North East Labour History

NELH Tuesday Meeting: John Griffiths, Washington: Crocodiles and Cows, Sixty Years of a New Town
2024-04-16 19:00 - 20:30 (Europe/London) | Zoom
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Washington New Town was ‘designated’ for development in 1964, part of a second wave of New Towns to be built under the provisions the New Towns Act of 1946. Its purpose was to stimulate economic development in the Tyneside and Wearside area, and it had features unlike previous towns and which served as a model for subsequent developments.
John Griffiths is an adult education lecturer whose specialities include urban history and planning history. He gained a PhD in 2020 for his thesis ‘Mr Newcastle: the career of T Dan Smith’

NELH Tuesday Meeting: Heather Wood, Just A Pit Lass, an account of growing up and living in Easington Colliery
2024-03-19 19:00 - 20:30 | Zoom
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Meeting ID: 839 8711 2493
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Born and raised in Easington, the daughter of a miner and from a family of strong working class women, Heather Wood has been involved in virtually every aspect of her community, not least her work with Save Easington Area Mines (SEAM), a group that provided crucial support for striking miners in 1984/85. More recently, she’s had roles in two Ken Loach films, ‘Sorry We Missed You’ and ‘The Old Oak’.
And now she has written her autobiography, ‘Just A Pit Lass’. As she says, “It’s always been a goal of mine to write my story, which in so many ways is the story of many, many working class folk. Our history is not often written by those who lived it so in my mind it’s not been in depth, and it has certainly, on many occasions, not been in our favour. I have no doubt it will never win any great place in the literary world but it’s there, it’s down and it’s all true.”

South Shields: The Cramlington Train Wreckers & The Role Of Women In The 1926 And 1984/85 Miners' Strikes
2024-03-10 10:00 - 14:00 | The Word, 45 Market Place, South Shields, NE33 1JF
On March 10, 1926, seven days into the General Strike, striking miners uncoupled a rail on the main line from London to Edinburgh. Their intention was to derail a coal train they felt was undermining the strike. Unfortunately, they derailed a passenger train – the Flying Scotsman!
Of the 281 passengers on board, only one person was slightly injured.
Eight Cramlington miners were sentenced to prison for their part in the derailing. The leader of the wreckers was Bill Muckle who was born in Westoe. The Judge who sentenced them was also from Westoe. The first part of the day school tells their story. Were they terrorists or workers defending their jobs and community?
Part two will focus on women’s involvement in two of the most significant strikes in 20th Century British history: the 1926 General Strike and the 1984/84 Miner’s Strike.
Programme for event:

Welcome
Talk – Introduction to the Cramlington Train Wreckers Film
Film – 30-minute BBC Film. “The Cramlington Train Wreckers”. Originally shown in 1970 as part of the Yesterday’s Witness series, this incredible historical documentary features “volunteers” who manned the Flying Scotsman and the four surviving striking miners who derailed the train.
Break for tea and coffee
Talk – The role of women in the 1926 General Strike
Talk – The role of women in the 1984/85 miner’s strike. Marking the 40th Anniversary of the start of the strike.

This event will include songs and recitations and Q&As.
Tickets, limited to 100, are only £5 per person and can be purchased via:
Cramlington Train Wreckers Day School at The Word Tickets, Sun 10 Mar 2024 at 11:00 | Eventbrite

Durham City: An invite is extended to all members of NELHS to attend the National Women Against Pit Closures 40th Anniversary March
2024-03-02 12:30 - 21:00 | Palace Green, Durham Cathedral, Durham
The parade of banners will assemble at Palace Green (Cathedral) at 12.30 where we will sing the Women’s Song and the Riverside Brass Band will play Gresford and at 1pm we will parade down Saddler Street and then on to Elvet Bridge led by the Riverside Brass Band. The parade will end outside the Swan and Three Cygnets with another song and the band playing Sweet Caroline. We would love you to join in with us or just watch from the street.
There is also a performance by Joe Solo outside Dunelm House (Durham Students Union building in New Elvet) and Durham miners’ banners will provide a guard of honour for the women of the coalfields.
There will be an event in Dunelm House in the afternoon which unfortunately is sold out but a few places remain for the evening (again in Dunelm) please click on the following link if you want tickets for it.
https://forms.gle/yXy4mFp4YV9tDBjd9

