Interpreting the Labour Party

Abstract

The start of the twenty-first century is superficially an inauspicious time to study labour movements.Political parties once associated with the working class have seemingly embraced capitalism.The trade unions with which these parties were once linked have suffered near-fatal reverses.The industrial proletariat looks both divided and in rapid decline.The development of multi-level governance, prompted by 'globalisation' has furthermore apparently destroyed the institutional context for advancing the labour 'interest' .Many consequently now look on terms such as the 'working class' , 'socialism' and the 'labour movement' as politically and historically redundant.The purpose of this series is to give a platform to those students of labour movements who challenge, or develop, established ways of thinking and so demonstrate the continued vitality of the subject and the work of those interested in it.For despite appearances many social democratic parties remain important competitors for national office and proffer distinctive programmes.Unions still impede the free flow of 'market forces' .If workers are a more diverse body and have exchanged blue collars for white, insecurity remains an everyday problem.The new institutional and global context is moreover as much of an opportunity as a threat.Yet, it cannot be doubted that compared to the immediate post-1945 period, at the beginning of the new millennium what many still refer to as the 'labour movement' is much less influential.Whether this should be considered a time of retreat or reconfiguration is unclear -and a question the series aims to clarify The series will not only give a voice to studies of particular national bodies but will also promote comparative works that contrast experiences across time and geography.This entails taking due account of the political, economic and cultural settings in which labour movements have operated.In particular this involves taking the past seriously as a way of understanding the present as well as utilising sympathetic approaches drawn from sociology, economics and elsewhere.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 9 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.