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Labour History

Labour History Titles

With authors such as Tom Mann, Ken Coates, Tony Topham and R. H. Tawney on subjects ranging from The Making of the Labour Movement, Syndicalism, Workers' Control to Bevanism and Feminism this section is packed full for the discerning reader of Labour History.

People's Republic of South Yorkshire
by Helen Jackson

Publication date 1st May 2021. Pre-order now.

This is the story of how class solidarity translated into creative and radical local initiative, with fairness at its core, during the 1970s and 1980s. Contributors took the experience into their later work, lives and careers. Helen Jackson was one of them.

The author's historical and political narrative merges with her own reflections as a woman in politics, so that we see how political action delivers change and understanding at an individual as well as a societal level.

Focused on the local and regional, the memoir holds wider lessons for national and global politics. Valuing women's contribution to work, welfare and care in the community delivers sound economic results, especially when it is linked with ready access to lifelong learning through adult education.

Solidarity crosses frontiers and includes diverse strands of inequality. People are looking for ways to devolve power, because they see solutions to global challenges such as climate and health can be best identified and delivered through communities.

Helen Jackson was elected to Sheffield City Council (1980-91) where, as Chair of Public Works and then Employment, she helped to bring about ground-breaking opportunities for women, unemployed people and poorer communities. Elected to Parliament in 1992, she served on the Environment Select Committee and helped win the argument for 'quotas' which led to the huge increase in women Labour MPs in 1997. She was Parliamentary Private Secretary to three successive Secretaries of State for Northern Ireland and helped establish good liaison with women and community groups there to win support for the Good Friday Agreement and its implementation. She led cross-party work in Parliament on water, steel, South Africa and on the gender input into the Commission for Africa. After stepping down as MP in 2005, she worked with the Equal OpportunitiesCommission to form the Women and Pension network.

Price: £12.99

ISBN: 978 0 85124 8967

320 pages | A5 format

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The Sheffield Workers' Committee

Rank and file trade unionism during the First World War
by Edd Mustill

This pamphlet describes the development and activity of the Sheffield Workers' Committee (SWC), an unofficial trade union organisation which came into existence in the city during the First World War. The Committee arose in the munitions factories of Sheffield's East End, as a specific response to wartime conditions. At a time when strikes were regarded as a threat to national security, and workers downing tools could find themselves arrested, deported, or taken into the military, the SWC helped to organise industrial action on a large scale as part of both local and national disputes. Its core activists were mainly shop stewards in the engineering unions. They were mostly skilled workers who had discovered radical ideas in the pre-war years through a combination of self-education and the bread-and-butter organising work of the city's socialist movement. They were, by and large, young men who were frustrated with the sluggish and conservative attitudes of the leaders of their own trade unions. As the Committee grew it came to encompass many other groups of workers, including some of the thousands of women who entered Sheffield's factories to make munitions of war.

The SWC did not long outlast the war, but achieved remarkable things in its short existence. It mobilised tens of thousands of workers in strike action, winning major concessions for skilled workers from the wartime government which the national union leaderships had been unable to do. Moving beyond its initial base, it won large sections of Sheffield's labour movement to the idea of working class unity, as opposed to the dominant outlook in the engineering unions which privileged the interests of skilled craftsmen above those of other workers. It advocated equal pay for women, and helped "unskilled" labourers win significant pay increases later in the war. Through key activists like J.T. Murphy, the SWC contributed theoretically and practically to the national and international labour movement.

Price: £5.00

ISBN: 9780 851 248714

52 pages | pamphlet

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Morgan Phillips

Labour Party Secretary, Socialist International Chairman
by Morgan Phillips

Born in 1902 to a Welsh coalmining family, Morgan Phillips worked his way up within the Labour Party in Britain to become General Secretary. Nine months after his appointment, the Party won the 1945 General Election and formed its first ever majority government.

