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Dit jaar viert Nederland 75 jaar bevrijding. Door de geschiedenis heen zijn veel verhalen verteld over het verzet tijdens de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Eén belangrijke speler uit de ‘ondergrondse’ is de Communistische Partij van Nederland (CPN). Hun rol in het verzet was onmiskenbaar en zeer intensief, en die betrokkenheid was uiteraard niet zonder risico. Veel verzetsstrijders moesten hun inspanningen met hun leven bekopen.

As of April 1, 2020 Karin Hofmeester is the Director of Research of the International Institute of Social History.

"If I can't dance to it, it's not my revolution" Machteld Maris, 1970 - 2020 If I can't dance to it, it's not my revolution wrote Emma Goldman, whose archives are kept at the IISH. It's a quote that fits Machteld like no other. For the 'Festival of the Rebellion' that she organized in 2018, she had it printed on T-shirts, and she even had the columns in the canteen of the IISH stick with it as a statement.

Call for articles and book reviews for the first issue of the Revista Latinoamericana de Trabajo y Trabajadores (REVLATT).

Deadline: 31 March 2020.

Update: Unfortunately, due to the current situation around COVID-19, the two-day symposium The Transformation in the World of Work in Germany, the Netherlands and Beyond organized by The Germany Institute, the International Institute of Social History and the N.W. Posthumus Institute, in Amsterdam of 10-11 June 2020 will be rescheduled to June 2021. More information will follow in the course of this year.

We would like to draw your attention to a call for papers for the masterclass The Transformations in the World of Work: Bringing Sociological and Historical Perspectives Together.

Woensdag 4 maart was Leo Lucassen te gast bij Studium Generale | Universiteit Utrecht om te spreken over feiten en meningen in het migratiedebat.

Connects labour history, global history and the institutional or political history of international organisations 

Marks the centenary of the ILO and the formation of the International Federation of Trade Unions, World Federation of Trade Unions and the Communist International

Explores the workings of international labour organisations, the links and networks between these, the definition of the worker and the historical legacy of these organisations

Dear participants,



We are very sorry to let you know that due to the escalating number of cancellations, as well as the increasingly stringent measures taken by a number of authorities and universities – including exit prohibitions and quarantine obligations pertaining to the corona virus - we have decided to postpone the ESSHC-conference to March 2021, again in Leiden.

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Post-doc Positions: “Expression of Interest” for hosting Fellows at the International Institute of Social History in the Netherlands.



The International Institute of Social History in the Netherlands (IISH) invites postdoc fellows to apply together for postdoc funding in the context of the Marie Skłodowska Curie Individual fellowship scheme for EF (European Fellows).

The KNAW appoints Leo Lucassen as director of the International Institute of Social History (IISH). Earlier this week it was already announced that the current director Henk Wals will leave the IISH to become director at KNAW Institute DANS. Both will start in their new positions at the beginning of April.

Luciano Governali, researcher and archivist from the School of Cultural Heritage of the Italian Ministry of Culture, Fondazione Scuola dei beni e delle attività culturali is working at the IISH on the accessibility of the sources of labour history. He made a remarkable discovery in the Turati Collection of the IISH: an unknown postal card from Mussolini.

The letter was published among a selection of others in the first book on the Turati’s paper Filippo Turati attraverso le lettere dei corrispondenti (1880 - 1925), edited by Alessandro Schiavi, Laterza, Bari, 1947, p. 169, but still ignored so far.

De fotocollectie van de Nederlandse fotografe Maya Pejic (geboren 1935) bestaat uit meer dan  220.000 negatieven, dia's en foto-afdrukken. Beelden van minderheden, sociale problematiek, anti-racisme en andere politieke akties, etc. in Nederland vanaf de 60-er jaren van de vorige eeuw. Maar ook beelden van de levensomstandigheden van vooral kinderen en vrouwen in tientallen Derde Wereld landen. Het copyright op de foto's berust bij het IISG.