Jack S
anarcho-syndicalist scruff, #rayovallecano, #itfc, historian of work and workplace cultures (first car factories 1945-77, now NHS 1948-)
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Class and politics in 2017
As someone born in the 1980s, the shifting role of class in frontline British politics over my lifetime has been entirely bewildering. The first election I was aware of was 1997, so I grew up with Tony Blair and Blairism. Blairism dedicated an inordinate amount of time to telling…
Trade unions are workers
One of the historical stories that’s driven British politics over the last 40 years has been “trade union power”. It’s been a big part of campaigning in virtually every general election since 1970, the year that Ted Heath promised voters a new Industrial Relations Act to curb the…
Pretending to be someone else
Politically speaking, I don’t generally get along with Leninists of any stripe, but I have to admit they do come up with the odd razor sharp political category. One that came to mind recently was “substitutionism” — a concept invented by Trotsky whereby the party substitutes…