Capital & Class. - 1990. - Issue 41 issue 41

John Lovering

C

s

The Labour Party and the 'Peace Dividend'; How to waste an opportunity The revolutions in Eastern Europe have precipitated a reappraisal of the West's military posture . Since the supposed military threat has declined, it is reasonable to expect

that defence spending will

be

reduced accordingly (Lloyds Bank 1990, Dunne and Smith 1990, Renner 1990) . Talk of a possible 'Peace Dividend' can be heard throughout the media, and

CND

organised a major conference on the subject in June . In response to a general change of attitudes towards defence, Labour's latest Policy Review includes a section on arms conversion which is much more explicit than previous statements (Labour Party 1989, 1990) . Announcing the new policy to a meeting of the Centre for Product Development Services in Sheffield on May 24th, Alan Rogers (Labour's shadow Procurement Minister) claimed that Labour is now the only party offering a policy for the structured run-down of the arms industry, and a means for capitalising on the 'Peace Dividend' .

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Capital & Class

Table 1 Breakdown of UK Defence Spending (1990-91 estimate) By function: Expenditure on Personnel Expenditure on Equipment Other (Works, buildings, stores, etc) Total

8,781 8,296 4,146 21,223

by programme: Nuclear strategic force Navy general purpose European theatre ground forces Other Army ground forces Air force general purpose Reserve and Auxiliary Research and Development Training Equipment support and assoc . War and contingency stocks Other support function Total

1,480 2,503 3,387 206 3,668 458 2,454 1,407 1,093 476 4,031 21,223

Table 2 Defence spending as Percentage of GDP (1989) Greece USA UK Turkey France Norway Portugal Netherlands FRG Belgium Italy Spain Denmark Canada Luxemburg

6 .0% 5 .8% 4 .0% 3 .9% 3 .7% 3 .3% 3 .0% 2 .9% 2 .9% 2 .7% 2 .4 2.1 2.1 2.0% 1 .2%

Source: Statement on the Defence Estimates 1990, HMSO, Vol I p . 47, Vol II p . 9, p . 10.

The `Peace Dividend' Impending defence cuts

ing down until it reaches the proportion of national income common in other

NATO

It is impossible at this stage to do more than

countries by the end of its first period in

guess at the likely reduction in defence spending over the coming years . The

office (see Table 2) . Assuming that GDP continues to grow only modestly, this

Conservative government is already engaged in a major defence review, albeit covertly .

would require something in the order of a

This was signified by the appointment in

achieved through a steady annual reduction

July 1989 of Alan Clark as Minister for

throughout the first Kinnock government at

Procurement . Clark, 'a dangerously influen-

slightly more than twice the rate the Con-

tial maverick' (Economist 1990), has long

servatives are currently thought to be

been convinced that British defence spending is out of line with the country's ability

considering . This would 'release' a cumulative total of around £30bn over the lifetime

to pay for it, and is insistent that changes in

of the first Kinnock governments - a 'Peace

strategy and spending should go together

Dividend' one and a half times greater than the Thatcher government's windfall from

(Rutherford 1990) . According to a widely publicised leak, Clark proposed cutting defence spending by more than £lbn a year (cuts of a similar order of magnitude have also been suggested by Norman Lamont) . This represents a reduction of around 5 %, and would entail major cuts in some weapons programmes (Table 1) . Clark's

50% cut in defence spending . This could be

privatisation . If Labour is then re-elected, and keeps defence spending at the new level, it would continue to 'save' over £ lObn every year . The total 'Peace Dividend' over Labours two periods in office would amount to about £80bn, a bonanza on the scale of the earnings from North Sea Oil in the 1980s .

paper recommends drastic reductions in the

It is easy to think of ways Labour could

navy's surface fleet, in the number of infan-

use these savings . In the first year they could

try battalions, and in spending on some equipment projects . The real impact of his

virtually pay for its pension policies . There-

emerge when the arguments should Ministry of Defence 'Options for Change'

after UK annual spending on R&D could be doubled, along with an increase of around

document is published this summer, and

two-thirds in public spending on industrial infrastructure from the mid-1990s . Alterna-

this is digested in the autumn public

tively, it could finance a much-needed

expenditure review . The changes arising

increase in investment which would raise it

from a reassessment of the military situation

as a proportion of GNP to the level of West Germany (Livingstone 1989) . Or it could

should not be confused with the £600m cut announced in June 1990, which was a stopgap measure prompted by under-estimates of inflation .

The Potential 'Peace Dividend'

finance an increase of up to a third in public spending on Health, Welfare and Housing . Paul Dunne and Ron Smith have explored the economic implications of reducing UK defence spending a little more slowly than this - halving it by the year 2000, as has been proposed in the us (Kaufmann 1990) .

In principle, the resources which could be

Assuming that the cuts fall proportionately

released by a government committed to a

across the major components, and the sav-

major reduction in defence spending are very impressive . Suppose that Labour is

ings are ploughed back through increased

elected, and chooses to bring defence spend-

Project model predicts that GDP would be

public spending, the Cambridge Growth

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10

1 .8% higher than otherwise, and unem-

proposes to establish .

ployment half a million lower . But if sav-

The first point to note is that nowhere in

ings are not ploughed back, GDP would be

this framework is there an organisational

3 .6% lower than otherwise, and unemployment half a million higher (Dunne and

focus

Smith 1990) . Whether there will be a significant real 'Peace Dividend' in the real world will depend on how much governments decide

for

managing

the

run-down of

defence, as a corporate problem for 'Great Britain plc' . Savings in defence spending will presumably be channelled into a combination of tax savings and increases in alternative forms of public spending,

to cut defence spending, and on the provision they make for managing the effects .

through the normal processes of Cabinet

Labour has made a number of commitments which bear on these questions . Firstly, it

This would be unremarkable if defence

proposes to reduce defence spending . Secondly, it has set out a general policy for

spending . But in Britain, this is definitely not the case . For Britains disproportionately

economic growth and restructuring in industry, which should impact on the

high level of defence spending has not only

defence sector . Thirdly it has promised to establish a Defence Diversification Agency

it has also left its mark on the structure of

to ensure that defence and industrial policies

tinctive problems which have to be taken

bargaining and departmental wrangling . spending was like any other form of public

added to the demands on public spending, industry . And this gives rise to some dis-

hang together. How do these measures add

into account in planning for a reduction in

up as a policy for a transition to lower

defence spending .

defence spending? Britain's distinctive problem : Labours policy for 'arms conversion'

a bloated defence industry

Labour's latest policy review offers no esti-

Britain's defence industry is unusually large,

mate of the scale or timing of the promised

a distinctive and none too attractive legacy

cuts in defence spending . Martin O'Neill

of British Imperial pretensions . The UK

(the shadow defence minister) has disassoci-

ranks seventh in the world GNP league, but

ated himself from those advocating major

its defence industry is the worlds fourth

cuts (such as CND) . Alan Rogers has empha-

biggest (Renner 1990) . Furthermore, the

sised that reductions in service requirements

defence sector in Britain is separated from

will entail major transitional costs (eg ; of

the non-defence sector to a degree equalled

relocation from Germany, and in settlement payments to displaced personnel) . The mes-

only in the us and possibly the

sage from the front bench is that real cuts in defence spending will come slowly . The

are far more involved in civil markets, and are more adaptable as a result .

USSR .

European and Japanese defence companies

pace of the parallel expansion of the civilian

Despite the recent turnround in defence

economy is also left open, beyond a promise

spending, the defence industry remains of

not to attempt an 'irresponsible dash for

strategic importance in the UK economy .

growth' . Any attempt to evaluate Labour's

Defence activities account for 4% of GNP,

package must therefore rest on an assess-

but twice as high a proportion of manufac-

ment of the efficacy of the wider economic

turing output and

environment and institutional framework it

account for a quarter to a third of employ-

employment .

They



The 'Peace Dividend' of scientists and engineers . The companies (British defence leading Aerospace, Rolls Royce and GEC) are also Britain's leading manufacturing exporters,

The Defence Diversification Agency

and amongst the most important sites of high-technology investment . They are in

the national stock of skills at present within

turn supplied by tens of thousands of subcontractors, and exert a pervasive influence in important product and labour markets .

in the shrinking (but more competitive)

Moreover, the defence industry has been

within diversifying defence companies, or

energetically restructuring since the mid1980s . The major companies have linked up

elsewhere . Labour apparently (nowhere is this explicitly set out) hopes to achieve these results through two sets of measures . The

ment

with competitors to form an international grid of military producers . GEC has acquired Plessey and Ferranti, and formed links to Siemens and other European and us companies . British Aerospace recently formed an

What impact will Labour's policies have on the defence industry? Labour hopes to retain the industry . Some employees will remain defence sector, while others will be transferred to non-defence employment either

general

improvement and

restructuring

prompted by the new Department of Trade and Industry will indirectly influence defence companies and improve the interac-

agreement with General Dynamics in the

tion

us, and is setting up a joint company with Thomson-CSF of France . British defence

activities . Meanwhile, changes within the

companies have successfully pushed into

the Defence Diversification Agency .

export markets, lifting Britain into the top two or three world arms exporters . Any government intending to capitalise

between defence and non-defence

defence sector will be encouraged directly by The DDA will give assistance to workers, communities, and companies affected by changes in defence spending . It will be

on the potential for a 'Peace Dividend' will

located within the Ministry of Defence, and

have to come to terms with the paradox of the British defence industry . In the past, the

will be funded from the MOD budget . It will

bloated defence sector probably damaged

have the power to give financial assistance to companies, subject to assurances on jobs .

the long-term development of the British economy (Smith and Smith 1983) . But it

Labour expects the defence industry to develop it's own plans for diversification .

does not follow that running it down would automatically bring benefits . On the con-

Restructuring will be achieved by supplementing private investment . The DDA will

trary, the precipitate decline of such a key sector could bring disaster . The defence

therefore be an 'enabler', encouraging and smoothing the process of adjustment . The

industry is a major net export earner and a major source of demand for high-technology

Agency and the DTI will collaborate, in ways yet to be defined .

activities, without which Britain's fragile manufacturing sector would be even weaker .

Agency in the defence industry, like that of

The potential 'Peace Dividend' is not

the up-graded Department of Trade and

measured by the notional sums of money

Industry more generally, will clearly be

involved, but by the possibility of changing

dependent on the private decisions of

the way Britains defence companies operate

companies . But it is not so clear that those

and impact on the rest of the economy .

decisions will lead to the kind of diversification that Labour intends . Despite major

The impact of the Defence Diversification

upheavals in the defence market since the mid-1980s, the leading companies have

11

Capital & Class

12 shown little interest in moving into civil markets and have preferred instead to devote their efforts to becoming world players or specialists in defence niche markets . The amount of genuine 'conversion' is infinitesimal, although most companies have added some civil businesses to their defence cores (notably, of course, British Aerospace with its massively subsidised acquisition of Rover) . Arms export markets are likely to grow more competitive, but some leading UK companies are thought to be reasonably well placed to fight for their share (Flight 1990) . Certainly, some of the companies think this way . Defence markets will become more difficult, but they will not lose their alure for existing defence specialists unless civilian markets become markedly more accessible . There are no signs that this is about to happen spontaneously . This implies that the success of Labour's conversion policy will depend on generating a rapid expansion in civil activities such as to induce'defence companies to change their strategies . This means that Labour must rapidly achieve a sea-change in the direction of economic development in Britain . Economic growth in the 1980s was based mainly on a boom in consumer spending, and an increasing supply of low-wage labour (Green 1990) . In this context there was every incentive for the defence companies (whose resources are more adaptable to meet demand for capital goods than consumer goods) to ignore the domestic market and chase military customers at home and abroad . So the challenge for Labour is to create a demand for the kind of capital goods the British defence companies can readily supply . Labour's chances of successfully generating a 'Peace Dividend' therefore depend on the efficacy of its wider economic strategy (which is, to say the least, a matter of debate) and on the flexibility of the major defence companies (equally debatable) .

Market-led scenarios for the 1990s It is by no means evident that the defence industry's own plans will lead it to knock at the DDA's door . The leverage made possible by contract and cost management is likely to be modest, especially where companies are focussing much of their effort on exports . In the absence of an interventionist industrial policy, a general belief that civilian R&D will expand profitably, and tighter controls on arms exports, the strongest pressure on the arms industry will probably be to continue in defence . So there may be less to the 'Peace Dividend' than some Labour spokespeople have implied . On the one hand Labour says that the initial real cuts in defence spending will be modest . On the other its industrial policies are sufficiently ambiguous or vague to leave serious doubts that they will achieve the desired transformation of the civil economy which is necessary to induce beneficial, rather than damaging, change in the defence sector . This looks like a 'no change' scenario for the early years of a Kinnock government . Looking further ahead, if deeper defence cuts follow, and the civil expansion remains modest, two scenarios suggest themselves . In the first, the UK defence industry simply runs down . The collapse of one of Britains most important competitive manufacturing sectors could have severe economic consequences . The savings from lower defence spending could be eaten up by reduced competitiveness and lower growth, and the real 'Peace Dividend' could be negative . In the second scenario, UK defence companies tenaciously retain their grip on world military markets (with some assistance from Labours new 'enabling' agencies) . But as the industry takes its place in the emerging global arms market it continues to slimdown . It sheds hundreds of thousands of shop-floor jobs, but continues to lock up a

The `Peace Dividend' significant share of national resources of skilled manpower. It increasingly uses this high-level labour for development work linked to military sales rather than for longer-term research, spinning off even fewer benefits to the civilian economy than in the past (this tendency is already evident ; see ACOST 1989 and Lovering 1990) . In the absence of a major turnaround of nondefence investment and civil R&D, Britains high-tech activities remain excessively dependent on defence . Workers lost from the defence sector are unable to find equivalent employment elsewhere, and the national skill base declines even further . Meanwhile, the already considerable political power of the leading defence corporations (now growing into truly international businesses) is enhanced . And Britain continues to fuel the increasing lethality of militarism in the third world . There is a danger that Labours' new institutions would have little impact on the arms industry, other than to ease the adaptation to more competitive defence markets, and provide temporary First Aid for some of the losers . The DDA could find itself merely helping companies to rationalise, rather than changing their role in the economy a not unfamiliar fate for Labour's industrial agencies! The potential savings in defence spending could all too easily be absorbed in patching and mending at the edges of the defence industry, and meeting the continued costs to the national economy of allowing Britain to remain an arms specialist .

The `Peace Dividend' requires a stronger policy for the defence industry A serious attempt to generate benefits from the end of the Cold War would have to recognise that the defence industry is a site of some of Britains most distinctive industrial resources . The defence-dominated

aerospace and electronic capital goods 13 sectors, for example, account for a tenth of all jobs in the engineering industry, but a quarter of its professional scientists and engineers . Thanks to the military predelictions of the Thatcher government, the defence sector was spared the worst ravages of deindustrialisation . The challenge now is to make sure that these remaining pieces of the 'family silver' are neither squandered on further dubious adventures into military markets, nor simply allowed to turn to dust . This requires a focussed policy to change the way the scarce resources within the defence industry are used . If changing military perceptions are to be translated into economic gains rather than economic chaos, the defence sector needs to be tackled coherently . Such a policy would treat it as in large part a potential capital goods sector . A combination of diversification (scrapping existing units and transferring staff to new ones) and conversion (re-using existing plant and employees) would be necessary . This is partly a matter of proposing a list of `alternative products' as developed by workers in the Lucas Plan (Wainright and Elliott 1982) and studiously ignored by managements ever since . Above all it also requires the creation of new effective demands and incentives which can induce investment in projects aimed at civilian markets . The necessary restructuring would be inconceivable without a change in both industrial structure and corporate accountability, eradicating the financial shorttermism and the 'defence culture' which characterises leading companies in the industry . The contribution of the DDA and the Department of Industry will be constrained by the strategies chosen by companies themselves . If savings in defence spending are to be translated into a 'Peace Dividend', rather than a Peace Penalty, it will be necessary to change those strategies . This will require

Capital & Class

14

measures that do more than 'enable' private companies to do what they wish . Labour's explicit advocacy of a policy for managing the run-down of defence spending opens up a valuable space for debate on a problem of major political and economic importance . But Labour's policies in this area remain incomplete . Ultimately, their weaknesses reflect Labour's general inability to face up to the necessity to change, rather than endorse, the way markets work . Much of the fashionable discussion of 'market socialism' simply forgets that markets are always shaped by political decisions and institutions . The point is to invent different policies and institutions which can change the grain of the market . In the field of defence spending, the political influence over the market has always been particularly obvious, but Labour has yet to draw the lessons . Unless it begins to do so, any 'Peace Dividend' may soon disappear .

References ACOST (1989) Defence R&D : A National Resource HMSO . Paul Dunne and Ron Smith (1990) 'The Peace Dividend and the UK Economy' Cambridge Econometrics Spring Report, Supplement to Chapter 3 . The Economist (1990) 'Men at war' 19 May . Francis Green (Ed) The Restructuring of the

British Economy Harvester Wheatsheaf, Hemel Hempstead . William W . Kaufmann (1990) Glasnost, Perestroika and us Defense Spending Brookings Institute, Washington . Flight 1990 'Thanks for the Armoury' Flight International 26 May . Labour Party (1989) Meet the Challenge ; Make the Change . Labour Party (1990) Looking to the Future . Lloyds Bank (1990) 'Who Gets the Peace Dividend? Lloyds Bank Economic Bulletin . Ken Livingstone (1989) 'Why the Policy Review's economic strategy will not work ; Productive and Competitive Economy Policy Review' Submission to Labour Party N .E .C . John Lovering (1990) High fliers and hostages: scientists and engineers in the UK defence industry University of Bristol, School for Advanced Urban Studies, Working Paper 87 . Mike Renner (1990) 'Converting to a Peaceful Economy' in Lester Brown et al State of the World Worldwatch Institute, Unwin, London 154-172 . Malcolm Rutherford (1990) 'Licensed to stir things up in defence' Financial Times 29 May . Ron Smith and Dan Smith (1983) The Economics of Militarism Pluto, London . Hilary Wainright and Dave Elliott (1982) The Lucas Plan Allison and Busby, London .

Peter Fairbrother and Jeremy Waddington

The politics of trade unionism : Evidence, policy and theory • The purpose of this article is to examine the policies and practices of trade unionism during the 1980s . Throughout this period Governments have sought to demobilise and restrict trade unionism . The argument is advanced that national union responses have underwritten forms of bureaucratic effectiveness with consequences for membership involvement and activity . This requires an examination of the tensions between union organisation, mobilisation and participation . The focus here is on the relations between bureaucratic forms of unionism and those based on collective participation . As such the article is concerned with the processes of trade unionism . There is, of course, nothing new about the observation that bureaucracy is a feature of trade union organisation . Following Michels (1962) many have argued that bureaucracy has its roots in the pressures toward separation between leaders and led (Lipset, 1954 :82-124) . Recently this thesis has been questioned (Hyman, 1979), who argues that bureaucracy must be defined as a social relation and not in terms of position . I This thesis may be further extended by considering the forms of bureaucracy evident in unions and the circumstances under which unionists affirm or challenge these forms . Such an

Examining the policies and practices of trade unions during the 1980s, the authors investigate the tension between bureaucratic and collective participative relations within and between unions : finding that bureaucratic forms, involving accommodation with government policies, have predominated .

