History of Protest in Aberdeen
University of Aberdeen archivist (and SLHS member) Andrew MacGregor is developing a new resource, 100 Places of Protest, which he has added to the Aberdeen Protest blog at https://aberdeenprotest.wordpress.com/ Andrew is also making connections with local activists in order to collect other local material, and last year added the following items to the archive:
National Union of Vehicle Builders (Aberdeen) records: late 19th century-mid 20th century
Aberdeen Communist Party papers: mid-late 20th century
Transport & General Workers Union/UNITE (Grampian Transport/First Aberdeen) branch records: 1930s-2000s
Robert (Bob) Ballantyne, industrial technician: Piper Alpha papers, 1980s-2000s
Aberdeen Trades Union Council papers (additional): 1904-2011
Amnesty International (Aberdeen Branch) papers: 1978-2011
Andrew can be contacted via macarenses@yahoo.co.uk
Scottish Mineworkers History
SLH Journal co-editor Jim Phillips’ book, Scottish Coal Miners in the Twentieth Century, first published in hardback in 2019, is due out in a paperback edition in February. Published by Edinburgh University Press (EUP), the paperback edition will cost £24.99, and can be pre-ordered on the EUP website at https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-scottish-coal-miners-in-the-t… Keith Gildart of the University of Wolverhampton called the book “a major piece of scholarship” and “a fitting tribute to the thousands of Scottish miners who toiled underground across the twentieth century and played an essential role in building a new society and defending it in the 1980s and 1990s”.
Assessing Peterloo
Also available in paperback in February from EUP is Commemorating Peterloo: Violence, Resilience and Claim-making during the Romantic Era. Edited by Michael Demson & Regina Hewitt, the volume comprises essays on various aspects of the “massacre” in Manchester in 1819, as thousands massed to demand the vote for working people. It can be pre-ordered (at £24.99), at the EUP website – https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-commemorating-peterloo.html
‘Sanny’ Sloan Booklet
The new booklet about Alexander Sloan, former Labour MP for South Ayrshire, written by his great-granddaughter, Esther Davies, is now available to purchase (£8.00 inc postage) via the SLHS website. An introductory blog, outlining his life and work, is available on the website at https://www.scottishlabourhistorysociety.scot/blog-article/alexander-sl…
Tribute to Leo Panitch
To mark the life and work of Leo Panitch, Canadian academic and longtime co-editor (from 1985) of Socialist Register, who died from Covid in December, aged 75, the Socialist Register archive is available online at https://socialistregister.com/index.php/srv/issue/archive?fbclid=IwAR3G… His published work includes, with Sam Gindin, The Making of Global Capitalism: The Political Economy of American Empire (2012) and, with Colin Leys, The End of Parliamentary Socialism: From New Left to New Labour (1997). Both titles are available (until 4 January 2021) at a 40% discount on the Verso website at www.versobooks.com
New Book on Comintern in the Far East
Alliance of Adversaries: The Congress of the Toilers of the Far East, edited by John Sexton. Historical Materialism Book Series (Brill, 2018; Haymarket Books, 2019) is available in paperback at a discounted price – until 4 January – from Haymarket Books; see https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1388-alliance-of-adversaries
Socialist History Society ‘Zoom’ Public Meeting
The SHS is holding a ‘Zoom’ public meeting at 7pm on Tuesday 19th January on the British Labour Movement and Internationalism. Duncan Bowie, guest editor of an SHS journal on the subject in 2019, will give an initial talk, covering both globalisation, Brexit and other “internationalist” topics. To register for the meeting, go to https://bit.ly/3myTLlc
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