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Spanning a period which stretches from the 19th century to the
present day, this book takes a novel look at the British labour
movement by examining the interaction between trade unions, the
Labour Party, other parties and groups of the Left, and the wider
working class, to highlight the dialectic nature of these
relationships, marked by consensus and dissention. It shows that,
although perceived as a source of weakness, those inner conflicts
have also been a source of creative tension, at times generating
significant breakthroughs. The book brings together labour
historians and political scientists who provide a range of case
studies as well as more wide-ranging assessments of recent trends
in labour organising. It will therefore be of interest to academics
and students of history and politics, as well as to practitioners,
in the British Isles and beyond. -- .
In most studies of British decolonisation, the world of labour is
neglected, the key roles being allocated to metropolitan statesmen
and native elites. Instead this volume focuses on the role played
by working people, their experiences, initiatives and
organisations, in the dissolution of the British Empire, both in
the metropole and in the colonies. How central was the intervention
of the metropolitan Left in the liquidation of the British Empire?
Were labour mobilisations in the colonies only stepping stones for
bourgeois nationalists? To what extent were British labour
activists willing and able to form connections with colonial
workers, and vice versa? Here are some of the complex questions on
which this volume sheds new light. Though convergences were fragile
and temporary, this book recapture the sense of uncertainty that
accompanied the final decades of the British Empire, a period when
radical minorities hoped that coordinated efforts across borders
might lead not only to the destruction of the British Empire but to
that of capitalism and imperialism in general. Exploiting rare
primary sources and adopting a resolutely transnational approach,
our collection makes an original contribution to both labour
history and imperial studies.
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