By Christopher Winch Author’s Note. This article was first published in July 2003. It is a mark of the lack of progress that the left has made since then, that in preparing it for Labour Affairs in 2024 I have had to make minimal changes, like substituting ‘Starmer’ for ‘Blair’. It is often said by … Continue reading Equality and Socialism
Dave Gardner Half the young people in Britain do not intend to go to university. Many of those who do, feel that they have no choice, even if they don’t particularly wish to. But what other choices do they have? This is where choices for young people become problematic. The main educational destination is a … Continue reading The Apprenticeship Fiasco
by Christopher Winch One of the reasons why socialism is struggling is that socialists do not really know who they are and where they came from. Many think that they are a species of liberal. After all, socialism grew up alongside liberalism and both are opponents of conservatism. Both socialists and liberals favour democracy and … Continue reading Should Socialists Fear Liberalism?
Eamon Dyas We are living in interesting times as we witness the death throes of one world and the birth of a new one. But we, who are old enough, have lived through similar times in the past and looking back with the benefit of hindsight the main lesson that comes out of this is … Continue reading For what do we struggle?
In 2008 Conor Lynch and Joe Keenan devoted a series of 6 issues of our magazine “Problems of Capitalism and Socialism” to Workers Control. They reproduced documents of the time for and against Workers Control, with commentary, including statements by the Institute for Workers Control, which, despite its name, did not support workers control when it came … Continue reading Workers Control
Glossary From Problems of Capitalism and Socialism special series on the Bullock Report, Number 2 AUEW: Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers led by Hugh Scanlon (see below). Anuneasy amalgamation of engineers, builders, foundry workers and white collar workers (TASS). TASS, which was Communist Party dominated, split away and merged with the Association of Scientific, Technical … Continue reading Who was who and what was what in industry and politics in the 1970s
Jack Jones explains his role in the Labour movement in the 1970s, and how the battle to bring in Industrial Democracy was fought and lost, making something like Thatcherism almost inevitable. An interview with Jack Jones, conducted by Labour and Trade Union Review magazine L&TUR We’d like to begin with the experience of the seventies. As … Continue reading Jack Jones speaks
Industrial Democracy A new book has just been published: "Our trade unions, what comes next after the summer of 2022?" By Nigel Flanagan, Manifesto Press. The book is vigorously written and addresses the question of the immense weakness of the trade union movement today without flinching. It rightly addresses the question of how it came about as … Continue reading Trade Union Diary
BLUE LABOUR - STRONG ON THEORY, WEAK IN PRACTICE REVIEW: Maurice Glasman: Blue Labour - the Politics of the Common Good, Cambridge, Polity Press, 2022. Peter Brooke HOPEFUL BEGINNINGS Back in 2011 it looked as if Maurice Glasman could become highly influential in the Labour Party. Ed Miliband had become leader in 2010 and, casting around … Continue reading Blue Labour
Trauma Zone—Russia 1985-1999 Catherine Dunlop Comments on a Documentary by Adam Curtis, shown directly on BBC iPlayer, 13th October 2022 This is a documentary about Britain’s current Enemy, Russia, made in the form of a collage of clips from suitably ugly and doom-laden old films. Yet what strikes the viewer is the sight of Bush, then Clinton, then … Continue reading Trauma Zone
By Pete Whitelegg Back in April of this year Mick Lynch, General Secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union (RMT) called an all member zoom meeting with members of the NEC. The message was a simple one, they are coming for us. Mick Lynch outlined what he had been told by the TOCs (Train … Continue reading Rail Strikes
Half-Earth Socialism — A Plan to Save the Future from Extinction, ClimateChange and Pandemics By Troy Vettese and Drew Pendergrass Verso 2022 A brief review by Catherine Dunlop Reading the Islington Tribune the other day I came across this book, and as I have always thought that only socialism could do something about extinctions and environmental … Continue reading Half Earth Socialism
The TUC have called for a large demonstration in London on June 18th in the face of the cost of living crisis. “Working people have had enough. Everything’s going up but our wages. Join the trade union movement in London to tell this government: we DEMAND better!” reads the TUC blurb. They are right and a massive … Continue reading Let’s Avoid a 1970s Rerun
The Austrian Chamber of Labour as an instrument of workers' interests Eamon Dyas [Below is a brief account of the history and purpose of the Austrian Chambers of Labour. It was stimulated by a conversation I had with Florian Wenninger, of the Institut für Historische Sozialforschung at the headquarters of the Arbeiterkammer in Vienna on … Continue reading Austrian Chamber of Labour
by John Martin This is written from an Irish perspective but opens up the discussion for Britain too. If socialism is defined by how its political representatives act, then its elements can be described quite clearly. In the Irish context socialists tend to distrust the State. All actions by the State are suspect. The State … Continue reading What is socialism?
Sahra Wagenknecht’s ‘The Self-Righteous’. Labour Affairs is pleased to publish below our own English translation of the Foreword to Sahra Wagenknecht’s ‘The Self-Righteous’, published in Germany earlier this year (Die Selbstgerechten: Mein Gegenprogramm – für Gemeinsinn und Zusammenhalt. Campus, Frankfurt am Main 2021). The book has had a significant impact in Germany where Wagenknecht is … Continue reading Sahra Wagenknecht—The Self-Righteous
Labour Affairs is not a lone supporter of industrial democracy or alone in remembering the Bullock Report. Here is another writer, from the former Lucas plant, and, below, writers from the Institute for Employment Rights. "The Labour Governments policy not to extend democracy into the workplace was taken at the time when workers started to take … Continue reading Industrial Democracy 2021
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