15

Capital & Class

16

analysis requires consideration of the effectiveness of bureaucratic forms of organisation in terms of the material and historical circumstances of unionism . One particular form of unionism that is examined in this article is 'responsible unionism' . This is a form of unionism that is usually defined as comprising the following features : hierarchical organisation, membership involvement exemplified by formal representative structures and procedures, and a commitment to reformist policies and practice . Such a form of unionism has been advocated in the writings of Flanders (1975) and, in the specific context of the 1980s and 1990s, by Kelly (1987) . It is a unionism rooted in the particular circumstances of postwar Britain when unions aspired to partnership with Labour governments to achieve social reconstruction . This is argued to be a form of unionism which allows a tentative resolution of the tensions between bureaucracy and democracy . For many, democracy refers to the processes and procedures of membership involvement in trade union decisionmaking and organisation . This emphasis has led to a concern with the bases of opposition within unions (Lipset et al, 1956 ; Martin, 1968 :205-20) and an emphasis on electoral procedures (TUC, 1983) . These concerns direct attention away from the bases of participation and involvement in unions and thus the foundation of active forms of unionism . It is the claim in this article that union democracy involves a consideration of the forms and practice of collective organisation . Put starkly, the issue for unions is to organise and operate in bureaucratically effective ways or on the basis of collective participation and involvement . There is a complex interrelationship between these two forms of unionism, worked out in terms of union policies and practices . This means that a process of union renewal is always on the agenda . Such a process may involve the revitalisation of existing forms of organisation and new variants of union organisation and activity . While there is no clear-cut and straight-forward path for unions, there is a central tension within unions between pressures toward hierarchical accommodative forms of unionism and workplace-based union activity . In this article these issues are explored and assessed with reference to the 1980s . The article comprises four main sections . The first outlines the character of the Conservative political project and its

Politics of trade unionism

17

impact on trade unionism . The argument in this section is that unionism in the 1980s confronted a set of challenges in the form of Government policies and managerial strategies . The second and third sections assess existing analyses of trade union development during the 1980s and the implications of policies directed toward union renewal . Rather than present an analysis of the strength or weakness of trade unionism, an argument is developed concerning the complex interplay between bureaucratically effective forms of unionism and forms of workplace organisation . The final section explores the prospects for union renewal and the implications of these policies for union democracy . Throughout the postwar period Government strategies have been predicated on a tacit acceptance of unionism as a subordinate partner in capitalist reconstruction . This entailed a tripartite accommodation at national level, which enhanced the influence of the Trades Union Congress (Tut) and national union leaderships . Such relations, however, were rejected by the Conservative governments of the 1980s as the difficulties of capital accumulation and the failures of Keynesianism became more acute (Nolan, 1989) . At the core of government policies has been the objectives of economic deregulation and the `freeing' of markets (Fine and Harris, 1987 :370-80) . Specifically, monetarist policies incorporating cash limits have served as an alternative to a formal incomes policy, thus changing the character of state intervention in these areas of union concern . Denationalisation and privatisation have further distanced the formal relation of the state from trade unionism . Central to the Government approach has been the regulation of unionism through successive legislative measures . These have redefined the legality of trade unionism regarding voting and representative procedures as well as confining the legality of union action . Whereas an effective campaign was mounted against the Industrial Relations Act 1971, the reduced influence of trade unionism in the 1980s allowed successive governments step-by-step to impose legal regulations on trade union organisation and activity while promoting labour market deregulation (Hall, 1989) . The extent and character of the legislative changes has restricted trade union mobilisation and the maintenance of collective

Trade unionism and the political project of the 1980s

Capital & Class 18

bargaining . '2 Varied managerial attempts to restructure the organisation and control of work have accompanied

this political

programme . In private sector manufacturing, some managements have decentralised

budgetary responsibilities and devolved control of the labour process to establishment level ; attempted to create more flexible workforces ; and introduced technological change, albeit in a piecemeal fashion (Nolan, 1989 ; Elger, 1990) . At the same time, the public sector has been subject to policies aimed at exposing its operation to 'market forces', or their nominal equivalent . Although centralised pay determination remains in some sectors (civil service), there have been moves towards regional pay variation (water) and performance related pay structures (local authorities) . Local management flexibility on working practices, grading and other conditions of employment have also been encouraged . Economic and social restructuring in the 1980s has accompanied the demise of 'social contract' bargaining . Such bargaining during the 1970s was, in part, dependent upon the maintenance of high levels of union membership . There has been a sharp decline in aggregate trade union membership from 13,212,354 in 1979 to 10,480,150 in 1987 (Certification Officer, 1980 and 1989) . These figures disguise a sharper decline among TUC-affiliated membership from

12,172,508 in 1979 to 8,652,318 by 1988 (TUC, 1980 and 1989b) . Union density fell from 57 .3 per cent to 49 .5 per cent between 1979 and 1985 (Kelly, 1988b :7), indicating that trade union membership fell faster than employment during these years . Nonetheless it should be noted that membership not affiliated to the TUC increased between 1979 and 1987 from 1,039,846 to 1,352,872 (30 .1 per cent) . 3 The shift away from tripartism during the 1980s brought to a head questions concerning internal union relations and the strategic role of British unionism . Tripartism generated institutions through which representatives of individual unions consulted directly with governments and employers and constituted a source of leadership authority . The loss of this authority can be traced to the breakdown of the 'social contract' during

1977-78 and was compounded by the

election of the Conservative Party in 1979 with the consequence that the TUC's role as a conduit to government was

Politics of trade unionism

19

undermined . As the TUC has no formal constitutional basis of compulsion over affiliates, the withdrawal from tripartism promoted an interest in redefining the 'roc's future role . The expulsion of the EETPu at the 1988 Congress merely illustrates the extent of the diminution of this authority (Waddington, 1988b) . A further cause of concern, emphasised by trade union leaders, was that systems of internal union representation were in need of reform . Edmonds claimed that branches as the `basic unit of decision-making in almost every union' were no longer seen as representative of their memberships (1988 :13) . There are several strands to this argument, each of which is founded on low branch participation rates . Hammond, for example, lays emphasis on the control of branches shifting to the left and the need for individual ballots to secure representation of the views of the non-activist (1988 :14). Edmonds (1988) and Jeuda (1988), while not opposing individual ballots, isolate the inconveniences associated with branch attendance, the procedural inflexibility of branch meetings and the failure to extend the range of bargaining issues as limiting branch participation. In summary, trade unionism has been restricted by these developments . Long-established institutional arrangements have either been broken or made ineffective . Moreover, legal regulation of union organisation and practice is more pronounced than at any other period during this century . In these circumstances trade unionists have embarked on a process of renewal, the dimensions of which are considered below .

One influential strand of recent argument claims that trade unionism has remained resilient during the 1980s (Batstone, 1988 ; Maclnnes, 1987) . As Millward and Stevens (1986:523 and 66-9) show, membership loss has resulted largely from the closure of large plants where trade union organisation has been traditionally high and is, thus, concentrated within private manufacturing . Moreover, unions have maintained their financial viability . They have increased income from members' contributions throughout the 1980s, only recording financial deficits in specific circumstances of strikes, acute membership loss or a rapid increase in benefit payments (Willman and Morris, 1988) . Similarly, at the workplace the

The resilience of representation

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20

Millward and Stevens (1986) survey unearthed no evidence of a consistent assault on union organisation, while Batstone (1988 :216-17) and Maclnnes (1987 :129-35) argue that local managements continue to seek the support and cooperation of local union leaderships . For some authors continuity is confirmed by the persistence of unofficial action during the 1980s, the increase in real wages and the effect of unions in restricting changes in working practices (Batstone, 1984 :291 ; Kelly, 1988a : 27375) . Countering this view, Nolan argues that an examination of productivity growth within a broader framework of social and economic relations indicates that workplace unionism has been unable to resist the intensification of work (1989 :114118) . Historically, in a comparison of membership decline during the 1980s with that between 1920 and 1923, Kelly (1988a :269-7 1) concludes that the rate of decline during the current period is less pronounced and as recovery was achieved after 1923 there is no reason to assume that it will not occur in the future . While such material introduces a degree of ambiguity into debate, it is the framework of this debate that obscures the issues with which this article is concerned . Analytically, studies supporting the resilience thesis focus on relative 'strength' or 'weakness' of trade union organisation . This focus promotes an institutional emphasis which obscures consideration of policies and processes . To address these issues requires a detailed assessment of the uneven and contradictory character of the interplay between forms of union organisation and policy initiatives . Furthermore, the resilience thesis analyses different levels within unions as if they are in isolation of one another . The inherent tension between bureaucratic forms and democratic practices tends to be overlooked . There is, thus, little consideration of how national level organisation impinges upon unionism at the workplace : that is, processes of union coordination, mobilisation and participation are analytically excluded . The institutional focus necessitated within analyses based on 'strength' and 'weakness' lays little emphasis on the character and form of processes of renewal . A downturn in the cyclical pattern of membership development does not necessarily indicate that processes of renewal during a subsequent upturn are founded on the same principles of union govern-

Politics of trade unionism 21

ment as persisted prior to the downturn . To illustrate, the range of policy options open to unionism during the 1990s clearly differs from those available during the 1970s . The withdrawal from tripartism during the 1980s reduced the influence and cohesion of the TUC (Waddington, 1988b), further impinging upon the distribution of power within unions (Terry and Ferner, 1986) . The point is that processes of renewal and policy generation are enacted within different structural and institutional circumstances . They involve a complex of internal union relations which are not constant but subject to continuous tension .

During the 1980s union organisation and purpose have been the subject of scrutiny within the trade union movement . Initiatives have been taken at all levels to reorganise unionism . While these are most clearly evident with respect to the TUC and national union structures, there are also indications of a restructuring of union activity at the workplace . These initiatives are not uniform, but have heightened contradictory pressures within unionism . They have involved the reaffirmation of responsible unionism within national organisation, while at some workplaces tentative steps towards participative forms of unionism have been introduced . There are three interlinked parts to this section . The first analyses the attempts by the TUC to establish a new procedural consensus within British unionism and, thus, reaffirm responsible unionism . This part reviews policies towards recruitment, the provision of services, the regulation of inter-union relations and relations with the Labour Party and the European Economic Community (EEC) . The second part assesses the preoccupation displayed by individual unions with the maintenance of organisational stability . To this end policies have been implemented towards membership recruitment and retention . A number of unions have also embarked on mergers as a means to arrest membership decline . It is argued here that unions have underwritten centralised forms of organisation, based on representative rather than participative structures . The third part of this section examines the qualifying features to these tendencies found within workplace organisation . As such, it highlights the tension between bureaucratic and participative forms of unionism .

Behind the Institutional Facade

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Trades Union Congress . Throughout the 1980s the TUC has sought to establish a new' procedural consensus among affiliated unions, creating the basis for an agreed approach towards Government policies, the Labour Party and the EEC . From the election of a Conservative government in 1979 until 1987 the majority position within the TUC was to seek the re-election of a Labour government and to reject the legislation introduced by the Conservatives . This position was questioned when the Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunication and Plumbing Union (EETPU), followed by the Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU), resolved to accept funds for ballots as allowed under the Employment Act, 1980 . While there were earlier attempts to reform TUC policy, it was not until 1986 that the initial policy was finally rejected by a special TUC conference of 'union officers with executive authority' (Tuc, 1986 :28-32) . With the election of a third Conservative government and, more specifically, anxiety concerning a divisive motion submitted by the TGwu on single union agreements, the 1987 Congress established a Special Review Body (sRB) to consider future policies . The result has been a series of internal policy initiatives, grouped within two categories : recruitment and retention, and inter-union relations . Attention has also been directed to the TUC's relationship with the Labour Party and, more recently, the EEC . TUC policy initiatives directed towards individual affiliated union membership recruitment and retention are twofold : the provision of services unions and the establishment of a data base on local labour markets . A broad range of services is now offered through the auspices of the TUC . These include pension services, personal insurance, financial services and legal services on non-employment matters offered by Unity Trust Bank plc4 , as well as the possibility of credit card and discount schemes (Tuc, 1989a :9) . Such services are of particular benefit to smaller affiliates . They allow the negotiation of more competitive rates, since the TUC constitutes a wider market than these individual affiliates can provide alone . In this regard such services schemes may come to act as a source of dependence on the TUC, especially among the smaller unions . 5 Equally, these initiatives encourage individualistic relations between members and their unions .

Politics of trade unionism

A further policy designed to assist recruitment and retention among TUC affiliates is the provision of comprehensive labour market information to assist in the targeting of recruitment efforts . To date, this initiative rests on six local job market pilot studies conducted by external agencies which include forecasts of national labour market trends into the 1990s (1989a:2-7) . The identification of potential recruitment sites is linked to proposals to establish a scheme whereby specific affiliates may apply to the TUC for a designated organising area, thus, allowing unhindered recruitment for one year . It remains to be seen if such schemes can be made operable as an earlier proposal to intervene in recruitment through the generation of a TUC-administered fund to finance recruitment campaigns was rejected by larger affiliates on the grounds that it infringed upon their recruitment opportunities . In terms of inter-union relations arising from heightened competitive recruitment, the TUC has modified the Bridlington Principles . Disquiet with these Principles culminated in the expulsion of the EETPU at the 1988 Congress (Waddington, 1988b) and, in turn, led to their reform . Firstly Principle 5, viewed by some affiliated unions as a shield for moribund and weak organisation, was amended to allow the opinions of the workers concerned to be taken into account by the Tuc Disputes Committee . Secondly, a Code of Practice on trade union recognition was agreed . This required unions negotiating a single union agreements to notify the TUC, to allow other concerned affiliates some recourse (Tuc, 1988a) . The Code of Practice also prohibits no strike agreements 'which specifically remove, or are designed to remove, the basic democratic rights of a trade union to take industrial action' (Tuc, 1988a : 15) . Thirdly, following on from the Special Review Body investigation, 'single-table' bargaining has been promoted to accommodate the changing character of inter-union demarcation . The federalism of the Congress restricted moves towards redefining the role of the TUC . Partly in response to the decline in tripartism the Tuc has attempted to generate agreed standards of conduct between affiliated unions with the Tuc acting as both an arbiter of disagreements and an initiator of policy . Larger affiliates, however, have effectively vetoed centralised, Tuc-coordinated national recruitment campaigns . Such campaigns would prevent these affiliates from deploying

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their more significant resources in competition with their smaller, less resourced counterparts . The restrictions of federalism are further compounded by the premium placed on membership size within the TUC constitution . These, however, have been qualified by changes in the election procedures completed in 1981/2 and 1989 . These broadened the scope of General Council representation by increasing the number of representatives from smaller unions, as well as increasing the number of women members on the General Council . In addition to the SRB recommendations regarding membership and inter-union relations TUC policies have focused on relations with the Labour Party and the EEC . The core of the proposals agreed at the Labour Party Conference in 1989 consist of a 'Charter of Rights for Employees' plus additional measures intended to protect those working within new working patterns and to extend employee participation . This Charter includes reference to a national minimum wage intended to provide the basis for a negotiating platform that will be attractive to potential members . Proposals to support recognition by allowing applications to be submitted to tribunals are also included . Accompanying this Charter is a Labour Party commitment to legal reform in a number of areas concerning union activity and organisation . These reforms include proposals to allow forms of secondary industrial action where workers have a 'genuine' interest in the outcome of the primary industrial dispute and union organisation will no longer be threatened by sequestration . There is also a commitment of 'some resources to support trade union and employee research and education functions' (Labour Party, 1989 :25) . This constitutes a further extension of the principle whereby unions become dependent upon public provision . Conversely, no commitment has been made to repeal existing balloting requirements . The 1988 Congress was notable for the TUC's support for Europe and, in particular, 'the social dimension to the internal market' . Much of this corresponds to the Labour Party's 'Charter of Rights for Employees' although the European proposals are more explicit regarding industrial participation and democracy . The framework of the 'social dimension to the internal market' is seen by the TUC as a platform of rights for unions to enforce at the workplace . The use of these provisions

Politics of trade unionism

25

for this purpose and the availability of sufficient resources within trade unions to enforce them has recently been questioned (Wedderburn, 1990 ; Lane, 1986) . In anticipation of the development of pan-European bargaining the TUC is planning an `information bank' on European terms and conditions and supporting, through the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), the establishment of industrial federations of unions from EEC countries .

A different trajectory is evident among many TUC-affiliated unions . Policies have been pursued which focus on the maintenance of organisational stability through membership recruitment and retention . These involve a noticeable move towards the development of bureaucratic forms of unionism . Integral to this has been a more explicit identification of political allegiances and affinities . In order to examine these issues this section is divided into four substantive areas : membership recruitment and retention, mergers, centralisation and sectionalism, and representation . Membership recruitment and retention .

Unions have pursued a variety of recruitment strategies in response to the restructuring of employment relations . One strategy, evident in a number of unions, is the extension of recruitment bases, often resulting in a further dilution of occupationally and industrially specific unionism . The National and Local Government Officers' Association (NALGO), together with several other public sector unions, has amended constitutional provisions precluding private sector recruitment, thereby enabling the organisation of workers in privatised services . Among unions recruiting in manufacturing, changes in the labour force and the demise of large production units have shifted the emphasis of recruitment efforts towards the organisation of women, part-time workers, Youth Training Scheme (YTS) trainees and those employed at small sites of production . This is exemplified by recent recruitment campaigns : for example, the Transport and General Workers' Union's (TGwu) Link-up, the General, Municipal and Boilermakers' (GMB) Flare and the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers' (usDAw) Shop Watch .

Union Initiatives .

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Additionally, Manufacturing, Science and Finance (MsF) has launched major recruitment initiatives aimed at the voluntary sector and high-tech industries . As part of a recruitment effort to organise managers and professionals from the private sector the Institution of Professionals, Managers and Scientists (IPMS) has changed its name (from the Institution of Professional Civil Servants) . Although it is too early to assess the impact of such campaigns it is apparent from the membership returns of most of these unions that membership loss from traditional sectors of organisation still exceeds that gained from within the targeted areas . In areas of high union density, increases in membership have been attained by specific unions often only at the expense of others, for example, through the pursuit of single union agreements . Such agreements have been limited in number and are, in the main, restricted to industries where membership loss has been pronounced and competition for recruitment particularly intense (see Industrial Relations Review and Report, 1989 : 5-11) . Although not new, the recent circumstances of single union agreements have led to considerable political tensions between unions thus affected . More broadly, the intensity of competition for membership during the 1980s led to the undercutting of the terms and conditions of employment as a means to secure recognition . The scramble for membership involved seeking recognition on greenfield sites, resulting in occasions when employers have recognised specific unions before a workforce has been recruited . A further feature of these policies is the provision, particularly by larger unions, of a range of individual membership services . In this context, individual membership services exclude activities associated with the representation of members such as discipline and grievance handling . Individual members' financial and legal services have been aimed at attracting, in particular, non-members subject to recruitment campaigns, clerical workers, managerial and professional staff and assisting in the retention of existing members . Organisational security, thus, may be achieved on an individual serviceoriented basis rather than one based on collective participation and the development of a collective identity . While the majority of these schemes make provision for financial and legal services, several unions have also introduced `training for employment' schemes . The EETPU and AEU, for example, have

Politics of trade unionism

established colleges to train members in working with new technologies while the National Graphical Association (NGA) and a consortium of printing companies plan to set up a similar college for printing industry workers . Mergers . There has been an increase in merger activity during the 1980s (Waddington, forthcoming) . 8 A total of 126 unions organising 967,769 members were absorbed 9 in mergers between 1980 and 1988, although this does not appear to have had any immediate influence on the extent of workplace multiunionism (Millward and Stevens, 1986 :73) . 10 Two features of this merger activity are of particular concern ; the diversity of the extensions of recruitment bases and the political character of the merger process . One result of recent merger activity is the further breakdown of the manual and non-manual distinction between trade unions . Prior to its merger with the Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs (ASTMS), to form MSF, the Technical, Administrative and Supervisory Section (TASS) absorbed four manual craft unions from engineering . In contrast, the predominantly manual EETPU acquired six nonmanual management and professional associations organising within the metals and engineering industry and the GMs expanded its non-manual section by absorbing the Association of Professional, Executive, Clerical and Computer Staff (APEX) and the Greater London Staff Association (GLSA) . These mergers allowed acquiring unions to arrest the rate of membership decline and provided the basis for further recruitment opportunities, including more effective responses to single union and single status agreements . Such mergers further 'complicate' the structure of unionism . This suggests that the proposed TUC designation of recruitment areas on the basis of existing recruitment bases will be difficult to sustain . Some merger activity has had an explicit political character . Firstly, there are mergers which combine unions with Executives of similar political compositions . Each of the five unions absorbed by TASS elected a broad left Executive and the formation of MSF united the broad left organisation of nonmanual membership within the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions (CSEU) . In turn APEX, unable to

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compete with the numerically dominant and better resourced MSF, joined the GMB to consolidate the political centre of the CSEU . A third political grouping is in the making with the EETPU's acquisition of management and professional associations with similar political affinities to its own . 1 1 A second political dimension involves TUC and Labour Party affiliation . During the 1980s a majority of non-TUC affiliated unions merged with TUC-affiliated unions . Between 1980 and 1988 forty-five of eighty-one non-affiliated unions were acquired by TUC-affiliated unions while thirty-six remained outside the TUC . There has, however, been a more discriminating approach to Labour Party affiliation, by both TUC-affiliated and non-affiliated unions . The Banking, Insurance and Finance Union (BiFU), for example, does not affiliate to the Labour Party as a strategic means to attract management and staff associations organising in the finance sector . Further, ASTMS an affiliate to the Labour Party, allowed acquired associations exemption from contribution to the union's political fund, an arrangement that was confirmed by the MSF constitution .

