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Midlands TUC and Black Country Living Museum's
Chainmakers' Festival
 Saturday 18th September 2010 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 1910 strike.
latest news: Tony Benn to speak
The Museum's major labour history event recalls the fight of the Cradley Heath Women Chainmakers, who in 1910 went on strike for ten weeks and were successful in winning the first ever minimum wage. The TUC organised event, hosted by the Black Country Living Museum, will celebrate the importance of Trade Union History and women at work.
Gates open at 10am
Leftfield debates are to take place in the Workers' Institute during the morning.
music on the stage from 12 noon
Trade Union banner procession after stage speeches which are due to start about 1pm,
Speakers will include:
Tony Benn,
Frances O’Grady (Deputy General Secretary TUC),
Mary Turner (President GMB),
Sylvia Heal (former Deputy speaker House of Commons),
Eleanor Smith (Vice President UNISON)
and Billy Hayes (CWU)
then back to the stage for more music and theatre.
events this year will be going on until 8pm New this year is a children’s area
venue: The Black Country Living Museum, Tipton Road, Dudley, West Midlands DY1 4SQ click here for directions
Click HERE to view 3 short films of the festival and Black Country museum taken by one of our supporters at last year's festival.
Further details from Alan Weaver: Midlands TUC, 24 Livery Street, Birmingham B3 2PA Telephone 0121 236 4454
Please note that tickets NOW available via sponsoring unions. Unions are still in the process of sending in their contributions so to date the unions which will be receiving tickets are:
UNISON
Unite
GMB
CWU
USDAW
PCS
NASUWT
NUT
FBU
POA
Tickets (will also be on sale on day at venue) are currently in the process of being designed and will be available in the next couple of weeks. Sponsoring unions will receive an allocation and initial enquiries should be directed to your union.
October 23rd, 2010 1pm - 4:30pm
Salvation Army Hall, Meredith Street, Cradley Heath, United Kingdom, B64 5EP
The Chainmakers' strike ended on 22nd October 1910. There will be a day of celebration for the anniversary on 23rd October.
The day’s events
1pm Tony Barnsley, author of Breaking Their Chains, Mary Macarthur and the Chainmakers’ Strike of 1910
Film clips of interviews with women who struck
Former MP Sylvia Heal on Mary Macarthur
2:30pm Performance by Making Links
3pm Start of procession to Mary Macarthur memorial gardens
3:30pm Memorial plaque unveiled by Sandwell Mayor – Pauline Hinton, plus Brass Band
4:15pm refreshments in Labour Club, Graingers Lane
BACKGROUND:
Tired of working day and night for starvation wages, the Women Chainmakers of Cradley Heath in the Black Country downed their hammers and stood up for their right to earn a living wage.
This event, which took place in 1910, when the women, led by the founder of the National Federation of Women Workers-Mary Macarthur, and their ten week strike successfully established the right to a minimum wage.
Supported internationally, the strike fund received so many contributions that a building was constructed with the surplus. The Workers' Institute, as it was called, became a centre for women to meet and organise, a place to learn and to socialise.
The Workers Institute was under threat of demolition until the Black Country Living Museum saved it, and so it was taken down and reconstructed at their site in Tipton in the West Midlands. Now restored, once again it will be able to be used for its original purpose and thereby preserve an important piece of Trade Union history for posterity and future generations.
A HALESOWEN trade unionist has penned a book on the historical significance of the Cradley Heath Chainmakers Strike 100 years ago.
Tony Barnsley, a 42-year-old father of three, wrote Breaking their Chains, Mary MaCarthur and the Chainmakers strike of 1910 because so little has been recorded about the historical strike.
Tony, who works for UNISON in Sandwell, said: “I really wanted to write the definitive account of the strike and really put the event in its historical context.
“Anyone who is on low pay at the moment can identify with the strike which was the first to really tackle low pay in Britain.”
And the author hopes to raise the national profile of Mary MaCarthur, the battling chainmaker at the centre of the strike who secured better conditions and higher wages for thousands of women in the Black Country.
Tony said: “Though a national figure at the time Mary has not really received the recognition that she deserved. She was a very able organiser who didn’t flinch and she got results.”
He added: “She was the first woman to contest a seat for Parliament and I’m sure if she would have won the Stourbridge seat she would have been as famous as the Pankhursts.”
Tony will be signing copies of his book at the Chainmakers Strike 100th Anniversary at the Black Country Living Museum on Saturday, September 18.
Speaking at the event will be legendary Parliamentarian Tony Benn who has backed the book describing it as ‘an excellent history of the strike’.
Mr Benn said: “The Chainmaker’s strike which took place 100 years ago is important for many reasons.
“First because it tells the story of a historic struggle by low-paid women workers for decent pay and recognition as workers who need representation.
He added: “Today this generation has to fight those same battles again and the story of Mary MaCarthur will help to inspire us to follow her lead.”
For more information about the book and the 100th anniversary event visit http://chainmakersstrike.co.uk/ or read the Morning Star's review
Click HERE to see Warwick University Chainmakers' archive
2009 festival, keynote Speaker: Christine Blower NUT General Secretary Headline Act: Robb and the Irregulars
Midlands TUC Regional Secretary Roger McKenzie said, 'Last year's festival proved to be a fantastic day out for trade unionists from all over the country. This year we aim to provide an even better day of entertainment as a fitting celebration of the historic achievements of the Cradley Heath Women Chainmakers who suffered a ten-week lockout in their struggle for a minimum wage.
Museum Director Ian Walden said, 'This festival is one of the highlights of the Museum's year, and gives us the opportunity to celebrate one of the most significant events in the history of the Black Country. Our newest building on site, The Workers Institute, was built from the surplus in the Women Chainmakers strike fund and gives a new focus for our interpretation of Black Country history and culture'
The 2008 festival started at 10am and ran throughout the day with speeches commencing at 1pm, followed by the now traditional procession of trade union banners around the Museum site. Speakers were: Mary Davis, TUC & Margaret Prosser, Deputy Chair of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission. Chumbawamba, who recently celebrated twenty-five years of playing radical, political folk music, headlined.
Wolverhampton TUC again joined the procession with our much photographed banner. We distributed hundreds of postcards urging onlookers to join a trade union themselves.
Mr McKenzie continued, 'This is the premier trade union festival in the Midlands and we are proud to hold it in conjunction with our friends at the Black Country Living Museum.'
The festival is supported and funded by the TUC, the Midlands Trade Union movement, and legal firms involved with local trade unions.
The festival, hosted by the Black Country Living Museum, won the prestigious Black Country Tourism Awards for best festival in 2007. |
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