NELH First Tuesday: Don Watson will talk about Campaigns Around Poverty and Health in the 1930s
2024-02-06 19:00 - 20:30 | Zoom
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Meeting ID: 896 9353 7082
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During the 1930s loose networks of scientists, doctors and activists sought to galvanize public opinion and pressure the government over the significant levels of malnutrition and poor health in the areas of high unemployment. Their focus was frequently on the effects of family poverty on child health.
The North East provides some good examples of their work: Dr. M’Gonigle in Stockton is well known but important contributions also came from a Sunderland GP, a future Professor of Child Health at the RVI, the NUWM, and activist Emmie Lawther.
The talk will examine this combination of research work and political campaigning, and discuss how far it influenced social policy.
Don Watson is the author of No Justice Without A Struggle: The National Unemployed Workers’ Movement in the North East of England 1920-1940 (Merlin Press, 2014), and a committee member of the NELHS.

Newcastle City Library. Holocaust Memorial Day: The Fragility of Freedom
2024-01-23 17:30 - 19:00 | Bewick Hall, Newcastle City Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8AX
From Peter Sagar
You are invited to a special event to mark the week of Holocaust Memorial Day, on Tuesday 23rd January from 5.30 – 7.00pm at the Bewick Room on Floor 2 of the City Library, 33 New Bridge Street West, Newcastle NE1 8AX.
Please see here information from the Newcastle Holocaust Memorial Day booklet:
A LIVING TRADITION EXHIBITION & EVENT
The Fragility of Freedom
Bewick Hall, City Library
23 January, 5.30pm | FREE
An exhibition and event which illustrate the fragility of freedom using recent examples of repression, persecution and genocide in Iran and Bosnia.
The exhibition, ‘Woman, Life, Freedom in Iran’ by Parisa Panahi, focusses on contemporary Iran and shows the ease with which freedom can be, and has been, withdrawn. Parisa Panahi will also speak at the event, where music, poetry and visual and verbal presentations will be used to explore the genocide in Bosnia in July 1995 and the uprising and repression in Iran in 2022. It will reflect on the response to those atrocities by the people of Newcastle, examine the welcome extended to those fleeing them by the people of the city, and celebrate the restitution of their freedoms.”
There will also be an examination of how people in Newcastle have struggled for their rights, and still do and music from Newcastle and Iran and poetry form Bosnia.

NELH Tuesday Meeting: Merilyn Moos, German Resistance: Enemies of the Nazi State from within the working class movement
2024-01-16 18:30 - 20:00 | Zoom
Please note the earlier than usual time for this meeting: 6:30 pm
Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 830 1501 7898
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Against the position that most Germans did not resist the Nazis, or even that Nazism was a largely uncontested outcome of Germany history, I shall be considering the level of organised resistance to the Nazis from within the working class movement in Nazi Germany.
Despite the leadership of the two major left parties – the Communists and Social Democrats – either being arrested or having fled, their members separately organised heroic, yet largely unheard of, attempts at resistance in their localities.
I shall touch on the remarkable resistance by local youth, the role played by forced foreign exiled workers and the – undoubtedly limited – attempts by railway workers to sabotage the train system. I shall finally briefly raise the question of similarities between then and now.
Merilyn Moos was born in Oxford to refugee parents who had been active anti-Nazi Germans who fled in 1933. She grew up in Durham where she went to the local Grammar School, then getting a degree at the University of Oxford. She became an FE and HE lecturer, Branch Secretary of her union branch and active anti-racist.
After retirement, she has had published a wide number of books, including a couple on anti-Nazi Germans. She is on the editorial board of Socialist History and is ex-Chair of the Retired branch of London UCU.

