Reading Labour 100: The Centenary of the Labour Party in Reading, 1918-2018. Reading Trades Union Council & Reading and District Labour Party: Change Through Solidarity (RTUC, 2020)

During a twelve month programme of events throughout 2018, the Reading labour movement marked the centenary of the creation of the Reading Labour Party (christened the 'Reading Trades Union Council & Labour Party' at its formation) one hundred years earlier. Now known as Reading & District Labour Party (RDLP) and working alongside the Reading Trades Union Council (RTUC) to defend and advance the rights of Reading residents, workers and visitors, the role of the party has grown in leaps and bounds over the century since its birth. Today it is the ruling party on Reading Borough Council and it holds one (Reading East) of the town's two parliamentary seats.

The centenary year did not simply celebrate the history of RDLP; it also demonstrated the party's contemporary power and organisation across the town: in the council chamber, through its Member of Parliament (Matt Rodda MP), in partnership with its affiliated trade unions and through grassroots organisation. Also apparent was the importance of the historical link between RDLP and the RTUC as political and industrial wings of the local labour movement.

Determined to capture the energy of the celebrations, campaigns and achievements created by a century of Reading Labour, the RTUC decided to distill the history into a commemorative book. The result is Reading Labour 100!

At 119 pages, Reading Labour 100 presents the historical ingredients which went into the formation of RDLP, from the co-operative movement to agricultural trade unionism, from socialist societies to industrial trade unionism - and not forgetting the anti-fascist fighters for freedom who went to Spain in 1937, some never to return. The volume also identifies key moments in RDLP's centenary year, such as supporting striking university lecturers, campaigning to retain universal free bus travel for disabled residents and protesting inflation-busting rail fare increases. Labour celebrations and political education are not ignored either - with May Day and Women's Day marches, guest speakers and social events presented within the book's pages. The volume is rounded off with an anecdotal Afterword by a stalwart of the RTUC and RDLP, Keith Jerrome.

Despite the preponderance of Conservative Governments over the century of its existence - and Reading's red oasis among England's southeast sea of Tory blue - RDLP stands strong and proud and ready for a further century of struggle and commitment to defending and extending the rights of its residents, workers and visitors!

The book costs £10 (UK) and £15 (international orders) and can be ordered via PayPal to John Partington at J_S_Partington@hotmail.co.uk. For alternative payment methods, email John to make arrangements. There will be a negotiated discount for bulk orders. All profits from the sale of the book will be divided between the RTUC and RDLP.

Contents:

• Introduction
• The Reading Labour Movement Protests Rail Fare Increases
• The Hanging of William Winterbourne
• ‘Labour 100’ Supports the GMB’s Eleanor Marx Day Event
• 100 Years of Labour in Reading
• RTUC and RDLP March to Save the NHS
• RTUC at Reading’s International Women’s Day March and Rally
• RTUC Backs Lecturers’ Pensions Dispute
• Chris Williamson MP comes to the University of Reading
• Labour Party Rally in Park Ward
• International Workers’ Day in Reading
• Reading’s May Day Rally and March
• A New Deal for Working People
• RTUC joins DPAC to Oppose Attacks on Mobility
• RTUC at the NHS 70th Birthday March
• RTUC at Tolpuddle
• RTUC Welcomes Reading Campaign Against Privatisation
• RTUC backs DPAC against Attacks on Disabled Persons’ Rights
• Celebrating 70 Years of the NHS
• Reading Buses Open Meeting
• Protesting Rail Fare Increases
• RTUC at Reading Pride!
• Protesting Rail Fare Increases in East and West Reading
• Protesting Proposed Attacks on Disabled Travel Rights
• Vote 90! It’s not 100 years for us
• DPAC, RTUC and principled Labour Party activists fight for Disabled Bus Rights
• Afterword by Keith Jerrome

Contributions to Books

Ian Walton, ed., 1993 Poets (Peterborough: Poetry Now, 1993). ISBN 9781857311877.

Includes: John S. Partington, 'Untitled', pp. 84-85.

Elmar Schenkel and Stefan Welz, eds., Lost Worlds & Mad Elephants: Literature, Science and Technology, 1700-1990 (Glienicke, Berlin, and Cambridge, Mass.: Galda + Wilch, 1999). ISBN 9783931397166.

Includes: John S. Partington, 'The First Men in the Moon and the "Corporative State"', pp. 181-193.

Janet Witalec, ed., Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, Volume 133 (Detroit, London and Munich: Thomson Gale, 2003). ISBN 9780787663377.

Includes: John S. Partington, ‘The Time Machine: A Polemic on the Inevitability of Working-Class Liberation, and a Plea for a Socialist Solution to Late-Victorian Capitalist Exploitation’, pp. 329-334.

