Welcome to the Scottish Labour History Society website

The Scottish Labour History Society (SLHS) is an independent organisation comprising academics, practitioners, labour and social activists and others interested in the development and history of Scotland’s working-class, trade union, labour and co-operative movements.
 
Since 1969 the Society has been publishing an annual peer-reviewed journal, featuring articles, news and reviews on Scotland’s labour history. It also arranges conferences, seminars and events and collaborations with like-minded organisations, as well as producing occasional publications on particular aspects of Scottish working-class history.
 
SLHS produces an occasional free e-newsletter with information about the Society’s activities and other relevant material for those who are interested in Scottish labour history.
 
For more information and to join the Society, see the menus elsewhere on this page.

A detailed history of the Society, written by former SLHS chair Rob Duncan, can be found here.

The digitisation and indexing of the Scottish Labour History Journal has been facilitated by a generous grant from the Barry Amiel & Norman Melburn Trust, which is gratefully acknowledged by the Society.

Latest Journal

Journal 57 Cover

Volume 57, 2022

Inaugural Ian MacDougall Lecture
Listening to People Speak: The Value of Oral Histories of Working People

Lynn Abrams

Patrick Dollan, James Maxton and the Scottish Socialist Party
Danny Carrigan

The Reverend Richard Lee: The Man Who Buried John Maclean
Gerard Cairns

De-provincialising 1820: The West of Scotland General Strike in the Mirror of Uneven and Combined Development (part 2)
Neil Davidson & Jamie Allinson

The Cultural Impact of Deindustrialisation: Scottish Coal Communities and Brass Bands, 1950s-1984

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