NELH Event: Peter Brabban's Fiendish Christmas Quiz
2023-12-12 19:00 - 20:30 | Zoom
This year’s Christmas Quiz set by Peter Brabban will take place online on Tuesday 12 December at 7.00pm.
Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 895 1802 5053
Passcode: [REDACTED]

Tyneside Irish Centre: International Brigaders Return, 85th Anniversary Event
2023-12-08 19:00 - 22:00 | Tyneside Irish Centre, 43 Gallowgate, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4SG, United Kingdom
An International Brigade Memorial Trust event at the Tyneside Irish Centre on Friday 8 December, to commemorate the 85th anniversary of the return of the Brigaders from Spain. Doors open 7 pm for 7.15 pm start. The event includes:

40-minute IBMT film, ‘The Brigaders Return!’
Speeches by Alan Mardghum, Durham Miners’ Association general secretary, and Alex Clifford, historian
RTE film, ‘Black Sheep’, about Irish International Brigader, Pastor Bob Hilliard, killed in Spain
Songs performed by Keith Hudson, Margaret Levy and Ron Brown, including two different songs with the same ‘Viva la Quinte Brigada’ title.

Book online at https://tinyurl.com/389nf3sy, or pay on the door. All proceeds to IBMT.

More details at BrigadersReturn

Bishop Auckland, Mining Art Gallery: Book signing - Glenda Young will be signing copies of her novel, The Miner's Lass
2023-12-02 11:00 - 12:30 | Mining Art Gallery, Auckland Tower, Bishop Auckland, DL14 7PG
Book signing – Glenda Young will be at the Mining Art Gallery in Bishop Auckland on Saturday 2 December from 11am to 12.30pm, signing copies of her novel published by Headline, The Miner’s Lass

STARTING TIME CHANGED TO 6:30pm. Tyneside Irish Centre: Dare to Dream - An Evening with Des Geraghty
2023-11-30 18:30 - 21:30 | Tyneside Irish Centre, 43 Gallowgate, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4SG, United Kingdom
Des Geraghty is a Dublin-born writer, musician, trade unionist, politician and broadcaster. His most recent book – ‘We Dare to Dream… of an Island of Equals’ is the story of his family and their journey on the rocky road to equality and diversity from the Irish Civil War to date.
The talk has been organised in conjunction with the Tyneside Branch of the Historical Association. Tickets cost £5 and can be found on Eventbrite, at the door or from tyneirishcs@gmail.com
Tyneside Irish Centre can be found opposite St James Metro station
Des will be in conversation with Connal Parr covering a range of topics from the great characters he has known in Dublin over the years to his latest book, ‘Dare to Dream … Of An Island of Equals’. We’re hoping he will give us a turn on his flute as well.
Des Geraghty was born in the historic ‘Liberties’ area of Dublin. He is a former President of SIPTU, Ireland’s largest trade union having spent 34 years as a full timer, in a variety of different positions. He represented the union on the Executive Council of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU); and represented SIPTU and ICTU on numerous national bodies including the National Economic and Social Council and the National Competitiveness Council. From 1992 to 1994 he represented Dublin as a member of the European Parliament.
Des is a former member of the Board of RTE, TG4 (the Gaelic TV station), and the ESB Networks. He was elected by the staff of the Abbey Theatre to their shareholders’ Board and was involved in the restructuring of the Theatre. He is a former Chair of the Affordable Homes Partnership. And from 2010 to 2019, during difficult economic years, he was a Board member of the Central Bank of Ireland.
Des is also a musician and folklorist and since retiring from SIPTU he has written, directed and performed in a number of music, song and poetry productions in both English and Irish. He is currently the Chair of the Clé Club, a traditional music club based in Liberty Hall, SIPTU’s Dublin headquarters.
Des has participated in the making of many Irish TV and radio documentaries. He is the author of Luke Kelly: A Memoir (1994); and, with photographer Liam Blake, 40 Shades of Green (2007). He also co-authored a book which was used on SIPTU Education courses, European Works Councils: Information and Consultation Rights (1997). His most recent publication is We Dare to Dream… of an Island of Equals (2021).

