More writing than welding: Learning in worker writer groups

History of Education

Volumn 34, Issue 5, 2005, Pages 561-578

  Woodin, Tom ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF LONDON   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 27944499030     PISSN: 0046760X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/00467600500221364     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (112)

1. T. Woodin, 'Building culture from the bottom up: the educational origins of the Federation of Worker Writers and Community Publishers', History of Education, 34, no. 4 (2005) 345-363.
2. This paper draws on writers from a range of writing workshops that have been involved in the Fed, including Basement Writers, Hackney Writing Workshop, London Voices (all London), Scotland Road writers' Workshop, Stockbridge Writers, Chilwall Writers, Prescot Writers (all Liverpool), Commonword, including Identity Writers (Manchester), Heeley Writers (Sheffield), Bristol Broadsides, QueenSpark (Brighton), Shorelink (Hastings) and also groups in the North-East. Current information can be gained from www.thefwwcp.org.uk
3. For instance, M. Hayler and A. Thompson, 'Working with words: active learning in a community writing and publishing group', in J. Mace (ed.), Language, Literacy and Community Publishing (Clevedon, MA: Multi-Lingual Matters, 1995), 41-59.
4. Ken Worpole interviewed by Gerry Gregory, in G. Gregory, 'Worker writers in the 1970s', unpublished MA thesis, University of London, 1979.
5. G. Gregory, 'Community publishing as self-education,' in D. Barton and R. Roz (eds), Writing in the Community (Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, 1991), 109-142.
6. G. Gregory, Writing in the Community Ibid., 135.
7. J. Rose, The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press 2001), especially chapter 2.
8. See also D. Vincent, Bread, Knowledge and Freedom. A Study of Nineteenth Century Working Class Autobiography (London: Europa, 1981).
9. J. F. C. Harrison, Learning and Living 1790-1960 (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1961), 349-350.
10. Rose, Intellectual Life, 11.
11. R. Samuel, E. MacColl and S. Cosgrove, Theatres of the Left 1880-1935: Workers'Theatre Movements in Britain and America (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985), xi;
12. G. Klaus, The Literature of Labour: Two Hundred Years of Working Class Writing (Brighton: Harvester, 1985),
13. See also E. Hobsbawm and T. Ranger, The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983).
14. The main developments in literature are surveyed in P. Widdowson, Literature (London: Routledge, 1999).
15. R. Hoggart, 'The crisis of relativism', New Universities Quarterly, 35, 1 (1980-1981), 16;
16. see also J. McGuigan, 'The state and serious writing. Arts Council intervention in the English literary field', unpublished PhD thesis, University of Leicester, 1984.
17. D. Marsden, 'Jam For tea', New Society, 10 March 1977, 511.
18. C. B. Cox and A. E. Dyson, The Black Papers on Education (London: Davis-Poynter, 1971).
19. K. Worpole and D. Morley, The Republic of Letters (London: Comedia, 1982), 131-132.
20. See also T. Woodin, 'An evaluation of the FWWCP', unpublished PhD thesis, University of Manchester, 2002.
21. S. Hicks, The Boxer Speaks. Odes and Poems (London: Basement, 1973).
22. See also C. Searle, None But Our Words (Buckingham: Open University Press, 1998), ch. 4.
23. Roger Mills interviewed by Tom Woodin, 2000.
24. T. Olson, Silences (London: Virago 1980).
25. Worpole and Morley, Republic, 10.
26. Fitz Lewis, interviewed by Tom Woodin, 2001.
27. Anon, Jackie's Story (London: Centerprise, 1984), 126.
28. Ibid., introductory letter.
29. Jack Davitt, interviewed by Tom Woodin, 2001.
30. Liz Thompson, interviewed by Tom Woodin, 2001.
31. C. Wright Mills, The Sociological Imagination (Harmondsworth: Penguin 1973, originally published 1959) contains an interesting discussion of the link between individual lives and social change.
32. Liz Thompson, interviewed by Tom Woodin, 2001.
33. Ibid.
34. Jack Davitt, interviewed by Tom Woodin, 2001.
35. Barrett learnt this from Ken Worpole. Eddie Barrett interviewed by Tom Woodin, 2001. W. Benjamin, 'The storyteller' in H. Arendt (ed.), Illuminations (New York: Schocken Books, 1968).
36. Woodin, 'Building culture from the bottom up'.
37. L. Moore, 1992, The witch in the wardrobe', Federation, 1 (1992), 8.
38. K. Ekevall, Kindling Memories for the Future: Poems and Tributes (London: London Voices, 1995);
39. also G. Oxford, Thinking of Kay Ekevall', Federation, 23 (2002) 22-23.
40. Rick Gwilt, interviewed by Tom Woodin, 2000.
41. T. Woodin, 'Building culture from the bottom up'.
42. Ibid. For the debates on class, see T. Woodin, 'Muddying the waters: class and identity in a working class cultural organisation', Sociology, 39, 5 (2005).
43. Fitz Lewis, interviewed by Tom Woodin, 2001.
44. Roger Mills, interviewed by Tom Woodin, 2000.
45. Alan Gilbey, interviewed by Tom Woodin, 2000.
46. Keith Birch, interviewed by Tom Woodin, 2000.
47. Patricia Duffin, interviewed by Tom Woodin, 2001.
48. Pat Smart, interviewed by Roger Drury 1995 and by Tom Woodin, 2001.
49. Fitz Lewis, interviewed by Tom Woodin, 2001.
50. Keith Birch, interviewed by Tom Woodin, 2000.
51. Ibid.