Centralisation and sectionalism . Many mergers are characterised by the centralisation of financial control and the concentration of votes at the TUC, Labour Party and union federations . An additional and related feature is that while acquired, post-merger sections of unions benefit in terms of an enhanced servicing provision, sectionalism may be maintained . The derecognition of the Association of Managerial and Professional Staffs (AMPS) at the Glaxo Group (Research) and the Wyeth pharmaceutical company compared with the continued recognition at Imperial Chemical Industries (iat) are cases in point . AMPS was absorbed by the EETPU in 1983 as a section with some autonomy within the Electrical and Engineering Staff Association (EESA), the non-manual division of the EETPU . At the three companies the extent of collective workplace organisation influenced the outcome of the derecognition attempts by these employers, rather than the support from within the wider EETPU organisation . The acquisition of the Eagle Star Staff Association (ESSA) as a section of BIFU in 1981 illustrates a further tension arising between centralisation and sectional structures . The ESSA

Politics of trade unionism

broke away from BIFU during 1988 amid claims that the surplus of income over expenditure contributed by the ESSA's membership was invested elsewhere in BIFU and, therefore, was no direct benefit to those members from which it was raised . During the 1980s there has been an increase in the allowance of degrees of sectional autonomy to facilitate the extension of recruitment . The TGWU and ASTMS were noted for their capacity to absorb smaller unions during the 1960s and 1970s . This was facilitated by the trade group structure of the TGWU and the allowance of some post-merger autonomy within ASTMS . The TGWU has further developed its trade group structure with the establishment of two additional trade groups on the absorption of the National Union of Dyers, Bleachers and Textile Workers (NUDBTW) and the National Union of Agricultural and Allied Workers (NUAAW) . Meanwhile for some other unions the attractiveness of mergers has stimulated reorganisation . Firstly, the regional structure of the General and Municipal Workers' Union (GMWU) which restricted opportunities for mergers has been supplemented by sectional representation for boilermakers and APEX memberships . Secondly, TASS, EETPU and BIFU have relaxed the extent of constitutional centralisation to accommodate merger partners . Within TASS a craft section was established in addition to separate Patternmakers and Metal Mechanics Sections . Each of the unions absorbed by the EETPU maintains a separate identity within EESA, and unions acquired by BIFU function as separate bargaining sections . Merger activity introduces a further tension between service and participation in the forms of sectional autonomy generated to extend recruitment bases . Frequently the premerger system of representation of the acquired union has been preserved as well as permitting independent bargaining . In these circumstances benefits may accrue to the acquired unions in the form of bargaining support from the acquiring unions . Moreover, acquisition may also ensure recognition within national bargaining structures, thereby, further consolidating organisational stability . Some of the professional and managerial associations acquired by EESA, for example, are now represented on the CSEU through the acquiring union, having been earlier precluded from such recognition . In other words for absorbed unions, mergers allowing some sectional auton-

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omy may enhance bargaining opportunities and consolidate organisational stability . While some sectional autonomy characterises those mergers allowing the extension of recruitment bases, there is also a move towards constitutional centralisation among some merged unions . The AEU, National Union of Insurance Workers (Nulw) and Federated Union of Managerial and Professional Officers (FuMpo) mergers, for example, transformed federally constituted unions into more centralised structures . In the cases of the AEU and NUlw a number of sections of the pre-merger unions withdrew from federal structures or were absorbed by competitor unions . 12 In other words, the extension of recruitment bases has been characterised by the allowance of forms of sectional representation and bargaining independence, as in the cases of unions acquired by ASTMS, EETPU and BIFU . While some mergers leave the acquired unions with a degree of bargaining autonomy they also involve processes of centralisation and uniformity . Several merger agreements, for example, stipulate the representation of the acquired union on the post-merger union's Executive, placing a premium on political affinity between the Executives of pre-merger unions . Merger negotiations have, in the past, been forestalled because of a lack of political agreement between Executives, as illustrated by the fruitless negotiations between the Civil and Public Services Association (cPSA) and the Society of Civil and Public Servants (scps) during the early 1980s . A further feature of mergers which limits the independence of sectional bargaining is the centralisation of financial control which necessitates Executive sanction of the payment of any dispute benefit . These mergers, thus, develop a trend towards federalism in which the central control of finances and a uniformity of executive outlook accompanies the provision of more extensive services and some autonomy in local bargaining . Representation .

It follows from the above analysis that unions have an interest in furthering representation and involvement, particularly of 'new' groups of union members, or post-merger union memberships . During the 1980s unions have moved in this direction with reference to the representation of women

Politics of trade unionism

members, young and part-time workers . Advisory Committees, often functioning in isolation of existing bargaining structures, have been introduced in a number of unions through which these groups of members can be represented . Regional forms of organisation have also been established and membership surveys conducted to facilitate membership representation and the provision of services . The result has been a centrally directed and orchestrated form of unionism aimed at enhancing membership involvement and representation . To illustrate, a number of procedural and institutional mechanisms intended to promote representation of women have been introduced . The proportion of women trade unionists has continued to increase throughout the 1980s as has the number of women holding seats on National Executive Councils, women full-time national officials, Women's or Equality Officers and committee structures for the representation of women members at regional and national levels (Labour Research, 1988 ; Heery and Kelly, 1988) . While these structural changes have helped raise the profile of women trade unionists, the participation of women at the workplace remains low (Cockburn, 1987 :7) . Heery and Kelly, however, suggest that the recent growth in the number of women national officials is associated with a greater emphasis on the interests of women trade union members in collective bargaining (1988 :498-502) . Nonetheless, Coiling and Dickens in a survey of traditional manufacturing industries find that 'many negotiators experienced little membership pressure to bargain for equality' (1989 :36) . They suggested that any reshaping of 'organisational norms' was primarily the result of a national recognition that women constitute a significant group of potential members . Representative and servicing structures have also been reformed to accommodate changing circumstances . In response to the introduction of local school management the National Union of Teachers (NUT) established regional representation with 'substantially increased' numbers of staff, providing legal and professional advice through ten regional offices (NUT, 1989 :4-5) . IPNts and Society of Telecom Executives (sTE) have also moved away from single London-based offices with the establishment of regional offices . Furthermore, the GMB has developed legal and health and safety services with the appointment of regional specialists 'charged with the

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Workplace organisation

task of assisting members to enforce their rights' (GMs, 1988 :11) . The extension of regional servicing has traditionally been opposed by union leaderships within centralised unions as it was viewed as likely to promote concentrations of power located beyond the union's head office . James (1984), however, shows that information held at a District Office of the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers-Engineering Section (AUEW-ES) can act as a source of authority over workplace organisation . Membership surveys are increasingly used to tap the views of members not otherwise available . Their usage, therefore, acknowledges the limitations of existing representatives processes . Membership surveys can complement existing formal constitutional methods of representation and make available to central officials a wider range of views . In addition, such surveys may constitute a further emphasis on the bureaucratic and centralised provision of services as unions act on the reports . A further feature of these surveys is that the views expressed are individually rather than collectively generated ; they are usually organised as postal ballots with the attendant problems of such ballots (Fairbrother, 1984) . While the above points refer to the forms and procedures of these surveys, a further issue arises from the method of analysis used in such surveys . Several surveys disaggregate `members', `non-members' and `activists' in their samples, for example, the survey conducted for NAGLO by MORI in 1989 . Attention is often focused on non-members or non-active members . It nevertheless remains the case that activists, usually a minority, are those on whom the union is reliant in the mobilisation of members . Furthermore, existing workplace practices may also be questioned as the vested interests of activists can be circumvented by membership surveys . For most union members the 'reality' of unionism is at the workplace . It is in terms of the routines and disruptions of work and employment that members experience their trade unionism . This may involve the pursuit of individual concerns and grievances . It may also mean collective activity around pay and other conditions of work and employment . Additionally, such activity may entail responding to national union decisions, attending meetings or conferences and working with full-time and lay officials . It is at the workplace that unionism comes to life for most members .

Politics of trade unionism The character of relationships inherent within workplace organisation have been influenced by state and employers' policies intended to achieve restructuring and union demobilisation . Legislation has curtailed individuals' rights against employers and expanded rights against trade unions . Furthermore, the effectiveness of collective activity has been restricted by legislation which . Compounding these measures employers have introduced policies to demobilise workplace unionism (Linn, 1986 : Marchington and Parker, 1990) . Furthermore, casualisation, part-time working and the proliferation of site shift working arrangements within public and private sector service industries may result in situations where cohesive workgroups are a thing of the past' (Jeuda, 1988 :18) . The most enduring theme in the debates about workplace unionism during the 1980s has been the resilience of workplace organisation . It will be argued here, however, that there are two broad, and often contradictory, processes in operation . Firstly, there has been a continuity and reaffirmation of workplace-based unionism in many industrial sectors, particularly in manufacturing . Secondly, especially in the public services, there has been a move towards decentralisation and devolution of union organisation . In order to highlight these uneven tendencies three themes are developed ; organisational instability, the limits of bureaucratisation and the countervailing pressures towards the reaffirmation of autonomy .

Organisational instability at the workplace . One set of workplace developments introduced by managements has involved attempts to bypass union organisation . While the scale of this is open to question, there is some evidence of explicit action to derecognise unions . A recent Labour Research Department survey found only thirty-nine cases of derecognition between 1984 and 1988 (1988 : 13-15) . Moreover, Claydon shows that in instances where derecognition has occurred union membership tends to be low and organisation weak (1989 :221) . Recent evidence covering press and media services, however, suggests that the exclusion of unions may be a more widespread strategy (Smith and Morton, 1990) . Where workplace unionism has achieved a high membership density exclusion may be underpinned by a considerable degree of managerial intimidation and manipulation

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(Fairbrother, 1988 :13-15) . A further variant pursued by managements is either to refuse recognition of workplace union organisation or to restrict the range of union activities . While the evidence suggests that this is not widespread it nevertheless is a feature of workplace trade unionism in certain sectors during the decade . The practice of some Japanese-owned companies, in particular, has been highlighted in this respect . About a third of such companies in Oliver and Wilkinson's, admittedly small, sample opted for union avoidance while the remainder settled for single union representation (1988 :167) . Similarly, Guest (1989 :48-49) quotes a government survey of 300 overseas firms which established plants in the UK of which 56 per cent were not unionised and 21 per cent recognised a single union . A Welsh Development Agency survey referred to by the same author found 54 per cent of foreign-owned companies in Wales recognised unions,

75 per cent in-house staff associations and 40 per cent were non-unionised . There is, therefore, some evidence of unionisation in these firms even though such companies were 46 .2 per cent less likely than their British counterparts to face an attempt to organise the workforce (Beaumont and Harris, 1989) . Furthermore, the numbers of workers covered by 'no-strike' agreements appears to be small, Bassett (1986 :3-4) estimating something over 10,000, and Gregory (1986) calculating that 5,000 trade union members were covered by such agreements . 13 In other words, union organisation continues even at companies resistant to unionism and such organisation is achieved without widespread commitment to no-strike agreements . Another feature of management initiatives is the pursuit of a human resource management

(HRM) policy (Storey,

1987) . 14 Such policies may be explicitly anti-union . IBM, for example, promotes the individual worker-company linkage to the extent that it is regarded as 'the ultimate non-union company' (Bassett, 1986 :170) . Several practices integral to HRM may jeopardise the operation of workplace union organ-

isation . This is especially so in the cases of the election of Company Advisory Boards, 15 the adoption of team working and quality circles and the extensive use of direct management-employee communications . While Company Advisory Boards may allow an initial tactical advantage to accrue to management the evidence on

Politics of trade unionism their long term usage is far from clear . Linn (1986 :14-15), for example, shows that following the defeat of shop steward organisation at Norsk Hydro during 1985 an Advisory Council was established through which

much of the bargaining

previously undertaken by TGWU stewards was conducted . After the first elections to the Advisory Council only one steward was elected (from four steward candidates) and the TGWU conveners were of the view that the constituencies were

designed to limit union involvement (1986 :22-23) . Yet by May 1988 Heaton and Linn (1989 :33-35) report that six of the eight production representative positions were held by 'pro-union sympathisers' as the workforce reacted to the management initiative to establish the Advisory Council and attempted to influence its operation . This was clearly illustrated when a threat to refer a deadlocked issue from the negotiating committee to the Advisory Council prompted management to continue negotiations and agree a settlement . Similarly, the introduction of teamworking and quality circles may be used to circumvent workplace organisation through the operation of cooperative forms of work organisation which assume an uncritical company loyalty . Heaton and Linn (1989 :16-24) show that in each plant of their sample at which teamworking and/or quality circles were introduced workplace unionism was placed at an initial disadvantage . This was tempered as workplace organisations devised the strategic means with which to respond . Such mechanisms included the election of additional stewards for each section in which there was teamworking and securing agreements stipulating that stewards be informed

beforehand of the

agenda of a team briefing coupled with the right to ask that agenda items be withdrawn . More generally, many employers have introduced direct communication systems between managements and employees designed to bypass union organisation and exploit individual employee loyalty . Marginson and Sisson, for example, found that 'one-way' methods of communication to employees, such as the management chain, are now the most common form of communication between managements and employees outstripping 'two-way' methods, such as meetings (1988 :106) . The influence of such methods in 'comprehensively outflanking' joint shop stewards organisation is shown by Linn (1986) . He argues that this may stimulate the increased usage of

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workplace union communications as stewards make available information to counteract that of management (Linn, 1986 ; Heaton and Linn, 1989 :36-41) . Where this practice has incorporated inter-plant linkages a more coordinated workplace response has resulted (Cohen and Fosh, 1988 ; Spencer, 1989) . This evidence, therefore, suggests that some managements may take steps to establish procedures to constrain union organisation . These conditions, however, are specific and depend on managerial approaches and on the degree to which workforces are willing and able to organise collectively . Furthermore, attempts to suppress unionism may be relatively short-lived as workers begin to move towards forms of collective organisation, building on the generalised experience of unionism in an area as well as the experience of work and employment in each workplace (Heaton and Linn, 1989 :3941) . What is striking in these cases is the relative ineffectiveness of the wider union organisations, which have been relatively powerless at a workplace level to stem these developments and practices (Whitston, 1989) . Moreover, at some greenfield sites national union organisations have tacitly supported such developments in ratifying agreements prior to the employment of workforces .

The Limits of bureaucratisation at the workplace. With reference to established workplace union organisation, an influential argument is that the bureaucratisation of shop stewards' organisation involves a change in the relationship between stewards and members from 'control for' to 'control over' membership . Hyman (1979) and Terry (1978) identified a tendency towards the bureaucratisation of shop stewards' organisation arising in part from the implementation of the Donovan Commission's recommendations . They argue that the development of internal steward hierarchies, the centralisation of steward control and a distancing of senior stewards from members weakens the resistance of workplace organisation to centralising pressures of unionism . Further case study research has detailed the relationship between bureaucratisation and the waning of membership participation and involvement . In these circumstances mobilisation assumes a 'top-down' character within the workplace (Beynon, 1984 ;

Politics of trade unionism

Cohen and Fosh, 1988 ; Fairbrother, 1989) . One conventional indicator of the tendency towards workplace union bureaucratisation is the increase in formal recognition of workplace union representation, particularly at senior levels . The aggregate number of stewards rose during the early-1980's . This increase comprises a decline in the number of shop stewards in manufacturing, which is more than compensated by an increase in the public sector and private services (Millward and Stevens, 1986 : 85) . Accompanying this increase are reductions in the average unit of representation for each steward . Moreover, Edwards' survey found no evidence to suggest any widespread removal of facilities available to shop stewards or any assault on the closed shop (1987 :116) . Additionally Millward and Stevens report only a small decline of intra-union shop stewards meetings and joint shop stewards committees (1986 :127-31) . Edwards and Marginson also 'suggest that such committees are both more prevalent and more likely to be recognised, than earlier surveys and case studies have suggested' (1988 :134) . Finally, although variation between unions and industrial sectors is stressed, there is also an overall rise in the number of senior stewards and full-time stewards relative to employees (Batstone and Gourlay, 1986 :78-81 ; Millward and Stevens, 1986 :88-89) . These indices, therefore, point to increasing bureaucratisation of workplace organisation . The interpretation of these indices is, however, open to question . Instead, it could be argued that the effectiveness of workplace organisation is enhanced in situations where workplace unions are autonomous, irrespective of whether the number of stewards is increasing or declining . Survey data alone do not allow specification of the diverse consequences arising from changes in formal structures . Batstone, for example, concluded his review of the processes underpinning workplace bureaucratisation by commenting that 'few plants demonstrate all of the characteristics associated with "full" bureaucracy' (1988 :119) . Furthermore, the numerical shift towards workplace organisation in the public sector and private services is equally open to the interpretation that workplace autonomy is more likely to develop . It might be argued that the increase in the number of stewards in these sectors indicates a process of self-organisation and activity by these workforces and the emergence of collective workplace

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organisation . It is not the institutional presence of unionism that is threatened, but its workplace form and character . Associated with a shift towards the establishment level of bargaining are management practices implemented to generate an awareness among workforces of business priorities and to use consultation rather than negotiation or custom and practice (Chadwick, 1983 ; Terry, 1989 ; Maclnnes, 1985) . In addition, Edwards (1987 :116) lays emphasis on managements' successful encouragement of a recognition among stewards and workers of a need for change . Where union organisation remains, therefore, managerial practice is directed towards generating cooperation on the shop floor rather than confronting workplace union organisation . A further feature of the tendency towards the bureaucratisation of workplace organisation is the underwriting of the organisational stability of workplace relations through management sponsorship (Hyman, 1979 :58-59) . This may take the form of maintaining a set of relations which reaffirm the importance of a central leadership and devalue the section steward . Hyman develops the argument that opposition voiced by section stewards to their workplace leadership may become less effective because of the resources available to, and the position of, these leaders (1979 :55) . Case study evidence examining the processes of bureaucratisation, however, shows that section stewards continue to operate, albeit on a restricted and limited set of issues, and continue to affirm a commitment to workplace unionism even in such circumstances (Fairbrother, 1989 :16-20) . It has also been argued that the question of management sponsorship of stewards' organisation is necessarily one of degree, often formally recognising long standing arrangements (Batstone, 1988 :103-16) . Also noteworthy in this context is the trend within managerial policy discussed above towards the bypassing, rather than sponsorship, of stewards' organisation which has been influential in promoting the search for counter union practices . Reaffirming Autonomy .

