North East Labour History

Saint Ann's Church Gateshead: Peter Wright will talk about The History of the River Tyne Water Trades
2019-09-07 14:00 - 16:00 UTC | St Ann’s Church, The Vicarage, 11 Gibson Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 6PY
The Vicarage 11 Gibson Street Newcastle upon Tyne

NELHS First Tuesday: Val Scully will talk about Writing Historical Fiction in the North East
2019-09-03 19:00 | Old George Inn, Old George Yard, Newcastle, NE1 1EZ
In this illustrated talk, Val will describe researching for her two novels set in the North East: My Name is Eleanor and Molly Bowes. Having begun with eighteenth-century Gibside, her interests evolved to encompass the wider nineteenth-century social history of the area. She will discuss the processes involved in writing historical fiction with a didactic purpose.

Originally from Manchester, Val was a teacher on Tyneside. Since retiring, she has developed her interest in the eighteenth and nineteenth century history of the North East, particularly the Derwent Valley. She has published three historical novels and recently transcribed Men of Iron. She is a member of Winlaton Local History Society, on the Board of the Lit & Phil and leads the research group at Gibside.

Tyneside Irish Centre: Peter Coe's The Road to Peterloo
2019-08-18 19:00 | Tyneside Irish Centre, 43 Gallowgate, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4SG, United Kingdom
This is the story of the Peterloo Massacre told through many of the ballads that were written at the time, please book at https://peterloo.eventbrite.co.uk
There is also a guided walk on Newcastle’s Campaign for the Vote, starting at Grey’s Monument which you can join on Sunday at 2.30pm, £5 for adults, £3 for over 60s and free for accompanied children.
For more information https://www.newcastlegateshead.com/city-guides/heritage-walks

Winlaton Mill: Val Scully will talk about her novel Molly Bowes and the aftermath of Peterloo
2019-08-16 18:30 - 21:00 | Cafe Shrub, Land of Oak and Iron Heritage Centre, Spa Well Road, Winlaton Mill, Blaydon on Tyne, NE21 6RU

St Anne's Church, Newcastle: Mike Greatbach will talk about Life and Labour at St Anne's c1760-1840
2019-07-20 19:00 - 20:30 | St Anne’s Church, Breamish Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 6PY
The Church is situated between Breamish Street and City Road.
The main entrance is on Breamish Street where there is on-street parking.

St Nicholas Cathedral, Newcastle: Commemoration of the 1995 Bosnian Genocide
2019-07-11 18:30 | St Nicholas Cathedral, St. Nicholas Sq, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 1PF
From Smajo Beso of Newcastle’s Bosnian Community
You are warmly invited to Newcastle’s St Nicholas Cathedral on Thursday 11 July at 6.30pm to remember the victims and survivors of the single largest atrocity mass killing on European soil since the Second World War.
This year marks the 24th anniversary of the Bosnian genocide, in the town of Srebrenica, Bosnia, which took place in July 1995, when Serbian nationalists massacred 8,372 Bosnian men and boys. The women and young girls were subjected to a different form of genocide through sexual violence and rape.
We hope by bringing people of faith and of none together and sharing our experiences of the war, we can rediscover our commonalities; we can challenge hatred and intolerance in order to build better and safer communities for us all.
The programme will feature testimonies from Bosnian genocide survivors, also talks by Allan Little (former BBC correspondent) and Emlyn Pearce (blogger and writer). Bosnian refreshments will be served from 6pm. All are welcome and admission is free for this powerful evening of remembrance, inspiration and unity – please register using the link below or by email.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/srebrenica-bosnian-genocide-memorial-event-tickets-61732808492?aff=ebdssbdestsearch
It would be great to see you there.

