The American historian William M Johnston talked in his book Celebrations about a ‘cult’ of anniversaries. And he noted how they provide an opportunity – or excuse – to mark the passage of time in ways that help communities to build and sustain a sense of identity. For many in the labour movement, there could be no bigger anniversary in 2024 than the centenary of … Continue reading Ten labour history anniversaries in 2024
My PhD thesis asks: when do trade unions come to support universal welfare policies? It pursues the question through a comparison of the British and American labour movements at the turn of the twentieth century. Thanks to the funding from the Society for the Study of Labour History, I was able to make two archival visits which hugely advanced my research. The first was to … Continue reading Maya Adereth (LSE) on trade unions and friendly society benefits in the UK and US at the turn of the 20th century
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
Pressure to limit working hours in India’s textile factories came from a variety of sources, as Suramya Thekke Kalathil explains. I received a grant from the Society for the Study of Labour History to attend the European Social Science History Conference at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. The conference was jointly organized by the International Institute of Social History and University of Gothenburg and took … Continue reading The Indian Factories Act 1881 and workers’ rights
There is nothing special about anniversaries. No intrinsic reason to look back at events fifty years ago rather than at the years either side. But just as we mark birthdays and other significant events in our lives, so societies do much the same on a bigger scale, not least as a politically charged means of creating shared histories. But what we choose to commemorate and … Continue reading Eight labour history anniversaries in 2023
Society for the Study of Labour History 