To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Grunwick Strike the Working Class Movement Library and the University of Manchester will work in partnership November 2025-July 2026 to deliver a project to explore the contemporary relevance and significance of the strike.
The project will be a collaboration with young volunteers (aged 18-26) who will attend workshops with curators and academics from the WCML and the University of Manchester. They will research and co-curate a public display of archive material, photography and artwork that will open at the library in 2026.
The Grunwick Strike, which took place at a photography processing laboratory and lasted for two years, has been remembered as an important moment in the history of industrial relations and for the role of migrant communities and women in the fight for workers’ rights.
We hope to utilize the insights and perspectives of young co-curators to challenge and better understand the narratives of the strike and its relevance today.