Glasshouse (Sage) Gateshead: Gianfranco Rosolia will be talking about his grandmother, Jennie Shearan who led the campaign for clean air at Monkton Cokeworks
2023-11-25 10:00 - 17:00 | Private: Glasshouse (Sage), Gateshead Quays, Gateshead, NE8 2JR
Gianfranco Rosolia is the author of CLEAN AIR which tells the story of the long fight against the environmental pollution caused by the Monkton Cokeworks and who spoke at the NELH Tuesday meeting in April, will be in the North East in November.
You will need to register: https://www.tedxnewcastle.com
Click here for details of Gianfranco’s talk

BOOKS ON TYNE | The Newcastle Book Festival: ZOOM TALK on Shelagh Delaney by Selina Todd
2023-11-21 18:00 - 19:30 | Zoom
In 1958, Shelagh Delaney, a working-class teenager from Salford, became famous when her debut play, ‘A Taste of Honey’, was staged in London. The play tackled taboo subjects like homosexuality and mixed race relationships.
Against the contemptuous predictions of London’s critics, it became a box office sellout. In this talk, Delaney’s biographer, historian Selina Todd, explores the impact of ‘A Taste of Honey’, what happened to Delaney, and what her story tells us about class, culture and women’s lives in modern Britain.
Her biography ‘Tastes of Honey: Shelagh Delaney and Cultural Revolution’ was described by Ken Loach as ‘brilliant’.
To book your place go to www.booksontyne.co.uk
Newcastle Libraries

Hebburn Library: Gianfranco Rosolia is unveiling a plaque to his grandmother, Jennie Shearan who led the campaign for clean air at Monkton Cokeworks
2023-11-21 11:00 - 12:00 | Hebburn Library, Hebburn Central, Glen Street, Hebburn, NE31 1AB
Gianfranco Rosolia is the author of CLEAN AIR which tells the story of the long fight against the environmental pollution caused by the Monkton Cokeworks and who spoke at the NELH Tuesday meeting in April, will be in the North East in November.
The plaque unveiling will be at Hebburn Library at 11am on Tuesday 21 November https://www.southtyneside.gov.uk/article/10956/Library-at-Hebburn-Central

POSTPONED: Sunderland: St Michael's Branch Labour Party, The Labour Movement 1850 - 1950, Remember the Past, Fight for the Future
2023-11-18 09:30 - 16:45 | Hope Street Xchange, Sunderland, SR1 3QD
This event has been postponed. New details will be posted as soon as they are available.
Following last year’s successful event St Michael’s Branch Labour Party are hosting their second Social History Conference on Saturday 18 November at the Hope Street Xchange in Sunderland from 9.30am to 4.45pm.
Boasting a panel of 4 expert speakers from Durham University and Newcastle University, the conference is a way of bringing knowledge and expertise of academic historians to the general public and is open to all who have an interest in, and want to be challenged, by history.
Topics covered will be as follows:
The Chartist Movement and the Formation of the TUC – Dr Victoria Clarke
Keir Hardie and the Founding of the Labour Party – Dr Andrzej Olechnowicz
Ramsay Macdonald and the National Government – Dr Matt Perry
The Labour Movement during the Second World War – Dr Martin Parr
Tickets are £25 including lunch and refreshments.
St Michael’s Labour Social History Conference Tickets, Sat 18 Nov 2023 at 09:30 | Eventbrite

