Tony
Benn at Congress House
Tony Benn was guest of honour at a reception held at Congress House on Monday 2nd February 2004 to mark the completion of The Union Makes Us Strong: TUC History Online, a partnership initiative between London Metropolitan University and the TUC to open up access to the TUC Library Collections.
The Collections can be viewed on a new website, www.unionhistory.info
The website was officially launched in March 2003 and presents a history of the British trade union movement since the development of organised labour in the early nineteenth century. Themed learning packages guide the user through nearly 200 years of social history illustrated with digitised photographs, posters and documents from the TUC Library Collections.
Highlight of the website is the full unedited manuscript to The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, voted one of the nation’s 100 best-loved books in the BBC’s recent Big Read event. A classic of working class literature and written in the early years of the last century, it has now been translated into six languages and has sold millions of copies worldwide.
Not only is The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists Tony Benn’s favourite book, and the one he has given away the most, but he also attended to show his support for the University in the completion of this important digitisation project.