NELHS Second Tuesday at Redhills: Huw Beynon will speak on "'The Little Dictator' and 'The Three Musketeers': The NUM Durham Area at a time of Nationalisation and Cold War"
2019-07-09 19:00 | The Miners’ Hall, Redhills, Durham, Flass Street, Durham City, DH1 4BE
In 1937 Orwell visited a coal mine in Lancashire and was exhausted by the time he had walked to the coal face. He marvelled at the endurance of the miners and wrote of how you could “easily drive a car right across the north of England: and never once remembered that hundreds of feet below… The miners are hewing out coal. Yet in a sense it is the miners who are driving your car forward. Their lamp lit world down there, is necessary to the day light world above as the root is to the flower” Writings like Down the Mine together with films based in South Wales (The Citadel, 1937) and Durham (The Stars Look Down 1939) helped place the coal miner symbolically at the centre of the distress and hardship associated with the depression.
The war changed much of this – coal was needed as never before and once-redundant miners were encouraged to work hard long hours – six shifts a week – earning money regularly for the first but with nothing to spend it on. DMA President Will Lawther, described “a mood of sullen resentment and anger on the coalfield” supporting the view that “coal was the conspicuous failure in Britain’s war time economy and the greatest threat to the compact that Bevin and the TUC had forged since 1940 (Field 2011: 119). This is revealed in the data on unofficial strike activity during the war years 46.6% of all recorded stoppages took place in the coal mines and that the industry accounted for 55.7% of all days lost though strikes. Furthermore almost 60% of the entire work force was involved directly or indirectly in strike action, almost all of which were spontaneous and local to a particular mine or colliery.
In the transition to peacetime, this militancy was the source of problems for the incoming Labour Government. At that time the UK was a single fuel economy and the national plans for economic reconstruction rested entirely upon sustaining high levels of coal production. In this, the demands of the miners’ union for nationalisation were irresistible and “The Board”, as it became known was established under the Nationalisation of Mines Act of 1946. In its operation it called upon the support and assistance of a trade union (The NUM) which had been formed just two years earlier. Members of the Communist Party held important official positions within the new union and at a time of “cold war” this was to be a source of concern, particularly to the US government. In its construction of the Marshall Plan of economic aid it envisioned an aggressive ideological response achieved through “the exporting to Europe of the anti-communist, productivist consensus which had already achieved hegemonic dominance over American labour”
The leadership of the Durham Area of the National Union of Mineworkers was strongly supportive of both these aims. Sam Watson (“the little dictator”) played a critical role both locally and nationally by controlling strike action and critical debate at home and in the part he played on the NEC of the NUM and the Labour Party where he was chair of the International Committee. He was followed by “The Three Musketeers” (Alfred “Tess” Hesler, Charlie Pick and J.C. “Kit” Robinson), a triumvirate praised by the NCB for their help in steering through the NCB’s closure programme in the sixties. The talk will explore the origins of these leaders and the nature of the role they played within Durham and the NUM. Occasional comparisons will be drawn with the situation in the South Wales Area during the same period.
Huw Beynon is Emeritus Professor of Social Sciences at Cardiff University. He is the author of Masters and Servants: Class and Patronage in the Making of a Labour Organisation: The Durham Miners and the English Political Tradition (with Terry Austrin) and he was the editor of Digging Deeper: Issues in the Miners Strike.
His new book (with Ray Hudson) The Shadow of the Mine: Coal and the end of industrial Britain will be published by Verso next year.

Newcastle City Library, Book Launch: Tyneside Song From Blind Willie to Bobby Nunn
2019-07-05 15:30 - 16:30 | Bewick Hall, Newcastle City Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8AX
Dear friend and colleagues,
As many of you will know, Blind Willie Purvis was the earliest-known named vernacular songwriter in Newcastle, and he became an iconic figure among middle-class people by the 1820s, while Bobby Nunn was the earliest-known semi-professional songwriter for the town’s working-class people from 1829.
I will be launching my Tyneside Song from Blind Willie to Bobby Nunn in Newcastle on in the Bewick Room at Newcastle Central Library on Friday 5 July, 3.30 – 4.30pm and an invitation is below I recognise that folks who live some way away probably won’t be able to come, and others may have prior commitments, but I’d appreciate it if everyone could pass on the invitation to anyone they know on Tyneside or thereabouts who might be interested.
The response to this book has been very heartening. Over half of the print run has been spoken for, and thank you to those who have already paid for your copy or copies.
Copies are available from me at 11 Ouseburn Wharf, St. Lawrence Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, at £20, or by post at £25, to cover postage and packing. You can either send me a cheque to my home address, or arrange a bank transfer to my Co-operative Bank: sort code 08-92-80, account number 05176476.

Newcastle City Library: The North East of England African Association presents The Windrush Story with Music & Poetry
2019-06-22 13:00 - 15:00 | Bewick Hall, Newcastle City Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8AX
Opened by Chi Onwurah MP
Performance by Khadijah Ibrahim (Author & Poet)
Presentation by Edwina Forde & Dr Prevatt Goldstein
Includes refreshments – bookings at info.neeaca@gmail.com

