North East Labour History

NELH Tuesday Meeting. Lewis Mates will talk about the 1926 General Strike in the North East
2026-05-05 19:00 - 21:00 (Europe/London) | Tyneside Irish Centre, 43 Gallowgate, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4SG, United Kingdom
Lewis is Associate Professor of Political Theory at Durham University and author of The Great Political Unrest: rank-and file movements and political change in the Durham coalfield

Newcastle University: The British General Strike of 1926: New Directions of Research
2026-05-07 - 2026-05-09 | Armstrong Building, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU
The Newcastle University Labour & Society Research Group are organising a conference on ‘The British General Strike of 1926: New Directions of Research’ at the School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Armstrong Building NE1 7RU on Thursday 7 and Friday 8 May and the programme and poster are attached.
Tickets will be available on Thursday 26 March at 9.00am (no charge) and can be booked at:
[DAY 1] https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/null/t-yzzmpzr
[DAY 2] https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/null/t-oeeazmk
Dr Joe Redmayne writes:
As the recent General Strikes in Greece, Italy, Belgium and Portugal exemplified, a general stoppage of labour by workers in all or most industries remains a powerful strategy of the working-class movement. This action has coincided with a global wave of blockades, port disruptions, strikes, and slowdowns, particularly at critical nodes like transport hubs and arms manufacturing sites of Israeli militarism.
While we intend this to be a scholarly conference, we also wish to make space for an active dialogue between people studying protest and industrial disputes in the past and practitioners of solidarity in the present. We are convinced that such mutual learning can generate insights that will enrich both scholarship and activism.
The aim is to bring together scholars, trade unionists, and interdisciplinary thinking to discuss the new areas of study of 1926. It brings together papers that focus on concrete histories of solidarity and the General Strike, whether at sites of coal extraction, transportation, distribution, and everywhere in-between.
We will also be organising a public roundtable discussion on Day 2 of the conference (8 May).

___________________________________________________________________________________________________
DRAFT PROGRAMME
The British General Strike of 1926: New Directions of Research
Thursday 7 May and Friday 8 May 2026 School of History, Classics and Archaeology Armstrong Building, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU

DAY 1 PROGRAMME (7 May) DAY 1 papers: Armstrong Building, Ground Floor, room G.09
DAY 1 breaks/catering: Armstrong Building, Ground Floor, room G.07

09:00-09:30 – Morning tea/coffee – [ARMB.G.07]
09:30-09:45 – Welcome from organiser – [ARMB.G.09]
09:45-10:45 – Keynote 1 – [ARMB.G.09]
Chair: Dr Joe Redmayne
• Prof David Featherstone (University of Glasgow) – Locating ‘1926’: Transnational Articulations of Labour, Racialised Solidarities and ‘Coal Capitalism’.

10:45-11:00 – Morning tea/coffee Break – [ARMB.G.07]
11:00-12:30 – Panel 1: Mobility, resistance, and disrupting the circulation of capital – [ARMB.G.09]
Chair: Dr Sarah Campbell

Dr Quentin Outram (Leeds University and SSLH) – How did coal-powered economy survive a seven-month mining lockout? Britain in 1926
Dr Joe Redmayne (Newcastle University) – A maritime and transport perspective of the General Strike 1926: within and beyond the North East
Dr Fatima Chorfi (Université d’Oran 2 Mohamed Ben Ahmed, Algeria) – The British General Strike of 1926 and the Geographies of Resistance
Dr David Lyddon (Keele University) – Decision-making and tactics, funding, solidarity and sectionalism in the 1926 General Strike

12:30-13:15 – Lunch – [ARMB.G.07]
13:15-14:45 – Panel 2: Women’s activism and visual representations – [ARMB.G.09]
Chair: Prof Máire Cross

PGR Janet Hughes (University of East Anglia) – Labour Women: The General Strike and Lockout
Prof Matt Perry (Newcastle University) – From Middlesborough East to the World: Ellen Wilkinson’s 1926.
Dr Shirin Hirsch (Manchester Metropolitan University) and Dr David Swanson (University of Manchester) – Photographs of the 1926 General Strike

