The Women Chainmakers' Festival

Women Chainmakers festival in new home - back to Cradley Heath!

2011-09-13T10:12:00.000+01:00

This year will see the Women Chainmakers festival at a new home - Bearmore Park in the centre of Cradley Heath, right at the centre of where the historic dispute was played out to a successful conclusion.

There is a small entrance fee to the festival this year - £5 for adults, with children 16 and under entering for free. Tickets are available from:

Midlands TUC

24 Livery Street

Birmingham

B3 2PA

Tel: 0121 262 6383

email: midlands@tuc.org.uk

Cheques payable to the TUC

Centenary festival does credit to The Chainmakers

2010-09-22T16:35:00.000+01:00

The 2010 centenary celebration of the historic victory of the women chainmakers of Cradley Heath saw over 4,000 people in attendance. Visitors came from far and wide with delegations from the south west, Ireland, Soctland and Kent all enjoing some late summer sunshine in the Black Country

They heard speeches before the banner parade from Billy Hayes of the CWU, Mary Turner, President of the GMB, and Sylvia Heal, former local MP and past Deputy Speaker of teh House of Commons. After the Banner procession - the biggest by far so far seen at the festival - speeches were received from Eleanor Smith, Vice President of UNISON and legendary figure of the Left, Tony Benn.

Music this year was provided by excellent Black Country musicians, both in the Leftfield, aroung the Museum village and on the main UNISON stage.

Stacey Blythe gave a perfect rendition of her Chainmakers song, backed this year by the Nottingham Clarion Choir.

Our headline act was The Unthanks who played despite the crowd being decimated by late rain showers.

Friday night at the Chainmakers

2010-09-17T23:41:00.000+01:00

Sylvia Heal

Tonight saw the eve of festival launch of the new Black Country Living Museum display depicting the harsh working conditions suffered by the women chainmakers of Cradley Heath. The display, introduced by Museum Director Andrew Lovett and financed by the TUC and affiliated trade unions, is located in the exhibition halls in the main building of the Museum.

The launch was followed by music in the Workers Institute and short speeches by Sylvia Heal, former Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons, and TUC Regional Secretary Cheryl Pidgeon. The evening was rounded off by Stacey Blythe singing the Chainmakers song, which she will reprise at the festival on Saturday 18th September.

Stacey Blythe singing the Chainmakers' song

Music headliner announced for the 2010 Women Chainmakers Festival

2010-09-09T09:35:00.000+01:00

The Women Chainmakers festival is delighted to announce that The Unthanks will be headlining the music at the Centenary Women Chainmakers festival to be held at The Black Country Living Museum on Saturday 18th September.

Not many bands can count Radiohead, Portishead, Elvis Costello, Robert Wyatt, Ben Folds, Ewan McGregor and Nick Hornby amongst their admirers, but The Unthanks occupy a unique place in music. Northumbria sisters Rachel and Becky Unthank are unsentimental young storytellers outside of time, forging links between folk worlds old, new and other. Staunch traditionalism and sonic adventure ought to be polar opposites, yet they are easy bedfellows in the gentle hands of The Unthanks; the British counterpart to the leftfield folk leanings of Sufjan Stevens, Bonnie Prince Billy, Tom Waits and Fleet Foxes, nominated for the Mercury Music Prize and present in The Best Albums of the Decade (worldwide, all genres) in The Guardian and Uncut. Described by Britain's leading music journalist Paul Morley as "absolutely exquisite", new album Here's The Tender Coming employs a kaleidoscope of unlikely instruments and arrangements.

"Haunting, original and magnificent" The Guardian
"an exquisite mixture of light and dark, instinct and artistry" Uncut
"once in a blue moon type of every now and again, you hear music that is so complete, so wonderful, unique and yet familiar that it stops you in your tracks. They have that blue moon magic about them, and they have it in spades" BBC Music
"Music as tough as it is gentle, as ancient as it is modern, and as coldly desolate as it is achingly intimate.. a sensationally graceful sound that can be epic and subdued, dreamy and specific, as well as supernaturally ancient and defiantly modern."
Paul Morley, Observer Music Magazine (Britain's leading music journalist)

http://www.the-unthanks.com/
www.myspace.com/rachelunthank
www.twitter.com/TheUnthanks
RabbleRouser Music and The Unthanks
www.the-unthanks.com
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Tony Benn to headline at Women Chainmakers festival

2010-09-09T09:17:00.000+01:00

The pioneering work of a formidable group of Black Country women will be honoured at the Women Chainmakers' Festival held at the Black Country Living Museum on Saturday September 18, 2010. The event celebrates the 1910 Women Chainmakers strike –100 years after the women, led by Mary Macarthur, marched for better pay and shaped industrial relations in Britain. The main speaker at the TUC organised event will be former cabinet minister Tony Benn.
Benn, who is the longest-serving Labour MP in the history of the party, retired from the House of Commons in 2001 after 50 years in Parliament to ‘devote more time to politics’.
He said:"The Chainmakers' dispute, 100 years ago this year, was a classic trade union battle led by women who inspired the whole trade union movement. This year we will be remembering that battle and honouring those who fought it."
Cheryl Pigeon, TUC Regional Secretary said: “The Chainmakers struggle for a minimum wage marked a turning point in the campaign for better pay for women workers. The lessons from the Chainmakers are still with us today in campaigns to improve pay and working conditions for all workers.”
In 1910 the Women Chainmakers of Cradley Heath won a fight to establish the right to a fair wage following a bitter 10 week dispute. This landmark victory changed the lives of thousands of workers who were earning starvation wages. The employers and unions agreed to a minimum wage of two-and-a-half pence an hour - an amount which equaled a 150 percent pay increase for the poorest of workers
Andrew Lovett, Director and Chief Executive of the Black Country Living Museum commented: “It has been said that the Cradley Heath Workers’ Institute – now part of the Black Country Living Museum – is the last physical reminder of the Women Chainmakers Strike of 1910. That maybe so – but the more important legacy is the fairer treatment of working people and the development of a more respectful and tolerant society – one that isn’t built on a kind of semi-slavery of others.”
The story of Mary Macarthur and the Women Chainmakers will be brought to life through stirring speeches, historic re-enactments, theatre and music. The highlight of the day will be a re-creation of the strike march when the women walk to victory once more!