Tyneside Irish Centre: Book Launch: New Edition of SHAFTED: The Media, the Miners’ Strike and the Aftermath
2019-06-19 19:00 | Tyneside Irish Centre, 43 Gallowgate, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4SG, United Kingdom
The first edition of Shafted was published on the 25th anniversary of the miners’ strike. So much has happened over the last decade: cabinet paper revelations on the government’s role in the strike; the establishment of the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign; and a renewed interest in the Women Against Pit Closures pit camps set up in the wake of the October 1992 announcement of 31 pits closing with the loss of 31,000 jobs.
Come along to hear from people who have contributed to this new edition.
Speakers
Julian Petley was one of the authors of Media Hits The Pits produced by the CPBF in 1985. His chapter in Shafted ‘Taking Liberties with Taking Liberties’ explores reactions by BBC top brass to the Open Space programme made with Sheffield Police Watch which went out in November 1984. He is Professor of Film and Television at Brunel University.
Jean Spence was an active participant in the Vane Tempest Vigil in Seaham in 1993 and co-authored, with Carol Stephenson, the chapter ‘It has to be a miners’ wife!’ Representing women in mining activism.
Granville Williams edited both editions of Shafted. He is the co-ordinator of CPBF (North) and editor of MediaNorth.
WEDNESDAY 19 JUNE at 7.00PM
ADMISSION FREE – PLUS IRISH STEW AND VEGETARIAN OPTION
Tyneside Irish Centre, 43 Gallowgate, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 4SG
Meeting organised by Campaign for Press & Broadcasting (North) and NUJ Newcastle Branch

South Shields: Exhibition to Commemorate the 200th Anniversary of the St Hilda's Pit Disaster
2019-06-11 12:00 - 2019-06-13 13:00 | St Hilda’s Pit Head, Henry Robson Way, South Shields, NE33 1RF
From Sue King
St Hilda’s Pit Head has been restored by the Tyne and Wear Restoration Trust and is now used as a community centre, focussing on the arts.
There is an exhibition there of paintings by local artists to commemorate the pit disaster when 51 men and boys were killed. Both building and exhibition are well worth a visit. The exhibition is open next week as follows:
Tuesday 11 June 12.00 – 2.00
Wednesday 12 June 11.00 – 2.00
Thursday 13 June 10.00 – 1.00
The address is:
St Hilda’s Pit Head
Henry Robson Way
South Shields
NE33 1RF
It is opposite Wickes where you can park (maximum time 90 minutes)

NELHS First Tuesday: Andy Clark will take 'A historical look at modern apprenticeships: Sigmund Pumps Wartime Apprenticeship Scheme'
2019-06-04 19:00 | Old George Inn, Old George Yard, Newcastle, NE1 1EZ
Sigmund Pump Apprentices at a 2016 Reunion
In this paper, I will discuss the Gateshead-based Sigmund Pumps Wartime Apprenticeship Scheme. Utilising archive materials and new oral history interviews with five wartime apprentices, I will examine the impact of the apprenticeship scheme on those involved. The Sigmund scheme was unique in that it was based on a more modern approach to skill training than was common in engineering at the time; apprentices were paid, they attended college, were trained in a number of engineering-related skills, and were provided with meals, medical check-ups and summer camps. This model was imported from Sigmund’s plants in Czechoslovakia – from where Miroslav Sigmund had fled Nazi invasion – and is one of the earliest ‘modern apprenticeships’ in a British context. This paper will examine how the scheme is reflected on by those involved, and in particular consider its impact on their subsequent career trajectories.
Andy Clark is a Research Associate with the Newcastle Oral History Collective. His research predominantly focuses on the impacts of deindustrialisation, particularly through an analysis of feminist, working-class radicalism in response to factory closure.

Commemoration: Seven Men of Jarrow
2019-06-01 13:00 - 2019-06-02 12:30
A commemoration of the dark events of the 1830s & a celebration of the lives of these men, found guilty of conspiracy by a Durham Judge. Sentenced to the penal colonies for life, and transported in irons to Botany Bay, leaving their families behind to fend for themselves.
On Saturday 1 June from 1.00pm, join musicians and singers for music and songs of the Coalfield & River with an address by the esteemed Mr Joseph Waddle at the Jarrow Gin and Ale House, 73 Walter Street, Jarrow NE32 3PQ.
On Sunday 2 June at 9.15 – 10.15am, Wreath Laying and speeches at the Jobling Memorial, Tyne Street, Jarrow NE32 3DX followed by a march led by the Felling Silver Band at 10.30am from Jarrow Town Hall to Drewitts Park.

Newcastle University: Annual Chartism Day Conference 2019
2019-06-01 09:00 - 17:00 | Room 2.16. Armstrong Building, Queen Victoria Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8QB
Chartism 2019 – Booking Form
9.00–9.15 Registration.
9.15–9.30 Introduction and Welcome (Joan Allen and Richard Allen, Newcastle).
9.30–10.15 Tom Scriven (Manchester). ‘Chartism’s electoral strategy and the bifurcation of Radicalism’.
10.15–11.00 Joan Allen (Newcastle). ‘Chartist trials, 1839: Revisited’.
Break
11.30–12.15 Mike Greatbatch. (Independent). ‘William Parker: A Chartist Life’.
12.15-13.00 Joe Stanley (Sheffield Hallam). ‘Protest and Popular Politics amongst the Yorkshire Miners, 1786-1839’.
Lunch
2.00–3.00 Keynote Lecture: Robert Poole (UCLAN). ‘Peterloo and Chartism’ – title tbc
3.00–3.45 Mark Bennett (Durham). ‘Chartism’s legacy: the reform debate in Yorkshire, 1859-67’.
Break
4.15-5.00 Matt Roberts (Sheffield Hallam). ‘The Visual and Material Culture of Chartism’.
End of Conference
Sponsors: with grateful thanks to School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Newcastle University, and The Society for the Study of Labour History