The bureaucratisation thesis tends to assume a 'one-way' exchange between a sponsoring management and workplace union leadership . This ignores the complex of relations which

Politics of trade uizionism

are a feature of workplace industrial relations . One line of argument developing this point states that workplace unionism can only be understood with reference to these relations (Jones and Rose, 1986 :38) . They argue that commentators should be cautious about concluding that unions have been divided and neutralised by any workplace managerial offensive . The focus of this account, however, is on workplace union leaderships, some of whom are shown to respond pragmatically to management initiatives and make accommodations in order to protect established representative structures of workplace unionism . As such, this account tends to ignore the relationships between leadership initiatives and the form of involvement of the wider union membership, and in particular the implications of such analyses for participative workplace unionism . An additional line of argument emphasises workplace experience in the conformation of the relationships between local leaders and members . Workplace experience is, thus, seen as a counter to managerial sponsorship . Unlike Jones and Rose, such accounts stress the tension between leadership accountability and membership participation . Cohen and Fosh, for example, argue that it is necessary to consider the manner in which unionism for most members is rooted in 'the fundamental pressures undergone by workers in their everyday experience' (1988 :30) . Unionism established through collective work experiences is shown to be more likely to develop an accountable leadership responsible to a participative membership . Where the everyday experience of members is characterised by a degree of individualism it becomes more difficult for unionists to develop these sorts of relationships even when formal workplace organisation cannot be 'faulted, as far as the structure of local democracy and accountability was concerned' (Cohen and Fosh, 1988 :19-20 and 30) . A further theme developed by proponents of the bureaucratisation thesis is that stewards are subject to incorporation within national union structures . Hyman has argued that workplace union organisation was bureaucratised, in part, through the impact of tripartism in promoting stewards' commitment to issues beyond the workplace, particularly to pay controls (1979 :58) . England questioned this thesis on the grounds that it makes no allowance for the historical process of democratisation of many unions arising from workplace

39

Capital & Class

40

activity . It presents no evidence to indicate that central union policy was consistently imposed by the use of disciplinary measures and takes no account of constitutional variation within unions and their different market locations (1981 :2728) . This account, however, fails to acknowledge the specific historical focus of Hyman's analysis and its implications for an understanding of workplace unionism during a period of tripartism . On the withdrawal from tripartism during the 1980s the conditions for workplace unionism altered . The state sector provides particular evidence of the reaffirmation of workplace autonomy during the 1980s . State sector unions have traditionally been highly centralised with workplace organisations centrally sponsored and controlled . With the restructuring of this sector unions have faced dilemmas in how to respond and organise . In some cases the pursuit of centrally planned and organised campaigns are shown to have misunderstood relations at a local level as illustrated, for example, by the CPSA policy on temporary workers and the sops' national policy on overtime work (Potter, 1987 :52-53 ; Fairbrother, 1989 :7-12) . In contrast, there is evidence to suggest the continued importance and occasional success of centrally led campaigns, albeit grounded in local activity, in the health service and union action on the contracting out of services (Cousins, 1988 :221 ; Cunnison, 1982) . Decentralisation of managerial structures in the state sector has resulted in a focus on local conditions of service . In these circumstances, centralised union structures and centrally determined policies have not always been effective and unions such as NALGO and the scps have moved towards decentralised forms of workplace unionism . Moreover, Fairbrother, (1990) identifies 'tentative moves towards the development of more active workplace structures' in response to the devolution of managerial control in the civil service . The institutional resilience of workplace organisation, therefore, appears to be accompanied by the maintenance of a degree of autonomy even where unionism is being challenged . Although developments are uneven, they seem to be taking place in both the public and private sectors and are in tension with the policies underwriting bureaucratic effectiveness at a national level .

Politics of trade unionism

During the 1980s successive Governments have attempted to encourage particular forms of trade unionism . Unionists have questioned the character, practice and objectives of their organisations as policy options available during the 1970s became inoperable during the 1980s . The task here is to examine these issues, the processes involved in unions' resistance and to consider their implications for the future . To this end two sections are presented . The first section assesses the relationships between organisational stability, bureaucratic effectiveness and democracy . The second section examines the redefinition of internal union relationships by assessing the policy implications arising from the tensions between bureaucracy and democracy .

The 41 contradictory tensions between bureaucracy and democracy

Organisational Throughout the 1980s a principal focus of unionism has been on the maintenance of organisational stability . In order to stability, bureaucratic restore its position the TUC has attempted to generate a 'new' effectiveness and procedural consensus through which the dependence of affiliated unions on the TUC may be re-established . This has democracy involved firstly, an affirmation of a social democratic political agenda of individual and collective rights for workers to be defined and enacted centrally . Secondly, there is increased support for bureaucratically effective forms of unionism dependent upon the centralised provision of services and the centralised resolution of inter-union disputes . The coverage of these TUC policies, however, is limited as larger TUC affiliates can continue to act independently of the TUC . Furthermore, the sharpened political affinities within unions coupled to continued merger activity may promote the emergence of several, more concentrated, unified union power blocks with the consequence that dependence on the TUC may become less likely . Contrasting with the TUC's emphasis on securing a 'new' procedural consensus, individual unions have tried to arrest rates of membership decline through the extensions of recruitment bases by mergers and individual recruitment . This pursuit of membership growth has had contradictory effects . Centralised forms of unionism have been promoted through the provision of services, control of finances and political decision-making, including centrally administered campaigns around political fund ballots incorporating full-time officers

Capital & Class

42

and workplace representatives but the extension of recruitment bases has been accompanied by the constitutional allowance for bargaining autonomy in the case of some mergers . There is also evidence of increasing workplace autonomy as bargaining has become increasingly decentralised and union groups have acted to affirm their organisation at a local level . In short the development of union organisation during the 1980s consists of two processes . Firstly, there is a tendency towards bureaucratic effectiveness at a national level, while secondly, there is also a noticeable extension of local bargaining autonomy which runs counter to the trends towards centralisation . These two tendencies necessarily remain in tension . Within the workplace the key to organisational stability is the establishment and continual renewal of a collectively organised, participative membership to which union leaderships at the workplace are accountable . This accountability, with reference to workplace organisational stability, need not necessarily extend to national union leaderships . In this regard, the contradictions between national union initiatives and the organisational stability of workplace unionism are twofold . Firstly, national union policies directed towards organisational stability have often relied on individually based recruitment strategies, membership services and surveys, to the relative exclusion of facilitating the development of collective organisation and participative structures of representation . Organisational stability at the national level may, thus, be achieved in terms of membership growth while organisational instability remains at the workplace . Nonetheless, national initiatives often rest on collective workplace organisation for their implementation and this is frequently at odds with the logic of individual recruitment methods . Moreover, the promotion of a social democratic political agenda presupposes an informed collective workplace organisation able to act to secure the terms included on the political agenda . Secondly, national unions have promoted bureaucratically effective policies which are, in large part, reliant upon the undertaking of administrative functions by `lay' branch and workplace representatives . These policies are, thus, dependent upon workplace activity for their realisation while also threatening the effectiveness of such activity by acting to distance workplace representatives from those they represent . Exacerbating this tension within union organisation are the effects of survey

Politics of trade unionism methods which may bypass the workplace representatives upon which the realisation of such policies is dependent . The policies pursued by unions to meet and respond to the challenges of the 1980s attest to the pervasiveness of bureaucratic forms of organisation, operating within a relatively narrow economistic remit . There is, however, another aspect of trade unionism which tends to be downplayed . If it is argued that bureaucracy pervades trade union practice at every level, the countervailing tendencies towards democratic relations must be similarly pervasive . Analyses omitting consideration of this inherent tension run the risk of fatalistically accepting the `inevitability' of bureaucratisation (c .f. Nichols and Beynon, 1977 : 161-204) . Equally, analyses which emphasise the mediating roles of unions between labour and capital tend to reinforce views of unions organised in bureaucratically effective ways (Muller-Jentsch, 1985 :2326) . 16 The tensions between bureaucracy and democracy are rooted in the process whereby union members come together to realise their sectional interests and aspirations within organisations which attempt to generalise and formalise these interests . There is a tendency in some analyses to assume a constancy in forms of union sectionalism, characterised by that between craft and semi-skilled workers (for example, Terry and Edwards, 1988) . 17 Yet, it is apparent from the above analysis that sectionalism, between workgroups, within unions and between unions, is constantly undergoing processes of recomposition as the economy is restructured . This suggests that the tension between bureaucracy and democracy is in a constant state of flux . These contradictions may be expressed institutionally through forms of organisation that attempt to combine sectional with general concerns . On occasion this may lead to an institutional overemphasis on the general and formalistic concerns of workers ; in other circumstances sectional concerns may be foremost . This article has indicated the ways in which this tension is expressed at a national level with a concern for bureaucratic effectiveness, albeit as a means to realise members' interests, and the resistance to this development inherent in workplace forms of organisation and activity .

43



Capital & Class

44 Policy Implications

To develop this analysis further it is necessary to consider the antithesis between accommodation and resistance . A distinction has been drawn between accommodative bargaining and autonomy, whereby unions are viewed as having entered into relations with the state and employers that reaffirm rather than challenge the wage relation (Hyman, 1987a and 1989) . 11 At the same time, unions have the capacity to pursue strategies that emphasise their autonomy from employers and the state . In this respect, counter forms of organisation rooted in the immediate material needs of union members are developed . This latter tendency, for Hyman, is most clearly illustrated at a workplace level which has historically resulted in a tension between 'workplace self-activism' and 'the "safe" machinery of employee representation' (1987b :203) . He rightly points out that it is only in the most exceptional circumstances that workplace union members are able to organise in opposition to the routines and procedures that characterise industrial relations . The issue for unions has always been and remains how to realise the objectives of unionism as both part of, and in opposition to, the labour-capital relation . One strand of analysis has focused on particular levels of union organisation to the relative exclusion of others . For example Mcllroy, in advocating a return to 'stronger corporatist' trade unionism focuses on national organisation to the relative exclusion of other levels of unionism and the character of intra-union relations that might result (1988 : 229 and 233-235) . Similarly, Spencer's support for Mondragon-style cooperatives at the workplace, while including a 'shopping-list' of centrally provided policy requirements, excludes any reference to union structures, processes and power relations that may develop (1989 :111-127) . Such recommendations do not address the means whereby unions generalise workplace resistance while ensuring the representation of diverse interests . A second noteworthy, although historically specific, answer to the question was advanced by syndicalists at the beginning of this century advocating a unionism characterised by federallylinked, participative workplace groups (Unofficial Reform Committee, 1912 :25-27) . Although there are some signs that this form of unionism is a possibility, the quest for organisational stability nationally and the pursuit of bureaucratic effectiveness places a premium on workplace autonomy rather

Politics of trade unionism

than interlinked and cooperative workplace-based organisation and activity . A more comprehensive account attempts to follow through the implications of analysis in terms of bureaucracy and democracy, developing a view of unionism that considers the complex of relations within and between unions . Hyman, for example, identifies three possibilities for change within a redefined and revitalised union movement (1984 :184-85) . Firstly, he stresses the requirement of unions to organise in relation to workers' lived experiences . Secondly, he suggests that change must be membership initiated and not decreed by those in bureaucratically powerful positions . Thirdly, unions must 'connect' with other struggles, in the communities, among the unemployed, and other sections of society who are more or less excluded from union activities and involvement (c .f. Gorz, 1982 :66-119) . Yet Hyman concludes that 'it would be remarkably naive to offer much optimism that these principles will be embraced by the sclerotic institutions of British labour' (1984 :186) . Hyman's pessimistic account is restricted in two respects . Firstly, the notion of autonomy leads to a misleading emphasis on a social and institutional separation between specific levels of union organisation, the state and employers . A more useful concept is that of resistance where the emphasis is on the notion of activity, thereby, underlining the idea of process and change . i9 Secondly, this type of analysis leads to the advocacy of a form of union politics predicated on an assumed division between industrial and political activity focusing on a revitalised or radical form of social democratic politics . The question for unions is defined in terms of their relations with the Labour Party and the place of the TUC in influencing patterns of unionism . As the argument presented here suggests, such an analysis is founded on a view of unionism as bureaucratically effective and responsible rather than as collective and participative . The contradictions inherent in the relations between trade unions and the Labour Party are downplayed as are the political consequences which might arise from industrial militancy . The impact of a decade of political and structural change on the character and processes of trade unionism requires an analysis of the contradictory effects of such changes at all levels of unionism . Similarly, the pragmatic and divergent policies

45

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46

enacted by trade unionists require examination, not in isolation but in the context of their effects on inter- and intraunion relations . It follows, therefore, that studies dealing with future union policy need also to incorporate analyses of intraand inter-union relations and that policy recommendations framed in terms of specific levels of unionism are necessarily flawed .

Conclusion

Postwar economic growth made it easier for unions to agree common policies . Economic stagnation during the late-1970s and recession in the 1980s heightened inter- and intra-union tensions and thus disturbed established processes of decisionmaking . While union policy responses have varied, most have pursued bureaucratic effectiveness as a basis for unity . This tendency has been promoted, in part, by legal intervention in processes of union government . Yet different responses at workplace level together with the decentralisation of bargaining, while limiting opportunities for solidaristic trade union activity, also inhibit the imposition of such a bureaucratic unity . Any future policy recommendations must address these changes . The choice in the 1990s, therefore, will be between a form of unionism that accommodates to Government policies and restructuring and one that poses a more direct challenge to Government policies and strategies . The first is likely to entail further sophistication in the development of bureaucratically effective forms of unionism ; whereas in the second case workplace based union structures are likely to become more prominent . In either case, unionism will continue to display a tension between pressures towards bureaucracy and those towards democracy . The dilemmas arising from this tension will be the key issues for unionists in the 1990s .

The authors wish to thank Peter Caldwell, Trevor Coiling, Simon Clarke, Tony Elger, Peter Gutkind, Richard Hyman, Walter Muller-Jentsch, Peter Nolan, Ian Proctor, Stephanie Tailby and David Winchester for their comments on earlier drafts of this paper .

Politics of trade unionism

Hyman identifies bureaucracy as a 'social relation pervading 1. trade union practice at every level : a social relation corrosive of the foundations of collective solidarity' (1984 :181) . For Hyman bureaucracy comprises three sets of relations : firstly, a separation of representation from mobilisation ; secondly, a hierarchy of control and activism; and thirdly, the detachment of formal procedures of policy formulation and decision making from members' experiences (1984 : 181-182) . In developing this case, Hyman notes that 'workers' organisations which are defined and constituted through struggle tend also to contain and inhibit such struggle' (1984 :181). He refers to the fragility of these social relations, identifying a process of internal union democracy indicated by a hierarchy of activism and involvement throughout the union . This hierarchy is characterised by the pre-dominance of white, male, relatively skilled and higher paid workers in more secure jobs which mirrors such ranking within the working class . Hyman concludes' the bureaucratic-hierarchal tendencies of trade union organisational practice provide a material foundation for Conservative anti-union populism' (1984 : 182) . While unions have opposed Conservative legislation, there 2. has nevertheless been a re-evaluation of union support for legal regulation of individual and collective rights in anticipation of the return of a Labour government . This indicates a shift from union support during the 1970s for so-called free collective bargaining . Unions have a mixed record on the seeking the enforcement of legal regulation ; for example, on gendered pay differentials (EOC, 1989) and workplace health and safety . Acceptance of some degree of legal regulation of terms and conditions of employment may involve a policing role for unions . Furthermore, the legal measures introduced by Conservative governments have underwritten the centralisation of authority within unions (Evans, 1985 and 1987) . The recent Green Paper Unofficial Action and the Law (1989) seems likely to reinforce this tendency . This calculation is made by subtracting the membership 3. figures provided by the TUC from those available from the Certification Officer which include all unions holding a Certificate of Independence . The EETPU is regarded as a TUC affiliated union for the purposes of this calculation . 4. Unity Trust Bank plc was established and is owned by a number of TUC affiliated unions and the Cooperative Bank . Several subsidiary companies have been jointly established by the Unity Trust Bank and private sector companies to facilitate the provision of services, for example, to generate pension services, for example,

Notes

47

Capital & Class 48

Unity Pension Services was formed, jointly owned by the Unity Trust Bank and Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Society Limited . 5.

The greater reliance of smaller unions on the

TUC

in relation

to their larger counterparts is not a recent phenomenon . Prochaska (1982), for example, in tracing the development of the

TUC

sponsored

General Federation of Trade Unions (GFru) attributes the initial successes of the GFTU in attracting affiliates to the bargaining services it provided which smaller TUC

TUC

affiliates were unable to afford . Larger

affiliates such as those organising miners and in the building

trades remained apart . The decline of affiliation to the GFru is, in part the result of absorptions, GFTU-affiliated unions electing to rely on the services available from acquiring unions rather than those available through the GFTU . 6.

There is also some debate regarding the voting relationship

between unions and the Labour Party . At the 1989 Labour Party Conference the unions cast 89 per cent of the conference votes whereas the constituency parties wielded only 10 per cent (Upham and Wilson, 1989) . The same conference also reviewed voting relationships with the object of increasing the proportion of votes allocated to constituency parties . Some unions have appointed officers with the specific purpose of bolstering individual party membership among existing union membership . The Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers, for example, has appointed a National Political Officer and the General, Municipal and Boilermakers the first of ten proposed Regional Political Officers . 7.

Given the Conservative government's opposition to the social

proposals accompanying the single market, their final form remains unresolved . It also should be acknowledged that union federations from several member states, most notably that in the Federal Republic of Germany, view the social proposals as inadequate, often undercutting existing domestic provisions . 8.

Unless otherwise stated, the data on merger activity in the

following sections are based on The Annual Reports of the Certification Officer analysed in Waddington (forthcoming) . Following Buchanan (1974) the larger union involved in any 9. merger is referred as the acquiring or absorbing union . The smaller union/s are referred to as the acquired or absorbed unions . For further discussion of the conceptual and methodological issues involved, see Waddington (1988a) . 10 . The Millward and Stevens (1986) data cover the period 1980 to 1984 . As such, the data may not capture the full impact of the merger activity referred to in this article which covers the period



Politics of trade unionism between 1980 and 1988 . Thus care must be taken in considering the Millward and Stevens data in this and later sections of this article . 11 .

Several sets of merger discussions are underway between

major TUC-affiliated unions intended to produce these so-called 'super-unions' . Those involving NALGO, NUPE and COHSE to concentrate union membership from the public sector and between the TGWU, NUM and NSF

to centralise the 'left-led' unions within

manufacturing illustrate the case . While the objectives of these discussions have still to be realised, were the mergers to be ratified the two resultant unions would have at their disposal resources to provide a full range of membership services and support independently of the TUC . 12 .

During 1984/5 TASS withdrew from the Amalgamated

Union of Engineering Workers (AUEw) to form the basis of a left grouping in opposition to the AUEw-Engineering Section . Four sections of the NUtw were absorbed by ASTMS prior to the constitutional centralisation of the NUIW . These sections were : Refuge Section (1978) ; Pearl Federation Section (1978); London and Manchester Section (1975) and the Pearl Section (1974) . 13 .

These figures exclude the membership of the Royal College

of Nursing and other non-TUC unions which traditionally have adopted a no-strike policy . 14 .

A comprehensive HRM policy includes flexible working,

practices to generate employee commitment to the company, individual contracts and no independent collective organisation (Guest, 1989 :50-51) . HRM policies are most likely to be practised by overseas, particularly American, companies (Purcell et al, 1987) . 15 .

Company Advisory Boards are known by several different

names, for example, Advisory Council and Company Council . Company Advisory Boards usually comprise employee representatives, elected by the entire workforce irrespective of union membership, who are not required to hold any union office unlike traditional consultative committees . Furthermore, the substantive issues covered at Company Advisory Boards amount to a stage in bargaining that precedes formal union involvement if agreement is reached at the Company Advisory Board, thus, calling into question an independent role for shop stewards . 16 .

It should be noted that one of Muller-Jentsch's principal

references is the trade union movement in the Federal Republic of Germany where infra-union relationships have historically followed a different trajectory to those in Britain . 17 .

While the authors in this collection recognise the changing

49



Capital & Class 50

relations between craft and semi-skilled workers, apart from Grainger's contribution there is little analysis of the character of gender and ethnic divisions which are a feature of an increasing number of manufacturing workforces (c .f. Thompson, 1983 ; Hyman, 1987c :39) . 18 . This is a continuous thread in Hyman's writing dating from Marxism and the Sociology of Trade Unionism (1971 :37-49) . 19 . It is noteworthy that Hyman, writing in conjunction with Elger (198 1), highlights the notion of resistance as well as autonomy . This contrasts with other, and in particular later, publications where the emphasis is on autonomy to the relative exclusion of resistance with the consequence that the analysis becomes increasingly pessimistic .

