing vigour. Dorothy Thompson was ‘formidable’, and would not have minded in the least being described as such, Dr Joan Allen told delegates … Continue reading Chartism Day 2024 report: centennial event in honour of Dorothy Thompson’s intellectual legacy

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Labour history news

A blue plaque for the Chartist Northern Star

The Northern Star was the paper that made Chartism. In addition to providing news of the movement’s activities locally and nationally, and a forum for ideas and debate, it created a great national political community, and both organised and mobilised its readers behind the Charter and other radical causes. From its launch at the tail end of 1837 until its relocation to London in 1844, … Continue reading A blue plaque for the Chartist Northern Star

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Labour history news

People’s History Museum ‘my favourite’, says Culture Secretary

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has declared Manchester’s People’s History Museum her ‘favourite museum’. Speaking at the city’s Science and Industry Museum, which she said told ‘the story of ordinary extraordinary people who contribute to the growth of our country past and present’, she said that she had ‘spent many happy times here in this museum as a kid’ and now continued to visit with her … Continue reading People’s History Museum ‘my favourite’, says Culture Secretary

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Labour history news

Labour historians look to the past in search of lessons for the Starmer government

What lessons should a Labour Cabinet which numbers five history graduates in its ranks* take from the experience of previous Labour governments? And how might the party’s past be used to help shape its future? In the fortnight leading up to the general election on 4 July, the Labour History Research Unit (LHRU) at Anglia Ruskin University surveyed historians of the Labour Party and modern … Continue reading Labour historians look to the past in search of lessons for the Starmer government

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Labour history news

Vale Rawlings: recovering the lost story of a Burton upon Trent trade unionist

In the weeks before Europe descended into war, the case of a Staffordshire trade unionist named Vale Rawlings became a political cause célèbre. Elaine Pritchard explains current efforts to tell his story. In June 1914, Vale Rawlings, a trade union activist from Burton upon Trent, made newspaper headlines across the country after he was allegedly framed for assaulting a police inspector on a picket line … Continue reading Vale Rawlings: recovering the lost story of a Burton upon Trent trade unionist

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Events, Labour history news

Solidarity, the law and how history preserves the memory of the 1984-85 miners’ strike

Two panel discussions hosted by the Marx Memorial Library and Workers’ School on the legacy of the 1984-85 miners’ strike are now available as podcasts on the Library’s Spotify channel The Miners’ Strike 40 Years On: State Repression, Solidarity and Civil Defence explores the role of the law, the state and communities in the 1984-85 miners’ strike with Lord John Hendy KC on the role … Continue reading Solidarity, the law and how history preserves the memory of the 1984-85 miners’ strike

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