Trades Unions Congress (1960 - 1970)

IDENTITY STATEMENT AREA

Reference code(s): MSS.292B

Title: Trades Unions Congress (1960 - 1970)

Date(s): 1960 - 1970

Level of description: Fond

Extent and medium of the unit of description: 27.06 cu. m

CONTEXT AREA

Name of creator(s): Trades Union Congress

Administrative/Biographical history: The TUC was formed in Manchester in 1868 as a voluntary association of trade unions. Between 1869 and 1921 the administrative work of the Congress was carried out by the Parliamentary Committee. Since 1921, this work has been carried out by the General Council and by a gradually increasing number of committees including Finance and General Purposes, disputes, Education, Organisations, Social Insurance, International, Economic and Production.

The TUC began depositing its records at the MRC in 1987 and has continued to make regular updates.

*See the CASBAH database entry MSS292 - The Trades Union Congress Collection for further details.

Archival history: MSS292B forms part of the Trades Union Congress Archive (MSS.292) and was the second of four principal deposits by the TUC.

This collection was deposited with the Centre in 1995 and 1996. An initial three-year project to catalogue and publicise the TUC archive 1920-60 was made possible by a grant from the Leverhulme Trust Fund. That project culminated in 1992 with the publication of Sources Booklet No. 5 . In 1995, funding was obtained from the Higher Education Funding Council for England which has inter alia enabled this next tranche of the TUC archive, 1960-70, and additional 1920-60 material to be catalogued.

In addition, a new sources booklet, Sources Booklet No. 10 , was prepared to complement the earlier volume.

The TUC continues to make deposits and recently placed material up to 1987 in the Centre.

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer:

CONTENT AND STRUCTURE AREA

Scope and content: Collection consists of minutes, correspondence, publications and circulars, 1960-1970.

Records of note include:

The British Commonwealth series (ref: MSS.292B/ 932.52/6 - 937/2)

Colonial Questions series (ref: MSS.292B/ 926.9/2 - 932.52/5)

The Foreign and immigrant Labour series (ref: MSS.292B/ 101.16/8 - 10

The Race Relations series (ref: MSS.292B/ 805.9/1 - 805.95/1)

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

System of arrangement: MSS292B has been catalogued to file level. The TUC kept its records in a central registry which was developed in the early 1920s. It was during this period that it started to keep detailed subject files. These files record the growth and development of the TUC, its relationship with affiliated unions, government, employers and unions in other countries. They were arranged by subject according to a decimal classification scheme. This scheme forms the basis of the catalogue of the archives :

000-099 : Trade unionism

100-199 : Labour conditions

200-299 : Industrial relations

300-399 : Capitalism

400-499 : Public finance

500-599 : Commerce and economics

600-699 : Industries

700-799 : Politics and government; publicity

800-899 : Social issues

900-999 : International These were further sub-divided into smaller units, e.g. 966 is the classification for West Africa and 966.1 for the Gambia

The Centre's catalogue combines these references with its own prefix, so that a file on the Gambia dating from 1960-5 would become MSS.292B/966.1/1.

The prefix MSS.292B identifies the records as belonging to the 1960-70 archive, records catalogued as MSS.292 belong to the 1920-60 archive and those with the prefix MSS.292D to the most recent 1970-87 deposit. Files with the prefix MSS.292C belong to the supplement to the 1920-60 archive. These files did not originate from the central registry and were deposited at the Centre at a later date than the registry files for the same period.

CONDITIONS OF ACCESS AND USE AREA

Conditions governing access: The archive is open to researchers without need for prior permission from the TUC. It is subject to a general ten year closure rule.

Conditions governing reproduction: Modern Records Centre. There are no restrictions on the use of this archive, apart from the requirements of copyright law.

Language/scripts of material: English

Physical characteristics:

Finding aids: Catalogues for the 1960-70 material are available in the searchroom and at the National Register of Archives in London and in Chadwyck-Healey's National Inventory of Documentary Sources. Finding aids for MSS.292B can also be consulted on-line.

Similarly, collection-level descriptions exist for the TUC archive as a whole (MSS.292) in the CASBAH database, ref: MRCA00200 .

A photocopy of the TUC's subject index is also available at the Centre. Some manuscript material, such as the Gertrude Tuckwell papers, and publications are held in the TUC Library at the University of North London.

ALLIED MATERIALS AREA

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies: The Parliamentary Committee and General Council minutes, Annual Congress Reports, TUC pamphlets and selected other series of papers are also available in microform.

Related units of description:

Publication note: A sources booklet was prepared to complement the existing Sources Booklet No. 5 .

DESCRIPTION CONTROL AREA

Recorder's note:

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:

Interest: Caribbean, Black

Specific group:

Subjects

Labour

Employment

Colonial countries

Interethnic relations

Personal/Corporate names

Trades Union Congress

Places

United Kingdom