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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.
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.
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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