News and information of interest to labour historians.
Labour history societies in the North West and North East of England and in Australia have published the 2023 issues of their journals (in the case of Australia’s Labour History, the second issue of the year) with articles looking back to the general election of 1923 that produced the 1924 Labour government, and beyond to the growth of the co-operative movement in the North East. … Continue reading Labour history journals round-up, 2023
If you were not able to be at the Durham Miners Gala in 2023 – or were there and would like to relive the day – you can watch the full fifteen-minute official film of the event on the Gala’s Facebook and YouTube channels from Monday 20 November at 7pm. While you are waiting, here’s the trailer. The is set to premier live on the … Continue reading Durham Miners Gala 2023 official film
The Labour Movement originated not in a single event or location but over time and as the result of events in many places. Among the most important of these was the West Riding of Yorkshire, where the Independent Labour Party was formed in the 1880s. In the second annual John L. Halstead Memorial Lecture, Professor Keith Laybourn spoke on ‘The Rising Sun of Socialism: The … Continue reading Video: The Rising Sun of Socialism and the Labour Movement in West Yorkshire 1884-1914
The West Yorkshire town of Halifax was absolutely at the centre of the great strike wave associated with Chartism in 1842. And in the summer of 2022, the 180th anniversary of these strikes for bread and the ballot were commemorated at events backed by Calderdale Trades Council, the Society for the Study of Labour History and others – to great acclaim. Now there is a … Continue reading Bread not bayonets: Chartism and the strikes of 1842 on film
A new posthumously published article by the late Malcolm Chase appears in the current issue of the Journal of Victorian Culture thanks to the efforts of his family and friends1. It deals with the champion of working-class self improvement Samuel Smiles, and is made available on open access here. The article is based on papers which were never published, but which Malcolm gave in person, … Continue reading Samuel Smiles and working-class politics: a new work from the late Malcolm Chase
The Scottish Labour History Society has launched an essay competition for undergraduates. The competion, which comes with a cash first prize of £400 and publication of the winning essay in the journal Scottish Labour History, is open to anyone currently registered for a first degree in Britain or abroad, or to anyone who has completed such a degree no earlier than February 2023. Download the entry … Continue reading Scottish Labour History Society undergraduate essay prize
Writing in the October 2023 issue of Workers of the World: International Journal on Strikes and Social Conflict, Dr Dave Lyddon explores ‘Three hundred years of British strikes: contours, legal frameworks, and tactics’. The article, which is available open access, is a first attempt to cover the topic over such a long time span. Read the article in full. Abstract Britain has the longest … Continue reading The long view: three hundred years of British strikes: contours, legal frameworks, and tactics
In Union, a major new television series for the BBC, historian Professor David Olusoga examines questions of national identity, social class and inequality, ‘shining a light on our fractured modern society through the lens of the past, exposing the fault lines dividing the UK’, as publicity material for the four-episode series puts it. And in episode three, The Two Nations, he reaches the nineteenth century, … Continue reading A touch of labour history for BBC Union history series
Evan Smith offers a guide to the growing volume of left, labour and radical history resources now online, and introduces the directory of more than 500 collections to be found on his New Historical Express blog. Digitisation is a major part of archival practice and historical research today. While it is not a substitute for archival research and only a small percentage of archival material … Continue reading Don’t Mourn, Digitise! Building a list of radical online archives
The Printworkers’ Collection is a huge documentary archive of labour history. Mark Crail visited the Marx Memorial Library to ask director Meirian Jump about a project to conserve and open it up to researchers and the public. Since 2009, the Marx Memorial Library and Workers School has been home to a unique collection of material on the history of those who worked in the print, … Continue reading Print matters: conserving and promoting the printworkers’ story
Society for the Study of Labour History 