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Into the Magazine Archives!

Some light relief: I hope to build up a collection of old staff magazines from yesteryear. UNISON, formed in 1993, and was of course an amalgam of 3 trades unions of the day: NALGO, COHSE and NUPE - and each of them were already merged unions I think I'm right in saying.

However I've only had access to the former NALGO magazines. I don't know if the local branches of COHSE or NUPE produced any newsletter or magazine; if they did and someone has old copies, I'd be grateful to have sight of them so as to scan them onto these pages!

In a small way, the views expressed in some of the articles may be of interest to social historians and sociologists. On a basic level though, some of the attitudes seem a real hoot. How about this contribution from the first one below:

"Women rarely see and feel issues like TUC affiliation as keenly as men, and appear to have an in-built aptitute(sic) to vote against the unknown. Even if they are not especially happy about their lot, they seem loathe to leave the security of the frying pan for the hypothetical benefits of the fire."

[Fortunately, UNISON seeks "to promote fair representation in all the Union's structures for women, members of all grades, black members, disabled members and lesbian and gay men" - taken from 'Aims and Objectives'].

Be patient when downloading if you're using a dial-up modem, the file will appear!

[You need to have Acrobat Reader installed on your computer to read these. If you haven't, a free one can be downloaded from Adobe]

1. The oldest (1964) Devon NALGO magazine to have come my way so far. This Journal of the Devon County Staff Staff Association is a 'TUC Special' - should NALGO should seek membership of the TUC?

As this mag's was even 'heavier' than the others for downloading, I've split it in 2 parts:

1964 Part 1 1964 Part 2

2. At Your Service - April 1974. The first issue of a 'new' NALGO magazine. Eclectic, ranging from 'Is Democracy Important or Necessary?' to Garden Tips ('How do you stop rabbits digging up your lettuces? - Hide the spade').

Apr 1974

I'm sorry the text is difficult to read in the next two - the originals were poorly printed to begin with - old duplicating stencils etc were not a patch on todays word-processing on a PC.

3. Palindrome

Nov 1975

4. At Your Service

Apr 1976

5. Ship's Log

Jul/Aug 1981 Part 1 - includes a 'History of NALGO' (part)
Jul/Aug 1981 Part 2 - plus a Ballot on should NALGO affiliate to the Labour Party?
Sep 1987 - contains Part 1 (of 6) of 'A History of Devon NALGO' by Guy Hamilton. (530KB)
Oct 1987 - contains Part 2 (of 6) of 'A History of Devon NALGO' by Guy Hamilton. (NB: 1.32MB)

6. Unity