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Marchington, M . and P . Parker . (1990) Changing Patterns of Employee Relations . London : Harvester Wheatsheaf. Marginson, P . and K . Sisson . (1988) 'The Management of Employees', in Marginson, P ., P . Edwards, R . Martin, J . Purcell and K . Sisson . (1988) Beyond the Workplace: Managing Industrial Relations in the Multi-Establishment Enterprise . Oxford : Blackwell . Martin, R . (1968) 'Union Democracy : An Explanatory Framework', Sociology Vol . 2, 82-124 . Michels, R . (1962) Political Parties : A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy . New York: Free Press . Millward, N . and M . Stevens . (1986) British Workplace Industrial Relations 1980-84 . Aldershot : Gower . Muller Jentsch, W . (1985) 'Trade Unions as Intermediary Organisations', Economic and Social Democracy, Vol . 6, No . 1, 3-33 . National Union of Teachers . (1989) Regional Services : Enhanced Protection for Members . London : National Union of Teachers . Nichols, T . and H . Beynon . (1977) Living with Capitalism: Class Relations and the Modern Factory . London : Routledge and Kegan Paul . Nolan, P . (1989) 'The Productivity Miracle?', in F . Green . (ed .) The Restructuring of the Ux Economy . Brighton : Wheatsheaf. Oliver, N . and B . Wilkinson . (1988) The Japanization of British Industry . Oxford : Blackwell . Potter, T . (1987) A Temporary Phenomenon: Flexible Labour, Temporary Workers and the Trade Union Response . Birmingham : West Midlands Low Pay Unit . Prochaska, A . (1982) History of the General Federation of Trade Unions . London : Allen and Unwin . Purcell, J ., P . Marginson, P . Edwards and K . Sisson . (1987) 'The Industrial Relations Practices of Multi-Plant Foreign Owned Firms', Industrial Relations Journal, Vol . 18 . Smith . P . and G . Morton . (1990) 'A Change of Heart : Union Exclusion in the Provincial Newspaper Sector', Work, Employment and Society . Vol . 4, No . 1 . Spencer, B . (1989) Remaking the Working Class? An Examination of Shop Stewards' Experiences . Nottingham : Spokesman . Storey, J . (1987) 'Developments in the Management of Human Resources : An Interim Report', Warwick Papers in Industrial Relations, No . 17, University of Warwick : IRRU . Terry, M . (1978) 'Shop Stewards : The Emergence of a Lay Elite?',

Politics of trade unionism Discussion Paper . University of Warwick : IRRU . Terry, M . (1989) 'Recontextualising Shopfloor Industrial Relations', in Tailby, S . and C . Whitson . (eds .) Manufacturing Change . Oxford : Blackwell . IRRU

Terry, M . and A . Ferner . (1986) 'Political Change and Union Democracy : The Negotiation of Internal Order in The Union of Communication Workers', Warwick Papers in Industrial Relations, No . 10 . University of Warwick : IRRU . Terry, M . and P . Edwards . (eds .) (1988) Shopfloor Politics and Job Controls : The Post-War Engineering Industry . Oxford : Blackwell . Thompson, P. (1983) The Nature of Work : An Introduction to the Debates on the Labour Process . London : Macmillan . Trades Union Congress . various . Annual Reports. London: Trades Union Congress . Trades Union Congress . (1983) Hands Up for Union Democracy . London: Trades Union Congress . Trades Union Congress . (1988a) Disputes Principles and Procedures . London : Trades Union Congress . Trades Union Congress . (1988b) Meeting The Challenge : First Report of the Special Review Body . London : Trades Union Congress . Trades Union Congress . (1988c) Services For Union Members : Special Review Body Report on Services . London : Trades Union Congress . Trades Union Congress . (1989a) Organising for the 1990s : The Special Review Body's Second Report . London : Trades Union Congress . Trades Union Congress . (1989b) Congress Guide. London : Trades Union Congress . Unofficial Reform Committee . (1912) The Miners' Next Step: Being a Suggested Scheme for the Reorganisation of the Federation . 1973 edition . London : Pluto . Upham, M . and T . Wilson . (1989) Natural Allies : Labour and the Unions . Fabian Tracts, No . 534 . Waddington, J . (1988a) 'Trade Union Mergers : A Study of Trade Union Structural Dynamics', British Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol . 26, No . 3 . Waddington, J . (1988b) 'Business Unionism and Fragmentation within the TUC', Capital & Class, Number 36, Winter 1988, 7-15 . Waddington, J . forthcoming . 'Restructuring Representation : Trade Union Mergers 1980-1988' in J . Morgan and D . Cox . eds . Facing the Future . Wedderburn, K . (Lord) (1990) The Social Charter, European Company and Employment Rights : An Outline Agenda . London : Institute of

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Employment Rights . Whitston, C . (1989) Rationalising Foundries' in Tailby, S . and C . Whitston, Manufacturing Change, Oxford : Blackwell . Willman, P . and T . Morris . (1988) The Finances of British Trade Unions 1975-1985 . Department of Employment Research Paper No . 62 . London : The Department of Employment .

Bob Carter

'No military solution : The 1984/5 miners strike and its aftermath in South Derbyshire • In what is the most comprehensive review of the perspectives and preoccupations of works on the miners' strike Gibbon (1988) distinguishes between pit and mineworkers' politics . The distinction is used to contrast the 'combative tradition of militancy, workgroup self-regulation, local bargaining and organisation and an ideological refusal of managerial legitimacy' of the former with the 'religion of compromise' of the latter (p . 189) . While acknowledging the 'uneven, episodic and sometimes divisive forms' which pit politics took the concept assumes central place in organising the experiences of miners and according to Gibbon stood in 'uneasy and oppositional unity' with mineworkers politics located mainly at area level and above . The proposal of the necessity for two levels of analysis allows Gibbon a much superior framework for understanding the dynamic of the strike . A more developed work, however, would need to look not only at the two distinct levels but also their interaction . Whatever the potential for opposition the fact remains that those areas with the most pit-based activity were those where traditionally area level posts were dominated by the left, although once again this does not imply an uniformity of

Bob Carter's account of the miner's strike in South Derbyshire locates it in relation to the broader debates about the character of the strike . He argues that the events in Derbyshire suggest a modification to existing pictures of the dispute .

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experience or politics within an area . Gibbon, however accords these areas of activity exclusivity, as can be seen in his treatment of the conflicting perspectives surrounding Nottinghamshire (and other) miners' majority refusal to support the dispute . Gibbon divides existing explanations into two generic types : one which sees no fundamental difference between Nottinghamshire miners and the miners from striking areas, the difference in participation being accounted for by exogenous factors, especially weak area leadership ; the other, contrary explanation seeks the difference in behaviour in particular material and cultural factors . When examining

the former

of these competing

approaches Gibbon has no difficulty demonstrating ample evidence that support for the strike was low and that, had it been high, none of the exogenous factors cited (weak area leadership, the actions of the flying pickets, concentrated para military policing, etc .) would have much mattered . But, likewise, he acknowledges, that many of the factors frequently cited as evidence of the material and cultural exceptionalism of the non-striking areas are equally inaccurate or inadequate as explanations . The one which had most currency amongst strikers, for instance, that non strikers were getting higher wages in easier conditions was not necessarily true when comparing Nottinghamshire with Yorkshire and was certainly not when examining South Derbyshire . Even the more precise claim for the continued effect of Spencerism on the Dukeries (see Waller, 1983) does not hold very clearly . Gibbon is left therefore broadly accepting Krieger's (1984) suggestion of a long term influence of forms of work and payment on politics and activity : 'there was, and remains, a broad correspondence between the traditions of work-group self-regulation (whatever its source) and pit politics on the one hand, and the consensual 'buttydom' and a specific rejection of pit politics on the other' (Gibbon p . 176) . Gibbon is thus able to maintain that, as the corporatist arena became increasingly subject to government influence and mineworker politics increasingly ineffective, the strike represented a 'transposition of typical pit politics strategy and tactics to a national arena' (p . 190) . In Nottinghamshire these traditions were absent . There is much in Gibbon's argument with which to agree and supporting evidence can be found in the following pages . Quite clearly, something was different in the non-striking

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areas and it is unlikely that any single explanation, let alone an exogenous one, will adequately account for the difference . Where his argument would be strengthened, however, is by the inclusion of an examination of the area leaderships as one determinant of local cultural and political differences . Such a perspective could maintain the distinction between pit and mineworker politics without the impression that neither influenced the practice of the other . Without such a perspective, the widely acknowledged, but comparatively rapid, transformation of the politics of the Durham coalfield is less well understood (Beynon, 1987), as is the failed attempt to fundamentally change the politics and organisation of the miners in South Derbyshire .

South Derbyshire was the smallest 'minority' area in the 1984/ 5 strike . Only 17 out of 3,000 men were on strike for the duration of the dispute, i .e . only 1/z% of the workforce . Despite the comfort this figure gave the strike's opponents, the area received little public attention, being overshadowed by the numerically larger and more productive Nottinghamshire area . Concern about levels of coal-stocks and the Government's ability to withstand the effects of the strike made this emphasis on Nottinghamshire understandable . There are, however, other concerns which more than justify an analysis of the dispute in South Derbyshire . The failure of the NUM to mobilise its entire membership was arguably the principal cause of its defeat and this failure was greater in South Derbyshire than anywhere else . The area presents, therefore, an opportunity to identify tendencies which have encouraged conservatism and passivity in the membership and which occur in less developed forms in other NUM areas . The lack of support for the dispute in South Derbyshire also makes understandable the combination of hostility and despair with which many miners from more solid areas regarded the South Derbyshire workforce, feelings not improved by the area's secession to the UDM in 1985 . Neither emotion explains the lack of support for the strike, however, and an examination of developments in the area suggests that neither was uniformally appropriate . In the face of support for the UDM by the Area Council and the branch committees of the South Derbyshire NUM, there developed an energetic rank

An Overview



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and file, pro NUM campaign which came within 26 votes of successfully retaining majority NUM membership . Instrumental in developing this campaign was the small, previously isolated band of South Derbyshire strikers . Paradoxically, in a position where the NUM was not recognised, there was for a time more interest and involvement of the members in the organisation than when the union's position was undisputed on the eve of the 1984/5 strike . Furthermore, it is important that the course of the strike in South Derbyshire is documented . Up and down the country the strike produced in mining communities an unprecedented upsurge in collective consciousness and organisation, generating hopes and images of a different and better future . It also produced enormous tensions within and between people . Nowhere were these tensions more tangible than in South Derbyshire where, on top of enormous material deprivation, the strikers and their families suffered great isolation . Not only were the strikers isolated from their fellow workers, from neighbours and sometimes close relatives, they were also isolated geographically one from another . It is to their credit that not only did they withstand all the pressures upon them but also refused to portray themselves as either victims or heroes and heroines . The brevity of this account forces me to underplay the immense personal problems faced by members of the group and concentrate, as they did, on explanations of how the situation arose and their perspectives for changing it . This is not the account they deserve but I hope it goes some way towards conveying their courage and showing the potential which exists for independent working class organisation . I

The NUM in South Derbyshire

It came as little surprise to anyone in the area or in the NUM nationally that support for the 1984/5 dispute was less than overwhelming in South Derbyshire . The South Derbyshire NUM was closely associated with right-wing policies within the NUM . The Area Secretary, Ken Toon, a key figure in the NUM 'Right', was principally responsible for the success of the NCB's strategy to implement an incentive bonus scheme . In 1977, despite the fact that two national ballots had voted against such a scheme, South Derbyshire agreed to an area incentive scheme . The precedent having been set, similar schemes quickly spread to all areas, in the process wrecking

No military solution

the unity of the NUM that had been strengthened by the 1972 and 1974 strikes . There was no evidence that Toon's paternalistic style of leadership was under any threat or that there was a groundswell of militancy within the coal field . In the two ballots for national action in January and October 1982 South Derbyshire recorded only 16 % and 13 % respectively in favour of action . By the March 1983 ballot the figure had dropped to 12%, 6176 lower than any other area and in marked contrast to the 68% of Kent miners who voted for industrial action . It is crucial that the reasons for this lack of support for action are examined not only to guard against seeing the area's lack of militancy as part of a generalised and inevitable process occurring within the British working class but also to understand the specific factors at play, particularly the nature of the organisation and leadership policies of the South Derbyshire NUM . As such the conservative nature of the area provides critical negative lessons on trade union organisation . This emphasis contrasts with the dominant explanations of the lack of support for the dispute which emerged at countless meetings of strikers and support groups which mushroomed nationwide during the 1984/5 dispute . Within the inactive hurled at the working miners of the Midlands, explanations frequently revolved around their lack of 'manhood' and domination by their wives, indicating more about the male chauvinism and frustration of strikers who could not picket at Midlands' pits than an understanding of the long term problems in those areas . The explanation which was most widely and uncritically embraced, however, was that linking the industrial and political conservatism of the workforce to the secure and high-paying Midlands pits . Speaker after speaker, newspaper article after newspaper article, claimed that the Midlands pits had voted heavily against action over pit closures because of an 'I'm all right Jack' mentality, safe in the knowledge of their own longterm security . The combination of job security and relatively high wages is undoubtedly a powerful influence on behaviour in the present economic and political climate . Nottinghamshire has suffered less from pit closures than Scotland, Wales and the North East and earnings are higher than in these areas . However, it needs to be recognised that there is no simple direct relationship between these two factors and the complex

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political and industrial behaviour of NUM areas . Durham, for instance, suffered from closures as badly as anywhere in the post-war period and yet for most of that time its members appeared quiescent and its leadership was firmly on the right of the NUM spectrum . Wages in many Yorkshire pits vary little from those in Nottinghamshire without this having quelled the willingness of Yorkshire miners to take industrial action . The problems in South Derbyshire immediately prior to the 1984/5 strike differed not only from areas which supported the strike but also, more critically, from Nottinghamshire, illustrating the nonsense of blanket explanations of the behaviour of the 'Midlands' as a whole . Payment levels in South Derbyshire were lower than many other areas including Nottinghamshire . Nor did the motivation to continue working throughout the dispute stem from a confidence in the long-term future of the coal field or any sense of security . There were problems and question marks hanging over all 4 pits - Cadley Hill, Rawdon, Donisthorpe and Measham . 2 The sense of insecurity in the area was displayed in 1983 when attempts were made to stop transfers of men from the Leicestershire pits because of fears of overmanning leading to pits becoming 'uneconomic' and hastening their closure . Many factors other than pay and security combined to influence the particular outlook of South Derbyshire miners . In the area in general, there is little tradition of radicalism or industrial militancy . The coalfield has no classical pit villages nor the isolation from other sources of employment which has produced strong feelings of community in other mining areas : even amongst the sons of miners, it was not uncommon for men to have had spells of employment outside the mining industry . Until recently Burton on Trent provided comparatively well-paid jobs, especially in the breweries for which it is famous . While unemployment in the area was undoubtedly a growing problem (the number of men unemployed in Swadlincote and Burton more than doubled between 1979 and 1984) 3 closure of a pit did not threaten any particular village or sentence a generation to long-term unemployment . In the absence of any sense of community or perceived and unifying outside threat, a number of divisions amongst the workforce assumed undue importance : between the large numbers of men who travelled from Leicestershire and those who resided in

No military solution

South Derbyshire ; 4 between craftsmen organised in the Power Group and miners in the South Derbyshire NUM : between those who came from mining families and men attracted to the pits either by wage levels secured by the successful disputes of the 1970s or the increased redundancies in local industries since 1979 . The attitudes of, and divisions between, South Derbyshire miners were not simply or inevitably reflections of external factors beyond their control . One important determinant of their consciousness in March 1984 was the nature of trade union organisation and practice . Although not directly plagued by the legacy of Spencerism as in Nottinghamshire, the South Derbyshire NUM had evolved a tradition of conservatism which was sustained by and reproduced in practical everyday relations . It was the low-level of trade union consciousness and lack of involvement by the members which was the primary cause of their failure to respond to the national strike call . Conditioned to being spectators within their own organisations, rank and file members simply watched indifferent or bemused as events unfolded . It is not even the case that the South Derbyshire area had a right-wing leadership enjoying the confidence of the membership . On the contrary, dissatisfaction with the branch leaderships, the Area Council and Ken Toon, in particular, was widespread . However, most of the hostility towards them was personalised . Developed alternative perspectives and policies never found any organisation form . As a consequence the dissatisfaction coexisted with cynicism and a sense of hopelessness that the union could be transformed into anything better . There was, in truth, ample evidence to depress the most enthusiastic of would-be union reformers . Interest in the union was minimal, with attendance at branch meetings barely into double figures . On occasions there were insufficient nominations for a full branch committee, effectively allowing Secretaries to co-opt members into the institutionalised leadership . The local NUM leadership did little to counter this apathy ; indeed union practices promoted and encouraged it . Little information was disseminated by branch officials who saw no necessity to open up to the membership . Members going to branch meetings observed people going through the motions, ignoring some issues and referring to others only selectively . With no independent source of information, about corre-

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spondence from the national office, for instance, or issues raised at Area Council, it seemed impossible to challenge the proceedings . South Derbyshire miners were NUM members without enthusiasm or identification with the union . It was not only the lack of democracy within the formal organisation of the branch, however, which produced the disenchantment . Members were even more unhappy about the day to day role of officials . The latter were generally regarded as incompetent and inaccessible . Many faceworkers were discontented with the way the NUM officials handled disputes arising out of the incentive bonus scheme . In their opinion, NCB bonus calculations under-estimated their entitlements, but, when disputes arose, officials, through lack of detailed understanding of the scheme and its complexities, were unable to argue a convincing case to management on behalf of the work group . On some occasions, officials would enter into negotiations with management without taking in a representative from the workgroup in dispute . This, coupled with the failure to gain improvements, encouraged the belief that officials were, at best, incompetent and, at worst, corrupt . 5 In this respect it is interesting to note that at the first Cadley Hill NUM branch meeting after the UDM breakaway, a resolution was overwhelmingly carried stating that, in the event of recognition by the NCB, the branch secretary should be paid by the branch and not by the NCB . Such was the branch's judgement on the independence from the Board of the previous branch secretary . In fact it was pragmatism rather than corruption which mainly informed officials' dealings with management . Members threatened by the NCB with disciplinary action, for instance, were as often as not defended, not on procedural or substantive grounds, but by officials using arguments that they were 'good workers' or 'not bad lads' . The appeal was essentially to management goodwill rather than trade union strength . Crucially, it suggested that members needed to respect the personal power of the branch officials ; it certainly did not encourage a critical membership . The generalised disenchantment with the union is also evidenced by the common complaint that branch officials rarely went underground . According to the standing joke at Rawdon, the branch secretary would have got the 'bends' had he been foolhardy enough to go down the shaft . The full-time

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nature of the job of some branch officials was not, of course, unique to a right-wing South Derbyshire area . There is some evidence that the provision of facilities for officials and absence of a requirement to go underground are parts of a deliberate managerial strategy throughout the coalfields, the advantages of which to management were indicated by the manager of a Yorkshire pit after the return to work : We've got to keep the silent majority going to branch meetings to make the policies but the left-wing officials

should stay in place because I don't want them going down the pit causing trouble . 6 (emphasis added) The difference between the practice in South Derbyshire and in other areas, however, lies in rank and file miners' conceptions of the role of officials . In some Yorkshire pits, branch officials were forced to return to the coal-face in the aftermath of the strike and activists regarded this as victimisation . On hearing an account of one such victimisation, a South Derbyshire striker commented : If that's victimisation, we could do with some more of it!' The failure of the branch leadership to attempt to generate solidarity and a collective consciousness at pit level was replicated at area level . The Area council, the body designed to give the union a single, united voice, was divided against itself by petty jealousies . National issues were considered important only in so far as they encroached upon local interests . There was no tradition in South Derbyshire of contact with other areas or if inviting in officials . It was not a surprise, therefore, given the feeling of powerlessness by the South Derbyshire membership their lack of identification with miners from other areas and the systematic lack of information about the strategic plans of the NCB, that, with a few honourable exceptions, they failed to respond to calls to defend their industry and their union .

