Trades Union Congress Library Collections

20/06/2025

That was my last post as Thanks for your support over the last 10 years. There will be a delay before the new TUC Librarian is appointed. I wish them and you lots of luck online. I will leave you with one of my favourite images, Frank Bailey, the first black fireman in Britain and a Fire Brigade Union representative

20/06/2025

We have a new interview with Zita Holbourne FRSA, British community and human rights campaigner and activist, and a multi-disciplinary artist, creating work as a writer, performance poet and visual artist. In this interview Zita focuses on her trade union work. Zita is National Vice President of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) in the UK, and chairs its national equality committee and women's committee, and as joint national Chair of Artists Union England she also leads on equality. She sits on the European Public Services Union National and European Administration Committee. She co-founded with Lee Jasper the organisation BARAC (Black Activists Rising Against the Cuts), which campaigns against the impact of austerity on black communities

20/06/2025

New interview with Dr Ian Manborde working for CPSA, PCS and now for Equity, as regional officer in the Midlands. describes the importance of the trade union approach to membership that reflects modern work patterns http://bit.ly/4l6Qb00

20/06/2025

Very excited, on my last day as TUC Librarian, to announce that we have Jim Thakoordin’s Papers. Educationalist, trade union and Labour Party activist Jim was involved in the LP Black Section and Black Trade Unionist Solidarity Movement. Incl notes, letters, photos & recordings Trades Union Congress (TUC) GMB Union The Labour Party

19/06/2025

New interview with Fevzi Hussein in our Black Trade Union Oral History Project. Fevzi has been active in the trade union movement for over three decades and has always sought to push a positive race agenda at work and in society. He was Chair of the GMBs Race self-organised group and played an important role in delivering several high-profile events, engaging on a large scale with black trade union members http://bit.ly/44myqEq

19/06/2025

Guest Blogger Dr Sophie Nield has written our latest post http://bit.ly/45uCLGT Here, she draws on the Gertrude Tuckwell Collection to explore the history of Sweated Industries Exhibitions, and how they enabled working women to advance their fight for better conditions and the right to unionise.

Sophie teaches in the Drama Department at Royal Holloway, University of London, and has been researching in the TUC Library for her project, ‘Staging Labour’.

We have digitised some of the Gertrude Tuckwell Collection which is available http://bit.ly/43SvVd3

12/06/2025

We’ve digitised some of our Anti-Apartheid pamphlets we’ve used regularly in School of Art, Architecture and Design classes for a gallery https://collections.londonmet.ac.uk/galleries/anti_apartheid , incl the very rare “I accuse!” Speeches to court by Nelson Mandela at the Rivonia Trial Anti-Apartheid Legacy: Centre of Memory and Learning at Penton Street

30/05/2025

Great to see Trades Union Congress (TUC) Gen Sec Paul Nowak and Paul Clarkson visiting today. We looked at highlights in the collections, including much on http://unionhistory.info/ and exhibitions https://bit.ly/3HdItTv

30/04/2025

'Taken as Red, Highs and Lows of the Labour Party, 1924-2019' Richard Temple’s fascinating book has now been published as a paperback. Includes many dramatic episodes, not least the seething anger of the Glasgow rent strikes during the Great War, the looming danger of Hi**er in the 1930s, and walkouts over equal pay in the 1960s.

Taken as Red, Highs and Lows of the Labour Party, 1924-2019 - Cambridge Scholars Publishing

25/04/2025

Very excited to report we’ve published our interview with campaigning legends Jackie Lewis and Carola Towle https://bit.ly/4lGz7iB They talk about their part in establishing LGBTQ+ streams in the labour movement, with over 70 years of activism between them.

Carola Towle was UNISONs senior national officer for le***an, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. A lifelong activist Carola worked for the Anti-Apartheid Movement leading the Womens Committee. Starting in 1990 Carola worked for thirty years on LGBTQ+ equality in first NALGO and then UNISON.

In this interview with her and Jackie Lewis she describes the impact of homophobic Section 28 legislation on her as a young single mother, her national work within and outside UNISON and internationally with the International Le***an and Gay Association.

http://unionhistory.info/britainatwork/display.php?irn=1487&QueryPage=advancedsearch.php

Jackie Lewis has dedicated her life to the struggle for LGBT+ equality both in and beyond the union movement for over four decades. Starting in the 1980s as an officer in the Lambeth branch of NALGO she was closely involved in the formation of one of the first le***an and gay groups in a British union. She was vital in pushing her union to set up a national Le***an and Gay Committee and has sat on that committee for many years. Jackie has sat on the TUCs Le***an and Gay Committee for many years. Within the trade union movement she has campaigned on and helped create policy to address discrimination against and the rights for LGBT+ people in the workplace, and more broadly in society (on homophobia, adoption and pensions). She helped reorganise the International Le***an and Gay Association Europe, sitting on its committee for many years and has been involved in the wider World International Le***an and Gay Association.

http://unionhistory.info/britainatwork/display.php?irn=1488&QueryPage=advancedsearch.php

The Jackie Lewis archive is kept in the TUC Library and is available for research. A Sway exhibition is available describing the NALGAY campaign during the 1983 NALGO annual conference on the Isel of Man (where homosexuality was a criminal offence).

https://sway.cloud.microsoft/DZuuNIcEc44h14hh?ref=Link&loc=play

Jackie Lewis has dedicated her life to the struggle for LGBT+ equality both in and beyond the union movement for over four decades.

01/04/2025

We are delighted to be a part of the 100 anniversary national partnership with other museums, libraries, archives and groups. Find out how you can support this partnership here: bit.ly/GeneralStrike100

I have just contributed to help celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the General Strike 1926. Join me and support this year of celebration

27/03/2025

Very excited Paul Griffin from Northumbria University has allowed us to publish interviews from Bill (Ashington Community Initiative Centre), Colin (Derbyshire), Eileen (Women's groups in Merseyside), Jol (Sheffield), Kevin (National), Liz (Merseyside), Sandra (Sheffield) and Terry (Tyne & Wear)all involved in the Unemployed Workers' Centres that were set up in response to political & economic policies of the 1980s. Testimony that links ideas of community, support and resistance https://tinyurl.com/2hey92ey
Thanks to participants in Unemployed Workers' Centres project - Bill (Ashington Community Initiative Centre), Colin (Derbyshire), Eileen (Women's groups in Merseyside), Jol (Sheffield), Kevin (National), Liz (Merseyside), Sandra (Sheffield) and Terry (Tyne & Wear) Chesterfield Trades Union Council Castle-upon-Tyne-Trades-Union-Blackburn and District Trades Union Council Liverpool Trades Council Unite Community