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Libraries and Archives

Argentina (información adicional en español)

  • CeDInCI (Centro de Documentación e Investigación de la cultura de Izquierdas): El CeDInCI ofrece a la comunidad académica y a un amplio abanico de lectores una de las mayores bibliotecas latinoamericanas especializadas en historia social, política y cultural de América Latina. Asimismo, dispone a la consulta pública miles de colecciones de las más importantes publicaciones periódicas producidas en nuestro continente por organizaciones políticas, culturales, gremiales, estudiantiles, de derechos humanos, de mujeres, etc.
  • CEHTI (Centro de Estudios Históricos de los Trabajadores y las Izquierdas): El CEHTI fue adquiriendo una creciente institucionalización y en este marco se dispuso la creación de una Biblioteca/Hemeroteca. A partir de una gran cantidad de donaciones institucionales y de colegas y amigos/as del mundo académico, intelectual y cultural, de la Argentina y del exterior, se constituyó un reservorio de 3000 volúmenes entre libros y revistas académicas, culturales, teóricas y políticas, los cuales se hallan totalmente catalogados y se ofrecen a la consulta púbica en la sede del CEHTI. Algunos de los temas abarcados en los materiales son: clase trabajadora y movimiento obrero; historia de la izquierda en la Argentina y el mundo; clásicos del marxismo y teóricas críticas; anarquismo; feminismo y estudios de género; historiografía; sociología, ciencia política y filosofía; economía argentina e internacional; historia social y política argentina y latinoamericana; historia europea y mundial; universidad y movimiento estudiantil; arte y cultura. Y a través de su página web el CEHTI se propone el libre acceso a fuentes primarias, en especial, colecciones de órganos de prensa y documentos públicos de las corrientes de izquierda y del movimiento obrero.
  • Biblioteca "Prof. José Carlos Chiaramonte" del Instituto de Historia Argentina y Americana "Dr. Emilio Ravignani" (Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires-CONICET): La Biblioteca "Prof. José Carlos Chiaramonte" del Instituto de Historia Argentina y Americana "Dr. Emilio Ravignani" (Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires-CONICET) está destinada a satisfacer las necesidades de información de un espectro de usuarios que va desde investigadores a alumnos de las Ciencias Sociales y las Humanidades, incluyendo valioso contenido relevante para la historia del movimiento obrero y sindical. Cuenta con una importante colección especializada, lo que la posiciona como una de las más reputadas del país. Posee unos sesenta mil títulos (libros, publicaciones periódicas, materiales audiovisuales, cartográficos, etc.), a los que se suman recursos electrónicos locales y remotos así como una importante colección de folletos.
  • BNMM (Biblioteca Nacional Mariano Moreno de la República Argentina): La Biblioteca Nacional Mariano Moreno de la República Argentina, fundada como Biblioteca Pública de Buenos Aires en el marco de la Revolución de Mayo, atesora y resguarda, a través de las más modernas técnicas bibliotecológicas, valioso material de archivo (con varias colecciones valiosas para la historia del movimiento obrero y las organizaciones sindicales), una completa hemeroteca y una biblioteca de gran magnitud.
  • Biblioteca del Congreso de la Nación: La Sala Pública de Lectura pone a disposición los fondos documentales de la Colección General, Archivo y Organismos Internacionales. Por su parte, la Sala de Investigación y Archivo ofrece un servicio especializado para acceder a los recursos documentales de la BCN, con orientación personalizada y asistencia en la búsqueda de materiales a través del catálogo. La Hemeroteca se organiza en dos áreas especializadas. La Hemeroteca Diarios reúne una vasta colección de publicaciones periódicas nacionales y extranjeras en distintos soportes, además de ofrecer un servicio de consulta de microfilms. Por otro lado, la Hemeroteca Revistas cuenta con más de diez mil títulos de publicaciones provenientes de Argentina, Latinoamérica, Estados Unidos, España, Italia y otros países. Asimismo, los investigadores pueden visitar la Sala de Colecciones Especiales, ubicada en el edificio del Congreso de la Nación, o contar con la asistencia del área de Servicios Legislativos.
