Nothing to Lose But Our Chains

Jane Hardy

Description

Capitalism is a dynamic system, continually adapting itself to exploit workers in new ways. In Britain today, the gig economy is its newest form, expressed through precarious contracts and the supposed atomisation of workers. In this book, Jane Hardy argues that despite capitalism’s best efforts to stop us, we can always find ways to fight it.

Through a range of case studies, from cleaners to university lecturers, Hardy looks at how workers are challenging employers’ assaults in the neoliberal workplace, comparing these new actions to a long history of British working class struggle. She explores the historic role of migrants in the British workforce, from the Windrush generation to more recent arrivals from the European Union, as well as placing womens’ collective action centre stage. Analysing the rise of robotics and artificial intelligence, she refutes claims that we are entering a post-capitalist society.

Nothing to Lose but our Chains is an optimistic exploration into the power of the working class, showing that no matter what tools capitalism uses, it can always be resisted.

List of Figures

List of Tables

Acknowledgements

List of Abbreviations

1. Changing Terrains of Work and Struggle

2. Neoliberal Britain

3. Narratives and Numbers of British Capitalism

4. New Icons of Work? The ‘Gig’ Economy and Precarious Labour

5. Explosive Struggles and Bitter Defeats

6. Opening the ‘Black Box’ of Trade Unions

7. Striking Women: Still Hidden from History

8. Migrant Workers: Here to Stay, Here to Fight

9. Taking the Bosses to the Cleaners

10. Working and Organising in New ‘Satanic Mills’

11. Education Workers on the Front Line

12. New Kids on the Block

13. Capitalism’s Gravediggers

Notes

References

Index

Sujets

• Political Advocacy
• Political Process
• Political Ideologies
• POLITICAL SCIENCE
• Employabilité, métiers et formations
• Movimiento sindical
• Reino Unido
• 21st century
• Communism
• Industrial relations
• General officer
• Globalization
• United Kingdom
• Trade union
• Economics
• Great Britain
• World
• Business
• LAW
• General
• European
• Communisme
• Labor
• Royaume-Uni

Informations

• Publié par: Pluto Press
• Date de parution: 20 août 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781786808110
• Langue: English

Extrait

Nothing to Lose But Our Chains
An incisive analysis of the impact of twenty-first-century capitalism on work that charts the creative ways in which workers are fighting back against modern day exploitation.
-John McDonnell, Member of Parliament for Hayes and Harlington
Shows the stark reality that, while we have developed more creative ways of winning and seem to be winning more, the impact of capitalism and exploitation of workers hasn t changed very much at all.
-Sarah Woolley, General Secretary of the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union
A much-needed look at one of the biggest issues for employment relations research and trade unions today: precarious workers. Any study of contemporary union organising that embraces rank and file militancy as a way of building networks of solidarity is a welcome contribution to the debate.
-Dave Smith, co-author of Blacklisted: The Secret War Between Big Business and Union Activists
Deserves to become a guidebook for labour movement activists that can help to further energise collective resilience and resistance.
-Ralph Darlington, Emeritus Professor of Employment Relations, University of Salford
We have a decision to make: we can sit back and hope the trade unionists of tomorrow will emerge, or we can fight together for the future the next generation deserves. Nothing To Lose But Our Chains inspires us with contemporary and ongoing tales of fighting and winning.
-Rohan Kon, Organiser for Sheffield Needs A Pay Rise
A welcome reassertion of the crucial inter-relationship of gender and class in the struggle between labour and capital, placing recent industrial action by women workers centre stage.
-Sian Moore, Professor in Employment Relations and Human Resource Management, University of Greenwich
Nothing to Lose But Our Chains
Work and Resistance in Twenty-First-Century Britain
Jane Hardy
First published 2021 by Pluto Press
345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA
www.plutobooks.com
Copyright Jane Hardy 2021
The right of Jane Hardy to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 0 7453 4103 3 Hardback
ISBN 978 0 7453 4104 0 Paperback
ISBN 978 1 78680 810 3 PDF
ISBN 978 1 78680 811 0 EPUB
ISBN 978 1 78680 812 7 Kindle



