British Labour Movement

The first part of this paper investigates the relationship between Soviet foreign policy and the policies of the Communist International, with the objective of attempting to explain the development of the tendencies which led to the bifurcation in September 1939 between the policy requirements of the Communist International which flowed from the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and the pro-war stance of the Communist Party of Great Britain. The second part investigates the policies and activities of the CPGB during the period of the Soviet-German alliance. The third part takes a brief look at the responses of other organisations and currents within the British labour movement to the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and the CPGB during this period, and concludes by situating the events of this period within the overall political trajectory of the official communist movement.

This article looks at the response in Britain to the Soviet invasion of Finland in late 1939, with particular reference to the Labour Party and the rise of a broad anti-Soviet consensus that prefigured the anti-communist atmosphere of the Cold War.

This article examines a turning point in the relationship between the black communities in Britain and the British labour movement, focusing upon the role of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) in this relationship. While 1968 saw a great wave of industrial militancy and cultural radicalism, during which the CPGB was quite influential, this upsurge in radical activist politics did not translate into major gains in the struggle against racism in Britain. 1968 saw the tightening of immigration controls and a Labour government intent on the ‘integration’ of black immigrants, coupled with an increase in racist agitation on the right by Enoch Powell and the fledgling National Front, which caused problems for Britain's black population. The CPGB, one of the largest leftist parties and with a history of anti-colonial and anti-fascist activism, had the potential to be an important agent in the anti-racist movement in the late 1960s, but any appeal to black workers was subsumed by the wider industrial struggles of the period—a phenomenon that was replicated throughout the British labour movement. The inability of the trade unions and the British left to effectively address the grievances of black workers led to autonomous black political organisation, inspired by the ideas of black power and the Marxism of the national liberation struggles. This division between the (primarily white) labour movement and black workers was widened by the events of 1968 and would further consolidate throughout the 1970s. The purpose of this article is to portray how the schism between the traditional organisations of the British working class and the black communities developed, significantly demonstrated by the failure of the heightened radicalism of 1968 to produce tangible benefits for black Britons, and how the potential of the CPGB to undertake an important anti-racist role was diminished by its focus on militant labourism.

Conflicts of legitimacy within the labour movement have repeatedly raised the issue of who can claim to speak on behalf of labour organisations and working-class people. This volume brings together historical and contemporary perspectives on the study of the British labour movement, from the point of view of the tensions that have, time and again, challenged it, if not fractured it, from the inside. The study of labour organisations as such has sometimes been discarded as too institutional. Yet the editors of this volume believe that the turn towards a ‘new labour history’ in the 1960s-1970s and a ‘global labour history’ since the 2000s, far from making the study of organisations outdated, has continuously generated, and will continue to generate, innovative research on ‘old’ topics such as: the Labour Party, the CPGB, the trade-unions, the cooperative movement, the friendly societies, etc. The focus on internal dissensions is a particularly enticing avenue of investigation, precluding any celebration of a linear and consensual ‘forward march of Labour’. The ‘disputed legitimacies’ evoked in the title of the volume are analysed on three different levels: the level of intra-organisational tensions (i.e. tensions specific to each type of organisation); the level of inter-organisational tensions (i.e. tensions between different types of organisations); and the level of tensions between labour organisations and spontaneous working-class protests, and, more recently new social movements, where new modes of organising may emerge. The distinction between these three levels is seldom so clear-cut, and there is a need to emphasise the intricacies and complexities of such situations. This volume therefore seeks to identify more clearly and under new angles long-term convergences and divergences in terms of both organisational structures and decision-making processes.

Abstract:
Despite the Anglo-Hungarian Trade and Cultural Exchange
Agreement having been signed in 1955, following the Hungarian
Revolt of 1956 the bilateral relations once again sank to a low ebb. The
Intelligence Department of the Hungarian Ministry of Internal Affairs
then launched a campaign for the persuasion of those British trade union
leaders who positioned themselves left from the centre of the Labour
Party in order to reach the acceptance of the Kádár regime. The endeavour
aimed at finding an ally in order to break out from the diplomatic isolation
provided Labour would form the government after the general election
of 1959. The London residency sought the contribution of the honorary
president and the general secretary of the Association of Supervisory
Staffs, Executives and Technicians (ASSET) but to no avail.

