GFTU BGCM Minutes 2017

over the last few months. With the forthcoming election obviously we need

those alliances to stand firm and we need those alliances to promote the kind

of progressive politics that underpin the trade union movement in general and

the GFTU in particular. I think the relationship that we forged three or four

years ago is developing along those lines, maintaining that relationship and

deepening the connections.

In terms of concrete progress, we have had some major successes in terms of

external funding and also some major successes in terms of integrating history,

culture and politics into the educational programme of the GFTU and you will

see examples of the courses in the packs which a number of us will be making

a contribution to. We have also secured a major research grant from the Art

and Humanities Research Council with a value over £600,000 to look at the

impact of de-industrialisation and the change in politics of mining communities,

so I will be leading that project along with two new fulltime researchers and in

partnership with the National Mining Museums of England, Scotland and Wales

and also the GFTU, so that again is going to bring more academics into the

research that is connected with the GFTU.

We have also appointed a number of postdoctoral positions that are doing

some work on working class and trade unionism, in particular the politics of

race and gender and its relationship to trade unionism and Shirin is going to

talk about that in a moment. We have also appointed a postgraduate

researcher who is going to develop research on the history of the GFTU and

Edda will also be talking about that in a moment.

Going forward, we are going to build on the partnership with the GFTU and

also try to extend the relationships that we already have and make new

connections and I think Mike has already touched on this, that politics and

class and trade unionism and progressive thought goes beyond institutions and

organisations and it is not just about institutions and organisations, it is about

politics, it is about culture, it is about identity and it is about strengthening

alliances and moving forward and I think in the next two or three years when

we have these GFTU events you will see the greater contribution from

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