New exhibition: ‘Any Help Possible Will be Given’ – Celebrating female workers’ rights

The Mary Quaile Club (MQC), named after the Irish trade unionist, is a group which hosts regular discussions on working class history and its links to issues faced by people today. The group has an event coming up in March at the Working Class Movement Library. It is a celebration of the discovery of original handwritten minutes from the Manchester and Salford Women’s Trade Union Council (1895-1919). The minutes are a valuable record of the work done by the group to support female workers’ rights. They also reveal the sharp divisions that arose over the issue of votes for women, culminating in a split and the formation of a rival group. There will be speakers from both the Library and the MQC, and actor Joan McGee will perform a short extract from a play about Mary Quaile herself. It is free, but advance booking is advised. The afternoon is part of ‘Wonder Women’ – Manchester’s annual feminist festival.

Sat 10 Mar, Working Class Movement Library, 51 Crescent, Salford, M5 4WX, Tel: 0161 736 3601, 2pm – 5pm, FREE, www.wcml.org.uk