Social History Portal IALHI

Aims

The International Association of Labour History Institutions (IALHI) aims to connect member institutions and to facilitate the exchange of expertise in order to preserve, and promote the access to, and the use of, their respective collections.

IALHI, founded in 1970, brings together archives, libraries, documentation centres, museums and research institutions specializing in the history and theory of labour and social movements from all over the world.

For a brief overview of IALHI’s aims and activities, check our promotional flyer in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish/Castilian!

Membership

IALHI’s members include:

• Archives and libraries of trade union federations and major trade unions from Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom; and of related international bodies like the European Trade Union Institute.
• Archives and libraries of socialist and communist parties from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Finland, France, Italy, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
• Major document and research centres like the Amsab-ISG (Ghent), the Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli (Milan), the Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis (Amsterdam), the Schweizerisches Sozialarchiv (Zürich) etc.
• Museums of labour and working class life like the People’s History Museum (Manchester), the Arbejdermuseet (Copenhagen), the Työväenmuseo Werstas (Tampere) etc.
• Major university institutions like La Contemporaine (Nanterre), the Labadie Collection (Ann Arbor, MI), the Modern Records Centre (Coventry), the Ohara Institute for Social Research (Tokyo) etc.
• Private document centres, museums, labour history societies etc from Australia to Argentina.

Each member institution has one vote at the annual General Assembly.

Enquiries about, and applications for membership can be sent by post (see our contact information) or email (info [at] ialhi.org).

There are three different categories of membership fees. You can choose which membership fee you can afford (€125; €250; €400). The criteria for self-estimation in a membership category are listed here.

Go to the list of members >

Activities

• Annual conferences provide an occasion for meeting, discussion, exchange of experience, multilateral cooperation etc. Conferences were held in London (1970), Stockholm (1971), Zürich (1972), Bonn (1973), Oslo (1974), Amsterdam (1975), Milan (1976), Vienna (1977), Paris (1978), Bochum (1979), Stockholm (1980), Barcelona (1981), London (1982), Florence (1983), Madrid (1984), Brussels/Liège/Ghent (1985), Paris (1986), Bonn (1987), Zürich (1988), Amsterdam (1989), Helsinki (1990), Linz (1991), Prague (1992), Copenhagen (1993), Manchester (1994), Moscow (1995), Athens (1996), Silver Spring, MD (1997), Milan (1998), Amsterdam (1999), Oslo (2000), Tampere (2001), Stockholm (2002), Dublin (2003), Paris/Nanterre/Roubaix (2004), Ghent (2005), Zürich (2006), Rome (2007), Johannesburg (2008), Barcelona (2009), Amsterdam (2010), Bonn (2011), Lisboa (2012), Budapest (2013), New York (2014), Edinburgh (2015), Helsinki (2016), Ghent (2017), Milano (2018), Alcalá de Henares (2019), online, due to the COVID-19 pandemic (2020 and 2021), Zürich (2022), Buenos Aires (2023), Paris (2024) and Amsterdam (2025).
• A News Service on the Web announces recent accessions, new publications, forthcoming exhibitions, current research programs etc.
• IALHI organizes joint projects, notably in the field improving access to collections.
• On the web domain socialhistoryportal.org digital resources from IALHI members and joint projects are published. The project HOPE – Heritage of the People’s Europe (2010-2013) has been the focus of these activities.

Go to the list of conferences >

Presidency and Board

At the September 2018 conference, Anja Kruke (Archiv der sozialen Demokratie und Bibliothek der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Bonn), was elected as president for a period of five years.

The Board consists of Jeff Howarth (TUC Library Collections), Jesper Jørgensen (Arbejdermuseet & Arbejderbevægelsens Bibliotek og Arkiv, Copenhagen), Rosemary Webb (Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, Sydney), Massimiliano Tarantino (Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, Milano), Franck Veyron (La Contemporaine, Nanterre), Eric de Ruijter (IISG, Amsterdam), Donald Weber (Amsab-Institute of Social History in Ghent), Petri Tanskanen (Työväen Arkisto, Helsinki), and Alvin Finkel (Canadian Committee on Labour History). The Board has been elected at the September 2022 conference, for a period of five years.