Britain and the Greek Civil War, 1944–1949 draws upon the author’s doctoral dissertation and provides a welcome addition to studies on that period in Greek history. John Sakkas takes up a novel approach that does not focus solely on Greek politics, whether they are national or local, nor does it centre simply on British policy in Greece. ‘On the contrary’, the author states that ‘it deals with the profound impact the Greek question had upon the British public and the labour movement, in particular, from Churchill’s military intervention in December 1944 to the end of the civil war in 1949. The chief aim of this study is to analyse the response of the British people to the official policy in Greece, to relate it to contemporary attitudes and concerns, and to assess the various ways in which the coming of the Cold War affected critics of British foreign policy both in the Labour Party and the trade union movement’ (p. 10).

Sakkas begins by outlining the main goal of his study and the factors that induced him to choose this specific period. After offering a discussion on public opinion and following the specific course of action for ‘measuring’ opinion on ‘political issues’ as suggested by American historian Lee Benson, he adopts it in his own account of British public opinion from December 1944 to October 1949. Sakkas identifies three main types of events, broadly defined as: a) sequences of 179 relevant governmental decisions, b) actions taken by agents to shape opinion, and c) events contributing to significant changes in the historical situation. These three points underpin the
narrative framework, and Sakkas selects five distinct types of opinion indicators for the study: a) editorials, reports and articles published by influential newspapers and journals that represented different political perspectives, b) debates in Parliament and the Labour Party and TUC conferences, c) resolutions issued by political organisations, trade unions, party constituencies and pressure groups, d) the expression of opinions by well-known figures (writers, artists, intellectuals), and e) public opinion polling and correspondence in the press. All of these are useful means for understanding what the British public thought regarding its country’s policies on Greece and its political leaders who played an influential role in Greek affairs (Churchill, Bevin) (p. 15).

Since the early nineteenth century, contemporary observers and historians have argued that the apparent dichotomy in agricultural living standards between a seemingly prosperous northern England and an impoverished south was primarily caused by the new industrial sectors which developed in the north of England between 1780 and the mid-nineteenth century. In Northumberland, the dominant industrial sector was coal mining. This paper challenges the assumption that coal mining was the principal factor in elevating agricultural wages in Northumberland. On the contrary, the mining sector played only a minor role in establishing agricultural wages in Northumberland, and there is evidence that day wages had little impact on agricultural living standards in the region during the nineteenth century.

The article covers the history of the idea, its seeds in the beliefs of William Morris, how it was subsequently taken up by Jennie Lee through the first white paper for the arts, which she produced for the Wilson government, and the founding of the Arts Council. It then looks at how the ideas developed through the community arts movement in the 1970s and 1980s and found a home in the policy and practice of the Greater London Council. Coming up to date, current cultural policy is explored, including the present day under a Conservative government, but also how the Labour Party, re-formed under Jeremy Corbyn and reinvigorated by Momentum, is looking again at what cultural democracy means in the 21 century. Finally, a look at some of the challenges, a glimpse into the work of the strategy group Arts for Labour, and also how these ideas have fed into Middlesex’s own MA Art and Social Practice and new exit degree BA Fine Art Social Practice.

In The Thatcherite Offensive, Alexander Gallas provides a class-centred political analysis of Thatcherism. Drawing upon Greek state theorist Nicos Poulantzas, he challenges both mainstream and critical accounts of British politics in the 1980s and 90s. He shows that Thatcherism’s sucess and novelty, indeed its unity as a political project, lay in the fact that the Thatcher governments profoundly shifted class relations in Britain in favour of capital and restructured the institutions underpinning class domination. According to Gallas, it was an integral part of the Thatcherite project to directly intervene in labour relations, to deprive workers of their ability to forge coalitions, and to smash militant trade unionism.

