Trades Union Congress

The first meeting of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) took place in the Mechanics Institute, Manchester in June 1868 and the library holds a wide range of TUC publications from its earliest days right up to the present and these have now been fully catalogued.

Highlights of the collection include items from the General Strike and its precursor, the mining dispute of 1925 and at least one item spans the TUC and Songs collection – Songs to sing: Dorsetshire Labourers’ Centenary Commemorations is a selection of songs sung at the centenary of the transportation of the Tolpuddle Martyrs and includes Song of Freedom by George Loveless who was one of the Tolpuddle labourers sent for transportation.  The library also holds items commemorating the centenary of that first meeting of the TUC in the Mechanics Institute.

On the theme of the Tolpuddle Martyrs, another highlight is a brochure for the TUC cottages which were erected in 1934 using money gathered from the trade unions of the day.  Each union was levied one penny per member and enough was raised to build six cottages to house retired agricultural workers who were also trade union members.  The cottages are still in use as housing today.  To find out more about the Tolpuddle Martyrs go to www.tolpuddlemartyrs.org.uk

To find any of our TUC material search our catalogue at www.wcml.org.uk/catalogue/adlib-catalogue

TUC pamphlets

Thanks to the stirling work of Kenneth, one of our volunteers, we now have details of our collection of Trades Union Congress pamphlets available on our online catalogue – all 27 boxes, or 1048 items, of them!

The collection has items dating from the late 1800s and continuing right up to the present day.  It also compliments our collection of TUC congress reports, papers and other items

You can search the collection using our online catalogue at www.wcml.org.uk/catalogue/adlib-catalogue/

Jane
Project Librarian