TY - BOOK AU - Craik, W.W.* TI - A Short History of the Modern British Working-Class Movement U1 - 331.0942 CRA PY - 1919/// CY - London PB - Plebs League KW - Labour unions - Great Britain KW - Labour movement - Great Britain - History N1 -

William W Craik was a former railroad worker and student of Ruskin College from 1908 until the College strike of 1909. He was a central figure of the student body involved in the strike and in October 1908 helped to found the Plebs League, the educational pressure group of the Labour movement, and publish Plebs Magazine. Craik, the sacked ex-Principal of Ruskin Dennis Hird, and other students, moved to set up a rival college more closely associated with the labour movement, and in September 1909 the Central Labour College opened at Bradmore Rd in Oxford. Craik went on to become the Principal of the CLC in 1920 but in 1924 he left (and was possibly asked to do so), and in 1929 the College collapsed into administration. John McIlroy has written an interesting account of the Central Labour College and of Craik's possible misappropriation of College funds (http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/maney/lhr/2007/00000072/00000001/art00005?crawler=true), whilst Craik's fascinating account of the Ruskin strike and founding of CLC, The Central Labour College 1909-1929, can be borrowed from the library.

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