14:45-15:00 – Break – [ARMB.G.07]
15:00-15:45 – Making history, not reliving it: the national partnership to celebrate the centenary of the General Strike 1926 – [ARMB.G.09]
Chair: Prof Matt Perry

• Henry Fowler, General Secretary of the General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU) and GFTU Educational Trust

15:45-17:00 – Evening reception – [ARMB.G.07]

North Shields: Stuart Barlow will give a talk about Robert Lowery - North Shields Forgotten Chartist Leader
2026-05-16 11:00 - 12:30 | The Old Low Light, Clifford’s Fort, North Shields Fish Quay, North Shields, NE30 1JE
Robert Lowery was a North Shields working man whose early life was a mixture of tragedy, hard work and crippling illness. He went on to become a leading Chartist and a speaker able to attract large crowds to fight for the Chartist cause. He spent almost half his life campaigning for the Charter and later on became a keen advocate of the temperance movement.
Pre-booking required via the Old Low Lights website.

Tyneside Irish Centre. 'General Strike': film screening by Newcastle TUC
2026-06-26 19:30 - 21:00 | Tyneside Irish Centre, 43 Gallowgate, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4SG, United Kingdom
From Martin Levy
Dear Comrades and Friends

On Friday 26 June, Newcastle TUC will be screening the documentary film, ‘The General Strike – A Revolution Betrayed?’ recently unearthed in the archive of Platform Films. The event takes place at 7.30 pm at the Tyneside Irish Centre. Details, and the booking link are given below. Please tell your friends.
Best regards
Martin
https://www.ticketsource.com/newcastle-upon-tyne-trades-union-council/t-rzqammj

Sacriston Working Men's Club. Sacriston, 1926 - A lecture by Professor John Tomaney
2026-07-09 19:00 - 21:00 | Sacriston Working Men’s Club, 1 Edward Street, Sacriston, DH7 6NW
Overview
This lecture explores Sacriston’s unique role during this turbulent period.
One hundred years ago, Sacriston was in the grip of a historic industrial conflict. The short-lived General Strike, in May 1926, in the eyes of some, had brought Britain to the brink of revolution. It was followed by the months-long Miners’ Lockout, as coal owners attempted to force their workers to accept reduced pay and a longer working day. This conflict had national and international ramifications and brought great misery to mining communities. In several ways, Sacriston found itself at the heart of the conflict.
This lecture will tell the story of Sacriston in 1926. Among the questions it will address are: who are the people on the Sacriston Lodge Banner, and why are they there? How did a Sacriston miner’s wife end up in Soviet Russia, addressing the massed ranks of the Red Army? Why were local councillors threatened with jail by the government? And it will tell the story of the extraordinary occasion that marked the opening of the Aged Miners’ Homes on Plawsworth Road in August 1926.
Professor John Tomaney is Pro-Provost (Regional Communities) and Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at University College London, and a Trustee of Sacriston Youth Project. This third annual Sacriston Lecture.
Sacriston Lodge banner being paraded up Silver Street, Durham City to the Big Meeting, 1936. Benny Lambert (lodge secretary) is 2nd from left, 3rd from left is Jack Swan (ex MP and miners agent). Carrying a raincoat is Jack Lawson MP for Chester-le-Street (later Lord Lawson of Beamish). Under banner on the left with cigarette is Fred Lawson and on right is Tom Johnson. Source: Beamish Museum.

North East Labour History Society. Annual General Meeting. Don Watson will be speaking about amateur theatre in the unemployed clubs of the 1930s
2026-10-06 19:30 - 21:00 | Tyneside Irish Centre, 43 Gallowgate, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4SG, United Kingdom
Details to follow

NELH Tuesday Meeting. Keith Jowett will talk about: Sid Chaplin - a Writer's World
2027-01-12 19:00 - 20:30 | Zoom
This will be a Zoom meeting.
Details to follow