This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental standards of the country of origin.
Typeset by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England
Simultaneously printed in the United Kingdom and United States of America
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
1 Changing Terrains of Work and Struggle
2 Neoliberal Britain
3 Narratives and Numbers of British Capitalism
4 New Icons of Work? The Gig Economy and Precarious Labour
5 Explosive Struggles and Bitter Defeats
6 Opening the Black Box of Trade Unions
7 Striking Women: Still Hidden from History
8 Migrant Workers: Here to Stay, Here to Fight
9 Taking the Bosses to the Cleaners
10 Working and Organising in New Satanic Mills
11 Education Workers on the Front Line
12 New Kids on the Block
13 Capitalism s Gravediggers
Notes
References
Index
Figures
2.1 Council housing in Tower Hamlets with Canary Wharf financial centre in the background
2.2 Strike by NHS workers in Unison and Unite in Wigan that forces NHS trust to scrap plans to outsource 900 workers in June 2018
4.1 Demonstrating in defence of Shrewsbury building workers
5.1 The release of five dockers in July 1972 imprisoned in Pentonville Prison for picketing under the Industrial Relations Act
7.1 Lee Jeans workers occupying their factory in 1981: Send out for 240 fish suppers!
7.2 Birmingham women carers lobbying on the first day of their strikes June 2018
7.3 Glasgow women strike for equal pay
8.1 On strike at Grunwicks
9.1 Demonstration of striking members of the PCS union at the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in June 2019
9.2 Cleaners at SOAS begin a 48-hour strike in March 2014
11.1 University workers at Kings College London picket during strike to defend pensions in February 2018
12.1 McDonald s workers on strike, International Workers Day, 1 May 2018
12.2 Protests by workers from the Bakers Union
Tables
3.1 The composition of employment (selected sectors and years), 1997-2020
3.2 Percentage share of global exports in merchandise and commercial services, 2018
5.1 Officially recorded strike activity in Britain, 1964-2019 (annual averages)
Acknowledgements
First and foremost, I am hugely grateful to the workers who gave up their time to be interviewed for this book. Many rank-and-file activists and trade union organisers generously shared their inspiring stories of struggle. I applaud Caroline Johnson and Mandy Buckley and the Birmingham women carers in Unison who so tenaciously fought to defend their jobs and wages. Thanks go to the Unison Branch in Glasgow, both to full-timers Jennifer McCarey and Mary Dawson and to activists such as Lyn-Marie O Hara who fought for and who won such an important victory for equal pay. Thanks also to Rhea Wolfson at the GMB. Sandy Nicoll was hugely helpful, not only in furnishing me with the details of the long battle of his Unison branch in SOAS against outsourcing, but also in stressing the importance of politics and trade unions. In addition, I benefitted enormously from the interview with Henry Chango-Lopez and the story of the fight both with their employer and trade union at Senate House, University of London. I would like to thank Katie Leslie from the PCS for sharing her account of the strike by low-paid workers who punched way above their weight and the five cleaners who shared their enthusiasm for their struggle. Luke Primarolo and Cheryl Pidgeon from Unite were generous in sharing the details and challenges of the fight they waged against appalling conditions at the Sports Direct warehouse. I am in awe of the unswerving support provided by rank-and-file members of the Unite Community branch: Jeannie Robinson, James Eaden and Aubrey Evans in particular. Magda (not her real name) shared her story about her uphill battle as a union rep working and organising on the warehouse floor.
I have worked in education all my life. I started my working life in an inner-London comprehensive in 1977, worked in a further education college and then in higher education from 1992 onwards. I have always been a rep, on the branch committee or in the case of the UCU on the National Executive Committee from its inception in 2006 until six years ago. Thanks go to stalwarts of the UCU and its predecessors, in particular Liz Lawrence, Malcolm Povey and Tom Hickey, for helping me reflect and remember. Sean Wallis, Anne Alexander, Carlo Morelli, Mark Pendleton and Lesley McGorrigan shared their inspiring accounts and anecdotes of the recent struggles in universities over pensions, inequality, casualisation and pay. The achievements of teachers, organising under lockdown and forcing the government to back down twice on fully opening schools, has been amazing. I applaud the energy and ingenuity of teacher activists Chris Denson, Venda Premkumar and Emma Davis. Thanks go to Jon Hegerty for sharing his knowledge and expertise about the NEU, which set an example to the trade union movement about how to protect workers and communities during a pandemic.
Last but not least I would like to thank interviewees who could be considered the new kids on the block - those workers and trade union organisers who have shown that there are no no-go areas for labour organisations. I am hugely grateful to Gareth Lane, Bryan Simpson, Bob Jeffreys, Austin Kelmore, Sarah Hughes, Max, Ava Caradonna and Jason Moyer-Lee who have organised in new sectors of the economy or those that are deemed to be unorganisable. Their struggles have struck a blow against those that argue that young people are not interested in trade unions.
The second group of people to whom I am indebted are those who took time out their busy schedules to read and comment on all or parts of the book. The contribution of Joseph Choonara, who read a complete early draft, is much appreciated. He offered important and insightful comments. Also, thanks go to Richard Milner and Bob Jeffreys - unknown to me before I undertook this project - but who have both been encouraging and generous in making useful suggestions. The content on trade union struggles has benefitted enormously from the forensic knowledge and political arguments, honed over a long period of time, of Dave Lyddon and Ralph Darlington. Discussions with Mark Thomas were extremely helpful and I am grateful for the insights provided by the work of Yuri Prasad on black struggles and Martin Upchurch on work and workers organisation. Thanks to Simon Joyce for sharing his expertise on gig workers and to Paul Stewart and Xanthe Whittaker for early comments on the book proposal.
I would like to acknowledge the joint research that I did with Nick Clark and Ian Fitzgerald on the response of trade unions to the arrival of workers from Central and Eastern Europe in the period after 2004. Also, I have greatly benefitted from the Polish workers - in Poland and Britain - who shared their experiences of being migrants. I appreciate the help of Maciek Bancarzewski and Julia Kubisa who acted as translators in capturing their stories. I was honoured to be the guest of ex-miner David Wray at the Durham Miners Gala in 2019 and to witness the vibrancy and resilience of working-class culture by both older and new generations. Many thanks to Charlie Kimber for helping me source some fantastic photographs and to photographers Guy Smallman, Geoff Dexter