  • Biblioteca de Ciencias Sociales “Enzo Faletto” de FLACSO Argentina: La Biblioteca de Ciencias Sociales “Enzo Faletto” de FLACSO Argentina tiene como objetivos desarrollar las competencias para el acceso y el uso de información, mantener espacios físicos y virtuales que creen óptimas condiciones de aprendizaje e investigación, y preservar, procesar técnicamente y difundir el patrimonio bibliográfico y hemerográfico constituido a lo largo de su historia. Las áreas temáticas que abarca la biblioteca son: Educación, Historia, Sociología, Ciencia Política, Psicología Cognitiva, Gerencia Social, como así también, Antropología, Medio Ambiente, Género, Juventud, Opinión Pública, Gerontología, Bioética y Políticas Públicas. Muchos de estos ejes cruzan aspectos y dimensiones de historia del movimiento obrero y sindical, por lo que posee recursos interesantes para investigadores en estos temas.
  • Biblioteca del Centro Estudios e Investigaciones Laborales (CEIL CONICET): Sus principales áreas temáticas son: Sociología de la religión, condiciones y medio ambiente de trabajo, sociología y economía del trabajo, empleo y desempleo, relaciones laborales, educación y trabajo, empleo y desarrollo rural, formación profesional y otros aspectos relacionados con las ciencias sociales del trabajo, la economía y el cambio tecnológico.
    • Colecciones destacadas
      • Colección Abelardo Jorge Soneira: más de 500 libros sobre la temática Sociología de la Religión, Historia de la Religión, Iglesia y Filosofía de la Religión.
      • Colección Arturo A. Fernández
      • Ciencias sociales del trabajo: Publicaciones inherentes a esta temática editadas por la Asociación Trabajo y Sociedad.
      • Colección Oreste Popescu (BIBLEH): más de 3800 títulos sobre Teoría e Historia Económica Latinoamericana. Incluye tesoros bibliográficos de los siglos XVI, XVII, XVIII .
      • Libros franceses: más de 1000 títulos inéditos en el país. Apartado especial para publicaciones del CEREQ, IRES, CEE, etc.
      • Colección Santos Colabella: más de 250 títulos sobre sociología e historia en general.
      • Tesis: Tesis de maestría y doctorado de los miembros del CEIL
      • Tiene además una Hemeroteca formada por 500 títulos de publicaciones periódicas, se encuentra descripta en la base REVIS que contiene el registro de todos los títulos en forma general y analiza los correspondientes a Sociedad y Religión y Estudios del Trabajo. Las publicaciones periódicas pueden ser consultadas en sala.
  • Archivo Historia del Movimiento Obrero Argentino - Universidad Torcuato Di Tella: El programa iniciado en 1980 sobre el estudio de los orígenes del peronismo y especialmente su relación con el movimiento obrero preexistente dio como resultado la acumulación de un vasto material histórico que forma hoy el archivo del Movimiento Obrero Argentino. 
    • Está integrado por numerosas colecciones de periódicos sindicales desde inicios del siglo XX —algunos originales y otros en microfilmes—, así como archivos individuales de dirigentes, entre ellos el Municipal Francisco Pérez Leirós. También los archivos de asociaciones, como la llamada de los “Treinta y dos Gremios Democráticos” activos desde 1957, de la CGT y asociaciones ideológicas de diversas tendencias. En algunos casos como en el de los gráficos, ni el propio sindicato posee esta documentación, debido a las repetidas y no siempre bien intencionadas atenciones de los sucesivos gobiernos argentinos. 
    • Un subproducto del proyecto fue la recopilación de entrevistas —algunas grabadas, y otras desgrabadas— con ex dirigentes o sus familiares, que constituye una continuación del Programa de Historia Oral (PHO) realizado a inicios de los años setenta por el Instituto Torcuato Di Tella conjuntamente con la Universidad de Columbia.
  • RED DE RECUPERACIÓN Y PROTECCIÓN DE ARCHIVOS DE LOS TRABAJADORES Y DE LOS MOVIMIENTOS SOCIALES ARGENTINA (REMOS)- relevamiento coordinado por PIMSA (Programa de Investigación sobre el Movimiento de la Sociedad Argentina): Relevamiento realizado en 2003 de diversos centros de documentación, bibliotecas y archivos en todo el país.

