The Working Class Movement Library (WCML) is a collection of English language books, periodicals, pamphlets, archives and artefacts, relating to the development of the political and cultural institutions of the working class created by the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

, in Salford, Greater Manchester,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

History

In 1953, two bibliophiles, Eddie (Edmund) Frow and Ruth Haines, met at a

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...

Summer School. In 1956, they set up home together and the merger of their book collections was the beginning of the Working Class Movement Library. They spent their spare time and money travelling around Britain, gathering new items for the collection. By 1960, the collection was being consulted by historians and academics, and they had attracted the support of other collectors of

labour movement The labour movement or labor movement consists of two main wings: the trade union movement (British English) or labor union movement (American English) on the one hand, and the political labour movement on the other. * The trade union movement ...

material. In 1964, they gained charitable trust status. By the mid 1980s, the collection had filled their

semi SEMI is an industry association comprising companies involved in the electronics design and manufacturing supply chain. They provide equipment, materials and services for the manufacture of semiconductors, photovoltaic panels, LED and flat pan ...

Trafford Trafford is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England, with an estimated population of 235,493 in 2017. It covers Retrieved on 13 December 2007. and includes the area of Old Trafford and the towns of Altrincham, Stretford, Ur ...

Salford City Council Salford City Council is the local authority of the City of Salford in Greater Manchester, England. It is a metropolitan borough council, one of ten in Greater Manchester and one of 36 in the metropolitan counties of England, and provides the maj ...

agreed to support the library and, in 1987, gave the WCML, and the Frows, a new home in a former nurses' home, Jubilee House, situated near the

University of Salford , caption = Coat of ArmsUniversity of Salford , mottoeng = "Let us seek higher things" , established = 1850 - Pendleton Mechanics Institute 1896 – Royal Technical Institute, Salford 1967 – gained ...

. Designed and constructed in 1897 by Henry Lord (who also built the

Peel Building The Peel Building is a building at the University of Salford located in their Peel Park campus adjacent to the A6 Crescent and is the university's oldest building in current use. History Originally the home for Salford Royal Technical Instit ...

opposite) it was built to celebrate Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee. In 2007, the relationship changed when the trust took full responsibility for the housing and staffing of the collection with the council providing a lease of the building and an annual financial grant. The WCML is otherwise funded by trade union and individual subscription.

Collection

The focus of the collection is the history of the political, industrial, social and cultural institutions of the working classes which were created by the

. The three main parts are the

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ...

movement, the

co-operative movement The history of the cooperative movement concerns the origins and history of cooperatives across the world. Although cooperative arrangements, such as mutual insurance, and principles of cooperation existed long before, the cooperative movement bega ...

and the political parties and campaigns of the left. The WCML houses 30,000 books as well as journals, newspapers, pamphlets, leaflets, banners, pottery, photographs, personal papers, archives of organisations, trade union emblems, badges and other artifacts. The library has substantial and historically significant holdings on

Thomas Paine Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In th ...

and the radical movement of the 1790s,

Peterloo Massacre The Peterloo Massacre took place at St Peter's Field, Manchester, Lancashire, England, on Monday 16 August 1819. Fifteen people died when cavalry charged into a crowd of around 60,000 people who had gathered to demand the reform of parliament ...

, Chartism,

ILP ''ilp.'' () is the debut album by record producer and musician Kwes. It was released on 14 October 2013 on Warp Records. The release is a follow up to his second EP release '' Meantime''. The record's title ''ilp'' refers literally to the record ...

and Clarion movement, the campaign for women's suffrage,

the General Strike ''The General Strike'' is Anti-Flag's ninth studio album. The album was released on March 20, 2012.http://www.anti-flag.com/?p=172 The album marks the band's second release for SideOneDummy Records. The first single from the album, "The Neolibera ...

National Unemployed Workers' Movement The National Unemployed Workers' Movement was a British organisation set up in 1921 by members of the Communist Party of Great Britain. It aimed to draw attention to the plight of unemployed workers during the post First World War slump, the 1926 G ...

, International Brigades, the 1970s radical press, the Miners' Strike of 1984-85 and much else. Whilst principally concerned with Britain, the library also has a major collection on

Irish history The first evidence of human presence in Ireland dates to around 33,000 years ago, with further findings dating the presence of homo sapiens to around 10,500 to 7,000 BC. The receding of the ice after the Younger Dryas cold phase of the Quatern ...

from the late 18th century onwards, derived initially from the libraries of two historians;

C. Desmond Greaves Charles Desmond Greaves (27 September 1913 – 23 August 1988) was an English Marxist activist and historian. He wrote a number of books on Irish history as a Marxist historian. A member of the Communist Party of Great Britain, through the Connol ...

and T. A. Jackson. The collection includes diverse cultural material including poetry, novels, prints, playscripts, songbooks and audio-visual material. Since 1985, the WCML has been the official archive of the

GMB union The GMB is a general trade union in the United Kingdom which has more than 460,000 members. Its members work in nearly all industrial sectors, in retail, security, schools, distribution, the utilities, social care, the National Health Service (N ...

. It also has a large collection of material from the

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

and the various textile unions, especially the North west regional branches. It also holds varying amounts of material from dozens of other trade unions, old and new. As well as holding local and national material from the mainstream UK co-operative movement, the WCML also holds archival material from local branches of the Co-operative guilds and periodicals of co-partnership and workers’ co-operative organisations. The main political parties represented are the Labour Party and the Communist Party of Great Britain, of whom, the WCML holds large collections of pamphlets, periodicals and ephemera. Many of the smaller parties are represented by collections of similar material. Campaign groups are similarly represented, as well as collections of archive material from bodies as diverse as the National League of the Blind and Disabled, Manchester CND, Manchester Unity Theatre, Big Flame and the Jubilee Group.

References

External sources

Official website
{{Authority control Libraries in Greater Manchester Culture in Greater Manchester Grade II listed buildings in the City of Salford Tourist attractions in Salford Charities based in England Working-class culture in England Research libraries in the United Kingdom

History

Collection

See also

References

External sources