Six years of government were followed by a tumultuous decade in opposition. As Richard Crossman saw it, 'the Labour Party would have disintegrated during the years of dissension that followed Aneurin Bevan's resignation without the presence of Morgan Phillops in Transport House'.

Morgan Phillips' autobiography, published for the first time, describes the highs and the lows of the post-war Labour Party and his dealings not just with Nye Bevan but also with Clement Atlee, Herbert Morrison, Ernest Bevin and other leading figures of the movement. It also records his unique role in rebuilding the Socialist International, an organisation of which he became the first Chairman in 1951.

This posthumous publication will ensure that Morgan Phillips' contribution to the Labour Party and to democratic socialism will always be remembered.

Published by Spokesman for Labour Heritage

Price: £14.99

ISBN: 978 0 85124 867 7

171 pages | paperback

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British Labour and the Russian Revolution - Centenary Edition
The Leeds Convention of 1917
An expanded centenary edition
Edited by Janet Douglas and Christian Hogsbjerg with Ken Coates' original introduction

'I got back from Leeds yesterday. It was a wonderful occasion, but a little disappointing from the point of view of practical outcomes. Snowden and MacDonald and Anderson are not the right men - they have not the sense for swift dramatic action. The right man would be Williams (of the Transport Workers), but he is not yet sufficiently prominent. Smillie is perfect except he is too old. The enthusiasm and all but unanimity were wonderful - out of 2,500, there were only about three dissentients. Nothing was lacking except leaders…'
Bertrand Russell, 5 June 1917

The Leeds Convention of June 1917 has been described by Ralph Miliband as 'perhaps the most remarkable gathering of the period.' The description seems to be a fair one. On the one-hundredth anniversary of the Russian Revolution and the coming together of the many and varied strands of the British labour movement at the Leeds Convention, Spokesman is pleased to re-publish 'British Labour and the Russian Revolution' with additional materials.

Price: £8.00

108 pages | paperback

ISBN: 978 0 85124 8653

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From Liberal to Labour
with Women's Suffrage
The Story of Catherine Marshall
By Jo Vellacott

Catherine Marshall was a vital figure in the women's suffrage movement in Britain before the First World War. Using her remarkable political skills on behalf of the major non-militant organization, the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, she built close connections with major suffragist politicians, leading some - in all three parties - to consider adopting a measure of women's enfranchisement as a party plank.

By 1913 Marshall was uniquely placed as a lobbyist, with inside information and sympathetic listeners in every party. Through her the dynamically reorganized NUWSS brought the women's suffrage issue to the fore of public awareness. It pushed the Labour Party to adopt a strong stand on women's suffrage and raised working-class consciousness, re-awakening a long-dormant demand for full adult enfranchisement. Had the general election due in 1915 taken place, NUWSS financial and organizational support for the Labour Party might well have been substantial enough to influence the final results.

'The book's great strength is its insider perspective, based on the author's exemplary, definitive analysis of the huge archive of Catherine Marshall papers - a source never so thoroughly worked before. The author is clearly the world authority on this material and her work is, in addition to its contribution to British political history, a real addition to the growing corpus of British women's biography.'
SYBIL OLDFIELD, University of Sussex

Price: £17.99

518 pages | Indexed

ISBN: 978 0 85124 8523

Paperback

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Corbyn's Campaign
Edited by Tom Unterrainer
With Contributions from Umaar Kazmi, Abi Rhodes, Ben Sellers, Christine Shawcroft, Tony Simpson, Nadia Whittome, Adele Williams, Chris Williamson, plus Jeremy Corbyn

Defying all expectations, Jeremy Corbyn was elected Labour Leader with a resounding mandate. His campaign re-wrote the rules of British politics by mobilising tens of thousands of supporters both within and outside the Party. The 'Corbyn for Leader' campaign, a radical social movement reflecting aspects of the new left across Europe, and Corbyn's ultimate victory provide the rarest of opportunities to redefine the Labour Party and socialism for a new generation.

