The National Council of Labour Colleges (NCLC) was an organisation set up in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

to foster independent working class education. The organisation was founded at a convention held in the

Clarion Club House A Clarion Club House was a building used by a Clarion Cycling Club. A number of these were established across England. They were a series of rural facilities which provided accommodation for the various local clubs affiliated to the National Clario ...

Yardley, Birmingham Yardley is an area in east Birmingham, England. It is also a council constituency, managed by its own district committee. Historically it lay within Worcestershire. Birmingham Yardley is a constituency and its Member of Parliament is Jess Phi ...

on 8/9 October 1921. Its role was to act as a co-ordinating body for the movement of labour colleges,Peter Jarvis, ''An International Dictionary of Adult and Continuing Education'', pp.139, 218 including the

Central Labour College The Central Labour College, also known as The Labour College, was a British higher education institution supported by trade unions. It functioned from 1909 to 1929. It was established on the basis of independent working class education. The colle ...

. The National Council of Labour Colleges absorbed the

Plebs League The Plebs' League was a British educational and political organisation which originated around a Marxist way of thinking in 1908 and was active until 1926. History Central to the formation of the League was Noah Ablett, a miner from the Rhondda ...

the year after the

1926 United Kingdom general strike The 1926 general strike in the United Kingdom was a general strike that lasted nine days, from 4 to 12 May 1926. It was called by the General Council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in an unsuccessful attempt to force the British governm ...

, and continued to publish the ''Plebs' Magazine''.''Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations'', Peter Barberis, John McHugh and Mike Tyldesley (2000) p157 The NCLC offered educational schemes to such organisations as the

National Clarion Cycling Club The National Clarion Cycling Club is a British cycling club founded in 1894, and which retained strong links with the labour movement through the 20th century. At its peak, in 1936, it had 233 UK sections and 8,306 members. In 2021, it replaced ...

, in which they offered: * Free access to NCLC classes * Free access to non-residential day schools * Occasional lectures provided at meetings * Free NCLC correspondence courses for which the NCLC ran adverts on the inside back cover of ''

The Clarion Cyclist ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

''. In 1964, the NCLC merged with the Workers' Educational Trade Union Committee to form the

Trades Union Congress The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is a national trade union centre A national trade union center (or national center or central) is a federation or confederation of trade unions in a country. Nearly every country in the world has a national tra ...

Education Department.

References

{{reflist

* Gibson, I.
'Marxism and Ethical Socialism in Britain: the case of Winifred and Frank Horrabin'
(BA Thesis, University of Oxford, 2008) * McIlroy, J., 'Independent Working Class Education and Trade Union Education and Training' in Roger Fieldhouse (ed.), ''A History of Modern British Adult Education'' (Leicester, 1996), ch.10 * Macintyre, S., ''A Proletarian Science: Marxism in Britain 1917-33'' (Cambridge, 1980) * Millar, J.P.M.M., ''The Labour College Movement'' (London, 1979) * Phillips, A. and Putnam, T., 'Education for Emancipation: The Movement for Independent Working-Class Education 1908-1928', ''Capital and Class'', 10 (1980), pp.18-42 * Rée, J., ''Proletarian Philosophers: Problems in Socialist Culture in Britain, 1900-1940'' (Oxford, 1984) * Samuel, R., "British Marxist Historians, 1880-1980: Part One", ''NLR'', 120 (1980), pp.21-96 * Samuel, R., ''The Lost World of British Communism'' (London, 2006) * Simon, B., `The Struggle for Hegemony, 1920- 1926' in ''idem'' (ed.), ''The Search for Enlightenment: The Working Class and Adult Education in the Twentieth Century'', (London, 1990), pp.15-70 Socialist education Education in the United Kingdom Labor schools

References

Further reading