The Union Makes Us Strong: TUC History Online
Introduction
The Union Makes Us Strong: TUC History Online is a partnership initiative between London Metropolitan University and the Trades Union Congress in support of their strategies in lifelong learning, made possible through a grant from the New Opportunities Fund (now the Big Lottery Fund) as part of their NOF-Digitise programme.
Trade unions have played, and will continue to play, a decisive role in shaping economic and social developments in Britain - yet much of their history is at present unknown and inaccessible to the public. These images provide a dynamic new resource allowing us to connect with the working lives of our predecessors, helping to analyse historical developments and to build for the future. The website includes a Tutors' pack for union and other adult learners.
For details of what you can find on the website go to Site Information or click on the Tabs above. You can see Tony Benn speaking at the website launch in 2004.
We hope that you find this website interesting and useful and that you will visit other websites, The Workers' War and Winning Equal Pay.
Any detailed enquiries would be sent by email: specialcollections@londonmet.ac.uk
Contents
This site consists of five resources:
Timeline A journey through 200 years of trade union history covering all the major personalities and events, illustrated with contemporary photographs, documents, posters and union emblems.
General Strike The TUC Library Collections holds an extensive archive from the General Strike of 1926. Official reports from both the TUC and the unions themselves tell the story of the build up to the strike, the 9 day shutdown in May, as well as the consequences for the trade union movement as a whole. Contemporary photographs, press coverage, cartoons and local reports complete the story.
Match Workers Using the original Strike Fund Register as its centrepiece, this section tells the story of the famous "Match Girls" strike at the Bryant and May factory in Hackney, London in 1888. Biographies of Annie Besant and Herbert Burrows complete the story as well as reproductions from 'The Link' magazine which supported the campaign.
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists The TUC is the proud custodian of the manuscript to this classic novel by Robert Tressell (pen name of Robert Noonan) about working class life in the early years of the 20th century. Each of the 1700 pages of the manuscript have been digitally imaged, enabling users to browse through the book, reading Tressell's original words as well as later, controversial, amendments by book editors.
TUC Reports Using original documents from the TUC Library Collections, a digital library has been created enabling the user to browse through 100 years of Congress Reports between 1868 and 1968. Optical character recognition technology has created a text index of each page, enabling searches on people, events and places mentioned in debates throughout the whole period.
Links to other resources
London Metropolitan University
London School of Economics
Archives, Libraries and Museums
Charles Booth Archive Online
Chartist Ancestors
Glasgow Digital Library
Marx Memorial Library
Modern Records Centre - University of Warwick
New Lanark World Heritage Site
People's History Museum
South Wales Coalfield Collections
Tolpuddle Martyrs Museum
Trade Union Ancestors
Virtual Library institutions
Working Class Movement Library
H-Labor Discussion List
Other Discussion Lists
International Association of Labour History Institutions
International Trade Union Confederation
International Institute of Social History
Meta-index of labour unions and political organisations
North East Labour History Society
Society for the Study of Labour History
Spartacus
Trades Union Congress
TSSA history
Virtual Library of Labour History Resources
Credits
All the images shown are from original documents held in the TUC Library Collections at the London Metropolitan University, the Trades Union Congress, the TUC deposit at the People's History Museum and the John Burns Library (deposited by the TUC with the University of London Library in 1996).
The University wishes to thank the New Opportunities Fund and The Trades Union Congress for their core financial support. In addition, funding was received from the following Charitable trusts:
Aurelius Charitable Trust
Barry Amiel and Norman Melburn Trust
Thriplow Charitable Trust
The H. and G. de Freitas Charitable Trust
Trades Union Unit Trust
The Project Team
TUC Librarian - Christine Coates
Project Manager - Alex Bromley
Project Assistant - Jan Morgan
Project Advisors - Anne Callanan, Susan Davy, Bob Grist, Mary Hartley, Julie Howell, Mike O'Reilly, David Mason, Paul Walk
Timeline narrative - Professor Mary Davis, Professor Nina Fishman and Dave Lyddon
Image captions - Christine Coates
Timeline and Match Workers digitisation - Steve Blunt
Design and content management - Atticmedia Ltd and KE Software (UK) Ltd
Award
In 2003 the team behind the website won the prestigious CILIP Jason Farradane Award, sponsored by Kompass. The Award is given by CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals for outstanding work in the information field.
Launch Event
On Monday 2 February 2004, the TUC hosted to a celebration to mark the completion of The Union Makes Us Strong project.