52. Eddie Barrett, interviewed by Tom Woodin 2000.
53. Keith Armstrong, interviewed by Tom Woodin 2001.
54. Gregory, 'Community publishing', 116-120.
55. Nick Pollard, interviewed by Tom Woodin 2001.
56. Keith Birch, interviewed by Tom Woodin, 2000.
57. B. Morrison, 'Report submitted to the Arts Council, December 1979, on the work being done in the field of community arts literature', extract from the FWWCP Archive.
58. Ken Worpole interviewed by Gerry Gregory, 1979.
59. Alan Gilbey, interviewed by Tom Woodin, 2000;
60. Fitz Lewis, interviewed by Tom Woodin, 2001.
61. Mike Hoy interviewed by Tom Woodin, 2002.
62. Alan Gilbey, interviewed by Tom Woodin, 2000.
63. Pat Smart, interviewed Tom Woodin, 2001.
64. Ibid.
65. David Evans, interviewed by Tom Woodin, 2000.
66. K. Worpole, 'Some questions,' 15 March 1979, Centerprise archive materials.
67. M. Casey, ¢working woman reads history', in In a Few Words (Liverpool: Second Chance to Learn Writers Workshop, Liverpool University, 1977-1979).
68. T. Lee, 'Come live with me and be my love' in Let's Hurry Up and Get This Relationship Over ... So I Can Get On With Decorating the Hallway (Bristol: Bristol Broadsides, 1987).
69. Jack Davitt, interviewed by Tom Woodin, 2001.
70. Rebecca O'Rourke, interviewed by Tom Woodin, 2001.
71. Alan Gilbey, interviewed by Tom Woodin, 2000.
72. David Evans, interviewed by Tom Woodin, 2000.
73. Rebecca O'Rourke, interviewed by Tom Woodin, 2001.
74. Jimmy McGovern, interviewed (email) by Tom Woodin, 2001.
75. Ibid.
76. G. Gregory, 'Breaking the silence', English Magazine, 4 (1985), 16.
77. C. Searle reported that some of the young writers involved in Basement Writers thought this, interviewed by Tom Woodin, 2000.
78. Jimmy McGovern, interviewed (email) by Tom Woodin, 2001.
79. Ibid.
80. Hayler and Thompson, 'Working with words'.
81. B. Jackson's study of working-class organisations in Huddersfield found that a separate group of organisers emerged. See his Working Class Community. Some General Notions Raised by a Series of Studies in Northern England (London: Routledge, 1968). For this trend in the WEA,
82. see Harrison, Learning and Living, 287-278.
83. Rick Gwilt, interviewed by Tom Woodin, 2000.
84. Keith Birch, interviewed by Tom Woodin, 2000.
85. J. Young, Getting Ideas (Connisbrough: Yorkshire Arts Circus, 1984), 34,
86. quoted in S. Dentith and P. Dodd, 'The uses of autobiography', Literature and History, 14, 1 (1988), 10.
87. D. Morley and K. Worpole, 'Writers at work', New Statesman, 30 April 1982, 19-20.
88. A similar occurrence can be found in J. Allin, 'The oddity in the district', in A. Brighton and L. Morris (eds), Towards Another Picture (Nottingham: Midland Group, 1977), 209-210.
89. Also Gregory, 'Community publishing ...' 128-129.
90. Neither of these took place in Fed groups but they illustrate the point. Nick Pollard, interviewed by Tom Woodin, 2001. The Liverpool example was related to me at a conference on multiculturalism and heritage held in Manchester, 2000.
91. Keith Birch, interviewed by Tom Woodin, 2000.
92. Ibid.
93. The idea of a 'selective tradition' was argued by R. Williams in Problems in Materialism and Culture: Selected Essays (London: Verso, 1980).
94. Worpole and Morley, The Republic of Letters, 43;
95. K. Worpole, Reading by Numbers: Contemporary Publishing & Popular Fiction (London: Comedia, 1984), 63.
96. R. Williams, 'The role of the literary magazine', Times Literary Supplement, 6 June 1980, 637. Contained in a letter to Melvyn Bragg, Chairman, Literature Panel, ACGB, 16 June 1980, signed by Barbara Shane, Ken Worpole and Ian Bild, FWWCP
97. See, for instance, S. Frith, 'The good, the bad and the indifferent: defending popular culture from the populists', Diacritics 2, 4 (1991), 102-115;
98. S. Connor, Theory and Cultural Value (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992).
99. R. Hoggart, The Way We Live Now (London: Chatto & Windus, 1995).
100. See also chapter 8 of his An Imagined Life, Vol 3 (London: Chatto and Windus, 1992) for a reiteration of his general approach.
101. Rebecca O'Rourke, interviewed by Tom Woodin, 2001.
102. See K. Worpole, Reading by Numbers;
103. K. Worpole, 'It's not what you say, it's the way that you say it', Federation, 8 (1996) 2-5.
104. For instance, bell hooks, who acknowledges the importance of black school teachers and librarians in her upbringing in the southern US, discusses how these tensions can limit the work of writers. See Remembered Rapture (London: Women's Press, 1999),
105. especially 'Writing without labels', 46-57.
106. See also K. Worpole, Dockers and Detectives (London: Verso, 1983), ch. 5. Historically, some labour leaders adopted individualist clichés;
107. see D. Vincent, Literacy and Popular Culture: England 1750-1914 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1989), 260.
108. Worpole and Morley, The Republic of Letters.
109. D. Vincent, Literacy and Popular Culture, see ch. 3, especially the 'domestic curriculum' and 'the earnest worker', 259-267.
110. Woodin, T. 'Building culture from the bottom up'.
111. For these terms see R. Williams, Culture (Glasgow: Fontana, 1981).
112. See S. Yeo, 'Whose story? An argument from within current historical practice in Britain', Journal of Contemporary History, 21 (1986), 295-319.