London - Public Meeting and Book Launch

[Scottish_Militant]

http://www.marxist.com/announcements/londo...eeting1112.html

London Public Meeting and Book Launch
In the Cause of Labour
A History of British Trade Unionism


"Rob Sewell’s book is not just another history of the trade union movement. It is a history rooted in a Marxist analysis of the struggles of working people in Britain. The struggle for better conditions at work, the struggle against exploitation and ultimately the struggle to transform the trade unions and labour movement in to a fighting force capable of changing society.
For all who are active in the movement today it is a vital weapon in our battle for a better world."
Jeremy Dear, general secretary, National Union of Journalists


“This book vividly demonstrates the colossal potential that exists in the trade union movement and is a valuable contributionin helping our movement face the tasks ahead”
Andy Gilchrist, general secretary, Fire Brigades’Union


“I welcome the publication of this book which will help today’s generation of trade unionist learn the important lessons of our history”
Paul Mackney, general secretary, NAFTHE.


There are many narrative histories of the struggles of British workers. However Rob Sewell’s book is different. The purpose of this history of British trade unionism is not only to recite the wrongs inflicted on working people, or simply to describe their heroic struggles. It is an attempt to draw out the lessons of the events that helped shape the Labour movement, and made it what it is. This is a book that sets out from the proposition that the interests between capital and labour are incompatible and takes sides in the war between the classes.

This book is aimed especially at class-conscious workers who are seeking to escape from the ills of the capitalist system, that has embroiled the world in a quagmire of wars, poverty and suffering. This history of trade unions is particularly relevant at the present time. After a long period of stagnation, the fresh winds of the class struggle are beginning to blow. We see growing industrial militancy in many countries, which heralds a fundamental change in the situation. In Britain there is ferment in the trade unions, characterised by a sharp turn to the left in one union conference after another.

The British labour movement is the oldest in the world. More than two hundred years ago, the pioneers of the movement created illegal revolutionary trade unions in the face of the most terrible violence and repression. This book spans the period since then to the present day, through Chartism, New Unionism, the battles preceding and following the first world war, the General Strike, the depression, the post-war revival, the radicalism of the 1970s, the miners' strike and the employers' offensive of the nineties. The book also deals with the current swing to the left in the trade unions and the new challenge of Blairism.


Thursday, December 11
7,30 pm, Convay Hall, Red Lion Square
Near Holborn Tube

[Crypticchronoclasm]

I am attending anybody fancy meeting up. PM me

Crypticchronoclasm