Various Venues: Carrying David, Ed Waugh's newest play about NE boxer Glenn McCrory and his brother David
2019-05-31 14:30 - 2019-06-09 19:30 | Various North East Venues

NELHS Event, Tantobie Community Centre, Peter Brabban: The War came early to Sleepy Valley
2019-05-24 18:00 | Tantobie Community Centre, The Playing Fields, Tantobie, DH9 9TJ

Sunderland Community Lectures 2019
2019-05-22 14:00 - 2019-08-21 14:00 | University of Sunderland’s Sir Tom Cowie Lecture Theatre, St Peter's Way, Sunderland, SR1 3SD
Why waste a day in the house? Woodwork paints itself if you leave it long enough….Your son will do the ironing….Gardens benefit from neglect and abandonment….Someone else will do the cooking….
What else can you do…?
Come along to the Sunderland Community Lectures which are running throughout Summer 2019 and which are themed around “Crossings” because of the opening of the new cable-stayed Northern Spire Bridge
The Sunderland Community Lectures are free. They are on Wednesday afternoon in the University of Sunderland’s Sir Tom Cowie Lecture Theatre, Prospect Building, Sir Tom Cowie Campus at St Peter’s, St Peter’s Way, Sunderland SR1 3SD.
The lectures begin on 22 May commencing at 2.30pm and are approximately one hour in duration. They run through to 21 August. Do arrive in the Prospect Building between 2.00pm – 2.30pm to register before the lecture begins.
There is (pay) parking in the grounds of the campus. The St. Peter’s Metro Station is within a few minutes walking distance. Alternatively a regular bus service runs from the Park Lane Bus Station to St Peter’s Campus itself.
Come along, better still – come along and bring a friend!
Stuart Miller
PROGRAMME
22nd May The Causes of the Tay Bridge Disaster (Eric Fletcher) (When the Tay Bridge was opened on the 1st June 1878 it was described as a marvel of Victorian engineering. Seven months later during a violent storm the central part of the bridge collapsed plunging a train and 75 people, 85ft down into the Tay. The lecture will look at how the design, construction, operation and maintenance of the bridge contributed to the disaster and the crucial role played by the personality of designer Thomas Bouch)
5th June From Tyne to Tweed in old postcards (George Nairn) (Having made other journeys in County Durham by old postcards in previous lectures George will now undertake a journey from the Tyne to the Tweed along “Northumberland’s lordly strand”)
19th June The Lake Baikal Ferry (Alan Owen) (In 1895 a contract between the Russian Imperial Government and Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Co Ltd was signed for a unique icebreaking ferry to operate on Lake Baikal as part of the new Trans-Siberian Railway. By June 1896 it had been delivered in flat-pack form. It was launched in 1899 and operated until 1918. This lecture will describe how the crossing of the largest freshwater lake in the world was achieved through the skills of North East Engineers)
17th July The Biddick Ferryman (David Inch) (In the 18th Century a ferry-boat service operated between North and South Biddick on the River Wear. For a period the ferryman was a man named James Drummond. Was he a simple ferryman or was he someone of quite amazing status ? This talk explores a fascinating local legend)
7th August Crossing the Tyne (Pat Lowery) (The Romans built the first bridge over the Tyne and a fort to protect the crossing. Since then several bridges and tunnels have been built to transport people and goods from one side to the other. This lecture will look at some of the river crossings both above and below the river, their construction and use, and stories of the people who built and used them)
21st August The Wearmouth Bridge (Stuart Miller) (The first Wearmouth Bridge at Sunderland was the second iron bridge in the world, and much more ambitious than that at Ironbridge. It was soon added to the “bucket list” of contemporary travellers. This talk will explore the background to the building of the bridge, describe its novel construction and outline the intriguing controversy about who was responsible for the design)

Lit and Phil: Remembering Dr Eric Wade (1939-2018), a Commemoration
2019-05-17 14:30 - 16:30 | The Lit & Phil, 23 Westgate Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 1SE, United Kingdom
As you may know, sadly, Dr Eric Wade passed away last year. We are planning the above event where we’ll be sharing memories and stories about Eric.
We have arranged a programme of speakers who knew him well. However, if you’d like to add your own informal stories about Eric, then please email Mick Goulding, our MC, and we’ll happily arrange to have them included on the day. Mick’s email is: michael.goulding00@gmail.com
Light refreshments will be available.
If you would like to come along then could you please let Harold Dobson (email: hfdobson@btinternet.com) know for seating and catering purposes.