Steven R. Serafin and Valerie Grosvenor Myer, eds., The Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature (New York and London: Continuum, 2003; rpt. 2006). ISBN 9780826414564 (2003) / 9780826418395 (2006).

Includes: John S. Partington, ‘Wells, H[erbert] G[eorge]’, pp. 1035-1036.

Patrick Parrinder and John S. Partington, eds., The Reception of H. G. Wells in Europe (London: Thoemmes Continuum, 2005 [hb]; London: Bloomsbury, 2013 [pb]). ISBN 9780826462534 (hb) / 9781441112996 (pb).

Includes: John S. Partington, 'H. G. Wells and the International Pan-European Union', pp. 321-338.

Gregory Claeys, ed., Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Thought (London and New York: Routledge, 2005). ISBN 9780415244190.

Includes: John S. Partington, ‘Wells, H. G. (1866-1946)’, pp. 509-513.

Carl Mitcham, ed.-in-chief, Encyclopedia of Science, Technology and Ethics, vol. 4 (Detroit, London and Munich: Macmillan Reference, 2005). ISBN 9780028658315 (set) / 9780028659015 (volume 4).

Includes: John S. Partington, ‘Wells, H. G.’, pp. 2061-2062.

Gary Westfahl, ed., The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Themes, Works, and Wonders, vol. 3 (Westport, Conn., and London: Greenwood, 2005). ISBN 9780313329200 (set) / 9780313329531 (volume 3).

Includes: John S. Partington, ‘The Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells (1896)’, pp. 1102-1104.
John S. Partington, ‘Things to Come (1936)’, pp. 1296-1299.
John S. Partington, ‘The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells (1898)’, pp. 1332-1334.

H. G. Wells, The New Machiavelli, ed. Patrick Parrinder; intro. Michael Foot (London: Penguin, 2005). ISBN 9780141439990.

Includes: John S. Partington, 'Notes', pp. 419-470.

H. G. Wells, The Shape of Things to Come: The Ultimate Revolution, ed. Patrick Parrinder; intro. John Clute (London: Penguin Classics, 2005). ISBN 9780141441047.

Includes: John S. Partington. 'Notes', pp. 447-530.

War of the Worlds [1953] (‘The Special Collector’s Edition’), Paramount DVD 2005. ISBN 1415711666.

Includes: Interview of John S. Partington in ‘H. G. Wells: The Father of Science Fiction’ (special feature documentary).

D. W. Pryke, ed., The Legacy of John Lennon in the words of the fans who love him (Liskeard: Exposure, 2005). ISBN 9781846850110.

Includes: John S. Partington, '[Untitled]', p. 129.

Diane Morgan and Gary Banham, eds., Cosmopolitics and the Emergence of a Future (Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007). ISBN 9780230001527.

Includes: John S. Partington, ‘Human Rights and Public Accountability in H. G. Wells’ Functional World State’, pp. 163-190.

Vita Fortunati, Raymond Trousson and Paola Spinozzi, eds., Histoire transnationale de l’utopie littéraire et de l’utopisme (Paris: Champion, 2008). ISBN 9782745317087.

Includes: John S. Partington, ‘Le cycle utopique de H. G. Wells’, pp. 911-922.

Laurel Brake and Marysa Demoor, gen. eds., Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century Journalism in Great Britain and Ireland (Gent: Academia, and London: British Library, 2009). ISBN 9780712350396 (UK) / 9789038213408 (NL).

Includes: J[ohn S.] P[artington], ‘Wells, Herbert George (1866-1946)’, pp. 669-670.

Gary Westfahl and George Slusser, eds., Science Fiction and the Two Cultures: Essays on Bridging the Gap Between the Sciences and the Humanities (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2009). ISBN 9780786442973.

Includes: John S. Partington, ‘Utopia and Utopianism in the Life, Work, and Thought of H. G. Wells’, pp. 160-169.

Keith Gildart and David Howell, eds., Dictionary of Labour Biography, vol. xiii (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010). ISBN 9780230004566.

Includes: John S. Partington, ‘CUSDEN, (Anne) Phoebe Ellen (née Blackall) (1887-1981)’, pp. 71-84.
John S. Partington, ‘QUELCH, Lorenzo (‘Len’) Edward (1862-1937)’, pp. 319-334.

Stefan Welz and Fabian Dellemann, eds., Anglosachsen: Leipzig und die englischsprachige Kultur (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2010). ISBN 9783631601891.
Includes: John S. Partington, 'Clara Zetkin's Reception in British Socialism and the British Women's Movement, 1889-1909', pp. 117-137.

 

John S. Partington, ed., The Life, Music and Thought of Woody Guthrie: A Critical Appraisal (Farnham: Ashgate, 2011 [hb]; London and New York: Routledge, 2016 [pb]). ISBN 9780754669555 (hb) / 9781138273375 (pb).

