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There are many narrative histories of the struggles of British workers. However, Rob Sewell's book is different. This book is aimed especially at class-conscious workers who are seeking to escape from the ills of the capitalist system, that has embroiled the world in a quagmire of wars, poverty and suffering. This history of trade unions is particularly relevant at the present time. After a long period of stagnation, the fresh winds of the class struggle are beginning to blow. Rob Sewell's book was written precisely with these new forces in mind. The British labour movement is the oldest in the world. More than two hundred years ago, the pioneers of the movement created illegal revolutionary trade unions in the face of the most terrible violence and repression. In the course of the nineteenth century they built trade unions of the downtrodden unskilled workers - those with "blistered hands and the unshorn chins," as Feargus O'Connor called them. Finally, they established a mass party of Labour based on the trade unions, breaking the monopoly of the Tories and Liberals. In the stormy years following the Russian Revolution they engaged in ferocious class battles, culminating in the General Strike of 1926. Nor did the achievements of the British trade union movement cease with the Depression and the Second World War. The post-war upswing served to strengthen the working class and heal the scars of the inter-war period. By the time of the industrial tidal wave of the early 1970s, they drove a Tory government from power, after turning Edward Heath's anti-trade union laws into a dead letter. Later, the miners, the traditional vanguard of the British working class, waged an epic year-long struggle in 1984-85 against the juggernaut of Thatcherism. They could have succeeded, had the rightwing Labour and trade union leaders not abandoned them and left them isolated. The book contains vital lessons and is essential reading for today's worker militants.
This is an introduction to the politics of trade unionism in contemporary Britain, assessing the major changes in legislation, policing and attitudes since 1979 as well as the broader social and economic trends to which these have been a response.
Historical study of the labour movement in the UK from 1750 to 1955, with particular reference to the sociological aspects of the role of trade union leadership as an Elite group within the working class - covers the evolution of the labour political party, political leadership, etc. References and statistical tables.
This set of 44 volumes, originally published between 1924 and 1995, amalgamates a wide breadth of research on the Labour Movement, including labour union history, the early stages and development of the Labour Party, and studies on the working classes. This collection of books from some of the leading scholars in the field provides a comprehensive overview of the subject how it has evolved over time, and will be of particular interest to students of political history.
In modern Britain, the working class has become an object of fear and ridicule. From Little Britain’s Vicky Pollard to the demonization of Jade Goody, media and politicians alike dismiss as feckless, criminalized and ignorant a vast, underprivileged swathe of society whose members have become stereotyped by one, hate-filled word: chavs. In this acclaimed investigation, Owen Jones explores how the working class has gone from “salt of the earth” to “scum of the earth.” Exposing the ignorance and prejudice at the heart of the chav caricature, he portrays a far more complex reality. The chav stereotype, he argues, is used by governments as a convenient figleaf to avoid genuine engagement with social and economic problems and to justify widening inequality. Based on a wealth of original research, Chavs is a damning indictment of the media and political establishment and an illuminating, disturbing portrait of inequality and class hatred in modern Britain. This updated edition includes a new chapter exploring the causes and consequences of the UK riots in the summer of 2011.
An attempt to provide an account of the genesis of Thatcherism in opposition, its record in government, its relationship to the Conservative tradition and the ideological challenge of the New Right. The manner in which Thatcherism has been analysed by the Left and the Right is assessed.
With Foreword by Tony Benn. This edited collection explores the British labour movement's relationship with imperialism in the period 1800–1982 through nine inter-connected articles. Labour historians have tended to neglect the labour movement's interaction with imperialism, preferring to concentrate on industrial relations, internal factionalism, the Labour Party-trade union alliance, and economic policymaking. In order to redress the balance, this book takes a broad chronological overview of the subject and engages with key themes, ranging from trade union interaction with empire, and the influence of popular imperial culture, to post-war colonial development, and responses to post-colonialism. Taking stock both of the labour movement in a broader context and of new approaches to the history of British imperialism, the collection combines the work of leading authorities on labour history with recent scholarly research. By blending this combination of economic, social, political and cultural analyses, it makes a substantial contribution to the debates surrounding the legacy of imperialism and the evolution of the British labour movement. The book will be of interest to academics, researchers, teachers and students of modern British political, social, economic and cultural history. It will also appeal to Labour Party members and labour movement activists.
British economic and industrial policy since 1979 is examined using a wide range of sources. Was this really «new», revival of earlier approaches or a rigorous extension of the IMF-imposed policies on the 1974-79 Labour Government? The question is asked: Was the creation of a large pool of unemployed labour necessary for reshaping the economy or was the aim to secure fundamental changes in the relations between capital and organised labour? Due to setbacks suffered by trade unions in the 1980s with factory closures and major job losses, the author questions Labour's motives in softening any meaningful opposition to the Conservatives, supporting ERM in 1990, reducing the role of trade unions in the Party itself and retaining key policies of the Thatcher era especially its trade union laws.