Mission and Values
Our Mission
‘To provide open access to the collections and organise programmes, events, courses and other activities so that working class people can learn from, and interpret their history in order to enable them to apply a class perspective to contemporary politics and economics.’
Our Aims
- Collections development and care: To care for and build our library and archive collection so that it represents the full diversity of working class lives and movements in Britain and Ireland, including how social and political discrimination impact the working class, leading to its marginalisation in society and the rise of these movements.
- Learning and Engagement: To provide access to our collection (both physically and digitally) developing knowledge and understanding of working class history to inform and be applied to a greater understanding of contemporary issues. To support the tradition of independent working class education.
- Empowering working people: To work in partnership with working class people and their organisations to produce events, exhibitions and other activities that are inspired by our collection and reflect their needs and interests.
- Engaging with our locality: To work with our immediate neighbours in the City of Salford, and Greater Manchester supporting their growth, development and aspirations.
- Engaging an internationalist vision: The working class have a proud history of international solidarity. We will continue to engage this anti colonial and anti-imperialist perspective through our collection, partnerships and activities.
- Inclusivity: To create and sustain an environment and to foster a culture in which equality, diversity and inclusion of opportunity are actively promoted and in which discrimination is not tolerated.
- Resilience and Sustainability: To be a resilient and sustainable organisation building on the achievements of our founders by continuing to develop closer cooperation and collaboration with existing key stake holders and widening our work with local communities with a shared vision.
These aims will inform our ethical approach to all our activities, and we expect all our partners and stakeholders to commit to the same values.