British Communism and the Politics of Race explores the role that the Communist Party of Great Britain played within the anti-racism movement in Britain from the 1940s to the 1980s. As one of the first organisations to undertake serious anti-colonial and anti-racist activism within the British labour movement, the CPGB was a pioneering force that campaigned against racial discrimination, popular imperialism and fascist violence in British society. The book examines the balancing act that the Communist Party negotiated in its anti-racist work, between making appeals to the labour movement to get involved in the fight against racism and working with Britain's ethnic minority communities, who often felt let down by the trade unions and the Labour Party. Transitioning from a class-based outlook to an embrace of the new social movements of the 1960s–70s, the CPGB played an important role in the anti-racist struggle, but by the 1980s, it was eclipsed by more radical and diverse activist organisations. This book will be of interest to readers of British left-wing history and politics, as well as those interested in the history of British race relations, including academics, postgraduate students and activists.

SUMMARY: 1. THE HUNGER STRIKERS – 2. RIOTING IN BELFAST – 3. MIGHTY AMERICA – 4. TENNESSEE SUFFRAGE QUESTION IS NOT NEW – 5. BRITISH RULE INDIA – 6. THE MARSHALL ISLANDS – 7. MAC SWENY APPEAL DENIED – 8. FRENCH DEMANDS – 9. JAPAN AND THE UNITED STATES – 10. THE INDIAN FRONTIER – 11. GERMANY’S FOREIGN POLICY – 12. RESCUE CREW OF DISABLED SUBMARINE – 13. THE HUGE US NAVY – 14. POLAND COMPLAINS – 15. SETTLING THE TERMS – 16. PLEA FOR MCSWENEY – 17. A NOTABLE TERCENTENARY – 18. STRIKE IN THE US – 19.JAPAN AND AMERICA – 20. IRISH CRISIS – 21. FRANCE COMING BACK – 22. PROHIBITION IN AMERICA – 23. MYSTERY ON INFLUENZA – 24.CROWN PRINCE HIROHITO – 25. LLOYD GEORGE’S VAIN OFFER – 26. REPUBLICAN ARMY – 27. US REGARDED AS A QUITTER, COX SAYS – 28. BRITISH MINERS’ DEMANDS – 29. INDIA AND TURKISH PEACE – 30. DISARMING. THE NATIONS – 31. PRINCESS ANASTASIA – 32. POSITION FOR MR. CHURCHILL – 33. MAYOR MCSWENEY IS MUCH WORSE, REPORT – 34. LEAGUE OF NATIONS – 35. IMMIGRATION – 36. JAPANESE AFFAIRS – 37. ITALIAN UPHEAVAL – 38. PROHIBITION IN AMERICA – 39. REPUBLICANISM’S REVIVAL – 40. COMMUNISM SPREAD [IN JAPAN] – 41. OUTRAGES BY MILITARY IN IRELAND – 42.400 CATHOLICS RESIGN FROM POLICE FORCE IN IRELAND – 43. MANY KILLED AND HURT IN TERRIFIC EXPLOSION THAT ROCKS ALL OF LOWER MANHATTAN, N.Y – 44. JAPAN’S [ISSUES WITH AMERICA] – 45. TUBERCULOSIS VACCINE – 46. BOMB CAUSE OF DISASTER, FLYNN – 47. GERMAN LOSS IN WAR – 48. JAPANESE WOMEN OPEN SUFFRAGE FIGHT – 49. OUR BRAVE SECRET AGENT – 50. FLYNN CERTAIN BOMB – THROWER WILL BE BROUGHT TO JUSTICE – 51. POLICE FEAR NEW BOMB OUTRAGES – 52. WALL STREET EXPLOSION – 53. THE CALIFORNIAN TROUBLE – 54.U.S FLEET MOVEMENT – 55. A DANGEROUS MOVEMENT [IN INDIA] – 56. ANARCHIST OUTRAGES IN ITALY – 57. COLBY DEFENDS AMERICAN PROCEDURE IN HAITI – 58. DUTCH MEANS OF DEFENCE – 59. LAMBETH CONFERENCE REPORT – 60. CALIFORNIAN IMMIGRATION PROBLEM – 61. AMERICA AND THE REDS – 62. [REPUBLICAN] FOREIGN POLICY IS CAUSE OF CONCERN – 63. THE LAST WAR – AND THE NEXT 64. JAPS MENACE GUAM’S VALUE – 65. ONE IN EVERY 25 GERMAN INFANTS INHERIT DISEASE – 66. U.S AGENTS NAB AID OF LENIN – 67. BRITISH GIRLS “ON THEIR OWN” – 68. JAPAN AND SIBERIA – 69.BRUSSSELS’S FINANCIAL CONFERENCE – 70. US MARINE ACT – 71. RUSSIAN JEWELS’S SYSTEMATIC CONFISCATION – 72. ARRIVALS IN AMERICA – 73. AMERICA’S NEW TERROR – 74. PROMOTION OF BOLSHEVISM – 75. THE IMMIGRATION QUESTION – 76. DOMESTIC DISSENSIONS CONDEMNED BY NEW FRENCH PRESIDENT – 77. SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE – 78. [FEMALE] BOLSHEVIK RASPUTIN – 79. WAR OR INFLUENCE IN ASIA – 80. [REPUBLICAN] MERCHANT MARINE POLICY – 81. FRENCH IN MOROCCO – 82. THE PILOT’S ANGEL GUARDIAN – 83. DISCUSSION POSTPONED – 84. INDIAN ARMY

