Tuesday 3 November. 7pm. Religion in County Durham Education, 1800-1850
North East Labour History First Tuesday talk by Heather Thompson. Heather is a native of North West Durham who, after graduation, joined the Diplomatic Service and studied Japanese. After service in London, Japan and Southern Africa, she returned home and undertook Masters Degree in Local History. Bridge Hotel, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
5 November. 5pm. Strangers In A Strange Land: The Art and Performance of the World War One Chinese Labour Corps
Film and speakers on the The long buried story of the 140,000 Chinese labourers who lent vital assistance to the allied Great War effort is only now beginning to emerge. One striking element is the strong feature of art and culture in these men’s lives. They played musical instruments, sang songs, performed stories and dances, fashioned art out of abandoned artefacts and even bombshells. Art, so often seen as the preserve of the privileged classes, played a huge part in the lives of these impoverished workers. Panel discussion members: Paul Bevan (SOAS/ Oxford), Steve Lau (Ensuring We Remember Campaign), Nick Saunders (Bristol), Frances Wood (author), Daniel York Loh (playwright). To attend email gemma@act-up.co.uk . Venue: SOAS, Russell Square, College Buildings, Room G3. sci@soas.ac.uk. 020 7898 4823
Tuesday 10 November. 7.30pm. Robert Sadler and the lost Copenhagen Running Grounds, Garratt Lane
Talk by Kevin Kelly for Tooting History Group. United Reformed Church, Rookstone Road. SW17.
Thursday 12 November. 5.30pm. The Economic Causes and Environmental Consequences of the English Revolution
Talk by George Yerby, author of The English Revolution and the Roots of Environmental Change: The Changing Concept of the Land in Early Modern England (Routledge 2015). History and Environment Seminar Series. Room 2.11, Main Building, Ruskin College, Dunstan Road, Old Headington, Oxford. All welcome. No booking necessary. Contact: Ed Rooksby: rooksby.ed@gmail.com or George Yerby: george.yerby@googlemail.com
Saturday 21 November. 1.30 for 2pm. May we … make ourselves felt where the laws are enacted: The Co-operative Movement and Politics 1914 -1931
Talk by Nicole Robertson of Northumbria University. Notts & Derbyshire Labour History Society. Chesterfield Labour Club, Saltergate, Chesterfield, S40 1NF. The talk begins at 2pm; tea and Five Leaves book stall will be available from 1.30 pm.
Wednesday 25 November. 2pm. The China Campaign Committee & Chinese Merchant Seaman’s Reserve Pools
Talks by Tom Buchanan, author of East wind: China and the British left, 1925-1976, and Charles and Yvonne Foley from Half and Half, a network for families of Chinese seamen who were repatriated after WW2. The China Campaign Committee organised solidarity in Britain with China’s resistance against Japanese militarism from 1937 to 1945. From Liverpool some 15-20,000 Chinese seamen were used to serve the dangerous run across the Atlantic bringing vital oil supplies to Britain. People’s History Museum, Left Bank, Spinningfields, Manchester, M3 3ER. 0161 838 9190.
Thursday 26 November. 7.30pm. Clapham Through Time
Event with authors of Clapham Through Time, a selection of photographs of Clapham in the past shown alongside exactly the same views taken this year, with a brief historical commentary for each pair. The book records the huge changes in the area in the last fifty years, let alone the last century. Clapham Through Time (Amberley Publishing, price £14.99) will be published in mid-November. Clapham Books, 26,The Pavement, SW4 0JA.
Friday 27 November. 7.30pm. The Joe Hill Dream
100 years ago, on 19 November 1915, trade union activist and song-writer, Joe Hill, was executed by firing squad in the USA after what many considered a biased trial. The Joe Hill Dream by John Fay (Brookside, Coronation Street, The Mill) uses music, humour, and Brechtian-style theatre to capture the tragedy of Joe’s death. More information about all of the above, including booking details, at http://www.salfordartstheatre.com/whats-on. Salford Arts Theatre, Kemsing Walk, Off Liverpool St, Salford. Tel: 0161 925 0111. Email info@salfordartstheatre.com
Tuesday 1 December. 6.30pm to 8pm. Why Labour History Still Matters
This meeting is organised by the Applied History Network (www.appliedhistorynetwork.wordpress.com) in association with the Raphael Samuel History Centre. Marx Memorial Library, London EC1R 0DU. It is free to attend but please register here.
Labour history was central to many constructions of radical history in Britain in the twentieth century. Since the 1980s, however, the decline in the strength of the British trade union movement alongside intellectual trends away from the centrality of class have coincided with an apparent ‘crisis’ of labour history. Yet trade unions still have 6 million members in this country, work is still a central experience of everyday life, and antagonism at the point of production must still have a role in radical politics. But what place does recounting the experience of labour in the past have to play in this process? This session will bring together people who have engaged with the history of labour and trade unions from a variety of approaches to engage with this question. There will be plenty of time for discussion.
Speakers:
- Sarah Boston (Film maker and author of Women Workers and the Trade Unions)
- Mary Davis (Professor of Labour History)
- Owen Gower (director of Still the Enemy Within)
- Jeff Howarth (TUC Library Collections, Librarian)
Sunderland ‘Freeborn’ John Lilburne project gets Heritage Lottery backing
Britain at Work focus on Railways
The latest issue of the Britain at work London project newsletter focusses on rail nationalisation, the Stratford Depot strike 1989, and women in the RMT and the ‘Bakerloo Girls’. Copy attached here
Books from Ashgate: www.ashgate.com
- Greening London, 1920-2000. Matti O Hannikainen. January 2016.
- Little ‘Red Scares’. Anti-Communism and Political Repression in the United States 1921-1946. Ed. Robert Justin Goldstein. June 2014.
- Music, Art and Diplomacy: East-West Cultural Interactions and the Cold War. Ede. Simon Mikkonen & Pekka Suutari. February 2016.
- The Show Must Go On! Popular Song in Britain During the First World War. John Mullen. August 2015.
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