Newcastle University. Conference: The Global Challenge of Peace: 1919 as a Contested Threshold to a New World Order
2019-05-17 12:30 - 2019-05-18 16:00 | Room 2.16. Armstrong Building, Queen Victoria Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8QB
Free admission, please register: matt.perry@newcastle.ac.uk

Organised by Labour and Society Research Group and Conflict and Revolution Research Strand of Newcastle University

Friday 17 May 2019
12.30 – 13.00 Registration and Coffee
13.00 – 14.30 Panel 1: The Dynamics of Contention in 1919, Chair: TBC
Jacopo Perazzoli (University of Milan): The General Strike of July 1919: Lenin, Wilson and their Influences on Italian Socialism
Jude Murphy (WEA) and Nigel Todd (WEA): How did military/civilian dynamics shape matters with the return and demobilisation of millions of military personnel?
Gordon J Barclay and Louise Heren (Independent Scholars): The Battle for George Square, 1919: myth, memory and reality in Red Clydeside
14.30– 15.00 Tea and Coffee
15.00 – 15.45 Keynote Lecture – Chair: Máire Cross
Professor Tyler Stovall (University of California, Santa Cruz): The Black and the Red: the Elaine, Arkansas Massacre of 1919.
16.00 – 17.30 Panel 2: Contentious Politics from Below, Chair: TBC
Professor Claudia Baldoli (University of Milan): “Do as in Russia”: The Italian Peasant Movement in 1919
Matt Perry (Newcastle University): The 1919 mutinies in the French Armed Forces: Colonialism, Ethnicity and the Remaking of the French left
Professor Máire Cross (Newcastle University): Blessed are the peacemakers! The presence of ideas of nineteenth-century French socialists in twentieth-century pacifism
Reception / Dinner

Saturday 18 May 2019: ARMB 2.16
09.30 – 11.00 Panel 3: Colonialism and Race
Chair: Joe Redmayne
Neelam Srivastava (Newcastle University): Sylvia Pankhurst in 1919: Feminism, communism, and Interwar Internationalism
Paul Griffin and Elizabeth Martin (Northumbria University): The “Race Riots” of 1919: Within and Beyond Exceptional Moments in Glasgow and South Shields
Willow Berridge (Newcastle University): Iraqi Perspective on Gertrude Bell
11.00 – 11.30 Tea and Coffee
11.30 – 13.00 Panel 4: Reaction and Non-Reaction
Chair: Rob Dale
Christopher Loughlin (Newcastle University): The Forward March of Reactionary Working-Class Politics? Democratic Authoritarianism and “Modernity” in Britain and Ireland, 1919
Professor Tim Kirk (Newcastle University): 1919: Revolution, Counter-revolution and Fascism in Austria.
Jeffrey Johnson (Providence College): The “Soviet Ark” in Context: The Buford and the Anti-Radicalism of 1919
13.00 – 14.00 Lunch
14.00 – 15.30 Panel 5: Transnational Interactions in 1919
Chair: Matt Perry
Sarah Hellawell (Sunderland University): Women as Peacemakers: The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom in Zurich, 1919
Megan Trudell (Newcastle University): Soldiers, Veterans and Volunteers for Gabriele D’annunzio’s occupation of Fiume
Estela Rukseniene (Independent Scholar): British Military Missions as Intermediaries between Western Europe and Lithuania in 1919-1920s.
15.30 – 16.00 Closing Comments (Rob Dale)

Tanfield: The Tommy Armstrong Society presents BANNERS - an exhibition of over 20 Mining Bannners + music from Allen Crawford and Bethany Elen
2019-05-11 10:00 - 2019-05-12 16:00 | St Margaret’s Church, Tanfield, Stanley, DH9 9PX
For more info please contact info@bethanyelen.co.uk

Wallsend Memorial Hall: Banner Theatre's 'Spirit of 1868'
2019-05-10 19:00 | Wallsend Memorial Hall & People’s Centre, 10 Frank St,, Wallsend, NE28 6RN
A terrific performance, and a real, rollicking, introduction to the 150-year history of the TUC. Get your tickets at https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/wallsend/wallsend-memorial-hall/banner-theatre-spirit-of-1868/2019-05-10/19:00.
Event Flyer

NELHS First Tuesday: Mike Fraser will talk about Sir Charles Trevelyan of Wallington – Northumberland’s Upper-Class Socialist MP
2019-05-07 19:00 | Old George Inn, Old George Yard, Newcastle, NE1 1EZ
Sir Charles Trevelyan was a controversial Northumberland politician who was involved in some of the most significant political developments of the first half of the twentieth century.
He served in the Liberal Government from 1909 until he resigned in protest against the decision to go to war. During the war he formed a pressure group to campaign for more democratic control of foreign policy and for a negotiated peace. He transferred his allegiance to the Labour Party in 1918 and was elected as MP for Newcastle Central in 1922.
Trevelyan was appointed to the first Labour Cabinet as President of the Board of Education, a post he returned to when the Labour Party formed a second Government in 1929. Following his resignation from the Government in 1931 he remained active in the Labour movement as an advocate of Socialist policies. He famously left his Northumberland estate to the National Trust and he also had an interesting personal life.
Mike will discuss all aspects of his career and will ask was he the most left-wing person ever to serve in a British government?