İşçi Partisi seçimleri kaybettikten sonra, birçok kişi partiyi işçi sınıfıyla bağlantılarını koparmakla suçladı. Ancak iddialar o kadar da net değil.

İşçi Partisi’nin genel seçimleri kaybetmesinin ardından, alışılmış bir kanaat oluştu: İşçi Partisi giderek orta sınıf ve geleneksel işçi sınıfı tabanı tarafından terk edildi. Bu söylem, İşçi Partisi için işçi sınıfı desteğinin 2010-2019 yılları arasında çöktüğünü iddia eden yetkin akademisyenler tarafından destekleniyor. İddia, David Cutts, Matthew Goodwin, Oliver Heath ve Paula Surridge tarafından Political Quarterly’de yayımlanacak olan yakın tarihli bir makalede ve Goodwin ve Heath tarafından Parlamento İşçi Partisi’ne yapılan bir sunumda sert bir şekilde öne sürüldü.

"Against the Grain" is the first general history of the British far left to be published in the twenty-first century. Its contents cover a range of organisations beyond the Labour Party, bringing together leading experts on British left-wing politics to examine issues of class, race and gender from 1956 to the present day. The essays collected here are designed to highlight the impact made by the far left on British politics and society. Though the predicted revolution did not come, organisations such as the International Socialists, the International Marxist Group and Militant became household names in the 1970s and 1980s. Taken as a whole, the collection demonstrates the extent to which the far left has weaved its influence into the political fabric of Britain.

In Großbritannien werden Streiks wieder zum Gegenstand politischer Diskussionen – und zwar, ohne dass sich ihre Frequenz nachhaltig erhöht hat. Warum ist das so? Und inwiefern haben gewerkschaftliche Strategien zu dieser Wahrnehmungsverschiebung beigetragen? Dies sind die Leitfragen des vorliegenden Aufsatzes. Der Autor arbeitet eine Veränderung in der politischen Aufladung von Streiks heraus: Wurden Ausstände in der New Labour-Ära tendenziell von außen politisiert, verschiebt sich dies in der Konjunktur der Krise. Nun sind die Streikakteure selbst diejenigen, welche die
Politisierung von Streiks vorantreiben. Die Gründe dafür sind einerseits die von Seiten der Regierung Cameron verfolgte Kürzungspolitik – die den öffentlichen Sektor ins Zentrum der Auseinandersetzungen mit der parlamentarischen und der außerparlamentarischen Opposition rückt – und andererseits
der Schlingerkurs der Labour Party unter Ed Milibands Führung. In dieser Konstellation zeigt sich auf Seiten der britischen Gewerkschaften ein vorsichtiges Bemühen, eine eigenständige politische Stimme zu finden.

John Saville (1916-2009) was one of the leading socialist academics of his generation, and one of the most influential figures in British labour history. This new collection of essays offers a variety of perspectives on his lifetime’s work. A first section - commitments - assesses Saville’s activities, at different times during his life, as a communist, as a founder of the New Left, and as editor (with Ralph Miliband) of the long-running Socialist Register. The middle section - themes - looks at key themes which mattered for Saville, from revolutionary anti-imperialism in India to the politics of Cold War and debates in labour history. In part three - interventions - contributors discuss Saville’s contributions to contemporary historical understanding of Chartism, British labourism and the Cold War. The aim is to offer critical analysis and reflection in the tradition which Saville himself did so much to establish.