Includes: John S. Partington, ‘"There’s a Better World a-Coming": Resolving the Tension between the Urban and Rural Visions in the Writings of Woody Guthrie’, pp. 17-33.

Richard Nate and Bea Klüsener, eds., Culture and Biology: Perspectives on the European Modern Age (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2011). ISBN 9783826045530.

Includes: John S. Partington, 'H. G. Wells and Population Control: From a Eugenic Public Policy to the Eugenics of Personal Choice', pp. 171-190.

Stefan Lampadius and Elmar Schenkel, eds., Under Western and Eastern Eyes: Ost und West in der Reiseliteratur des 20. Jahrhunderts (Leipzig: Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 2012). ISBN 9783865836465.

Includes: John S. Partington, 'Socialist Women and Soviet Russia: Six British Observations of the 1920s', pp. 67-76.

Marilyn J. Boxer and John S. Partington, eds, The Socialist Women's Secretary: Clara Zetkin in National and International Contexts, Socialist History Society Occasional Publication No. 31 (London: Socialist History Society, 2012). ISBN 9780955513879.

Includes: John S. Partington, 'The International Socialist Women's Secretary in Wartime: Clara Zetkin and Britain, 1912-1915', pp. 22-34.
John S. Partington, 'Afterword', pp. 74-77.

Teru Hamano, 生の黙示録　日本国憲法 　Ｈ．Ｇ．ウェルズとルーズベルト大統領の往復書簡から ('The Constitution of Japan: Contemporary Records of Correspondence between H. G. Wells and President Roosevelt') (Tokyo: Nippon Hyoron Sha, 2013). ISBN 9784535519497.

Includes: John S. Partington, 日本の読者のみなさまへ ('To Japanese Readers'), pp. i-ii.
John S. Partington, Ｈ・Ｇ・ウェルズ　機能的な世界国家における人権と公的な説明義務 ('H. G. Wells, Human Rights and Public Accountability in the Functional World State'), pp. 215-250.
John S. Partington, 機能的な世界国家における一般代表制 ('Popular Representation in a Functional World State'), pp. 251-265.

Gregory Claeys, ed., Encyclopedia of Modern Political Thought, vol. 2 (Los Angeles: Sage Reference / CQ Press, 2013). ISBN 9780872899100 (set).

Includes: John S. Partington, 'Wells, Herbert George', pp. 860-862.

Verena Gutsche and Richard Nate, eds., Cultural Identities in Europe: Nations and Regions, Migration and Minorities (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2014). ISBN 9783826052873.

Includes: John S. Partington, ‘Wales Strikes Back: British Media Coverage of Cardiff City Football Club’s Victory in the English F. A. Cup, 1927’, pp. 157-178.

Lawrence J. Trudeau, ed., Children’s Literature Review: Reviews, Criticism, and Commentary on Books for Children and Young People, vol. 200 (Farmington Hills: Gale / Cengage Learning, 2015). ISBN 9781569955628.

Includes: John S. Partington, ‘Seeking Victory from the Jaws of Disaster: H. G. Wells and the Great War’, pp. 72-79.

David Morgan, ed., 'Stop the First World War!' Movements Opposed to the 1914-1918 War in Britain, France and Germany, Socialist History Society Occasional Publication No. 37 (London: Socialist History Society, 2016). ISBN 9780993010422.

Includes: John S. Partington, 'Clara Zetkin and the British Anti-War Movement', pp. 60-66.

David Morgan. ed., 1917: The Russian Revolution, Reactions and Impact, Socialist History Society Occasional Publication No. 41 (London: Socialist History Society, 2017). ISBN 9780993010460.

Includes: John S. Partington, 'Clara Zetkin on the Soviet Experiment, 1917-1934', pp. 56-82.

Misia Sophia Doms, Bea Klüsener and Richard Nate, eds., 'Nichts als Krieg und Streit'? Krieg und Frieden im Lied (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2017). ISBN 9783826060854.

Includes: John S. Partington, 'Unionism + Anti-Nazism = Freedom. Woody Guthrie's Formula for Victory in the Second World War', pp. 163-176.

Elmar Schenkel and Kati Voigt, eds., LE - Leipzig and the English-speaking World (Leipzig: Edition Hamouda, 2018). ISBN 9783958170292.

Includes: John S. Partington, 'Clara Zetkin: From Wiederau to Leipzig to London - and Beyond', pp. 98-104.

Maria Fleischhack, Jürgen Ronthaler and Stefan Welz, eds., Das Leben und die Seltsamen Abenteuer des Elmar Schenkel, aus Soest, Professor. Nicht von Ihm Selbst Verfasst, 1. Edition (Leipzig: Edition Hamouda, 2019). ISBN 9783958170407.

Includes: John S. Partington, 'Three Reminiscences', p. 91.