Star and Shadow Cinema, Newcastle. DIY Democracy: from Peterloo to the Present
2019-05-05 10:30 - 17:00 | Star and Shadow Cinema, Warwick Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 1BB
A showing of Mike Leigh’s latest celebrated film Peterloo with speakers / workshops on Peterloo and its aftermath, Protest in the 1960s and the current fight for women’s pension rights
Tickets via https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/date/642615 covering the Star and Shadow’s catering: a hot lunch, tea, coffee and cake all day
£10, waged and £5, pay as you feel, low income
Organised by the Workers Educational Association, North East History and Heritage Branch
Further information from 0191 212 6100
DIY Democracy 5 May 2019

Tyne & Wear May Day March and Rally
2019-05-04 11:00 | Exhibition Park, Newcastle upon Tyne
Assemble 11.00am at the bandstand, Exhibition Park. March leaves at 11.30am for rally 12 noon at Grey’s Monument. Rally speakers include Mick Cash (RMT general secretary), Susan Grey (vice-chair, Venezuela Solidarity Campaign) and Dan Carden MP (acting Shadow Secretary of State for International Development). Bring banners! Volunteers needed for stewarding.

First Tuesday: Joe Redmayne, The Post-War Labour Unrest 1919 – 1921: The Consolidation of Socialism and the transition from Syndicalism to Communism in the Durham Coalfield
2019-04-02 19:00 | Old George Inn, Old George Yard, Newcastle, NE1 1EZ
The presentation will offer an analysis on the nature and significance of the British political, social and economic turmoil in the post-war period 1919-1921 and which could be labelled the ‘Post-War Labour Unrest’ due to the rapid rise in industrial strife. The field of enquiry is to use the Durham Coalfield and the Durham Miners’ Association (DMA) as a case study to highlight national issues at a regional level. It seeks to explore the nature of socialism of grassroot activists under institutions such as trade unions, the Labour Party and the emerging Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and focuses on the dialogue of class representation to better understand the competing visions of the socio-political world. It analyses the complex relations between political discourse, structure and agency, the industrial and political spheres, leaders and led, reformers and revolutionaries. In other words, an examination of the ways in which political actors and discourse operated through trade union (and other) organisations; interacted with structural/contextual conditions in appealing to discontented miners. Furthermore, the talk will investigate what different sections of trade union members expected of their leaders and government as well as the extent to which their leaders and government recognised their wishes.
The presentation will provide a better understanding of the complexities of the British Left identity at a time when the Labour Party had just been reformed and the CPGB was emerging. In doing this, it will help our understanding of what happened to the pre-war DMA rank-and-file movements during the ‘Great Labour Unrest 1910-1914’, with many of the leaders becoming union bureaucrats after the war and taking on a more passive role. Consequently, this created discontent with other rank-and-file members who would become associated with the CPGB and would advocate for a more forceful approach of ‘direct-action’ against the government and employers.
By exploring the various political discourses, it becomes clear that class was about the representation of a socio-economic phenomenon between competing views of how society should operate. This was a time the working-class in Britain was pushing forth their view of equality rather than preservation of private-ownership. A Socialist Commonwealth: a system of society which the production, distribution and exchange of all life’s primal necessities should be owned and controlled by the State in the interests of all the people in the State instead of by private-ownership. For many miners, socialism was the establishment of a new system of society, based not on competition, but seen as a system based on co-operative and communal effort: ‘each man for all, and all for each’. They envisaged that socialism could change the motive for production – production for the use – instead of merely profit; which would finally bring about the entire elimination of private profit in production, distribution and exchange within society. This was an idealistic view, but many believed it could be achieved. It was this political discourse represented by the Labour Party members which would help County Durham to become a bastion of socialism and consequently gaining the majority of constituency seats in 1922.
Joe Redmayne is an MA student at Newcastle University

San Ghanny Choir, Strong Hands & Strong Hearts, Stories and Songs from Occupied Palestine
2019-03-30 19:00 - 21:00 | Quaker Meeting House, 1 West Avenue, Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE3 4ES

Day School: Fifty Years of Activism
2017-09-16 09:30 - 16:30 | Northumbria University
Venue: University of Northumbria, Ellison Building