2009 Women Chainmakers’ festival a great success

2009-10-17T12:17:00.000+01:00

The crowds came, the sun shone, the speakers and acts turned up – all in all a great day for the 5th annual Women Chainmakers’ festival!

“This was a brilliant celebration of our history and heritage”, said Midlands TUC Regional Secretary Cheryl Pidgeon, “and vitally important as the Chainmakers’ is the only festival in the country to mark the achievement of women in an industrial dispute”.

The festival continues to attract senior figures from the trade union and labour movement, with both Christine Blower, General Secretary of the NUT, and Diana Holland, Assistant General Secretary of Unite, speaking on the stage. Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons, Sylvia Heal MP, was also present in her role as Patron of the festival.

With some 3,800 people attending this year’s festival, well up on the 3,000 who attended in both 2007 and 2008, Cheryl Pidgeon, Midlands TUC Regional Secretary and master of ceremonies on the stage said, “This festival is building nicely towards next year’s centenary festival. I am incredibly pleased that the trade union movement has taken the Women Chainmakers’ festival to its’ heart in this way and is supporting the celebration in ever increasing numbers”.

Christine Blower Headlines at Chainmakers Festival

2009-09-08T13:38:00.000+01:00

General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, Christine Blower is to be the main speaker at the 2009 Women Chainmakers' Festival which returns for its fifth year at the Black Country Living Museum, Dudley on Saturday 12th September, 2009.

Blower, who was elected as Deputy General Secretary of the NUT in 1997 joined the union as a student and has been a career-long NUT member. She has held the post of President and Secretary of the NUT in Hammersmith and Fulham and had a 33 year career in teaching.

Christine Blower, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers said: “It is a great privilege to be speaking at this festival. The courage and determination shown by the women chainmakers to demand a decent living wage is a message that is as relevant today as it was nearly 100 years ago. The campaign to make the minimum wage a living must still go on.”

Blower led a one day strike over teacher’s pay in 2005, the first national strike by the union for over 20 years. She has also criticised government plans to fast track unemployed executives into teaching in six months.

The Women Chainmakers' Festival celebrates the pioneering work of the women Chainmakers of Cradley Heath through music, drama, dance, poetry and performance and 'flies the banner' for the historically important role of women within Britain's working and industrial heritage.

The 1910 Women Chainmakers' dispute was a significant moment in labour history with hundreds of low paid women, earning pitiful wages for their work, successfully prosecuting a dispute which laid the foundations for today's National Minimum Wage.

Emma Middleton, Marketing Manager for the Black Country Living Museum said: “We are enormously pleased Christine Blower has agreed to speak at the 2009 festival. It is, we believe, a recognition of the importance of the women chainmakers' strike and the festival and raises the awareness of the role played by women worldwide in the workforce.”

Festival Signs Up Headline Act

2009-09-02T22:35:00.000+01:00

Robb Johnson, one of the finest singer/songwriters working in the UK today, along with his band the Irregulars will be this year’s headline act at the Women Chainmakers’ Festival which takes place on Saturday 12th September, 2009 at the Black Country Living Museum.

Robb and the Irregulars were voted the Daily Telegraph’s Folk Album of 1998 and Johnson is recognised by many as "Britain's finest songwriter of the last decade" for songs that are "incisive, clever and witty and you can sing them on your way to work". Together with the Irregulars Johnson plays solid no-nonsense rock ballads with a folk edge and counts former cabinet minister, Tony Benn, amongst his fans.

The Women Chainmakers’ Festival is the only event in the country specifically celebrating the achievement of women in the workplace. Mary Macarthur’s vision and the 1910 'Lock Out' by the women chainmakers was an historically significant moment, focusing the world’s attention upon the country’s lowest paid workers. The women’s landmark victory laid the legislative foundation upon which today’s national minimum wage is built. It also led to the building of the Cradley Heath Worker’s Institute which was saved from demolition and has been rebuilt at the Black Country Living Museum.

Emma Middleton, Marketing Manager said: “The Black Country Living Museum is delighted to welcome Robb and the Irregulars to the Women Chainmakers’ Festival and we very much hope it will be the first of many visits. The Festival aims to continue the Macarthur vision and promote, support and inspire the positive role of women in the workforce. Robb and the Irregulars will bring a new dimension to celebrating the 1910 women chainmakers’ dispute.”

Women Chainmakers' Festival

2009-02-02T21:32:00.004Z

Welcome to the official blog for the Women Chainmakers' Festival. This festival takes place at the Black Country Living Museum, Tipton Road, Dudley, on Saturday 12th September 2009. The festival commemorates the 1910 dispute in which 800 women chainmaker's were "locked out" of work for demanding the employers paid them the agreed minimum wage for their labours. The women won the dispute - and established their right to a minimum wage which set the scene for 89 years of campaigning before the establishment of a national minimum wage in 1999.

Announcements will be posted to keep you up to date with the events taking place at the festival including speakers and entertainment.