Developed from The Workers' War project, this is a new initiative to capture the memories of people at work between 1945-95 – men and women who helped to reconstruct the economy and contributed to a rapidly changing society.
Working life as experienced during the half-century 1945-95 was marked by extreme diversity and change. It was also marked by the growth of trade union organisation and influence to a high point in the mid-1970s. The trade union movement injected a strong democratic current into British workplaces, to which management responded in different ways. In the latter part of this period, there were significant conflicts between unions and employers, associated with the problems of technological change, de-industrialisation and new union legislation.
Britain at Work will provide a framework to promote, collect and make accessible online oral history research related to the period 1945-95, focusing on people at work in different industries, with a particular emphasis on trade unionists. The Britain at Work framework will be launched in June 2009 and a number of projects will be started up during the following year as funding becomes available. Interviews and visual material collected by the various projects, together with historical analysis and other learning resources, will be made available in 2010 on a new website linked to The Union Makes Us Strong.
The framework provides a supportive environment for researchers and organisations planning projects which focus on the rich and complex experiences of working people.
Interested in learning more about the Britain at Work 1945-95 programme? Have ideas for a new project within its framework? Email Professor Nina Fishman n.fishman@swansea.ac.uk or write to Stefan Dickers, Bishopsgate Institute, 230 Bishopsgate, London, EC2M 4QH.
For information on the following projects already being developed within the framework-
HISTORYtalk: oral history of the West London labour movement contact Dave Welsh dwelsh@historytalk.org
Constructing Post-War Britain: oral histories of building workers 1950-70 contact Professor Linda Clarke L.M.Clarke@westminster.ac.uk or Dr Chris Wall c.wall@londonmet.ac.uk
Britain @ Work website project Chris Coates c.coates@londonmet.ac.uk