9:30am to 4:30pm, Saturday 16 September 2017
Coffee and registration, Room A001, A Block, Ellison Building, City Campus, University of Northumbria. There is level access from the Northumberland Road entrance to the Ellison building.
A collaboration between the Histories of Activism Group at Northumbria University, and the North East Labour History Society.
This day school will reflect on the last fifty years in the North East, and especially the great changes that have occurred in politics, culture and society.
The workshops will focus on specific subjects such as Labour Activism and Music and we believe it will revive the spirit of the History Workshop conferences. The backgrounds of the participants will be mixed, including academics presenting their research, as well as activists and historians working outside of a formal academic framework.
We are most grateful to the North East Area Miners’ Social Welfare Trust Fund for their support for this and other NELH Jubilee events.
To book your place in this Day School, please let us know on moderator@nelh.net. Attendance is free, and coffee and lunch will be provided.

Fifty Years of Activism
9:30 – 10:00 Coffee and Registration
10:00 – 10:05 Welcome and introduction: Dr Avram Taylor, Histories of Activism Group, Northumbria University
10:05 – 11:00 Plenary, Keynote Speaker: Dr John Charlton

11:00 – 11:30 Coffee
11:30 – 1:00 Four Parallel Workshops:
We Can Swing Together? Region , Politics and Change in NE Popular Music since the mid-’60s. Workshop Leader, Dr Jude Murphy A presentation interspersed with some video clips and community singing. Looking at rock, pop, folk and jazz as well as some rap and recent multicultural stuff. Then discussions on: NE music as an expression of regional identity, NE music’s relationship to politics and international events, NE music and change over time
Labour Activism: Workshop Leader, Ben Sellers
Women and the Women’s Movement: Workshop Leader, Dr Liz O’Donnell. During this session Dr Julie Scanlon will be talking about her research into the 1976 Women’s Liberation Conference held in Ponteland.
Environmental Activism: Workshop Leader, Sandy Irvine
1:00 – 2:00 Lunch
2:00 – 3:00 Three Parallel Workshops
The Peace Movement: Workshop Leader, John Creaby. The early Sixties are often recognised as the Peace Activism decade, but the Fifty years to date have seen further activism. Culminating in the Stop the War coalition of activists groups the continuance of the question of “no war” or ” just war”, which has always been a dichotomy within the movement, has again been to the fore.
Politics: Workshop Leader, Nigel Todd
Cooperatives: Workshop Leader, Professor Tony Webster
3:00 – 4:00 Two Parallel Workshops
Trade Unions and the World of Work: Workshop Leader, John Stirling will begin with a brief overview of the changes in work and trade unions over the last 50 years and focus on changing ideas about ‘workers control’ to illustrate developments. He will then welcome discussion from participants about how they see the past and envisage the future.
Growth of Ethnic Diversity in the North East: Workshop Leader, Dr Avram Taylor
4:00 – 4:30 Concluding Remarks: Dr Matt Perry

To book your place in this Day School, please let us know on moderator@nelh.net. Attendance is free, and coffee and lunch will be provided.
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Keynote Speakers:
Dr John Charlton
John Charlton taught in High Schools and at Leeds Polytechnic and Leeds University. He is the author of several books including Hidden Chains: The Slavery Business and North East England (2008), Don’t you hear the H Bombs Thunder: Youth and Politics on Tyneside (2009) and A Brief History of Radicalism in North East England (2013). He is active in the North East Labour History Society.

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Dr Matt Perry, Newcastle University
Matt Perry has taught broadly across Twentieth Century European History. He has research interests in British and French labour and social history, particularly in the fields of protest and social memory. He has also published on questions of general historiography in particular the Marxist school of history

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Workshop Leaders:
John Creaby – The Peace Movement
John Creaby: chair North East Labour History Society, CND supporter since 1958, chaired local Anti Apartheid, Chile Solidarity and other progressive international groups, full time trades union official 1968- 1995, international & European Trade union groups, Labour Party member since 1958 – held local and Regional Positions including Regional Vice Chair. Awarded MPhil by Durham University for mature student research.

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Sandy Irvine – Environmental Activism

Sandy Irvine is a member of Newcastle Green Party, having originally joined the then Ecology Party back in the early 1980s. He first became politically active in 1966 joining Huddersfield Young Socialists. He became interested in ecological politics after reading the ‘Limits to Growth’ report and the ‘Blueprint for Survival’. He is one of NE regional co-representatives on the Green Party’s regional council and is currently its co-chair. He was a member of the Ecologist magazine editorial board for many years. He co-authored A Green Manifesto for McDonalds and a pamphlet Beyond Green Consumerism for Friends of the Earth. Prior to retirement, he worked in a local Further Education college where his specialism was Film Studies. He also spent a year on secondment at Northumbria University as an environmental policy advisor. His M.Sc. was a thesis on reforesting the uplands. He has been very active in local land use battles triggered by the pro-growth strategies of local and national government, especially the Newcastle-Gateshead ‘Core Strategy’ development plan. He has written a number of book reviews for the NE Labour History journal.
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Dr Jude Murphy – Culture and Music

