“What makes this project so exciting is not just the ease in which you will be able to access the history of the General Strike 1926, but the collaboration of many of our biggest trade union, labour, and people’s history venues across the UK.”
By Henry Fowler, General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU)
We have all done it. Found ourselves in a new city/town, even village, for 24/48 hours for work and missed huge opportunities to seek out radical history around us. That local archive, that special collection, that beautiful museum, all missed.
Over the years, I have found myself travelling more for work and often between getting off the train to the conference centre and then back again, I have been left with precious little time to explore. However, there has been the odd occasion where I have had a few hours of downtime and always wondered if there is an interesting site of workers’ history around me. After ‘Googling’ a bit, I would often give up and revert to my hotel room.
It is that lack of ease in finding and enjoying these wonderful libraries, museums, archives, and sites of workers’ historical struggle, which has driven the coordination of the recently launched national partnership for the celebration of the General Strike 100 anniversary.
This new partnership of 11 museums, archives, libraries, and history groups aims to develop an interactive postcode searchable map of all those celebrating the General Strike, including important history sites from the strike itself. This includes details of specific exhibitions, educational events, and unique collections to explore, all part of our rich history of the General Strike 1926.
As we know, a lot of you out there are partial to collecting and completing things. That is why, alongside this interactive website, we plan to distribute a printed passport, challenging you all to visit as many of these museums, archives, libraries, and sites as possible. There may even be prizes. I know I will be challenging myself to visit them all, much to the groans of my family. Our passport will also provide discounts on related merchandise produced to celebrate the anniversary and fundraise for this project.
What makes this project so exciting is not just the ease in which you will be able to access the history of the General Strike 1926, but the collaboration of many of our biggest trade union, labour, and people’s history venues across the UK. Uniting these organisations into one partnership allows us to promote and engage with all these wonderful sites.
As part of our recent launch, we have been clear that if other libraries, museums, archives, and indeed history groups want to join this partnership, they are more than welcome. This is not the creation of an ‘umbrella’ organisation, but a platform to support and promote all the wonderful celebrations of this strike which will happen in 2026.
This project also has been honest and clear from the outset, that there will be different views, political debates, and reflections of the 1926 General Strike, and that is fine. Our partnership is not about presenting a view of history but about ensuring that people engage in this history at this special anniversary.
Last year, the General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU) celebrated its 125th anniversary since its founding. We completely re-branded, we held ceremonial events, we re-launched our newspaper, fundraised for our huge education programme, as well as reflected on the development of the federation over the years. This led to all types of ongoing partnerships with other organisations, from Banner Theatre and the celebration of working-class culture to SOAS University of London, in the knowledge transfer partnership building political economy resources for our movement. We know the value of this type of celebration.
As organisations involved continue to finalise their plans for 2026, we will be working hard to make this project a huge success, something that is accessible for future generations to look back on. We are lucky that due to the fantastic expertise of those within the partnership, we have managed to mitigate the high costs of a potential project like this by pooling our resources. However, we acknowledge the development costs associated with our website, project design, and initial printing expenses, that is why our launch included a clear call to help us fundraise for this project.
We have written to the wider trade union and labour movement seeking donations based on the size of the organisation and have also opened this up to individuals to donate to too.
If you are interested in becoming involved or would like to support this project, you can find out more here.
We look forward to celebrating 100 years of General Strike together.
- Henry Fowler is the Head of education, campaigns and organising at the General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU).
- You can follow Henry on Twitter/X and follow the GFTU on Facebook, Twitter/X and Instagram.