NELH Tuesday Meeting: A Distant World, John Charlton
2023-11-14 19:00 - 21:00 | Zoom
A Distant World is John Charlton’s account of growing up in the 1950s. He traces his family’s origins, birth, childhood and education in a detailed account which references aspects of family, work, social and political life on Tyneside over his first two decades.
John worked as a school teacher then higher education lecturer at Leeds College of Education, Leeds Polytechnic and the University of Leeds. He has published books on Chartism, New Unionism, Youth and politics on Tyneside, anti-globalisation activism and the North East of England’s involvement in colonial slavery. He is a member of the NELHS Committee.
‘This is without question an exceptional memoir, as much or more a piece of social history as well as being a personal document. The account is both fascinating and socially illuminating.’ Professor Willie Thompson
Join Zoom Meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81448968967?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 814 4896 8967
Passcode: [REDACTED]
To obtain a copy of the book please email John at johndcharlton1@gmail.com, £13 including postage.

Laura Trevelyan: Black History Conversations 365
2023-11-10 14:00 - 15:00 | Zoom
Our apologies – a fault in the Black History Conversations 365 website has made it impossible to register for this meeting.
However, the link below gives an explanation of why Laura has apologised for her family’s slave-owning past and what she is doing about it now.
https://www.beaconcollaborative.org.uk/laura-trevelyan-i-hope-my-apology-and-reparations-for-my-familys-slave-owning-past-will-set-an-example-to-others/

Laura Trevelyan: “I hope my apology and reparations for my family’s slave-owning past will set an example.” – The Beacon Collaborative
Laura Trevelyan was working as a BBC journalist and news anchor when she found out some of her ancestors had been slave owners. The discovery would take her on a journey to Grenada and propel her from journalist to philanthropist and advocate.
www.beaconcollaborative.org.uk

Meeting organised by Black History Conversations 365 with Laura Trevelyan, co-founder of ‘Heirs of Slavery’.
Friday 10 November at 2.00pm (UK).
For the zoom link to this free event please register at www.blackhistoryconversations.com

International Brigades Commemoration
2023-10-29 14:00 - 15:00 | Grounds of Newcastle Civic Centre
From Martin Levy
The annual ‘Volunteers for Liberty’ event, to commemorate the volunteers from the North East who gave their lives fighting in the International Brigade in Spain, will be held at 2 pm on Sunday 29 October at the memorial plaque in the grounds of Newcastle Civic Centre.
Speakers will include author Alex Clifford and representatives from the Communist Parties of Britain and Spain. There will also be the reading of the names of those who sacrificed their lives, and the laying of wreaths.
While the event is organised by the Communist Party of Britain, all who wish to keep the memory of these volunteers alive are welcome.
Yours in solidarity
Martin Levy

Durham: Invitation, History Now! Black History Month 2023 Event
2023-10-26 17:30 - 19:30 | Great Hall, Durham Town hall, Market Place, Durham, DH1 3NJ
From Liam Liburd:
My name is Liam Liburd and I’m the Assistant Professor of Black British History at Durham University. I’m also the Department of History’s Public History Officer and am responsible for arranging history-related public events across the academic year.
I’m writing to bring our Black History Month event to your attention…
History Now! BHM 2023: Black History in the North East
Thursday, 26 October 2023, 5:30-7:30pm
Great Hall, Durham Town Hall
A discussion of academic research and public history projects on the North East’s Black history to mark Black History Month 2023.Featuring presentations and discussion from:

Busola Afolabi, the Director of Newcastle-based educational charity, Success4All. As part of their work engaging, empowering and motivating young people to succeed in education, Success4All have facilitated youth-led projects on Black history in their local area.

Terry Graham, Head of history at Heworth Grange School in Gateshead and the lead in Project North Star – a multi-faceted project looking at promoting Black history with schools and local communities and amplifying the North East’s history in national conversations on this subject.

Joe Redmayne, a final year History PhD student at Newcastle University interested in global labour history. His thesis situates County Durham during the year 1919 transnationally and explores the global implications of the Empire on British society through regional working-class consciousness. He uses a multi-occupational approach and the category of whiteness to renew our understanding of class consciousness in an age of world empires.