Austria

Brazil

Canada

  • Library and Archives Canada: Canada's national library and archives contains holdings relating to the federal government, its labour policies, and many labour organizations and trade unions such as the Canadian Labour Congress and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).
  • Workers Arts and Heritage Centre: the collection of the Workers Arts and Heritage Centre encompasses artifacts relating to both paid and unpaid work. This includes a large digital collection of buttons from Canadian labour movements.

Chile

Chilean national archives include the two largest archives in Santiago and a network of regional archives. These collections are composed of state records, and few are digitized.

In Santiago, the National Archive (Archivo Nacional) focuses mostly on documentation from the colonial era to the nineteenth century. While there are no specific labor or union archives, it has created some special digitized collections that highlight labor topics:

  • Matanza de la Escuela de Santa María de Iquique: A selection of digitized documents referring to the massacre of nitrate workers in Iquique in 1907.
  • The Archivo Nacional de la Administracion del Estado (ARNAD), also located in Santiago, includes ministerial documents from the twentieth century. For people studying labor, the most important collections are the Department of Labor and the Ministry of Labor. Because of the characteristics Additionally, historians have worked with other social archives that addressed labor issues, such as the Ministry of Health or Housing.
  • The Archivo Regional de Tarapacá in Iquique is relevant for studying the nitrate era and the far north. For example, they hold maps, documents, and photographs related to the history of the Santiago Humberston nitrate company: https://www.archivonacional.gob.cl/multimedia/oficina-salitrera-de-iquique-santiago-humberstone-archivo-regional-de-tarapaca
  • The Archivo General de la Araucanía in Temuco is relevant for those studying the south, including topics such as indigenous history and rural labour. 

Colombia

Germany

  • Archive in the House of History of the Ruhr: The Archive in the House of History of the Ruhr is supported by the History of the Ruhr Foundation and was founded together with the foundation in 1998. The archive contains the collections of various trade unions such as IG Bergbau, Chemie, Energie.
  • Friedrich Ebert Foundation: The Friedrich Ebert Foundation (German: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Abbreviation: FES) has three main fields of activity regarding the history of trade unions. It supports historical research on trade unions and labour history, it engages in the distribution of research results on trade unions to the public and it consults trade unions on historical matters and memory work. The foundation initiates and consults research projects, organizes conferences and events and edits publications on trade union history. On these matters the foundation cooperates with the Hans-Böckler-Stiftung.
    • The Archive of Social Democracy as part of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (German: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Abbreviation: FES) was opened in June 1969 and is today one of the largest archives about the labour movement in Germany. In addition to holdings on German social democracy, it contains materials from German and international trade unions such the archival footage of the umbrella association of German trade unions (Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund DGB) and the majority of the individual German trade unions. This collection comprises approximately 20 km of files. 
    • The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung publishes sources on the history of the German trade union movement in the 20th century.
    • The archive also contains interviews with German trade unionists. In the archive the complete interviews can be used for matters of research. Extracts of the interviews are presented in video and audio clips on the homepage “Zeitzeugen der Gewerkschaften” (contemporary witnesses of the trade unions). This collection of oral history of trade unionists is being established in cooperation with the Hans-Böckler-Stiftung.
  • Archive of company agreements of the Hans Böckler Foundation: The Archive has existed since the 1950s and is the central documentation place for collective bargaining policy of the German Trade Union Confederation (Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund DGB).
  • Archive and library of the Fritz Hüser Institute for Literature and Culture of the Working World: The focus of the collection is on literature as well as audio and visual documents of the world of work since the late 18th century, with the holdings gradually being added to as far back as the 16th century.
  • Free German Trade Union Federation (German: Freier Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund or FDGB): The FDGB was the umbrella organization of the individual trade unions in the territory of the Soviet Occupation Zone from 1945 to 1949 and thereafter in the German Democratic Republic until 1990.
  • Library of the Ruhr: The "Library of the Ruhr" is an institution belonging to both the "History of the Ruhr Foundation" and the "Institute for Social Movements". Its catalogue includes items concerning both the past and present of the Ruhr region, the economic and social history characterised by heavy industry, the history and sociology of social movements, the social history of the nineteenth and twentieth century and technological, economic, social and legal aspects of the mining industry.
  • Library of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB): The basic stock of the DGB library comprises comes from trade union libraries that have been looted after the National Socialist takeover. Later the collection was supplemented by new publications and today includes almost all German-language publications on the German trade union movement for the time from 1945 onwards.
  • Library of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung: This library was opened in June 1969 as part of the Archive of Social Democracy, with its roots going back to the time of the early German labour movement. Its collection mainly comprises titles on the history and current developments of the German and international labour movement with a focus on German social democracy, as well as publications of parties and trade unions from Germany and also other selected European countries.

