Trades Union Congress Registry Files (1920 - 1960)

IDENTITY STATEMENT AREA

Reference code(s): MSS.292

Title: Trades Union Congress Registry Files (1920 - 1960)

Date(s): 1920 - 1960

Level of description: Fond

Extent and medium of the unit of description: 50 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 MSS 292 Trades Union Congress Collection in the CASBAH database for further details.

Archival history: MSS.292 was the first of four principal deposits by the TUC. This collection was deposited with the Centre in batches between 1987 and 1991.

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer:

CONTENT AND STRUCTURE AREA

Scope and content: Registry files, principally comprising correspondence, reports, minutes, agreements, background documentation and collected documents, including printed items, 1920-1960. The following is a small sample of relevant records within the collection that were found:

• Colonial Questions (ref:MSS.292/ 930/1 - 932.91/4, 1928 - 1962). Records cover issues including the Colonial Office, underdeveloped countries, education, Labour and trade unions, which are discussed in more detail in files relating to the individual colonies. Other issues covered include the question of correspondence courses for colonial trade unionists and the problem of 'native forced labour'.

  Correspondence relating to trade unions includes the model rules for the guidance of colonial organisations prepared by the TUC, copies of Trade Union News for Overseas, which were published by the TUC Press Department, and papers of the TUC Colonial Advisory Committee, 1937-60. Also included are records relating to education in Britain of 'colonial' trade unionists, 'colonial' students in the UK, as well as women's involvement in trade unions and the colonial office. Other issues covered include correspondence courses for trade unionists in the West Indies, Labour conditions in the colonies, the Colonial Labour Advisory Committee (Government), and the formation of the Economic and Development Council (1943 - 51).

• Shipbuilding Industry (ref: MSS.292/ 619/1- 619.63/5, 1924-1936). Records in this series include files on wages and conditions, naturalisation, disarmament and the continued use of the Dockyards (1922-33), and the Engineering and Shipbuilding Industries National Advisory Committee (1941-6, 1949-56).

  Group of records also includes files on foreign workers, including Asian and Black (mostly West African) sailors working on British vessels in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

• Social Issues (MSS.292/ 800/1 - 809.2/8, 1924-1960). Issues covered in the records include memorial and relief funds, anti-Semitism and race-relations, religion and post-war reconstruction.
  Racial discrimination, commonwealth workers, race relations, and the Institute of Race Relations (ref: MSS.292/ 805.7/1 - 805.9/2, 1949-1959).
• Overseas Students: West Indies and British Guyana (ref: MSS.292/ 810.423/12, 1947 - 1955)
• Foreign Labour (ref: MSS.292/ 810.423/1, 1948 - 1949)
• Visits by Foreign Trade Unionists (ref: MSS.292/ 810.423/2, 1948)
• Training courses for Colonial/Overseas Trade Unionists (ref:MRCA00025
  Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information: 57, 1957)

  Pensions: ILO questionnaire on Migrant workers (ref: MSS.292/ 441.52/4, 1954)

  Commerce and Industry: Exhibitions and Pageants (ref: MSS.292/ 508/2 -509.3/1, 1923 - 1959)

  Includes a number of items detailing the various British empire exhibitions, as well as subsequent advisory boards set up to deal with complaints against the exhibition, including those made by Pan-African activists, including George Padmore and others who organised alternative exhibitions.

  International series (ref: MSS.292/ 900/1 - 905.232/5, 1927 - 1948)

  Records include the report 'Operation British Commonwealth', a report by the Migration Council (1951), and Commonwealth Migration Council as well as information relating to migrant workers, migration conferences and records chronicling immigration difficulties.

  International Labour Office/Organisation (ref: MSS.292/ 925/1 - 929/3. 1920 - 1961)

  Series includes reports, memoranda, correspondence to the International Labour conferences with references made to 'Afro-Asian' peoples.

  Records on the West Indies (ref: MSS.292/ 972/1 - 972.9/15, 1925-1960) related mainly to the development of colonial trade unionism.

Accruals: The collection has been weeded for duplicates.

System of arrangement:

CONDITIONS OF ACCESS AND USE AREA

Conditions governing access:

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

Language/scripts of material: Modern Records Centre. There are no restrictions on the use of this archive, apart from the requirements of copyright law.

Physical characteristics: English

Finding aids:

ALLIED MATERIALS AREA

Existence and location of originals: Catalogues for the TUC 1920-60 archive are available in the searchroom and at the National Register of Archives in London and in Chadwyck-Healey's National Inventory of Documentary Sources.

In the online version, the list has been broadly divided into the major TUC registry series :< P>

• Trade Unionism, Trades Union Congress, Trades Councils, Organisation: MSS.292/000-069), (MSS.292/070-099)
• Labour (Conditions), National Insurance, Industrial Injuries: (MSS.292/100-199)
• Labour-Capital Relations, Agreements, Disputes: (MSS.292/200-299)
• Capitalism, Trusts, Companies: (MSS.292/300-399)
• Finance, Banking, Insurance: (MSS.292/400-499)
• Trade, Production and Economics, Nationalisation: (MSS.292/500-580/2)
• Industries and Services: (MSS.292/580/3-680/3)
• Royal Family, Honours: (MSS.292/680/4-701.12/2
• Politics and Publicity (MSS.292/701.12/3-799)
• Social Questions, Education, Housing, Health, Law, Defence: (MSS.292/800-899)
• International, Europe, Asia, Africa, America, Australia: (MSS.292/900-999)

A catalogue in paper format is available in the Centre's searchroom, at the National Register of Archives in London and in Chadwyck-Healey's National Inventory of Documentary Sources. Finding aids for the 1920-60 supplement (MSS.292C) and 1960-70 archive (MSS.292B) can also be consulted on-line.

Similarly, collection-level descriptions exist in electronic format for the 1920-60 archive (MSS.292) and for the TUC archive as a whole (MSS.292).

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.

Existence and location of copies:

Related units of description: The Parliamentary Committee and General Council minutes, Annual Congress Reports, TUC pamphlets and selected other series of papers are also available in microform

Publication note: Some manuscript material, such as the Gertrude Tuckwell papers, and publications are held in the TUC Library at the University of North London

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, Asian

Specific group:

Subjects

Politics

Pan-Africanism

Industrial relations

Black and Asian seamen

Trade unions

Colonial countries

Labour disputes

Labour

Personal/Corporate names

British Empire

Padmore, George, 1902-1959

Tuckwell, Gertrude, 1861-1951

Trades Union Congress

International Labour Organisation

Commonwealth Migration Council

Places