Wednesday, 20 August 2025

£46k grant to catalogue Brent Trades Council's decades of struggle for workers' rights and social justice


The Brent Trades Council banner at demonstration against privatisation of the NHS (Wembley Matters)


 

From Brent Council

 

Brent Museum and Archives (BMA) has been awarded £45,900.71 from The National Archives’ 'Archives Revealed' grant programme to catalogue a significant local archive collection – the Brent Trades Council collection.

Brent Museum and Archives, located in The Library at Willesden Green, preserves and showcases the history of the London Borough of Brent. It houses a vast collection of over 10,000 objects, including historical documents, photographs, and artifacts as well as council records, local newspapers, and more. 

With this funding, the museum will undertake a detailed cataloguing project of the Brent Trades Council (BTUC) archive, which documents the organisation’s involvement in a wide range of local and national campaigns and social justice issues from the 1960s through to 2013.

The Brent Trades Council is the community branch of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) for the London Borough of Brent. It represents union members from organisations including UCU, RMT, GMB, CWU, Brent NEU, and various Unite branches, working in solidarity to champion workers’ rights and social activism.

The cataloguing project will deliver access to this vital collection, enabling local communities, schools, and researchers to explore Brent’s rich history of trade unionism and political activism. BMA will also use the BTUC’s archives to create greater engagement with the borough’s diverse communities and encourage conversations about Brent’s past and present identity.


Cllr Promise Knight, Cabinet Member for Customer Experience, Resident Support and Culture said:
 
This funding is a fantastic opportunity to preserve and share the powerful history of the Brent Trades Council. These archives capture the voices and struggles of our local communities and workers, and through this project, we can ensure that their stories inspire and educate future generations.

 

The project is expected to be completed over the next year, with the collection becoming fully accessible for public use and academic research.


 

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Meanwhile there is no money to repair crumbling schools, roads and pavements 😡

Philip Grant said...

The funding for this worthwhile project has not come from Brent, and it would not have been available to spend on local infrastructure - that sort of spending is what Brent Council collects CIL from all of the developers building tower blocks of unaffordable homes and student accommodation for

This was Brent Archives and Museum successfully applying for a share of national heritage funding.

Although the Council's press release has Cllr. Knight celebrating that success, she would have played no part in it, as she was on maternity leave, and did not hold the Culture portfolio, when our small and hardworking front line heritage team made their bid for funding this project.

Anonymous said...

Our understanding is that CIL/NCIL money should NOT be spent on what the council should already be doing - ie pavement repairs, potholes, maintenance of existing buildings etc.

Paul Lorber said...

That is what the Labour Council has been saying for the last 5 years every time Liberal Democrat Councillors proposed that CIL )from developers) money was actual spent on what local people need.

All of a sudden and with the local elections just a few months away the Labour tune has changed and small number of pavements and roads will be upgraded (far too late and too little) in a Labour attempt to con the voters.

The Council could have been spending £15 million a year since the last local elections to improve things as the Lib Dems proposed - instead Labour are now making panic decisions in desperation to avoid large losses at the next election.

Anonymous said...

Leader of Brent Council Cllr Mo Butt was quick enough to give multibillion pound developer Quintain £17.8million of our CIL money for their vanity project steps outside Wembley Stadium which isn't vital infrastructure and doesn't benefit us hard working council tax payers.