Chaired by Liam Liburd, Assistant Professor of Black British History.
Registration is essential. Please register for free tickets here.
Please do spread the word among your members and contacts and it would be great to some of the North East Labour History Society at the event.
Best wishes,
Liam

Dr Liam J. Liburd
Pronouns: He/him
Assistant Professor of Black British History
Office hours: Mondays 9:30am-10:30am & Thursdays, 2-3pm (book your slot here)
Department of History
Durham University

NELH First Tuesday: Unemployed Resistance (1978 – Now), Trade Unions and Community Organising, Paul Griffin (Northumbria University)
2023-10-03 19:00 - 20:30 | Room ELA 108, Ellison Building, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne
This talk will reflect on the politicisation of unemployment across UK towns and cities in the early 1980s. With a particular focus on trade union and community organising, the presentation will reflect on the role of Unemployed Workers’ Centres in articulating opposition to deindustrialisation, redundancies, and long-term unemployment.
Focusing upon centres as ‘solidarity infrastructures’ allows an analysis that considers the quieter acts of care and advice alongside organising practices and campaigning. This paper revisits these histories through archives and oral histories of unemployed organising and includes reflections on the People’s March for Jobs 1981, the emergence of TUC Unemployed Workers’ Centres and wider unemployed resistances.
Dr Paul Griffin is an Assistant Professor in Human Geography at Northumbria University. His work cuts across labour geography and labour history and has previously considered the historical geographies of Red Clydeside, tracing labour histories in Glasgow during the early twentieth century.
More recently, his work has focussed upon the role of trade unions in society and particularly the links with community action around unemployment. His next project proposes to consider the histories of the emergence of credit unions as a form of solidarity economy.
His work can be found in journals such as Antipode, Geoforum, Political Geography and Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers.

Backbone of the Nation: Mining Communities and the Great Strike of 1984-85
2023-09-26 18:00 - 20:00 | The Lit & Phil, 23 Westgate Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 1SE, United Kingdom
Tuesday 26th September at the Lit & Phil at 6.00pm
Booking: Lit & Phil Members only until 4th September.
In association with Yale University Press
Presented by Robert Gildea
A powerful new history of the Great Strike, based on more than 140 interviews with former miners and their families.
Forty years ago, Arthur Scargill led the National Union of Mineworkers on one of the largest strikes in British history. A deep sense of pride existed within Britain’s mining communities who thought of themselves as the backbone of the nation’s economy. But they were vilified by Margaret Thatcher’s government and eventually broken: deprived of their jobs, their livelihoods, and in some cases, their lives.
In this ground-breaking new history, Robert Gildea interviews those miners and their families who fought to defend themselves. Exploring mining communities from South Wales to the Midlands, Yorkshire, County Durham, and Fife, Gildea uncovers stories of survival, solidarity and redemption. He shows how the miners and their families organized to protect themselves, and how a network of activists mobilized to support them.
Amid the recent wave of industrial action in the United Kingdom, Backbone of the Nation highlights anew the importance of labour organization―and intimately records the triumphs, losses, and resilience of these mining communities.
ROBERT GILDEA is Professor Emeritus of Modern History at the University of Oxford. He is the author of Fighters in the Shadows, Empires of the Mind, and the Wolfson Prize-winning Marianne in Chains.
A LIVE Lit & Phil Event | £3
Please book with the Library Desk team, or over the phone on 0191 232 0192 and your Membership Card Number and they will be happy to help.
The Society assisted Robert with his interviews in the Chester-le-Street and Consett areas and we have 15 tickets available on first come, first served basis which can be reserved through me. They will be held at the door on the night and can be paid for then.

NELH Annual General Meeting, CHANGE OF DATE - now 7 September. Victoria Bazin and Melanie Waters, Feminist Print Magazines and their Influence in the Digital Age project
2023-09-07 19:00 - 20:30 | The Lit & Phil, 23 Westgate Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 1SE, United Kingdom
The date of our AGM has been moved from 12 September to Thursday 7 September. It will be held at the Newcastle Lit and Phil.
The speakers will be Victoria Bazin and Melanie Waters who will be talking about the Feminist Print Magazines and Their Influence in the Digital Age project.