Contributors: Tony Adams, John Callaghan, Malcolm Chase, Madeleine Davis, Sobhanlal Datta Gupta, David Howell, Dianne Kirby, Colin Leys, Kevin Morgan, and John Sakkas.

Betty Basan
Reflections on Last Newsletter

Jerusalem

Bloody Friday – March 30, 2018
Bloody Friday2 – April 6, 2018
Yasser Murtaja
Bloody Friday3 – April, 13, 2018
Bloody Friday4 – April 20, 2018

Israel Reaches Landmark Deal with UN to Resettle African Migrants. But then Retracts. 

David Grossman: Voice of moderation, of sanity, of wisdom
 
Spin Doctoring

British Labour and Antisemitism
Israeli Labour Party Suspends Relations with UK Labour Party

Millicent Fawcett

Zuckerberg’s Testimony in Congress

My New Article - Raphael Cohen-Almagor and E. Wesley Ely, “Euthanasia and Palliative Sedation in Belgium”, BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care (2018).

Wes Ely’s CNN Article

New Books – Amos N. Guiora, Earl Warren, Ernesto Miranda and Terrorism

Gem of the Month – Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Playing Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2

Spring Please
Guess
Monthly Poems
Light Side

Contrariando expectativas de uma longa recessão, o governo Cameron obteve êxitos econômicos. Num mercado de 30 milhões de trabalhadores, criou aproximadamente 1,8 milhão de empregos em cinco anos - quase cumprindo a meta de mil novos empregos diários. O Reino Unido é a economia que mais cresce no G-7 (3,2%), acima da média mundial. Pós-crise, o endividamento público foi reduzido à metade (do mais alto índice na União Europeia para um dos mais baixos, num bloco em crise). A inflação permanece em baixa. Alavancados pelo crescimento econômico (via parcerias com o capital globalizado), Cameron e seu partido dispõem de uma plataforma política diante da qual os trabalhistas não representaram alternativas.

The current troubles inside the Labour Party-which followed Jeremy Corbyn ' s election as party leader in September 2015 and were accelerated by the 23 June 2016 Brexit referendum-have made a number of concerns that seemed outmoded topical again, and rekindled the interest of both academics and practitioners in organisational matters. A party built just over a century ago by the joint efforts of most trade-union and socialist organisations, a party that had grown to become the second 'government party' in the British political system and seemed there to stay has often appeared, since Corbyn became leader, on the verge of implosion-a situation that has left scholars and the general public struggling to fi nd satisfactory explanations, and to foresee the possible outcomes. The Labour Party ' s surprisingly satisfying results in the 8 June 2017 snap election, although they have led a number of Corbyn critics to qualify their scepticism, will probably not put an end to the crisis. An essential purpose of this book is therefore to put this disconcerting moment into historical perspective, to show that the present disunities are nothing new and are far from capturing every source of disagreement within the British labour movement. The British labour movement, from its inception, was never a homogeneous entity, not even in those rare phases when unity seemed to prevail over fracture and factionalism. Some moments appeared, at the time, as triumphs of class solidarity: 1906 and the formation of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP); 1926 and the Trades Union Congress ' s (TUC) ' s call for a general strike; 1945 and the landslide victory of the Labour Party in the general election. Yet the seeds of internal strife were always there. The 1906 breakthrough was followed, only fi ve years later, by a wave of strikes in which disappointment

Many of Tony Blair’s policy decisions in the Israeli-Palestinian arena were controversial and politically costly. Blair, Labour and Palestine argues that gaps between him and much of his party were rooted in different world views. A positive attitude towards Israel came to be seen as a defining mark of New Labour loyalists. However, contrasting views among left-leaning strands in the party reflected a broader set of ideological rifts. Such differences became increasingly significant in the wake of 9/11 as British policymakers sought to understand and respond to Islamic anger against the West. Based on interviews conducted by the author and on previously unseen documents, this unique case study shows how the distinctive world view of a political leader defined foreign policy, by shaping Britain’s response to Islamist violence and its interconnected approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Author Toby Greene also examines the extent to which ministers and officials considered shifting foreign policy in response to fears of Islamist radicalisation in the UK, and Blair’s role in stopping this trend, especially after the 7/7 bombings.