University of Chichester: cuts to history programmes

The Society for the Study of Labour History joins the Social History Society and many other organisations and individuals in regretting the announcement by the University of Chichester to suspend recruitment to two important history programmes, the unique MRes in the History of Africa and the African Diaspora and the BA Modern History. In axing these programmes, the University of Chichester has placed two highly respected historians … Continue reading University of Chichester: cuts to history programmes

Report: Working-class Anti-imperialism and the Global Left: New Directions of Study

The Labour and Empire Working Group has held conferences and other events for nearly ten years as part of the European Labour History Network (ELHN). In 2023, the Group held a one-day conference titled ‘Working-class Anti-imperialism and the Global Left: New Directions of Study’ at the University of Bristol, which we were able to attend thanks to travel bursaries made possible by the Society for … Continue reading Report: Working-class Anti-imperialism and the Global Left: New Directions of Study

Chartism Day 2023 report: ‘You tyrants of England! Your race may soon be run…’

This year’s Chartism Day was in Sheffield, with papers on the land plan, the poet Thomas Cooper, the ‘paper pantheon’, Chartism’s first historian of the modern era, and the lives of Chartists in France Held on Saturday 17 June, Chartism Day 2023 opened with a fitting tribute to Stephen Roberts – the organiser of the first such event in 1995, and a leading Chartist historian … Continue reading Chartism Day 2023 report: ‘You tyrants of England! Your race may soon be run…’

The Gallows Pole: how a community of weavers nearly crashed the economy

A television drama that tells the extraordinary story of the Cragg Vale Coiners is now on BBC iPlayer. And you may just spot a familiar face in the cast. Even by the standards of the day, life in the Pennines weaving communities of Cragg Vale in the second half of the eighteenth century could be tough. But in the 1760s, this isolated valley, close to … Continue reading The Gallows Pole: how a community of weavers nearly crashed the economy

BME small grants scheme backs six projects

Congratulations to this year’s successful applicants to the BME small grants funding scheme. The scheme provides small grants of up to £1,000 to support Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) historians working in the UK and/or on histories of BME people. The successful projects from the 2022 round are: The scheme is administered by the Social History Society in partnership with the Economic History Society, History … Continue reading BME small grants scheme backs six projects

In Our Time: Chartism

On 21 May 1838 an estimated 150,000 people assembled on Glasgow Green for a mass demonstration. There they witnessed the launch of the People’s Charter, a list of demands for political reform. The changes they called for included voting by secret ballot, equal-sized constituencies and, most importantly, that all men should have the vote.  The Chartist were the first national mass working-class movement. In the … Continue reading In Our Time: Chartism

Communist lives in twentieth century Ireland

Above: Mike Mecham presents Meirian Jump of the Marx Memorial Library with a copy of Left Lives in Twentieth-Century Ireland, Vol. 3: Communist Lives, edited by Francis Devine and Patrick Smylie (Umiskin Press, Dublin, April 2020). An inscription in the book reads, ‘Presented by Umiskin Press, Dublin, to the Marx Memorial Library in recognition of its major contribution to the preservation and enhancement of Socialist … Continue reading Communist lives in twentieth century Ireland