NELH Tuesday Meeting: Tony Fox will talk about Phyllis Short, lifelong Teesside Communist
2023-08-22 19:00 - 20:30 | Venue to be notified
Behind every great man there’s a great woman, or so goes the old adage. Phyllis Short was the wife of George Short, the Communist Party District Secretary for Teesside, but simply saying this disguises the campaigns for social justice that she herself led.
Born into the mining community of Chopwell, when they moved to Stockton in 1931 they began a lifetime’s campaign to improve the lives of people on Teesside and beyond. This talk will describe Phyllis’ eventful life, highlighting the ways she fought against injustice locally, nationally and internationally during the most turbulent period of the 20th Century. Her friends and family remember her as a working-class hero, who faced down all enemies to champion a better and fairer society, this talk aims to show why she should be remembered by a much wider audience.
Tony Fox, a history teacher, chaired the Durham Branch of the Historical Association for fifteen years. Author of I sing of My comrades: remembering Stockton’s International Brigaders, he is a member of the International Brigade Memorial Trust and has published a number of articles on International Brigade volunteers and memorials. This latest talk is the result of recent research and collaboration with the family of George and Phyllis Short.
Here’s the link:
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85072858100?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 850 7285 8100
Passcode: [REDACTED]

CRAMLINGTON TRAIN WRECKERS (from Ed Waugh)
2023-07-26 14:00 - 18:30
Wednesday, July 26 @ 2pm & 6.30pm
The Hub, Cramlington
We had 160 at the meetings about the Cramlington Train Wreckers on March 30 and the follow-up film/talk in July 26 has already attracted 75 people with seven weeks to go.
The event during the General Strike led to the imprisonment of eight Northumberland miners for a total of 48 years.
A campaign by the labour and trade union movement got them out a lot earlier. It’s an incredible story.
Given it happened during the General Strike of 1926, and we are approaching the centenary, we are working with local organisations on the project.
Also Google: “Cramlington Train Wreckers” to see the work we’ve already done.
We have secured the rights to the 30-minute (1970) BBC film called Yesterday’s Witness, about the Cramlington Train Wreckers.
Ed
07960066377
TO PURCHASE TICKETS
2pm: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-cramlington-train-wreckers-a-30-minute1970-bbc-film-tickets-607220852917
6.30pm: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-cramlington-train-wreckers-a-30-minute1970-bbc-film-tickets-607187172177

Tuesday Meeting: Disruption and control: Contesting mobility regimes through the picket line in 1970s Britain with Diarmaid Kelliher by Zoom on 18 July at 7.00pm
2023-07-18 19:00 - 20:30 | Zoom
Through an account of the relationship between picket lines and drivers in Britain, this talk thinks about questions of mobility in labour history.
It focuses on three moments in this period. First, the 1972 miners’ strike, when interactions between pickets and hauliers produced moments of powerful solidarity but also violent conflict.
Second, debates around a legislative proposal to require drivers to stop and listen to pickets, in which contrasting conceptions of mobility ‘rights’ were employed.
Third, the 1979 road haulage strike, which demonstrated drivers’ own ability to disrupt the economy through picketing. At stake in all three was a question of power over movement. Such a focus draws attention to complex methods of control, which can be missing in labour histories that emphasise the purely disruptive nature of industrial action and picketing.
Diarmaid is a Lecturer in Human Geography in the School of Geographical & Earth Sciences at the University of Galsgow.

Sunderland Minster, Remember Srebrenica
2023-07-11 18:30 | Sunderland Minster
From Peter Sagar
Sunderland Minster, 6.30pm, 11 July
As some of you are aware, 11th July marks the 28th anniversary of the terrible genocide at Srebrenica in Bosnia when 8372 innocent men and boys were murdered by Serbian forces, during the war in the former Yugoslvaia. Other massacres also took place during that terrible conflict and all these as well as the events at Srebrenica are remembered by the Bosnian community in the North East every July.
This year the main ceremony in our region is in Sunderland at the Minster on 11th July and the proceedings begin at 6pm. These are always very moving and informative events and are very well worth attending. They are opportunities to remember those who lost their lives in the war in Bosnia and also consider how we should respond here in the Northeast in our communities, to lessen hatred and help build strong communities that can work together to deal with the challenges we face.
I hope some of you can attend.