Greece

  • Contemporary Social History Archives (ASKI): The archives and the library of ASKI compose one of the most significant set of sources regarding the history of the Greek labour movement of the nineteenth and the twentieth century. It consists of records of various left parties and trade-unions in Greece, socialist and communist journals and newspapers, brochures, posters, image collections, private archives of politicians, intellectuals and trade-unionists. It covers the period from the late nineteenth century to the present day with an emphasis laid in the National Resistance and the Greek Civil War during 1940s, as well as in the development of the labour and social movements in the postwar period.
  • Education Center “Charilaos Florakis” (EKXF) and Communist Party of Greece (KKE): The library of EKXF and the archives of KKE consist of the records of the Party, socialist and communist newspapers and journals, brochures, image collections and private archives of communist activists. It covers the period from the early twentieth century to the present day, although the emphasis is laid in the National Resistance and the Greek Civil War during 1940s, as well as in the development of the labour and communist movement in the postwar period.
  • General Confederation of Greek Workers (GSEE): The Labour Institute of GSEE holds the archive of the Confederation. The archive covers mainly the history of GSEE, its Congresses and its correspondence with other trade-unions and services, during the postwar period.
  • General State Archives of Greece (GAK): The central service of GAK does not hold any significant part of the archives regarding the trade unions. An exception could be the archive of the trial court of Piraeus, which include charters of various trade unions since 1919. However, several regional branches of GAK hold archives of labour centers, as well as archives of municipalities and communities, which in some cases include the archives of rural cooperatives.
  • Library of the Hellenic Parliament: The library of the Hellenic Parliament holds a variety of labour and socialist newspapers of the nineteenth and the twentieth century. The newspapers are digitized and openly accessible.
  • Hellenic Literary and Historical Archive (ELIA): ELIA holds at its disposal the private archive of one significant and controversial figure of the trade-union movement during the Interwar period in Greece, Aristeidis Dimitratos. In addition, ELIA holds the private archive of a prominent figure of the Trotskyist movement in Greece, Christos Anastasiadis. In addition, the library of ELIA holds a variety of socialist newspapers and publications of the nineteenth and the twentieth century.
  • Benaki Museum: Benaki Museum holds the archive of one of the most prominent leading figures of the Greek socialist movement during the turn from the nineteenth to the twentieth century, Stavros Kallergis.
  • Cultural Center of Lefkada: The Cultural Center of Lefkada holds the private archive and the library of Nikolaos Svoronos, a communist veteran of the National Resistance and the most prominent Greek Marxist historian, who lived in Paris as a political exile from 1945 το 1975. The archive consists of communist newspapers and brochures, manuscripts and unpublished dissertations.
  • International Institute of Social History (IISG): In the International Institute of Social History there are many archival collections associated with Greece like the “Greece social and political developments collection” and the “Greece periodical collection.” In addition, information about the labour movement in Greece during the early twentieth century and the Interwar period can be found in the archives of the Socialist Youth-International and of Camille Huysmans.
  • Society for Thessalian Research (ETHE): The Society for Thessalian Research holds the private archive of a prominent communist intellectual and politician, Giannis Kordatos, who had written the first history of the Greek labour movement during the interwar period. The archive consists of manuscripts, newspapers and journals, correspondence and images, covering mostly the period from the 1920s to 1960.
  • Local labour centres and trade unions: In the various local labour centers there are significant sources regarding the history of the labour movement. The degree of classification and accessibility of the archives of labour centers and various trade unions vary and should be examined on a case-by-case basis. The same rule applies to the archives, which are held by various first and second level trade unions.