South Derbyshire members of the NUM had not been prepared by any campaign for strike action . On March 6 1984 the South Yorkshire coalfield struck against pit closures . The first response of the South Derbyshire Area Council was an announcement 4 days later that a ballot on the issue would be organised . Little was done to encourage support for action . On

The smallest minority

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the contrary, Toon's press statements discouraged and demoralised those working for a vote to strike : 'I don't think I'll get a majority for a strike looking at past performances . I can't see it being much different this time .' The Area Council even lacked the confidence to make a recommendation on how to vote in the ballot . Given the recent history of the area and the Area Council's failure to take responsibility for developing industrial action it is clear that support could only have been built by pickets from other areas convincing South Derbyshire miners of the scale of the crisis in the industry and the need for a decisive defence of jobs . But pickets only arrived in the area as the ballot was in progress . There was not time, therefore, to develop the discussion and argument within the workforce necessary to generate confidence and support . The immensity of the task was confirmed by the initial response of many South Derbyshire miners to the pickets who were viewed with a mixture of fear and incomprehension . Large sections of the workforce were frightened that a dispute which they neither fully understood nor felt could be won, was going to envelop them . One of the South Derbyshire strikers described the scene he found when picking up his back-wages : 'The men were just looking down at the pickets as if the pickets were totally removed from them . They didn't understand why the pickets were there . They didn't understand how the dispute involved them and were arguing over the various issues of the dispute : "Yes, we've got to fight for jobs . No, we've not got to fight for money . The country can't afford to prop up mining wages ." They tended to look down on the pickets as not the same as them and contempt for the pickets was beginning to show . I felt ashamed to consider myself a South Derbyshire miner . And the Branch Secretary just stood there allowing these conversations to go on . I said, "Look, they're miners, just the same as you and me ." ' Despite the initial reactions of indifference or hostility to the strike - reactions reflected in the ballot result which showed 2,303 votes against striking (83 .5 %) and only 453 for (16 .5 %) - pickets were nevertheless to have some success the following week . At Cadley Hill large numbers of pickets arrived from North Derbyshire and were joined on the picket

No military solution .

line by an increasing number of Cadley miners - up to 60 at any one time - and up to 200 day shift men were turning back and going home . At Rawdon, up to a quarter of the underground workers, including a number of the branch committee refused to cross the picket lines . During the week local strikers sensed a change of atmosphere . In spite of the ballot result which provided an important self-justification for crossing pickets lines, the pickets were having a growing impact and the South Derbyshire strikers believed the majority could be won over to the side of strike action . The growing momentum did not last . The failure of picketing to halt the pits at Cadley and Donisthorpe caused some frustration amongst visiting pickets, not always sensitive to the fact that progress towards stopping the pits was being made, even if not as speedily as they might have wished or expected . Aggressive police tactics and provocations by working miners produce some nasty incidents . Following a mass picket of over 1000 men from North Derbyshire and South Wales at Cadley, allegations were made of a working miner being badly beaten and certainly a working miner's car park close to the pit was extensively damaged by pickets, prompting hostile reports in the local paper and further isolating South Derbyshire miners supporting the strike . The strikers were make starkly conscious of this at the Cadley Hill branch meeting on the following Sunday . Already aware of the growing hostility towards them that had been released by the picket line incidents, two of the striking miners sought to ensure a good turn-out of strikers to the branch meeting to secure a hearing for their case . Awareness of the hostility was one thing but they were in no way prepared for what they were to encounter . Arriving at the hall, strikers were greeted by the wrecked car, towed to and left outside the entrance . On the faces of those already there they saw nothing but anger . As the hall filled with up to 350 men the 35 to 40 strikers were surrounded and the atmosphere grew increasingly tense . Even before the meeting started, accusations were made against the pickets, holding them responsible for threats, intimidation and violence . Little attempt was made to control the meeting ; on contrary the NUM chairman appeared to be encouraging the mood . The only formal business of the meeting that anyone can remember was a vote of no confidence in the one branch committee member who had joined the

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picket . Apart from this, the meeting was 'a blood letting session' . An attempt was made to formalise the hostility against the pickets through a proposal to 'form a corridor outside the exit and to kick the pickets heads in' . This as ruled out of order by the Chair who nevertheless gave the distinct impression that such a battering could take place without the sanction of official branch policy . In any event, the corridor was not formed and the pickets got out of the meeting without violence against them . But the meeting had a shattering effect on the confidence of the Cadley Hall strikers . On the following Monday only a handful remained on strike . At Rawdon, by contrast, the collapse of support was less dramatic . After the Area ballot result 6 out of the 10 committee members still refused to cross the picket lines of miners from other areas . This stand was not to last, however . Support for the dispute by rank and file miners disintegrated, not helped by the practice of pickets concentrating only on the day shift, leaving the afternoon and night shifts unchallenged . As a result those respecting the picket lines became annoyed at their selectivity as well as demoralised with their effect . The disintegration of support also left the officials extremely isolated and vulnerable to pressure to work normally . When this pressure was increased by the NCB warning them not to enter NCB premises if not reporting for work, thus effectively barring them from the union office, all but one of the committee, the Area President, Kevin Richards, capitulated . Richards was told many times that he could not represent his members while not crossing picket lines and therefore without access to the union office . The Area Secretary, Toon, advised him to resolve the problem by reporting sick . Richards's stand so embarrassed Area council members that eventually he was asked for his resignation, only for it not to be accepted! In attempting to explain the course of the dispute in South Derbyshire it would be wrong to concentrate on, or give too much weight to the influence of particular incidents or to the inconsistency of picketing . Such factors have to be viewed within the general context of the policies of the South Derbyshire NUM . There was undoubtedly a reservoir of support for the dispute especially amongst younger miners and faceworkers, a fact which has not been sufficiently acknowledged . The South Derbyshire NUM neither decisively strengthened the

No military solution

position of this group by instructing members not to cross picket lines, nor did it attempt to build on that support in order to carry the rest of the membership . The Area Council's official position, announced a month after the ballot result, was that it would not condemn 'anyone who does not have it on their conscience to cross a picket line' • 8 However, in the crucial early stages of the dispute the actions of many union officials positively contradicted this policy, regularly crossing picket lines themselves, encouraging others to do so and threatening those who did not . The officials at Cadley, for example, continually stressed that the men were not on strike and were liable to dismissal for absenteeism . There were reports, not denied by the NUM, that Cadley miners who joined the pickets had their names chalked onto a blackboard in the canteen and that they were going to be blacked . At Donisthorpe, at a point when support for the dispute had dropped from over 50 to just a handful, a Power Group branch committee member had to answer charges of bringing the union into disrepute for standing with the pickets outside the area and referring to them as 'comrades' . Even where branch officials were more sympathetic to the dispute, Area policy eventually undermined their stand . What happened at Rawdon, for instance, was of paramount importance to the area, not only because it had the strongest NUM base, but also because all the coal mined at Donisthorpe and Measham pits passed through the Rawdon complex . To have stopped Rawdon would have stopped coal from all 3 pits . But the branch committee was confident that action short of a total stoppage would eventually paralyse the 3 pits . There was practically no movement of coal from South Derbyshire or Leicestershire pits after early April 1984 because of solidarity action by railworkers at Coalville in Leicestershire . 10 The Policy adopted by the Area Council was that no coal which normally went by train should be moved by road . Strict adherence to this policy would have seen coal production cease within 6 weeks, the time it would take to fill the stockyard . There was, however, a gradual increase in the number of private road hauliers collecting coal, an increase accepted in the belief that they were supplying the domestic market and not the power stations, normally supplied exclusively by rail . When it became apparent that Drakelow power station was receiving coal by road this was reported to the Area Secretary

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for action to stop it . No action was taken and it emerged later that the NUM National Office had not even been informed of this significant development . Nevertheless, despite the lack of action by the Area Council, the increasing use of lorries to move coal from Rawdon erupted into a stoppage of work . A courageous Area leadership might have swung support behind the strike using the issue . An official recommendation to black the lorries could almost certainly have been carried but the dispute was diffused after the Branch Secretary stated that there were no grounds for the action, a statement that was blatantly untrue . The acquiescence came about because to defy the official recommendation to continue working required more confidence and anger than was by then present in a workforce torn with guilt and numb with demoralisation . Never having made a clear and principled stand, the workforce as a whole felt so implicated in the collaborationist policies of the Area NUM that there seemed little choice but to continue down the same road whatever the consequences . There were men within the workforce who realised what had happened ; that, rather than the Area Council declaring South Derbyshire NUM non-combattents in the national dispute, it was an interested party in its defeat . By this stage, however, there seemed little alternative other than to keep their sympathies private . Occasionally, men still turned back at picket lines but the handful of strikers were ineffectual in practical terms and provided no real pole of attraction to those unhappy with the stance of the South Derbyshire NUM and their fellow members .

The organisation of the strike

At one point, after the disintegration of the initial support for the strike, all the strikers were forced back to work by intimidation and financial pressures : 'We agreed not to picket our own pits because of the hostility . We didn't know what to do or where to go . I could see no way of surviving without going back to work . I'd no money for two weeks . I'd two letters from the DHSS saying we weren't entitled to any benefit and any appeal against this would have taken weeks . There was the mortgage to pay . 'I've a wife and two kids . I wanted to be on strike but I broke .' It was to be several weeks before they came out on strike

No military solution

again . For all of them the period back at work was a desperately unhappy one . They continued to refuse to cross picket lines but these now appeared only two or three times a week . They attempted to salve their consciences by taking rest days and any holiday entitlements, but without success . Many of them were victimised, down-graded and given isolated jobs in poor conditions . The union made no attempt to protect them . Independently they all testify to not eating or sleeping properly and spells of absence through stress were frequent . The turmoil they experienced by returning to work was only relieved by coming back out on strike : 'At Donisthorpe I was completely alone, felt completely isolated . But my conscience was playing hell with me . After a spell on the sick, I went back to work on the Monday . I sat there all morning . I had a word with one or two of the lads and said, "I'm thinking of coming on strike, I can't stand it any longer . I know it's going to be me on my own but I can't take any more ." And I'll never forget it I went up to the face and I sat by the stage loader with the driver . I was really feeling very low and down . I watched the coal being turned out and it was the first time the face had turned much coal for weeks . I sat there watching this bloody coal and at 11 .30 I said to the driver and the deputy, "That's it, I'm finished . I'm on strike as from tomorrow and I'm not waiting for 2 o'clock ." ' Coming out on strike the second time was different from the first time around . The decision was much more serious and irrevocable . While pickets from outside the area were on the gates they could respond to someone else's action with solidarity . Now the striking miners were taking responsibility for their actions and the course of the dispute in South Derbyshire . In retrospect, they look back at the earliest days of the dispute, when some support was shown by South Derbyshire miners for the national action, as a wasted opportunity because that support was never organised . By the time the strikers recognised the need for a proper organisation the circumstances were entirely unfavourable . The Strike Committee started in May 1984, 10 weeks after the beginning of the dispute, with just five members . Attempts to expand its number quickly by arranging meetings

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with miners known to be sympathetic met with only limited success . Promises were made, somewhat rashly, that anyone joining them would get help with food and finance but there was no great rush to take up the offer . Nevertheless, the Strike Committee survived and grew . By the August there were 11 miners on the Strike Committee ; as late as October 1984 it gained another member, giving it a membership of 12 . Shortly afterwards, at a meeting in Durham, members were informed by Betty Heathfield that the NCB's figure for strikers in South Derbyshire was 17 . It was not until after the return to work that the Strike Committee learned who everyone was, but for the rest of the strike it became the official figure . Members took no satisfaction from the low numbers on strike and their perspectives were to continue appeals to other South Derbyshire miners to join them and, in the long term, transform the NUM in South Derbyshire so that it would never again be the smallest minority area in a national dispute . Stated thus, their aims appear almost unexceptional . Within the atmosphere generated by the strike and the pressures upon them, however, their linking of day to day tactics with longer term aims distinguished them from some other groups in the minority coalfields . Members of the Strike Committee, for example, always saw themselves as returning to the South Derbyshire pits and building a strong rank and file base, they did not attempt to use their beleaguered position to secure promises of transfers from NUM officials in the solidly striking areas . But, envisaging their eventual return, also meant that they worried about the possibility of physical attacks upon themselves . This led them to insist that visiting pickets should understand their isolation and not engage in violence against working miners in the area . The local strikers were well aware that they would have to live in the area well after the pickets withdrew and, whether or not directly engaged in violence themselves, could certainly be held responsible for it . Moreover, in terms of their own protection from violence when back at work, they believed it could only come from fellow workers . To build support for the dispute, for their own protection and in order to change the union, it was imperative that they attempt to build links with the minority of workers within the pits whom they knew to be sympathetic : there was in the phrase of one of them, 'no military solution' to the problems of the South Derbyshire

No military solution

area . Given the odds against them and the extreme isolation and hardship, the political consciousness of this small group was remarkable . They saw no advantage in simply treating working miners as a homogeneous mass of 'scabs', or merely insulting rather than arguing with them . The strikers were not without a great deal of anger and bitterness, but they laid responsibility for the disastrous mess in the area not with the rank and file but at the feet of the Area Council and the branch leaderships . What the membership needed was to be confronted with the arguments in favour of the dispute and, in particular, the likely penalties which South Derbyshire miners would pay, working or not, if the NUM lost the dispute . Leaflets into the pits, therefore, emphasised not only the increased likelihood of pit closures in South Derbyshire, should the NCB win, but also the certainty of dangerous changes in managerial attitudes and working practices . Not everyone agreed with these perspectives all the time . Nor did they come into being clearly and fully fashioned, but rather they evolved through argument and discussion . The democratic organisation of the strike committee was an important factor in the successful holding together of the group and its increasing confidence . The political and trade union experience of members varied - 3 members had held branch committee positions in the NUM, 2 of these also being active Labour Party members, the other being a member of the Communist Party - and disagreements were common . But, there was rarely any factionalism, members voting according to what they saw as the merits of each issue and not through loyalty to party lines or friendships within the group . There were, for example, feelings amongst some of the strikers who came out relatively early in the dispute, that they would not be able to fully accept people who came out on strike later . But the argument was won ; that any movement towards the strike had to be welcomed, that it was not possible to argue that miners should support the strike and then reject them when they did . Indeed, the fact that their arguments had linked up sufficiently with one Donisthorpe miner, who came out as late as October, was a great boost to the group . The newcomer was not only welcomed but spoke on solidarity and fundraising platforms within days - his very presence seeming to indicate that all was by no means lost nationally if the

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arguments were continually pushed . Despite an orientation towards the workforce and the belief in the necessity to create a dialogue with sympathisers within the pits, picketing and leafleting occurred only sporadically . With so few people it would have been impossible to picket even one pit consistently over three shifts . Moreover, the Committee, faced with severe financial problems for much of the spring and summer, could not sustain the costs of picketing . With a membership spread between Leicester and Burton and with only two cars between them (and often only one) even meeting regularly proved a strain . Whatever the perspectives of the group, the first priority was physical survival and so for most . of the time it was forced into the defensive tasks of fund-raising . The financial problems faced by the group were partly a result of their geographical location . An area dominated by working miners was obviously not an ideal one in which to raise money ; on one particular day in Ashby, for instance, it cost the strike committee more for petrol than the £4 collected . Leicestershire striking miners, in a somewhat similar situation, were fortunate to find a readymade and energetic support group in Leicester run by experienced trade unionists willing to collect on their behalf and the people of Leicester generous in their response . A similar organisation offering support to Leicestershire striking miners soon formed in Loughborough, but South Derbyshire strikers had only Burton nearby which provided no such help until members of the LPYS took an initiative almost at the end of the strike . The Labour Party in Burton provided no assistance . On an official visit to Germany, for example, a Labour Party delegation was offered 7 cases of food for the strikers by the SPD . The delegation refused the offer on the grounds that it was not a political visit! Money and food did come from a TGWU branch in one of the local breweries, however, but this also coincided with the end of the worst of the strikers' financial problems . The first financial support came from other NUM areas . Recognising that the strikers had no access to official funds or resources to help them organise, Kent and South Wales NUM made donations . In negotiations with other groups of strikers, Milton Keynes and Corby were designated as fund raising centres for South Derbyshire (although not exclusively, the former also sending money to Staffordshire miners and the

No military solution

latter to Notts) . Middlesex Polytechnic also adopted the group . It is important to remember that all these locations were a considerable distance from South Derbyshire . All needed regular attendance from members of the Strike Committee and even with a fairly strict rota it entailed members spending some time away from home every other week . With a shortage of transport, appearances at meetings and collections of money often relied on borrowing cars . Resources were stretched to the limit just to physically hold the strike together . While raising funds in these areas partially solved some problems, it heightened others . The isolation of the families of strikers increased . Alone at home much more, it was more often the wives who experienced threatening phone calls or hoax orders of taxis and manure . If the South Derbyshire strikers are the unsung heroes of the 1984/5 strike, then their wives are without doubt the unsung heroines . But it was a heroism different from that of their sisters in Yorkshire and other 'solid' areas with strong community ties . To argue that the South Derbyshire women did not develop the type of confidence which grew out of the tremendous self-activity of women in other areas, is not to deny their vital role in the strike or that it did not deepen their feminism and political convictions . Formally, the South Derbyshire women had more equality than possibly any others . It was decided soon after the establishment of the Strike Committee that wives should have an equal voice and vote in determining the policies of the Committee . Up to 9 women attended the Committee, but only 4 or 5 with any regularity . Yet, whilst it gave the women access to information, the men tended to dominate discussions and the women generally played a subordinate role within the committee . When children were present and grew restless, for instance, men might try to divert them, but it was always a woman who eventually took them outside . It was also noticeable that, at an agonising meeting at the end of the strike about whether or not to return to work, it was very much the men's decision . The women never met collectively outside the Strike Committee . Some of them occasionally picketed and some spoke to meetings (at Milton Keynes, Aylesbury, Corby and Middlesex Polytechnic) . However, these activities were mostly done by the men . For the women there was little of the

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sustained collective activity which generated the increased selfconfidence in women in other coalfields . Indeed, in contrast to some of the role reversals which took place in mining families in Yorkshire and elsewhere, most of the South Derbyshire women had less help with housework and childcare than ever before, such were the demands on the men's time . Here was the double-bind : support for their husbands and selfactivity did not always go hand in hand . Had more solidarity work been nearer at hand, had it been easier to collect money locally, had there been even an embryonic support group, and had they not been so isolated from each other, things might have been very different . But, with 17 predominantly young children, needing not only physical care but also, after threats and assaults at school, a great deal of love and security, it was difficult enough to keep a household ticking over, let alone find the time, energy and confidence to travel to meetings . Some of the women had parttime jobs and another a tiny baby, making activity at a distance doubly difficult . The isolation from each other and from sustained activity meant that it was difficult for them to provide as much sisterly support for each other as they would have liked . The enormous financial difficulties, coupled with the isolation, took its toll - especially as the fortunes of the NUM nationally waned . Fear of husbands victimised and a future on the dole gripped some of the women . Yet their strength was such that they managed not to translate this into pressure for the men to return to work . Even when recalling her fears at this time, one of the women insisted : 'I wouldn't try to stop him striking if the whole thing happened again .' As it was, against all the odds, the men and women remained solid until the end of the strike . For the South Derbyshire women the period is viewed with mixed emotions . On the one hand, many memories are cherished : the glow felt at public meetings ; the hospitality shown to them by other mining communities, especially in South Wales ; the generosity of people they had never met with their donations of money, food and clothes ; the magnificent Christmas Party put on by the Corby Support Group ; and the comradeship they felt when relaxing with each other . All these still bring tears to the eyes . Yet the adversity was real enough and they feel that other memories also need to be acknowledged . Many of these are painful : one marriage broke up

No military solution

during the strike and there was a temporary separation . Having to postpone having another baby, desperation over paying the mortgage and feeding and clothing the children, as well as 'time spent alone, on your own, with your husband out at meetings - fund-raising or collecting food parcels - but still out', are also dominant memories . That time spent alone with children increased rather than decreased as fund-raising grew more efficient and new avenues to collect money opened up in the autumn months . This encouraged the withdrawal of the strikers from picketing, an activity of little urgency given the unlikely prospect of any success in South Derbyshire while other areas were experiencing the beginnings of a return to work . Nevertheless, the strikers continued to argue the case for the strike on local radio and in lively exchanges with the Area Secretary in the local press . They also continued to stress at meetings the need for an orientation to the rank and file and argued with other groups of strikers from minority areas against any reliance on the ability of Yorkshire and other areas to prevent victimisation in the Midlands' coalfields . It was this insistence on the need to win arguments within the workforce in South Derbyshire and to transform the consciousness and organisation of the union that led them to oppose proposals that the NUM should expel all non-strikers from its organisation . Just as there was no 'military' solution to the problem of the continued working of the coalfield, nor was there any bureaucratic one for changing the union . The Area leadership recognised the threat of this small group and, despite the fact that early in the dispute the NEC had unanimously waived union contributions for those on strike, the South Derbyshire NUM suspended the strikers from the union in January 1985 for non-payment of dues . This act of suspension reinforced fears that attempts would be made by the local union to stop their return to work . In a subsequent interview with Ken Toon strikers were told that men would not work with non-unionists, an ironical claim given the weaknesses of trade union traditions amongst the workforce . Unmoved by these threats the strikers refused to pay their back subscriptions and remained suspended from the Area NUM . The South Derbyshire NUM was, in any event, unable to carry out its implied threat against the strikers . All of the Committee returned to work after the strike . Ironically, for

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people who had participated in the greatest trade union action in recent living memory, they returned as non-unionists . Despite their worst fears, they encountered no generalised hostility ; rather there was some curiosity about their experiences and a grudging respect . Above all, they returned proud, confident and in high spirits .

