About us Mission

The Trust has the following aims:

• To promote research into the history, theory and practice of socialism and other allied fields of study;
• To support cultural projects associated with socialist education and research;
• To support research and education associated with progressive causes involving community activity and social movements;
• To enable the wider dissemination of such research and cultural activity through publication or the procuring of publication by means of books, pamphlets, reports, films, lectures, conferences, exhibitions and all other suitable media.

Over the last forty years, the Trustees have given away some £300,000 in small grants – usually £500-£1000 – to hundreds of funded projects mainly based in the United Kingdom, but also throughout the world. These include:

Conferences of the Oral History Society, History Workshop, Irish Labour History Group, International Association of Labour History Institutions, The Walter Benjamin Centenary Conference, the Institiute of Public Policy Research, the Socialist Society, the Institute of War and Peace Reporting, North West Labour History Group and the bicentenary of Mary Wollstonecraft;

Publications such as The Dictionary of Labour Biography, a mutli-volume project documenting the lives and activities of Labour and Socialist activists; Kritiek, Amsterdam, an annual volume of socialist discussion and analysis; Labour Focus on Eastern Europe, London; Transitions to democracy, Belgrade; The Socialist History of Britain series; Bibliography of the Chartist Movement; Archival work at the Marx Memorial Library; Labour Movement Library, Salford; national Museum of Labour History, Manchester; assistance to independent scholars requiring financial support for research expenses and academic exchange visits;

Local projects, trade union and cultural Studies like the John Maclean Centenary projects, publicity, schools competition and exhibition; Cultural and environmental organisations such as Socialist Film Services, Feminist Video Services and Red/Green Study Group; Trade union research and investigations into the health of industrial workers; international trade union networks; women’s employments; Women Working Worldwide.