Skip to main content

Bishopsgate Institute

  • What's on
  • Learn
  • Archives
  • Hire
  • Visit
  • Give
  • LogoutLogin
  • My Account
  • Basket
  • Search
  • Open Menu.

Bishopsgate Institute

SearchClose
  • LogoutLogin
  • My Account
  • Basket
  • What's on
  • Learn
  • Archives
  • Hire
  • Visit
  • Give
  • Take me to...

    Explore our online events
  • Watch our lunchtime concerts
  • Discover our archives
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
Join mailing list

More Site Pages

  • About
  • News
  • Work with us
  • Press

Legal Pages

  • Terms & conditions
  • Privacy
  • Accessibility
  • Cookies
  • Site Map
  • Contact

Contact Details

230 Bishopsgate
London
EC2M 4QH
020 7392 9200enquiries@bishopsgate.org.uk

Small Print

Copyright © 2021 Bishopsgate Foundation. Registered Charity No: 1090923. Website by Supercool
Return to main

Woodward, Alan

1939-2012

  1. Archives
  2. Labour and Socialist History

About this Archive

(1939-2012) socialist and activist

Administrative/biographical history

Alan Woodward was born in London but was evacuated during the second world war. His extended family eventually settled in Broadstairs, Kent. He began to rebel during his national service, joining the tiny Socialist Review Group (later the Socialist Workers party) while training to be a teacher and remained a member for 40 years. While living in Tottenham, north London, in 1964, Woodward was the driving force in a campaign which set up tenants' associations across the borough to combat rent increases. He later moved to Coventry, where he took an MA at Warwick University and became a trade-union studies tutor, a role he continued until retirement, training hundreds of shop stewards.In the 1980s he returned to Tottenham and remained there for the rest of his life. In the early 1990s he was involved in protests against the British National Party and in 2002 he stood for Haringey council as a Socialist Alliance candidate.

After leaving the SWP and reconsidering his political outlook, Woodward became a "libertarian socialist", drawing on Marxism and anarchism. He was the industrial organiser of Haringey Trade Union Council, for which he edited news bulletins and three small volumes called Fragments, containing life stories of local militants. He was involved with numerous local organisations, was the convenor of the Radical History Network of North-East London, and wrote a number of self-published pamphlets on working-class history and an autobiography. In 2009, workers at the Visteon car parts factory in Enfield occupied the plant after being summarily dismissed. Woodward was there from the beginning and spent a week in the factory, sleeping on the floor.

Scope and content

Papers of socialist, writer and activist Alan Woodward (1939-2012), including:

  • Minutes, papers, accounts, annual reports and papers of Haringey Trades Council, 1969-2011
  • Engagement diaries, letters, photographs and papers collected for the writing of Woodward's autobiography 'An Actor for Freedom', with drafts of the finished work, 1958-2007
  • Drafts, research materials and papers gathered for writings on workers' socialism, the International Shop Steward Movement, anarchism, Joe Thomas, workers' councils, Joe Jacobs, 1921-2011
  • Papers, minutes, ephemera and promotional material of the Radical History Network of NE London (RaHn), 1982-2010
  • Minutes, papers and other records of Haringey Solidarity Group, 2000-2010
  • Papers and records of Defend Council Housing and local activities in Haringey, 1995-2008
  • Papers, minutes and other records concerning Woodward's involvement with the International Socialists, 1967-1971
  • Papers and ephemera regarding miscellaneous strikes and campaigns, including anti-Poll Tax, the Wapping dispute, rail, postal, fire fighters and dock strikes, anti-terror legislation, anti trade union legislation, the Liverpool Dock Strike, the Arnaouti Bakery Workers' Strike, health and safety at work, LGBT rights, 1948-2011
  • Papers, records and minutes of Haringey Against Privatisation, 1998-2004
  • Papers and ephemera of the London Socialist Historians Group, 1996-2009
  • Papers, minutes and records regarding local and radical history in Haringey, including papers of the Haringey Local History Forum, 2001-2006
  • Papers and records regarding the Red Readers' Project, 1989-1990
  • Papers and records of the Socialist Workers' League, 1937-1956.
Quantity

62 boxes.

Download

  • WOODWARD, Alan (1939-2012) (WOODWARD) (Temporary Archives Catalogue)

    140 KB PDF
  • Share
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • email

Labour and Socialist History Go to this category page.

Parliamentary Profiles Archive

c1950-2010

Beetlestone, Florence

(b.1943)

Sargeant, Jean

1933-2011

Richman, Geoff and Marie

National Miners Support Network

Amalgamated Society of Engineers, Machinists, Millwrights, Smiths and Pattern Makers

Sedgwick, Peter

1934-1983

Howell Library

Moonman, Eric

b 1929

Find More Labour and Socialist History

Bernie Grant

1944-2000

Glover, Reg

1900-1977

Howell, George

1833-1910

General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU)

Gaster, Jack

1907-2007

Fyrth, Hubert James

1918-2010

Evening Standard Outside Chapel

Dore, John

1930-2006

Challinor, Raymond

1929-2011

Branson, Noreen

1910-2003

Bowman, Aubrey Clement

1918-2009

Bedford, James

Barnes, Michael

b.1932

Barltrop, Robert

Chris and Betty Birch Archive

Russell, Sam

1915-2010

Left Unity

Campaign for Labour Party Democracy

Wetzel, Dave

Woodward, Alan

1939-2012

Ash, William Franklin

1917-2014

Colbert, John

Kean, Hilda

(fl.1982-2010)

Dunbar, Malcolm

1912-1963

Hughes, John Dennis

1927-2013

Manchester Unity Oddfellows Friendly Society

Labour Party Black Sections

Morning Star Photographic Archive

Red Pepper Magazine

Leighton, Ronald

(b.1930–d.1994)

Velvet Fist

Hall, William George Glenvil

1887–1962

Widgery, David

1947-1992

National Union of Teachers Photographic Archive

Pottins, Charlie

1942-2015

Reid, David McNeil

1913-1992

Greater London Labour Party

Founded in 1915

#FROMTHE ARCHIVES

Married in 1950, Chris and Betty Birch have been involved in political, trade union, and LGBTQ+ activism for over 60 years. Sharing similar interests, they were both Communist Party Members and involved with organisations such as the Aid to Spanish Youth Committee. After the death of his friend, Mark Ashton, Chris became involved in forming the Mark Ashton Memorial Trust, which was created to raise money for individuals living with HIV. The archive includes the truncheon taken from the police by Mark Ashton, correspondence, personal scrapbooks, press cuttings, and various other papers relating to the couples activism.
Find out more about the Chris and Betty Birch Archive

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
Join mailing list

More Site Pages

  • About
  • News
  • Work with us
  • Press

Legal Pages

  • Terms & conditions
  • Privacy
  • Accessibility
  • Cookies
  • Site Map
  • Contact

Contact Details

230 Bishopsgate
London
EC2M 4QH
020 7392 9200enquiries@bishopsgate.org.uk

Small Print

Copyright © 2021 Bishopsgate Foundation. Registered Charity No: 1090923. Website by Supercool