Libraries Gave Us Power

Women, Trade unions and Learning: Finding the Women Who Were Always There Who Gets Remembered?At a recent workshop organised by the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA) and led by brilliant trade union educator Cilla Ross, we were asked to consider the prominence of women...

New blog post - Women, Trade Unions and Lifelong Learning.
www.librariesgaveuspower.net/post/women-t...

To support the book, I've created website which I will use to share interesting things I've found along the way. You can find it at: www.librariesgaveuspower.net

Ellen Wilkinson: Minister of Edu. '45-'47. @usdawunion.bsky.social official
George Tomlinson: Minister of Edu. '47-'51. Started work at 12 and became President of his local Weavers Assoc

TUists who guided the Labour Party's educational policy when the future of secondary edu was still v uncertain

Two books I've putting off for quite a while as I know they'll require a lot of notes!

'Time Off to Learn' (1987) was published to support 'Paid Educational Leave' & covered:
- Workbase. NUPE project to deliver basic skills in the workplace. Started in 1979!
- Take Ten. Sheff City Council workers 10 days paid release to learn

The big question: where are these issues now discussed?

One of JF Horrabin's National Council of Labour College (NCLC) cartoons attacking the motives of the state for supporting working class education.

Why unions need to fight for adult education | WEA Why do unions need to fight for adult education? Gavin McCann has a few reasons.

"It's time for the unions to re-join the fight for adult education" - my blog for the @weaadulted.bsky.social

www.wea.org.uk/unions-adult...

This is essential. A criticism levelled at the TUC during the 'ULF years' was that the movement failed to shift Government policy on this important issue. The GMB & T&G made the case in the 90s & was also the view of the Working Group on Workplace Learning, which was Chaired by UNISON's Head of Edu

'Reducing funding for adult learners is “harming social outcomes, health and wellbeing, economic growth and individual opportunity”'

The need for an increase, not decrease, in funding adult education is made startling clear by @learnworkuk.bsky.social report. Read @feweek.bsky.social article below👇

In the early 20th century trade union education flourished. However, the main providers (WEA & National Council of Labour Colleges) did not get on. This 21st birthday greeting to the WEA kind of sums it up. 'You ask for birthday greetings...we should be happier to attend your funeral'

Proof, if needed, that @weaadulted.bsky.social tutors were never too formal for their students. NUM summer school (no date but presumably 1950s)

Tom Driver, Gen Sec of Assoc. Of Teachers in Technical Institutions called on the Govt to amend the 1944 Edu. Act to provide an expansion of Adult Education.

Following the Russell Report into Adult Education in 1973, the @weaadulted.bsky.social called on Education Secretary, Margaret Thatcher, to be a "good fairy" to implement the findings and double the numbers involved in adult education to 4 million. Articles found in London Met Uni archive

First ever trip to the People's History MMuseum & it was superb.

My archive find of the day:
"To educate is to organise. To organise effectively, must be to educate"
Amalgamated Union of Building Trade Workers" 1922

"Education on an empty stomach is a waste of money"
Fred Jowett, 1904, on Bradford City Council being the first in the country to offer free school meals.

Letters of congratulations she received on receiving her Honorary MA came from union members, MPs, Mayors, academics and newspaper editors and summed up the high esteem for her within the union movement and in education (even in her 80s) she was still on the council's Education Committee

Alice’s life was changed at a @weaadulted.bsky.social summer school in Bangor, “a month of almost complete happiness; a pinnacle of joy never to be quite reached again. The spirit of the WEA was to sustain and accompany me through long years of humble toil” later President of her Bolton WEA branch

Born “on a scurvy, inhospitable day…a premature victim of nature & the hazards of a moonlight flit” to be awarded an MBE and honorary MA from Manchester Uni📸. The Socialist Sunday School (& their 10 commandments📸), Clarion Cycling 📸& the WEA summer schools were her education.

An incredible day spent at the stunning Bolton Library archives, absorbed by the world of Alice Foley, first female Secretary of a Cotton union. Her autobiography, ‘A Bolton Childhood’ should be widely read. She faced many barriers (esp from her union) to fight for equality and rights for women.

The first @weaadulted.bsky.social courses began in Jan 1908 in Rochdale and Longton & delivered by RH Tawney. The archives at London Met Uni are an incredible resource where you can trace the incredible challenges faced in setting up this remarkable achievement.

Fiona credits her community (County Council, Durham Miners Assoc etc) for the opportunities she had. "For every rung of the educational ladder I found a subsidy or grant to pull me up"

We must not abandon our communities & recent announcements of further cuts to Adult Education is deeply worrying

Privileged to talk to Fiona Hill & hear her story from the Durham coalfields to the Oval Office

"Opportunity does not materialise from thin air & no one does anything alone. Barriers to opportunity & social mobility are personal and universal. Any individual success is a team or collective effort"

a man with long hair and a beard is holding a glass with the word huh on it ALT: a man with long hair and a beard is holding a glass with the word huh on it

What links these?
- The impeachment of Donald Trump
- Stars In Their Eyes with Matthew Kelly
- Cross-country running in the rain at school

Oddly, they all feature in current drafts of my book about the history of trade unions and education!

Archivists of the world unite! Truly the very best people you can meet.

* Nick Mansfield's book on the buildings of the Labour mvt is wonderful. The pubs, churches, halls and schools are a physical reminder of the impact of the mvt.

6 new books this week!
- Memoirs (JR Clyne)
- Ellen Wilkinson (B Vernon)
- The Lancs Giant - David Shackleton (R Martin)
- Barefoot Aristocrats (Fowler & Wyke)
- Socialism over 60 years - life of F Jowett (F Brockway)
- Buildings of the Labour Mvt (N Mansfield)*

Libraries Gave Us Power (or whatever it will end up being called) is very much a personal exploration. We recently moved office, and my refusal to bin everything meant I could put together just some of the booklets and documents I've used to promote learning over the past 20 years.

For anyone in the Notts/Derbs area, there are two events this week organised by the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Labour History Society.

I am fortunate to have a copy of the memoir written by NUPE/UNISONs former Head of Education, Jim Sutherland. The sub-title is 'Educate, Organise, Control', taken from his first AEU badge in the 1950s & sets the scene for his view of unions. Have just bought my very own badge, and it is beautiful.

The early stages of the Union Learning Fund (ULF) saw numerous local projects flourish. The @gmb.org.uk in Lincolnshire & Humberside were at the forefront, developing learning centres & establishing Saturday clubs & were recognised with local, regional & national awards for their brilliant work