Conclusion

The contention of those on strike was always that South Derbyshire miners were fundamentally no different from miners in any other part of the country and that, given a leadership which was prepared both to learn from the members' experiences, and generalise the lessons, it should be possible to build a strong and active union . These perspectives were tested earlier and more sharply than expected when, following the announcement by the Area Council in July 1985 of proposals to join Nottinghamshire in the breakaway UDM, the ex-strikers initiated a campaign to stay in the NUM . This campaign introduced into the pits months of argument and discussion . This campaign was given impetus by the resignation of the Area President to campaign for the NUM - the only lay official in the entire coalfield to do so - but the centre of the campaign was the South Derbyshire Forum, an organisation meeting weekly, open to any South Derbyshire miner, whether NUM or Power Group . A series of large meetings some 500 strong - was addressed by national speakers, but it was always stressed that the crucial task was to carry the arguments into the pits . It was recognised that, by defeating those associated with the breakaway there was an opportunity to create a new unionism in the coalfield - one more responsive to the workforce and committed to involving members in its affairs . To this end the forum supplemented leaflets produced nationally with ones of its own, contrasting its methods, as well as its aims, with those of the UDM : 'We make no rash and empty promises about your security . All we can say is that we are committed to open, democratic trade unionism with maximum membership involvement as the best way to defend ourselves . Of course, everyone is claiming to be democratic - but we ask you to judge our methods and those of the Area Council . We have had regular open meetings with free discussions and questions . Within our resources, we have

No military solution

79 advertised them as widely as possible . Contrast this to the UDM formed at secret meetings and the Area Council simply demanding that you unquestioningly follow their decisions .' The campaign appealed to miners, and especially the younger ones, not because it simply tapped an already existing loyalty to the NUM - the strike had shown that this did not count for a great deal . Rather, it harnessed the resentment against the way the South Derbyshire NUM had been organised and run and it offered an alternative . The UDM was characterised as offering 'more of the same', being at once deferential towards management and authoritarian or at least paternalistic towards its members . With the institutional power of the Area Council and the connivance of the NCB, giving it facilities denied to loyalists and offering a wage increase to the UDM, the UDM was able to claim a narrow victory, 1,286 to 1,260 . The refusal of the UDM to reveal the voting figures for individual pits caused a great deal of local speculation as to its motives . In line with its stance before the ballot, the NCB subsequently butressed the position of the UDM by making it difficult for miners to sign over to the union and by refusing both recognition and representational rights to NUM officials . Nevertheless, continued support for the NUM and disputes at the coalface did, on occasions, force the NCB into de facto recognition of officials . Given a longer period in a more stable environment, it is not impossible to conceive that the NUM would have been able to prove in practice its ability to represent the interests of South Derbyshire miners more effectively than the UDM . Cadley Hill closed in April 1987 and by March 1990, with the closure of Rawdon/Donisthorpe, no coal was being cut in the coalfield . The process of closure and the impossibility of launching a serious opposition to it demoralised all miners regardless of organisation . Beneath the Market Hall clock in Swadlincote, the centre of what once was a thriving coalfield, appear the words 'Time the Avenger' . The slogan was chosen by the South Derbyshire strikers to inscribe their badge and to indicate the fate of the area if it not join in the struggle against the closure proposals which prompted the 1984/5 dispute . It is unlikely that they

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realised the extent and swiftness of the coming avengement . There were real possibilities, almost grasped, of building new traditions out of the crisis of mining unionism in South Derbyshire . That these failed was not through lack of courage, effort and determination on the part of the strikers, their families and those who joined with them to rebuild the NUM . As Gibbon commented the strike is variously used to argue that the methods of struggle employed are either adventurist and/or archaic . There is no such inference here . What the events in South Derbyshire demonstrate is that even in the area of least support for the strike a number of contradictory elements coexisted and that consciousness is not static . While the dispute and its aftermath did not signal in any unproblematic way the resurgence of class struggle, there is evidence that even within the most conservative section of NUM members the potential existed for a radically transformed practice . Organisation and politics were central in the process that almost captured that potential .

Notes

1.

I would like to acknowledge the financial help given to carry out this research by the University of Leicester Research Board . Thanks are due to Pat Kirkham not only for increasing her share of child care without complaint during the dispute and research but also for her numerous comments and suggestions . I would also like to thank Kevin Richards, the new Area Secretary of the South Derbyshire NUM and members of the South Derbyshire Forum for giving me access to its meetings . The greatest debt is to the South Derbyshire strikers and their families and, in particular, Norma and Chris, Wendy and Eddie, Jeanette and Joe, Joe and Jim, Kevin, Nicky, Kim and Rob for their hospitality, comradeship, good humour and trust . While this chapter has been a collective effort,



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responsibility for the final form, inaccuracies, omissions and all, is mine alone . 2.

The closure of Measham was announced shortly after the

strike began : Burton Mail 22 .3 .1984 . In April 1986, the NCB announced the loss of 500 jobs at Rawdon . Male unemployment increased in Swadlincote from 530 in 3. February 1979 to 1296 in February 1984 . The comparative figures for Burton at the same dates were 1037 and 2628 . Figures supplied by the County Planning Department, Derbyshire County Council . 4.

The lack of response of the NUM in South Derbyshire to the

grievances which arose with transfers from Leicestershire and its inability to integrate Leicestershire men into the Union led to the hopelessly unrealistic demands by the transferees to return to the Leicestershire pits . Leicester Mercury 19 .2 .1985 . 5.

A dispute over payments at Rawdon just prior to the 1984/

5 strike illustrates the overall ineffectiveness of the Area

NUM .

Amongst the options considered by the Rawdon workforce was the regular contribution of 50p per week out of wages to have a private accountant monitor bonus payments . Burton Mail 17 .2 .1984 .

6. 7. 8. 9. 10 .

Financial Times 1 .3 .1985 . Burton Mail 15 .3 .1984 . Burton Mail 21 .4 .1984 . Burton Mail 16 .3 .1984 . For an account of the railworkers' solidarity action at

Coalville, see Railworkers and Miners: The Story of Coalville during the 198415 miners' strike Socialist Action pamphlet, 1985 . 11 .

Its closure is officially scheduled for Summer 1989 .

12 .

See Horace Sankey, Area Vice President of UDM, Burton Mail

15 .4 .1987 .

Beynon, H . (1987) 'The North East : A Moderate Tradition in a Period of Militancy' (unpublished paper) . Gibbon, P . (1988) 'Analysing the British miners' strike of 1984-5', Economy and Society, Volume 17, 2, 1988 . Krieger, J . (1984) Undermining Capitalism, London . Waller, R . (1983) The Dukeries Transformed, Oxford .

References

D J Denham

Unfair dismissal law and the legitimation of managerial control • In this paper it will be argued that the law protecting employees from unfair dismissal has provided only limited protection whilst at the same time it has lead to a formalization and legitimation of the power of management to take decisions concerning dismissals . The legal right to challenge the fairness of a dismissal is set out in the Employment Protection (Consolidation) Act 1978 though this has been subject to some amendments in the Employment Acts of 1980 and 1982 .

Outline of the law of unfair dismissal Except where dismissal would be automatically unfair an employee is only eligible if a two year continuous qualifying period has been served and for part-time employees a five year qualifying period applies . According to the statute it is for the employer to show what was the reason for dismissal . The kinds of dismissal covered by the legislation are shown in the diagram below :-

After reviewing, briefly, Marxist theories of the law, Denham examines the operation of recent unfair dismissal law ; finding that few rights for workers are included to counter the enhancement of managerial decision making and ideological control .

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Fair and Unfair Dismissal Under the EP(C) A and subsequent amendments

Pregnancy trade union membership and activities non-membership of a union redundancy selection in breach of custom or agreed practice automatically unfair

non-membership of a union where union management agreement applies automatically unfair unless exemption exists eg personal belief of religious objection ; or employee had not been a union member prior to UMA .

capability conduct redundancy contravention of an enactment some other substantial reason potentially fair if reasonable .

The potentially fair reasons for dismissal as set out in section 57 are governed by a further clause in the same section which states that:S57(3) 'The determination of the question whether the dismissal was fair or unfair, having regard to the reason shown by the employer, shall depend on whether in the circumstances (including the size and administrative resources of the employer's undertaking) the employer acted reasonably or unreasonably in treating it as a sufficient reason for dismissing the employee ; and that question shall be determined in accordance with equity and the substantial merits of the case ."1 As will be seen in later sections this is a very important clause which limits the employee's ability to make a successful

Unfair dismissal case . Where an industrial tribunal finds that a dismissal is unfair it shall explain to the complainant what remedies are available . These are re-instatement : re-engagement or compensation and the tribunal must enquire whether the applicant wishes to have a re-employment order made . In the 1970's unfair dismissal law was considered alongside the Redundancy Act of 1965 and sex and race discrimination law as providing a `floor of rights' . Subsequent assessments based upon the analysis of the statistics of tribunal case outcomes came to question how strong such a `floor' actually was . 2 The Government's own annual statistics on the outcome of tribunal applications showed that many withdrew ; that few were successful at a tribunal ; that those who were successful were rarely offered re-instatement or re-engagement and that the levels of compensation were low . The following figures may serve to indicate what has come to be trend in the applications made to industrial tribunals :-

Total cases completed Cases not going to IT Cases heard at IT Of cases going to IT : dismissed upheld reinstatement/re-engagement Of cases not going to IT : withdrawn conciliated settlement

1986-87 29,392 19,325 10,067 6,938 3,129 103

8,866 10,459

Median compensation £1,805 (44 applicants received awards of £9,000 and over . 34 .6% of awards did not exceed Y999) . , Industrial relations analysts such as Lewis and Dickens et al carried out research which revealed the considerable limitations of the industrial tribunals as a mechanism for securing the remedy of re-employment which had been identified in the 1978 act as the primary remedy .'' Recommendations were made to try to improve the working of tribunals to enable more applicants to seek and receive re-employment . 5 In their

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book on unfair dismissal and the tribunal system Dickens et alb went much further and advocated the replacement of tribunals with an arbitral system as a way of getting away from what they identified as the restricting legalism of the tribunal system . Amongst the critical literature on the tribunals Dickens et al have gone the furthest towards adopting a critical stance towards using the law give rights against unfair dismissal . They argue that :'The more important explanation for the low rate of applicant success at tribunals is the very notion of unfair dismissal itself. Even if the facts of the case which the tribunal obtains are those which the applicant would have wanted to have got across, the application of legal principles to those facts may result in the claim of unfair dismissal being dismissed .'? Unfortunately, in their excellent study of the limitations of the tribunal system the possible direction of enquiry into the nature of the legal tests indicated by the above quotation was not sustained for more than a few pages . It is surprising that the spate of critical appraisals of the law of unfair dismissal and the tribunal system were untouched by theoretical debates in industrial sociology or the sociology of law in which the context of class relations and managerial control have been raised . In the 1970's and early 1980's these questions were to the forefront industrial sociology following the publication of Braverman's 'Labour and Monopoly Capital' . 8 Braverman's study stimulated the discussion of class relations at work and especially the strategies employed by management to increase surplus value . Although Braverman concentrated upon the role of technology in the process of the subordination of labour his work lead to a discussion of the range of managerial strategies and other factors, including those outside the workplace, which might affect the ability of management to control the labour process . In this context Littler and Salaman raised a range of factors which could be relevant to the control of the labour process including the nature of law as it affects employment . 9 An alternative approach was also being developed by sociologists and lawyers who were interested in understanding the nature of law from a Marxist perspective and in taking

Unfair dismissal Marxist work on law beyond the simple class instrumentalist perspective . Cain and Hunt in articles and subsequently a book turned to the scattered writings by Marx and Engels on law . 10 (What resulted was a series of perspectives on law in capitalist society which whilst not a complete theory of law do provide some questions about the role of law which might stimulate research on specific laws . The first of these perspective is of law as coercion . Its most obvious manifestation is in the way in which the legal system can call upon the power of the state in order to apply coercion to maintain and to protect the general conditions of the capitalist order . Another example is the way in which the law can be used to protect the state . The law might be used in the direct intervention in class struggle in employment and trade union law . In the context of unfair dismissal law it may be coercive in the way it enables managers to take unilateral decisions about dismissal issues and employment levels . The second of these perspectives is that of ideological domination : the way law might be used to produce and mobilise assent to the existing social order . The coercive and the ideological dimensions of law are closely bound together as the law gives power to capital to manage its affairs to its advantage and it legitimates and affirms those rights . A third perspective on law identified by Cain and Hunt is that it is both the site and the object of class struggle . It is not simply an instrument to be manipulated by an all powerful ruling class . 'The law and the legal system form part of the context within which the class struggle takes place, and it is itself an arena in which that struggle occurs .' 11 If this is the case then working class interests, to the extent that they are successful in influencing the content of the law, are also represented to some degree in the law . Though these may not be fully realised if there are loop-holes or ways of evading the law which other groups can use . It will be argued in the remainder of the paper that unfair dismissal law does provide some degree of protection though of a limited kind and that this is not incompatible with the coercive and ideologically legitimating roles . Cain and Hunt, then, were trying to develop some perspectives on law from the works of Marx and Engels which went beyond the idea that the law is a mere mask for bourgeois interests . Other Marxist analysts have also been concerned

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with developing an analysis of the role of the rule of law in capitalist domination which went beyond the simple class interests approach associated with the instrumentalist versions of Marxism . Fine, 12 Kinsey 13 and Piccioto 14 in particular discussed the problems involved in the study law and capitalist discipline . As Fine puts it the bourgeois form of law is contradictory as it has a role in domination whilst taking on an egalitarian form . 15 Fine argues that the theoretical achievement of Pashukanis 'has been to steer a course between the fetishism of form and the fetishism of content .' 16 Pashukanis' 17 methodological innovation was to stress from the outset of his work a need for a materialist analysis of law that is not concerned purely with the content of law . He believed that such an approach involved a dismissal of legal concepts as 'fictions' or 'ideological illusions' . The analysis of the form of bourgeois law enables us to consider how the law appears autonomous of bourgeois interests and indeed legal concepts can develop which do not contain any reference to class relations . These can only later be perceived from the content of the law . Pashukanis argued that the legal form developed in a manner parallel to the commodity form which fully emerged in bourgeois society . He based his theory on Marx's discussion of the commodity form in Vol I of 'Capital' when Marx stated that commodities cannot themselves go to market and can only be exchanged by their 'guardians' who enter into voluntary contracts and then become legal subjects and bearers of rights to facilitate exchange . Legal subjects are given abstract rights and in a process analogous to Marx's theory of commodity fetishism become equal with everyone else . From this discussion of the legal subject Pashukanis shows why class dominance in modern society is mediated by the rule of law . In a capitalist society, he argued, the labourer is not directly coerced by an employer in the way a serf was by his lord as the wage labourer is not forced to work for a particular employer . Rather the labourer alienates his labour power through a free contract between two commodity owners . Therefore, class authority must take the form of a public authority which regulates contracts and disputes concerning them . The dominance of the bourgeoisie is thus mediated through the rule of law which formally treats contracting parties as free and equal whilst ignoring their

Unfair dismissal 89

underlying material inequalities . The law is couched in terms of the individual's rights and duties whilst class and hierarchical relationships disappear from legal discourse . The discipline of modern management is mediated through legal processes and institutions such as courts and tribunals . The content of a particular contract may come under dispute but the form is never questioned . 18 The rules surrounding dismissals, then, are governed by laws which are expressed in terms of individual rights and these are interpreted by tribunals and courts thus making economic and legal relations appear autonomous of each other . An analysis though of the content of the statutes governing unfair dismissal and leading cases reveals how the law continues to support the capitalist system of production .

a) The preservation of management's right to dismiss . The tribunals cannot enforce the orders they issue for reinstatement or re-engagement and the penalty for noncompliance is purely financial . In some exceptional cases such as the dismissal of trade union members or people who refuse to join a trade union where a closed shop agreement exists the sums involved are well above the average . Even in those cases the employers can treat the law with impunity provided that they are prepared to pay the price of costs and compensation . The case of Mr . Deason v British Telecom 19 illustrates the issue very well . British Telecom considered that the eventual compensation of X42,000 was worth it for the unfair dismissal of a trade union member shortly before he stood for office in the sensitive City branch of the union . There were no complaints about Deason's work and the only reason given as a defence by the employers for his dismissal was the nondisclosure of political activities several years prior to his engagement with British Telecom . A fundamental legal doctrine that the law cannot force a person to work for another and, therefore, its corollary, that an employer cannot be forced to employ a particular individual stands against the objectives of the legislation . Individuals who become members of a trade union or even only propose to do so have no protection and firms who wish to keep unions out can do so at a price which they will probably see as worth it in comparison with their large investments . The right to

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be re-instated is fundamental to the right to join a union otherwise employers can deliberately dismiss all those who join .

b) Managements' power to define the situations in which dismissals occur. Various surveys on the impact of the legislation on management 20 show that the vast majority have established some form of dismissal procedures though most are solely managerial in composition rather than involving trade unions and few provide for appeal to an independent body . Whilst the law has been instrumental in changing the manner in which dismissal decisions are taken the case law has permitted management a considerable degree of control over dismissal decisions . All of the potentially fair reasons for dismissal are governed by the general doctrine of reasonableness which has been developed to interpret Section 57(3) (quoted above) and is the basis of a decision on whether a dismissal is 'fair' . In W . Devis and Sons v Atkins 21 the tribunal was directed to focus its attention on the conduct of the employer and not on whether the employee had suffered any injustice . It is the conduct of the employer in dismissing in the circumstances (bearing mind the size and resources of the undertaking) and the substantial merits of the case that has to be judged as reasonable not the evidence concerning the behaviour, incapacity or whatever of the employee . Furthermore the tribunal must not substitute its own views of what it would have done in the circumstances . In UCATT v Brian Lord Donaldson warned against tribunals asking the questions 'Would we dismiss?' 22 The capacity of the industrial tribunal to act as an industrial court or jury is further restricted by the doctrine of applying the test of reasonableness to a range of reasonable behaviour by employers which is accepted to be exceptionally wide . In Rolls Royce v Walpole 23 the Employment Appeals Tribunal argued that :'In a given set of circumstances, it is possible for two perfectly reasonable employers to take a different course of action in relation to an employee .'

