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A unique collection capturing the stories and struggles of ordinary people's efforts to improve their world
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Trade unions

We hold a large collection of trade union material from the 1820s onwards including minutes, rule books, badges and banners.Click here to find out more...

Apex banner BANNER 005 : Apex banner Shipwrights' Association Annual Report front page

Electrical Trades Union badge : Electrical Trades Union badge

 Framed/334 - gas workers' emblem : Part of the Gas workers and General Labourers' Union emblem

 

Explore 200 years of working class movement activism

Timeline slider
  • 1791

    Thomas Paine publishes 'Rights of man'

  • 1798

    Irish Rebellion

  • 1819

    Peterloo

  • 1834

    Tolpuddle

  • 1844

    Rochdale Pioneers

  • 1848

    Chartist banner, 'More pigs and less parsons'Kennington Common Chartist meeting

  • 1867

    'Manchester Martyrs' executed

  • 1868

    TUC
    First meeting of TUC

  • 1871

    Fall of the Paris Commune

  • 1893

    Foundation of the Independent Labour Party

  • 1913

    Cat and Mouse Bill cartoon : Cartoon from Votes for Women, 1913
    Cat and Mouse Act

  • 1924

    Ramsey MacDonald
    First Labour government

  • 1926

    Arthur Cook_1926General Strike

  • 1931


    Red Megaphones first performance

  • 1932

    Kinder Scout mass trespass

  • 1936

    Map of SpainSpanish Civil War

  • 1945

    National Coal Board notice : National Coal Board noticeNationalisation of the coal industry

  • 1948

    Birth of the NHS

  • 1956

    Tanks on Hungarian street, 1956Hungarian uprising

  • 1958

    CND symbolAldermaston marches and birth of CND

  • 1971

    Upper Clyde Shipbuilders : Poster depicting demonstration in support of the ship workers

    Upper Clyde Shipbuilders

  • 1976

    Grunwick dispute

  • 1982

    Falklands War : Cover image from pamphlet 'Resist the Falkland madness: a pacifist response'

    Falklands War

  • 1984

    Miners' strike

  • 1990

    Nelson Mandela's  release from prison

  • 1998

      Good Friday agreement

  • 1999

    Minimum wageIntroduction of national minimum wage

  • 2001

    Stop the War logo
    Stop the War campaign

We need your support

To maintain the momentum of the huge increases in usage of the Library over the last few years, we need to raise an extra £86,000 each year.

Can you help? Click here for news of our 2011 fundraising appeal.

Follow us on Twitter

As we remember Salford's Battle of Bexley Square on 1 October 1931 and its aftermath

@wcmlibrary

 

Trace the key events leading up to the march, and hear more about what happened on the day itself, by following tweets from @wcmlibrary which use the hashtag #BexleySquare


Object of the month

Every month a volunteer will choose an interesting object, book or document from the Library collection, which will be displayed in the Library's hall exhibition.

This month's object is Jubilee Chimp, a pamphlet produced by the National Unemployed Workers Movement to remember their march in Salford on 1 October 1931 which ended in a charge by mounted police. This event is remembered as the Battle of Bexley Square

Click here to find out more