Songs and Politics of the Durham Coalfield
2023-07-06 19:00 - 23:00 | Durham City Rugby Club
Join Education4Action in celebrating the songs and politics of the Durham Coalfield with the Folk Music singer/songwriters The Elliot’s of Birtley, and Benny Graham, Pitmen Poet and giant of the North East Folk Scene. Mary Foy MP will also be speaking at the event and there will be a talk from Robert Gildea on his new book ‘Backbone of the Nation – the story of the support groups in 1984/5’ which E4A contributed to.
Bill Elliott (Elliott’s of Birtley) and Kevin Youldon have played Folk Music together for over 30 years and are well-known on the North East Folk scene. Ken Tonge is a fine Folk musician originally from Lancashire who is well-known on the local folk scene and has performed in Folk Clubs, Festivals etc. for over 50 years. They all regularly perform in Beamish Museum and other venues.
Benny Graham served his musical apprenticeship from 1967 in the folksong clubs of North East England such as in Birtley, run by the Elliott family, and Newcastle Folksong and Ballad (which featured among its regulars the High Level Ranters and Lou Killen) were at the forefront of the British folk revival.
Real ale & bar food
Tickets: £5 on the door. Register in advance by emailing kathleenhconnolly@hotmail.co.uk

Sheffield Hallam University. Annual Chartism Conference on 17 June
2023-06-17 09:00 - 17:00 | Sheffield Hallam University, Room 1028, Owen Building, Sheffield, S1 2LX
From Joan Allen
The annual Chartism Day conference is being held at Sheffield Hallam University on Saturday 17th June.
Entry is free and includes a light lunch. However, pre booking is required so that the organising team can order food and manage any food intolerances/allergies.
Full details, including the Eventbrite booking form, can be found on the Society for the Study of Labour History website: https://sslh.org.uk/2023/05/01/chartism-day-2023/ Pre booking will close on 13th June.

Tyneside Irish Centre. Celebrating Our Traditions
2023-06-15 19:00 - 22:00 | Tyneside Irish Centre, 43 Gallowgate, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4SG, United Kingdom
From Peter Sagar
Celebrating Our Traditions is a series of multicultural events, held at the Tyneside Irish Centre, featuring our Northumbrian music and song as well as some of the many great cultural traditions, which have been brought to our region by those who have to come to live here. It always makes for a great cultural mix and a lovely evening!
The next Celebrating Our Traditions event will be held in the Gallowgate Room, Floor 2 at the Tyneside Irish Centre, 43 Gallowgate NE1 4SG starting at 7.30 pm on Thursday 15 June. It will include contributions from the following:
Jamie Brown, well-known northeast actor, singer and musician singing songs with a local flavour.
Francis Jones and Amer Ratkusic reading poetry from Bosnia
Koroush Nazery, Iranian musician playing music from Iran
Peter Sagar, singer-songwriter, singing Northumbrian songs both old and new
Irish and other music tbc
The doors open at 7 pm on Thursday 15 June and it should be a great evening! It would be great to see you there and please pass this on to others who might be interested. People can get more information about this event by emailing peter0462@gmail.com.

POSTPONED: NELHS Tuesday Meeting: John Charlton will talk about the first volume of his autobiography: A Distant World, Growing up on Tyneside in the Early Fifties.
2023-06-13 19:00 - 20:30 | Zoom
Tonight’s talk has been postponed due to illness. John is sorry he can’t make the meeting but we will re-arrange it for another time and, in the meantime, I’m sure we all wish him a very speedy recovery.