Absolutely fascinated by music and history and why people pursue authenticity via encounters with a real or imagined cultural past. I teach and research, and record oral history. Much of what I’ve explored and published to date has been about the cultural construction of place and identities. I sing and play flute/sax/bass/whatever-chordal-instrument-fits-the-tune. Jazz mostly, with a fair old dash of folk, and I’ve shamelessly plied my more lounge-oriented musical trade in some of the best hotels in the world. I lead community vocal workshops because singing is really good for body and soul and it’s a joy to help people open up their voices.

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Dr Liz O’Donnell – Women and the Women’s Movement
Liz O’Donnell taught history in further and higher education in the North East for three decades before becoming an outreach worker with Northumberland Archives at Woodhorn. She has also worked on a wide range of heritage projects, including as oral history coordinator for the NELHS Popular Politics Project (2009-11). Her research interests are broad, but primarily focus on women’s involvement in social and political movements in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Liz is a member of the Women’s History Network and on the International Advisory Panel of Quaker Studies, the journal of the Quaker Studies Research Association.

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Dr Julie Scanlon – Women and the Women’s Movement
Dr Julie Scanlon is interested in feminist activism and representations of gender and sexuality in contemporary culture and has published in these areas. A version of the talk she is giving at this workshop has been published in the book Re-Reading Spare Rib, ed. Angela Smith (Palgrave: 2017). She was an academic until May 2017, spending the last 12 years at Northumbria University, and is now pursuing her interests in social justice, gender equality and personal development beyond academia.

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Ben Sellers – Labour Activism

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John Stirling – Trade Unions and the World of Work
John Stirling is the retired head of Social Sciences at Northumbria University. He worked for many years as a trade union tutor both in the UK and beyond and has more recently worked part time at Newcastle University and Ruskin College. He is currently Chair of Education for Action (Durham) and Membership Secretary of the North East Labour History Society.

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Dr Avram Taylor – Growth of Ethnic Diversity in the North East
Avram Taylor is a Senior Lecturer in History at Northumbria University. Much of his teaching and research reflects an interest in theoretical issues and the philosophy of history, as well as a concern with class, gender and ethnicity. Avram’s thesis has been published as: Working Class Credit and Community since 1918 (Palgrave, 2002). His second book, co-authored with Don MacRaild, Social Theory and Social History, reflected his ongoing interest in the relationship between history and theory. He has been working on the Jewish community in Glasgow for a number of years and has published extensively on this topic.

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Nigel Todd – Politics

Nigel Todd is a Newcastle Labour Councillor, chairs the UK Co-operative College and was North East Regional Director of the Workers’ Educational Association. He has published several books and articles on North East political history, including an autobiography of Joseph Cowen, and histories of anti-fascism, and anarchist and socialist land colonies.

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Professor Tony Webster – Cooperative Movement
Tony’s main research interests are in the history of the British Empire (particularly the business history of the empire), and the history of the British Co-operative movement. Tony works closely with the Co-operative Group in Manchester and the co-operative movement in the north-east of England. He is a Governor of the Co-operative College in Manchester, and sits on the executive committee of the National Co-operative Archive.

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NELH First Tuesday Meeting: 5 July 2016, Remembering Ruskin College
2016-07-05 19:00 - 21:00 | The Miners’ Hall, Redhills, Durham, Flass Street, Durham City, DH1 4BE
The North East Labour History Society presents a ‘First Tuesday’ event led by two formers students of Ruskin College, the home of trade union education. Rob Turnbull and Nigel Todd will reflect on their time at Ruskin and how it shaped their lives and this will be followed by a discussion that will also look to the future of working class education both at Ruskin and for the labour movement. All are welcome.

Open Day: Reflections of Newcastle 1914-18
2016-07-01 09:30 - 16:30 | The Lit & Phil, 23 Westgate Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 1SE, United Kingdom
Reflections of Newcastle 1914-18 is a Lit & Phil collaboration with Northumbria University, Newcastle College and November Club to explore the intellectual, cultural and social life of Newcastle during the First World War, concentrating in and around the Lit & Phil. The research is being developed into a city centre trail beginning and ending at the Lit & Phil through the creation of an interactive eBook which will be published on 1 July 2016. This eBook will be promoted to community groups, schools and visitors as a historical and educational tool and creative project to help people explore the city and its historical buildings and areas of interest in relation to World War 1, as well as the Lit & Phil itself.
More details on:
Can you help? Reflections of Newcastle 1914-1918
