Victorian Trades Hall is thought to be the oldest workers hall in the world. From its origins in one of the first successful campaigns in the world for an eight-hour working day, it has played a significant role in Victorian and Australian social, political, industrial and economic history. Now, the Hall’s international importance is being recognized.
VTHC and Broken Hill Trades Hall have been nominated by Australia to join workers assembly halls from Denmark, Argentina, the UK, Belgium and Finland in an international serial nomination to UNESCO's World Heritage list.
The World Heritage list recognizes places that are of outstanding value to humanity. Yet there are few places on the current list that reflect the contribution made by working people to the cultural heritage of the world. The nomination of workers assembly halls is intended to fix that.
From the 1850s, the global labour movement developed as a movement of great historical importance in the rise of democracy and worker and human rights across the globe. The buildings that are being nominated bear special testimony to the daily work of the labour movement as a major force in shaping democracy and welfare states, transforming the world of work, extending concepts of rights, and providing support for important social movements, including the women’s and anti-colonial struggles, across the world. Each building represents an element of the organisational history of the labour movement that developed independent of the states in which they were located. While the ideas and values of the organised labour movement have roots in a European tradition, their migration with the great population movements of the 19th and early 20th centuries to virtually all corners of the globe mean that the labour movement and its physical manifestation in the forms of these buildings is a truly universal phenomenon.
For more information about the Victorian Trades Hall bid for World Heritage listing, contact Colin Long - [email protected] or visit https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/6698
You can find out more about the World Heritage bid and workers assembly halls around the world here: (20+) Workers' Assembly Halls as UNESCO World Heritage | Facebook
This project is funded by the Australian Government with support from the Victorian and NSW Governments.
THE OTHER WORKERS ASSEMBLY HALLS IN THE NOMINATION
Broken Hill Trades Hall
Copenhagen Workers Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark
CGT Building, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Durham Miners Hall, Durham, United Kingdom
Vooruit, Ghent, Belgium
Paasitorni, Helsinki, Finland