The People’s History Museum.

I always get a real sense of the past when I visit The People’s History Museum. Here in a place dedicated to working men and women, are the stories of their struggle for the right to vote, to decent working conditions and above all the freedom to organize themselves in to trade unions, friendly societies and freely express their point of view.
The museum also carries out the important job of conserving banners of the trade union movement and has an extensive archive. I well remember standing in the old venue on Princess Street where the T.U.C. first met and held the minutes of the first meeting of the Labour Representation Committee soon to be renamed the Labour Party, and there at the bottom of the page was the signature of its first secretary, Ramsay MacDonald, who became the first Labour Prime Minister and less than a decade later split the Party by forming a National Government with the Conservatives and Liberals.
Along with the permanent displays there are plenty of temporary events and exhibitions. Running at preset is Picturing Politics – exploring the political poster in Britain which runs till June 2012. To keep up to date with the ongoing research on political posters, background information on some of the individual posters and the odd sneak preview of material, visit the blog written by Chris Burgess http://picturingpolitics.wordpress.com
The Museum is located at the bottom of Bridge Street, at the Left Bank, Spinningfields, http://www.phm.org.uk/
Picture; by Lawrence Beedle from the exhibition Exploring the political poster in Britain