In an era when every self-respecting town centre of any size had at least one department store, no December shopping trip would have been complete without a visit to Santa’s grotto. The experience left most small children with a smile on their face and a cheap toy, while the store owners were equally happy with the additional profits. But for the bit-part actors and bar … Continue reading When Santa and his elves formed a union
The organisational history of trade unions in the iron and steel industry is a complex one. The photographs here, published by the ISTC in the early 1980s as a series of postcards, show the banners and membership certificates of some of the organisations that form part of that story. Trade union membership in the iron and steel trades ebbed and flowed over the latter half … Continue reading Forging a single union for the iron and steel industry
The People’s Flag… is in need of a little care, writes Mike Sanders. Banners and flags have played a key role in Labour movement since its inception. Trades unions and political protesters alike have marched behind banners proclaiming their objectives and values using both word and image. Nor has their symbolic importance escaped the attention of those opposed to the Labour movement. At Peterloo, the … Continue reading SSLH backs drive to conserve historic Belgian trade union banners
Dr Quentin Outram examines the emotions at play in one of the largest industrial disputes ever to take place in Victorian England In the summer of 1893, mine owners sought to reduce wages across the coalfields organised by the Miners’ Federation of Great Britain – including Yorkshire, Lancashire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire, and Warwickshire. The lockout developed into what was then the largest industrial dispute ever … Continue reading Video: Anger and Reason in the English Coal Lockout of 1893
As a school leaver, Keith Laybourn was told, “Don’t be too ambitious”. This year, the SSLH President marks thirty years as a professor and fifty as an academic at the University of Huddersfield. We asked him about a lifetime in labour history Continue reading Fifty years a labour historian: SSLH President Keith Laybourn on half a century at Huddersfield University
he Working Class Movement Library offers an impressive and extensive series of talks, all of which are live-streamed and subsequently made available on its YouTube channel. Its autumn 2021 series of ‘Invisible Histories’ ranges from Thomas Spence to Jayaben Desai, and from the Social Democratic Federation to Militant Continue reading Great online events at the WCML for autumn 2021
The Workers Educational Association and the General Federation of Trade Unions are launching a series of online classes with leading experts in their fields on key components in working class history that have lasting impact. Continue reading Their legacy – our heritage: online classes in labour history from the WEA and GFTU
Industrial action at the Celta Mill in 1928 resulted in the longest phase of strike action in Peterborough’s industrial history. However, the strike was important for other reasons too, writes Hazel Perry. Continue reading ‘A little judgement and ordinary human kindness’: the Peterborough Celta Mill strike, 1928
Walter Citrine served as TUC general secretary from the time of the General Strike to the arrival of the post-war Labour Government. Though sometimes seen as a hardline anti-communist, his relationship with communism in the UK and internationally deserves a more nuanced understanding, as his biographer Dr Jim Moher explains Continue reading Walter Citrine’s dealings with communism and communists
George Smith was the final general secretary of the Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers, and the first of the Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians. His son, also George Smith, offers a personal recollection of his father’s life. Continue reading George Smith (1914-1978) the joiner who built a union
Society for the Study of Labour History 