Join us for a Local History event at Kitty's Launderette as part of our 'Coming Together at Kitty's' programme!
'Don't Mourn, Organise!' provides a history from below of the Kirkby Unemployed Centre (KUC), a left-wing activist hub and welfare advice centre that operated between 1981 and 2014. Local historian G. Campbell deploys previously unseen archive material and oral testimonies to explore how the KUC played a key role in Merseyside's wider right to work movement, supporting local workers in struggle whilst spearheading several anti-closure campaigns. The talk will also outline the impact of the Centre's famed 'welly rights' team, which brought millions of pounds in unclaimed benefits into Kirkby over a period of 3 decades.The talk will include a short film on the KUC from the North West Film Archive.
G. Campbell is a Liverpool based oral historian. His primary research focus is deindustrialisation; producing intimate accounts of anti-closure campaigns conducted by rank and file unionised workers. As a public historian, his practice centres on working alongside community groups in order to document the experiences of marginalised communities.