Corbyn's Campaign tells the story of Jeremy's victory and articulates the opportunities for a renewal of socialism in Britain. Contributors were active - at both national and local levels - throughout the leadership campaign, and continue to be so as a new politics unfolds.

Chris Williamson, Labour MP for Derby North, lost his seat by 41 votes at the 2015 General Election. Chris is a regular contributor to Tribune and spoke on behalf of Jeremy Corbyn's campaign at meetings across the country.

Ben Sellers of Red Labour blogs at the World Turned Upside Down; Radical Thinking from the North East.

Christine Shawcroft is a long-serving member of the Labour Party's National Executive Committee, and contributes to Labour Briefing.

Adele Williams is Secretary of the Sherwood Branch Labour Party in Nottingham East and a trade union administrator.

Tony Simpson edits The Spokesman, the journal of the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation, and is a member of UNITE.

Tom Unterrainer teaches maths and is compiling a political bibliography of Ken Coates, who helped establish the Institute for Workers' Control.

Abi Rhodes is a writer and reviewer for the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation, a student of Critical Theory and Politics, and is a member of UNITE.

Reviews
Richard Price, February 2016
Mike Phipps, February 2016
Andreas Bieler, 28 January 2016
John Daniels, 25 January 2016

Price: £7.95

104 pages

ISBN: 978 0 85124 8516

Paperback

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<span style='font-size: 14px;'>Bevanism: Labour's High Tide</span>

Bevanism: Labour's High Tide
by Mark Jenkins

"The first edition of this work, in 1979, coincided with a seminal moment of Labour's history, though few might have anticipated it at the time. The era of Thatcherism was about to descend. In that final year of the Callaghan administration, Michael Foot was Leader of the House and yet he kindly granted me an interview in his busy parliamentary office. In the event it lasted for two whole hours because of Michael's abiding interest in the Bevanite movement, of which he had, of course, been a key leading member …

The book began as a four-year research thesis for my Doctorate. Upon completion, it was immediately taken up by Ken Coates and published by Spokesman as a valuable contribution to Labour's post-war history … The thesis of Bevanism was a polemic against leftist denigrators of the seventies who denied that the Bevanites represented the broadest, most popular Labour current of the twentieth century, with a mass following in both the Party and the trades unions far exceeding the levels of support enjoyed by the Socialist League and the Independent Labour Party (ILP) in the thirties. The weight of statistical evidence I assembled as proof has never subsequently been challenged. However, the thesis was never a slavish promotion of Bevanism or even its programme.

So, we return to Bevan's social-democratic dilemma. Where do the boundaries of the state end and the free market begin? Bevan was never the ideologue of dogmatic statism. He was always the principled pragmatist, prepared to win over the medical profession by 'stuffing their mouths with gold' to establish the principle of free public medicine. The NHS remains his abiding legacy, which today, along with public education, faces its sternest test since the days of Clement Attlee's bold initiatives."

Mark Jenkins, from his new introduction to the 2012 edition

Price: £17.50

324 pages | Paperback

ISBN: 978 0 85124 8127

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<span style='font-size: 14px;'>Inside the Left</span>

Inside the Left
By Fenner Brockway

"Fenner Brockway lived a long life and it was certainly packed with colourful action. Here we are reproducing the first volume of his autobiography, which was written on the eve of the Second World War. Never afraid to court controversy, this book celebrated the Socialist movement's opposition to the First World War, and the activities of an anti-war movement which continued after that conflict.

A pupil of Keir Hardie and Bernard Shaw, the young Brockway found his natural home in the Independent Labour Party, which developed his talents as an editor and public agitator. He became acquainted with many of the key personalities of international socialism, and with all the leading figures on the British Left, including H. G. Wells, Bertrand Russell and the political spokesmen of the growing Labour movement.

This book contains Brockway's detailed account of the efforts of the British Left to find some kind of political unity during the years of the Labour Party's split, when Ramsay MacDonald formed a National Government. The ILP left the Labour Party, and entered into a variety of negotiations with the Communists and others to attempt to crystallise a Socialist opposition."