Hungary

India

  • Archives of Indian Labour has been a pioneering initiative in setting up digital archives of labour history of modern India. It was set up in July, 1998 as a collaborative project of the V.V. Giri National Labour Institute and the Association of Indian Labour Historians. At the moment there are around 25 digital collections that are continuously growing and more collections are underway. There are several collections that contain material on trade union history and memory:
  • Extended Archives of Indian Labour
    • Labour Regulation in the Long Twentieth Century is conceived as a digital repository on labour regulations in India and one of the result of Thematic Module Labour as a Political Category under Merian-Tagore International Centre of Advanced Studies: 'Metamorphoses of the Political (ICAS:MP), an interdisciplinary forum for intellectual exchange funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The repository is also an element of a larger project of multilateral cooperation that aims at creating "Extended Archives of Indian Labour"
    • In this collection, you might like to have a look at The All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) Pamphlets Collection 1928-1990. This collection of printed pamphlets traces the origin and evolution of the organisation of the AITUC as the first All India Federation of Trade Unions. It also contains pamphlets containing the position of the AITUC on economic policy, major legislations concerned with labour and accounts of important events connected with the history of industrial relations in India. 
  • Archives of All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC): Over the last few years co-operation between AITUC, CeMIS, AILH and IISG successfully digitized parts of the central archives of All India Trade Union Congress and made it available for the public through the archival portal of IISG (Collection Summary: All India Trade Union Congress Archives) and from the Archives of Indian labour online portal (Archives of Indian Labour: Records). Over the next few years, more than 4000 new files will be digitized and subsequently made available to researchers and the public at large. Details about this collection are available online on these respective portals.
  • Centre for Modern Indian Studies (CeMIS), Modern Indian History Research Group, Digital Collections & Online Databases: The Modern Indian History Research group at CeMIS has been involved in setting up a number of projects and intiative around history of labour. The Enid Perlin collection contains the oral oral histories of Coimbatore cotton textile mill workers collected by Enid Perlin. Comprising of interviews conducted with 145 millworkers, the data collected by Enid Perlin during her doctoral field-work presents a rich life history of cotton textile mill-workers in Coimbatore, spanning close to 4 decades from the early 1930s to 1975-76. This data will be made public on the CeMIS website and through other digital archive sources.  For more details on this, please see this document.
  • Center for Education and Communication (CEC): The Center for Education and Communication (CEC) is a Delhi-based organization engaged in labour research and advocacy. They have recently launched a Digital Labour Archive (DLA) which is an excellent repository and documentation initiative developed by CEC with the support of Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung (RLS)-South Asia. It focuses on the contemporary period and on informal labour. DLA has a rich collection of materials, such as trade union correspondence, pamphlets, photographs, booklets, cartoons, letters, petitions, newspaper clippings, magazines, reports, interviews of trade union activists, labour scholars and worker leaders.

Kenya

Mexico

Nepal

  • National Archives of Nepal: Located in Kathmandu, the National Archives of Nepal is a repository of historical documents, records, and manuscripts. It contains materials that cover various aspects of Nepal's history, including labor movements and trade unions.
  • Tribhuvan University Central Library: The central library at Tribhuvan University in Kirtipur, Kathmandu, is one of the largest libraries in Nepal. It may have collections related to labor history and trade unions, especially in academic publications. 
  • Nepal National Library: The Nepal National Library in Patan, Lalitpur, is another institution that could house historical documents related to labor movements and trade unions.
  • University research centres: found at Nepali universities, particularly those with a focus on history, sociology, or labour studies
  • Various labour organizations and unions: Trade unions and labor organizations in Nepal may maintain their own archives or collections related to the history of labor movements. Contacting these organizations directly might provide access to firsthand accounts, documents, and records.

Netherlands

  • Biographical Dictionary of Socialism and the Labor Movement in the Netherlands (BWSA): "This contains more than 645 biographies of men and women who played a role in the Dutch labour movement in a broad sense: the well-known leaders, but also less prominent figures; socialists, liberals, anarchists, Catholics, communists and Christians; politicians, trade union officials, free thinkers, suffrage fighters, artists and many others."

Poland

  • Archiwum Danych Jakosciowych (The Qualitative Data Archive of the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences): 

Portugal

  • CAD-CGTP: Centro de arquivo e documentação da Confederação Geral de Trabalhadores Portugueses – Intersindical - Archive and documentation centre of the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers – Interunion - https://cad.cgtp.pt/
  • EPHEMERA: Biblioteca e arquivo de José Pacheco Pereira - José Pacheco Pereira Library and Archive - https://ephemerajpp.com/
  • MUSEU DO TRABALHO: Museu do trabalho Michel Giacometti – Michel Giacometti Labour Museum - https://museus.mun-setubal.pt/10352/museudotrabalho

Sweden

United States

United Kingdom

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