Red Rope – the Socialist Walking and Climbing Club
An interesting collection held by the library is the archive of Red Rope – the Socialist Walking and Climbing Club. The Club was founded in the late 1970s by Socialist Workers Party activists who had a shared interest in mountain climbing. It soon broadened to include those who were also interested in hill-walking and rambling and quickly established itself with a membership across the UK.
The club was avowedly socialist, left-wing and alternative and in its first Bulletin it described itself as ‘open to any socialist who would like to go walking and climbing in the wilder areas of the country, at low cost, and with agreeable companions’. The club is still going strong and still organised with socialist and green ethics.
A formal club structure was in place by 1984, including regions, with their own committees and trip organising responsibilities and a national committee and officers with responsibilities for the Bulletin, Monthly Information Sheet, national trips and overall supervision of the general integrity of the club within the framework of policies agreed at Annual General Meetings.
The collection includes the quarterly Bulletins and monthly Information Sheets which give news of events, meetings and trips. There are also papers relating to the national governance of the club including annual general meeting minutes and papers, National Committee meeting minutes and papers, financial papers and a variety of internal publications. Also included are working group papers covering such subjects as the environment and the purchase of a Club hut, papers relating to affiliations to various organisations, papers relating to internal debates around such issues as childcare and club reform and, of course, papers relating to political campaigning such as the Kinder Mass Trespass 50th Anniversary in 1982.
The Club’s website is at www.redrope.org.uk and you can search for the archive on the library’s catalogue at https://wcml.org.uk/the-collection/catalogue/search-the-catalogue/