Ken Coates
Foreword to the new edition

Reviews:
Morning Star, 22nd March 2010 - John Green

Book of the Month: Fenner Brockway's Inside the Left - by John Green in London Progressive Journal

Price: £18.00

352 pages | Indexed

ISBN: 978 085124 7748

Socialist Classic

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<span style='font-size: 14px;'>Tom Mann's Memoirs</span>

Tom Mann's Memoirs
Introduce by Ken Coates

The first secretary of the Independent Labour Party, the President of the dockers' union, the first General Secretary of the Amalgamated Engineering Union: a mere roster of the positions he held in the Labour Movement, of which this is a tiny fraction, would establish Tom Mann as a Pioneer. But what he did was always more impressive than the positions from which he did it. He was an initiator, a catalyst, a goad to action. Whenever a real crisis came, his stature found its true proportions, and again and again Tom Mann became a pivot for the actions of downtrodden people. Throughout his lifetime as a militant socialist, whatever the stages of evolution of his thought, he invariably displayed a gift for finding himself at the centre of every major struggle of his time. For this reason it is important that these Memoirs, first published in 1923, should again become available.

Price: £15.00

278 pages | Paperback | Indexed

ISBN: 978 0 85124 7588

Socialist Classic Series

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<span style='font-size: 14px;'>The First Worker Co-operators</span>

The First Worker Co-operators
by John Bellers

Introduction by Ken Coates

During the lifetime of the Labour Government which was elected in October 1974, the only experiment in industrial democracy to assume a tangible and practical form, was the creation of a number of workers' co-operatives, under the auspices of the Department of Industry, at the time that it was headed by Tony Benn.

Against great odds, in difficult commercial circumstances, and facing strong Civil Service opposition, the three co-operatives struggled on as long as they could. The First to die was the Scottish Daily News. Its story is documented in a book published by the Institute for Workers' Control, The New Worker Co-operatives.

Price: £2.00

30 pages | Pamphlet

ISBN: 978 0 85124 0664

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<span style='font-size: 14px;'>Workers' Control</span>

Workers' Control
by Ken Coates

Trade Unionists in Britain pursued their hope of a more fulfilling life in the secure knowledge that if they joined together, a better world was indeed possible. Now, a new generation of trade unionists, internationally, may in turn draw inspiration from the ideas and experiences of those who came together in pursuit of industrial democracy and workers' control.

'This book is a significant contribution to the ongoing discussion around issues of workers' control...'

Jeremy Dear National Union of Journalists, Andy Gilchrist Fire Brigades Union, Billy Hayes Communication Workers Union, Joe Marino Bakers, Food & Allied Workers' union, Mick Rix ASLEF, Mark Serwotka Public & Commercial Services Union, Tony Woodley Transport & General Workers' Union.

Read a review by Jim Mortimer

Price: £7.99

190 pages | Paperback

ISBN: 978 0 85124 6826

Socialist Renewal 3:7

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<span style='font-size: 14px;'>The Awkward Warrior</span>

The Awkward Warrior
Frank Cousins: His Life and Times
by Geoffrey Goodman

Frank Cousins was General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union from 1956 to 1969. During those years he helped change the Labour Party and the TUC, and in so doing influenced an entire generation.

"... a good book on a great theme ..."
Michael Foot, Guardian

"I know of no better account of the events in
the TUC and Labour Party during Cousins' years
from 1956 to 1969."
George Aitken, AUEW Journal

"... a vital text for anyone who wants to understand the underlying truth of the Labour Movement."
Richard Clements, Tribune

"Geoffrey Goodman has done every bit as good a job as Bullock did in his study of Bevin."
Peter Paterson, Spectator

Price: £17.99

616 pages | Indexed

ISBN: 978 0 85124 4174

Paperback

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Spokesman Books | Labour History

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