To be added to soon....
Trades Union Congress, Congress House, 23-28 Great Russell Street WC1. The present building (designed by D. du R. Aberdeen and opened in 1957) was planned as a memorial to the trade unionists who died during the two World Wars. ‘The spirit of trade unionism’ is the bronze sculpture by Bernard Meadows in the front of the building. In the courtyard you will find the memorial - a figure holding a corpse by Jacob Epstein (1880-1959) hewn from a ten ton block of stone. (You can see this by turning right down Dyott Street and looking through the large glass windows.)
The involvement of trade unions in adult education is perhaps best known through areas such as direct training for officials; support for Ruskin Hall (1899 - from 1907 on - Ruskin College, Oxford) that aimed to provide training in ‘subjects which are essential for working-class leadership and are not a direct avenue to anything beyond’ (Ministry of Reconstruction 1919: 31); and involvement in the Workers’ Education Association (formed 1903). While early trade unionism had little formal educational activity, there was a real sense in which under the influence of Owenite thinking a number saw involvement in union activity was an education in itself.
Ministry of Reconstruction (1919) Final Report of the Adult Education Committee of the Ministry of Reconstruction Cmnd 321 (1919), London: HMSO.
© Mark K. Smith. First published August 7, 1997.