Unfair dismissal The EAT went on to refer to a range of possible responses by the employer to the conduct or capacity of the employee from summary dismissal to an informal warning all of which can be construed to be reasonable . Consequently it was argued that a tribunal can only find a dismissal unfair when the employer fails to satisfy the tribunal that his response was within the range of reasonable responses . This position was even more clearly defined by Lord Denning in British Leyland UK V Swift 2`' :'The correct test is : Was it reasonable for the employer to dismiss him? If no reasonable employer would have dismissed him, then the dismissal was unfair . But if a reasonable employer might reasonably have dismissed him, then the dismissal was fair .' The standard required by Lord Denning places severe limits on the ability of industrial tribunals to establish their own norms of fairness and to impose them on employers . In the view of Anderman a leading legal authority :'Its adoption still unduly lowers the standard of the basic test of fairness . . . It suggests to the tribunals that they must not apply a more stringent test than asking whether the employer meets the lowest acceptable standards of reasonable managerial practice .' 25 A further aspect of the reasonableness issue which weakens the employee's position and strengthens that of the employer is the ruling that in cases relating to misconduct the employer does not actually have to prove that the employee was objectively guilty of misconduct . In a case of alleged employee theft26 the EAT held that when a tribunal had not accepted the employer's allegations of dishonesty it had applied 'too strict a standard of proof to the employers .' The tribunal has to establish whether the employer's suspicion was reasonable in that the employer had made a reasonable attempt to ascertain the facts of the belief of misconduct : that the employer had believed that misconduct had occurred and that the employer had carried out a reasonable investigation into the matter . The employer must not be examined further and the tribunal must not apply its own standards of how to ascertain the facts or to examine the quality of the material so as objectively to put the matter beyond reasonable doubt to

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the satisfaction of the court . Whether or not Miss Burchell was accused by her employer of dishonesty and was actually prosecuted was deemed immaterial and it was made clear that any decision in favour of the employer by the EAT carried no implication concerning Miss Burchell's guilt . Indeed she was not charged or convicted of any offence . What was pertinent for the tribunal was the actual belief of the employer in the guilt of the employee and whether dismissal was reasonable in the circumstances . There must be some evidence of misconduct or lack of capability but it is hard for the employee to make a case on such criteria as the doctrine of reasonableness shifts the focus of concern for the tribunal onto the behaviour of the employer who has a broad but low standard of reasonableness to comply with and only a low standard of proof is required . The standard of reasonableness is shifted from the substantial merits or otherwise of the employee's case onto the dismissal procedures and provided they are reasonable and conform to those recommended by the Code of Practice then it is hard for an employee to be successful . An example of a dismissal which the judiciary considered to be unreasonable is to be found in Payne v Spook Erection Ltd . 27 In this case Payne, the foreman was required to make a weekly report listing each employee in order of performance . As the firm provided facilities for traders on 17 different market sites Mr . Payne would have had to base his assessment on guess work . He was also instructed to send the man at the bottom of the list a letter notifying him of this low ranking which could be regarded as the basis of dismissal proceedings . The EAT regarded the decision of the IT which ruled that the dismissal was fair as being perverse on the grounds that the scheme was 'unacceptable as a matter of good industrial relations practice .' Although this case is not typical as it included a greater recognition of the role of the lay person in deciding what is reasonable in assessing reasonableness it does serve to illustrate the point that in some cases the employee may win his or her case on the grounds that the dismissal was unreasonable . The chances of success are greater though when the procedures rather than the dismissal decision are put to the reasonableness test as the judiciary have been more prepared to set guidelines concerning procedures . In the context of redundancies the law cannot be used to challenge management's decision to declare a situation of

Unfair dismissal redundancy although genuine rights have been provided with regard to the procedures for selection, warnings and consultation about impending redundancies . It is impossible for employees to use the law to challenge an employer's decision to dismiss on the grounds of redundancy . Following a series of disputes the owners of a factory decided to close it down on the grounds that it was not economically viable thereby making the entire workforce redundant . 28 The EAT held that, it had 'no jurisdiction to investigate the reasons for creating redundancies' . With regard to the right to be a member of a trade union a survey of employers showed that they could usually use some other pretext for dismissal and that applicants have difficulties establishing that trade union membership was the principal reason for dismissal . 29 Another indication of the difficulties involved for employees in using the legislation to protect themselves from dismissal because of their trade union commitments can be obtained from government statistics obtained from questions asked in Parliament . 30 During the four years from 1979 to 1982, the period for which figures have been made available there were 2,257 complaints on the grounds of dismissal for trade union membership or activities . An agreed settlement, most likely compensation, was obtained for 291 applications which at 13% is about half the rate for all dismissal applications . 726 complaints were held before a tribunal of which 106, representing 14 .6 % of the cases heard, were successful . This is a rate which is considerably lower than the success rate achieved for all types of cases . These figures confirm that it is difficult for an employee to prove that his or her dismissal was for trade union activities and that it is relatively easy for employers to justify such dismissals on other grounds . Employers who are opposed to unionism in their firms have a good chance of dismissing those who join a trade union . In addition to individual trade union membership there have been some cases in which union recognition has been an issue and where employees who have recently joined a trade union have been dismissed . In Therm A Stor Ltd . v Atkins and others ;1 the Court of Appeal produced a very restrictive definition of trade union activities . Almost all the employees joined the union and the union applied for recognition . The management's quick response to this request was to instruct

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the chargehands to immediately select and dismiss 20 employees . Lord Donaldson held that Section 58 of the statute is not concerned with an employer's reaction to a trade union's activities, but with his reactions to an individual employee's activities in a trade union context and so section 58 had no application . This reasoning ignores the argument that the request by an official of a union to start recognition talks was the inevitable result of almost all the employees joining the union . Lord Donaldson's construction rejects the collectivist dimension to trade unionism . It allows individuals to be union members but not for them to have collective bargaining . The legislation does not provide any protection against dismissal whilst an employee is on strike or the employer is instituting a lock out . (See Section 62) . An IT can only make a ruling as to the fairness of a dismissal if it can be shown that it was selective so that one or more relevant employees of the same employer have not been dismissed or that any such employee has been offered re-engagement . Following the Employment Act of 1982 selective re-employment is allowed after three months of the dismissal . This immunity could be used by an employer to sit out a dispute for three months and then selectively re-engage after three months . Cases have established that a phased re-engagement can be permitted provided all employees are engaged within the 3 months 32 and that some groups of employees might be re-engaged on different conditions . 33 S62 has been seen as by some commentators as a broad loop-hole in employment protectioni4 which enables employers if they so choose to provoke strikes or to dismiss a whole group of workers in such a way as to undermine the right to trade union membership and activity as expressed in S58 . It is hard to say how many employers would use the immunity granted by S62 to dismiss an entire group of strikers with the intention of selectively re-engaging or employing a completely new workforce prepared to accept new terms of employment . The use of the strategy of mass dismissals of striking or locked out workers in industrial disputes is beyond the scope of this paper . In a period of recession or intense market competition and in a climate of 'macho-management' some employers have found it to their advantage to engage in mass dismissals and use the immunity from unfair dismissal claims that the law grants to them . 35

Unfair dismissal

In many of the cases heard by the EAT and the higher courts there is a support for the authority of managers to control and direct the labour force . By its very existence it also has the role of legitimating managerial control by reassuring employees that if management are arbitrary and unfair in taking dismissal decisions then they have a simple and effective method of redress . Such beliefs though only serve to stress the symbolic role of the law as it was shown above that the success rate for applicants is low . The judiciary have gone a long way to accept that today enlightened employers should adopt fair dismissal procedures and that they cannot dismiss without some reason 36 yet there has been a holding back ; a refusal to trespass on the prerogative of management to actually take decisions . The judiciary have been more concerned with the form of managerial decisions whilst being reluctant to interfere with their content . There are many examples of how the judiciary have retained a unitary view of the enterprise in the sense that management and employees are seen to have a shared interest in the fortunes of the firm and the desirability of managerial freedoms to pursue profit . Consequently, the judiciary has been careful to state that employee protection should not interfere with the firm's need to operate profitably . So in Cook v Thomas Linnell and Sons Ltd the EAT said :-' . . . it is important that the operation of unfair dismissal legislation should not impede employers unreasonably in the efficient management of their business .'i 7 Similarly in an early case the National Industrial Relations Court cautioned that whilst proper procedures were desirable they should not be 'an unfair burden on the business .' 38 It has already been seen that the reasonableness criteria have meant that the judiciary have not taken a critical perspective on the kind of evidence that is taken as indicative of misconduct or incapability . The pro-management sympathies of the judiciary in the Cook case lead them to believe that if management had lost confidence in the capacities of Cook as a manager then this indicated his actual loss of competence despite the argument that sales figures could have declined for many other reasons beyond Cook's control . In other cases the judiciary have been reluctant to question whether dismissal was really appropriate where a case could be made that a less severe punishment would be just and provided

The Ideological Role of the Law of Unfair Dismissal

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the procedures have been adequate they have considered the dismissal to be fair .39 With regard to dismissal following redundancy the judiciary has been keen to avoid any interference with management's capacity to take such decisions . In a case where the applicants alleged wrongful dismissal for trade union membership and management claimed that dismissal was for redundancy the EAT accepted that the employer had no need to produce accounts or figures to establish losses which could be avoided if redundancies were made . 40 Management's claim that a redundancy situation exists appears to be sufficient to establish management's case . Where the judiciary have been prepared to be active in considering redundancy cases is in deciding the fairness of procedures for deciding the selection of those who are to be made redundant . The judicial deference to managerial prerogative is most apparent with respect to the decisions in cases relating to dismissal for 'some other substantial reason' . 41 The judiciary have provided an ideological support for management by accepting a very weak definition of business needs and an unquestioning support for managerial prerogative . New reasons for dismissal not explicitly stated in the statute have been created and their justification has been based upon the ready acceptance by the judiciary of 'efficiency' and 'sound business practice' . Most applications by employers for other reasons for dismissal than those stipulated in the statute do seem to have been accepted as 'substantial' so the major issue has been their reasonableness which as has already been seen is not a very stringent hurdle for the employer . Many of the reported cases have involved unilateral change to the employment contract due to reorganisation of the business and have facilitated the idea of a permitted reason for dismissal which is a reorganisation of the business short of redundancy . The justification for the reasonableness of re-organisation dismissals has been based upon a ready acceptance by the judiciary of 'efficiency' and 'sound business practice' . So a foreman at a dairy found that his dismissal for refusing to work 58 hours per week following reorganisation was fair as failure to reorganise would have brought the business 'to a standstill' . 42 The need for consultation prior to re-organisation and a change in the employment contract was overthrown in Hollister V Nru . 43 It was also stated in this case that the

Unfair dismissal criterion of the business coming to a standstill adopted in Ellis was too strict and that the existence of a 'sound, good business reason for the reorganisation' was an adequate one . The standard required to justify a reorganisation became less stringent when a reorganisation being 'beneficial to the efficient running of the company' 44 and changes having 'discernible advantages to the organisation' 45 and where the alternative 'would be some serious effect upon the business' 46

97

became acceptable justifications . Individuals have found that their contracts of employment can be altered unilaterally for instance on the grounds of the employer's financial difficulties and that their refusal to accept them is grounds for dismissal . 47 Individuals have found that they can be dismissed for activities which occur outside employment that have no direct bearing upon how they carry out their duties for instance their sexual behaviour . This has been possible because the judiciary have taken an uncritical view of the alleged impact of the employment of such a person on the interests of the business . They have accepted that their employment has adversely affected relationships with customers/clients or other employees . 48 A woman was dismissed after she married an employee of a competitor firm . 49 They have also been dismissed following unsubstantiated complaints from customers . 5 o It has even been used to justify dismissal following wrongful imprisonment . 51 There has been no attempt by the judiciary to systematically lay down the conditions which could justify dismissal for SOSR . On the contrary they have advanced the view that the reasons which 'could justify the dismissal of the office boy' are different from those that could 'justify the dismissal of the managing director .' 52 The use of SOSR has legitimated quasi redundancies in the form of reorganisations which leave the employees affected with no compensation . Employers have been given an open ended right to define new reasons for dismissal which enable them to initiate drastic changes in the employment contract in the interests of a vaguely defined improvement in business efficiency again without having to offer compensation . Although unfair dismissal law is often referred to as individual employment law it does have some collective dimensions . For instance, the ease described above whereby individuals can be

Conclusion

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dismissed for misconduct lead to hundreds of miners being dismissed during the miners' strike although many who were charged by the police had their charges dropped or were subsequently acquitted . Mass dismissals of strikers may occur and there are some examples of such dismissals by firms intent on introducing drastic changes in working practices . Whilst management needs the right to be able to dismiss workers who are unsuitable or where redundancies are inevitable the law as it stands has given employees a very limited degree of protection and it has not significantly altered the basis of dismissal decisions . The wording of the law in the statute and the judiciary's deference to management and its ideological support for managerial decision making has meant that a possible channel for employees to challenge or to even participate in such decisions by providing alternative rationales has remained closed . The manner of making dismissals has been formalised but managerial authority structures have not been altered . In the brief discussion of sociological theories of law presented before the summary of trends in unfair dismissal law reference was made to the interest stimulated by Pashukanis' discussion of the form of law . Unfair dismissal law represents one aspect of the juridification of discipline at work . Once rules are enacted and guidelines concerning their interpretation are handed down from the Employment Appeals Tribunal and higher courts some rights are bound to be given to workers and some restraints against arbitrary dismissal have been created . In particular the legislation has stimulated most employers to set up dismissal procedures and whilst failure to adopt fair procedures does not make a dismissal automatically unfair as it is only one factor to be taken into account it is hard not to accept that employees have not benefitted . Figures quoted on the low success rate, low levels of compensation and the almost non-existent use of re-employment for unfairly dismissed employees show that employers can often obtain the dismissals they want but even a low success rate for applicants shows that the legislation is not a complete sham . The form of law as involving legal institutions autonomous from employers means that some legal concepts of rights are developed which cannot easily be overthrown to satisfy employer's interests . When the content of the law is considered though it can be seen that judges have largely created

Unfair dismissal 99

a body of case law which favours the interests of employers either in confirming aspects of their control which are coercive or in legitimating managerial decisions .

1. Employment Protection (Consolidation) Act 1978 S . 57 . 2. P . Lewis 'An Analysis of Why Legislation Has Failed To Provide Employment Protection For Unfairly Dismissed Employees' British Journal Of Industrial Relations 19 (3) 316-26 1981 and 'Employment Protection : A Preliminary Assessment of the Law of Unfair Dismissal' Industrial Relations journal vol . 12 no . 2 1981 L. Dickens 'Unfair Dismissal Applications and the Industrial Tribunal System' iRJ vol . 9 no . 4 1978/9 ; L . Dickens et al 'Re-employment of Unfairly Dismissed Workers : The Lost Remedy' iRJ vol . 10 no . 3 1981 . Employment Gazette Oct 1987 . 3. 4. L . Dickens op . cit . Lewis and Dickens advocated a 'status quo' policy whereby 5. the dismissal would not actually occur until after an unsuccessful application by the employee . 6. L . Dickens, M . Jones, B . Weekes and M . Hart 'Dismissed : A Study of Unfair dismissal and the Industrial tribunal System' Blackwell 1985 . 7. Lewis and dickens op . cit . 8. H . Braverman 'Labour and Monopoly Capitalism' Monthly Review Press 1974 . 9. C . Littler and G . Salaman 'Bravermania and beyond : recent theories of the labour process' Sociology 16 :2 1982 . 10 . A . Hunt 'Law, State and Class Struggle' Marxism Today, June 1976 ; M . Cain and A . Hunt 'Marx and Engels on Law' Academic Press 1979 . Other writers who have discussed the coercive or repressive and the ideological dimensions of law include R . Cotterell 'The Sociology, Of Law : An Introduction' Chapter 4 Butterwoths 1984 and B . Edelman 'Ownership of the Image' Routledge and Kegan Paul 1979 . 11 . A . Hunt ibid page 186 . 12 . B . Fine 'Law and Class' in 'Capitalism and the Rule of Law'

Notes



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National Deviancy Conference/Conference of Socialist Economists Hutchinson 1979 . 13 .

R . Kinsey 'Despotism and Legality' in NDC/CSE ibid .

14 .

S . Picciotto 'The Theory of the State, Class Struggle and the

Rule of Law' in NDC/CSE ibid . 15 .

Fine op . cit .

16 .

Fine op . cit .

17 .

E . B . Pashukanis 'Law and Marxism : A General Theory' Ink

Links 1978 . 18 .

Kinsey op . cit .

19 .

P . Wintour 'Firing that could prove expensive' Guardian

Oct . 15th 1987 . 20 .

Several surveys which show how extensively disciplinary

procedures have been set up following the legislation on unfair dismissal are reviewed in S . Henry 'Private Justice : Towards Integrated Theorising in the Sociology of Law' R&KP 1983 . 21 .

W . Devis and Sons v Atkins 1977 IRLR 314 .

22 .

UCArr v Brain 1981 IRLR 224 .

23 .

Rolls Royce v Walpole 1980 IRLR 343 .

24 .

British Leyland v Swift 1981 IRLR 91 .

25 .

S. D . Anderman 'The Law of Unfair Dismissal' 2nd ed

Butterworths 1985 p .151 . 26 .

British Home Stores v Burchell 1978 IRLR 379 .

27 .

Payne v Spook Erection Ltd . 1984 IRLR 219 .

28 .

J . Moon and others v Homeworthy Furniture Northern Ltd .

1976 IRLR 298 . 29 .

S . Evans and R . Lewis 'Anti-union Discrimination : Practice,

Law and Policy' Industrial Law journal vol . 16 no . 2 June 1987 . On the problem of 'proof that union membership is the principle reason for dismissal see Smith v Hayle Town Council 1978 IRLR 413 . 30 .

Quoted in Dickens et al ibid p . 245 and Lord Wedderburn

'The Worker and the Law' 3rd ed . Pelican p . 309 . 31 .

Therm A Stor Ltd . v Atkins 1983 IRLR 78 .

32 .

Highlands Fabrications Ltd . v McLaughlin 1984 IRLR 482 .

33 .

Williams v National Theatre Board 1982 IRLR 377 .

34 .

P . Wallington 'The employment act 1982 : section 9 A

recipe for victimisation?' The Modern Law Review vol 46 May 1983 ; Anderman op . cit . p . 261 ; J . Mesher and F . Sutcliffe 'Industrial Action and the Individual' in R . Lewis (ed) 'Labour Law in great Britain' Blackwell 1986 . 35 .

D . Denham 'Market Oriented, Authoritarian Management

and the Mass Dismissal of Strikers' (forthcoming).



Unfair dismissal

36 .

There are many cases which could be quoted to support this

argument . For an analysis of them see Anderman op . cit . Chapter 5 in particular . 37 .

Cook v Thomas Linnell and Sons Ltd . 1977 IRLR 132 .

38 .

James v Waltham Cross uoc : 1973 IRLR 202 .

Miller v Executors of John C . Graham 1978 IRLR 309 and 39 . Gair v Bevan Harris Ltd . 1983 IRLR 368 . See also H . Collins 'Capitalist Discipline and Corporatist Law - Part II' Industrial Law

Journal 11(3) 1982 170-77 . 40 .

H . Goodwin Ltd . v Fitzmaurice 1977 IRLR 393 .

41 .

For a longer discussion of sosR than is possible here see

Anderman op . cit . ch . 9 and J . Bowers and A . Clarke 'Unfair Dismissal and Managerial Prerogative : A Study of "Other Substantial Reason" ' Industrial LawJournal 10(1) 1981 34 44 . 42 .

D .R . Ellis v Brighton Co-operative Society 1976 IRLR 419 .

43 .

Hollister v NFU 1979 238 .

44 .

Bowater Containers v McCormack 1980 IRLR 50 .

45 .

Bannerjee v City and East London Area Health Authority

1979 IRLR 297 . 46 .

Genower v Ealing, Hammersmith and Hounslow Area

Health Authority 1980 IRLR 297 . 47 .

Wilson v Underhill House School Ltd . 1977 IRLR 475 .

48 .

Bowers and Clarke op . cit . See also Wiseman v Salford City

Council 1981 IRLR 202 . 49 .

Skyrail Oceanic Ltd . v Coleman 1980 IRLR 226 .

50 .

Scott Packaging and Warehousing Ltd . v Paterson 1978

IRLR 274 .

51 .

Kingston v British Railways Board 1982 IRLR 274 .

52 .

Dobbie v Burns International Security Services (UK) Ltd .

1984 IRLR 329 .

101

Jane Wheelock

Capital restructuring and the domestic economy : Family self respect and the irrelevance of 'rational economic man' 40 The inspiration for this article arose from the unexpected outcome of a study funded by the Equal Opportunities Commission in which thirty working class Wearside couples were interviewed to find out how the division of domestic work between wives and husbands changed when men become unemployed . At least in Britain, there have only been a handful of studies of the effects of unemployment on who does what tasks in the household . Their conclusions have been that male unemployment does little to alter the division of household work, or indeed that it reinforces traditional gender roles within the family (See Morris, 1985 ; McKee and Bell, 1985) . My study was undertaken in the North East of England, not merely an area of high unemployment, but one which is often perceived as holding strongly to traditional gender role stereotypes . Wearside itself represents a particularly stark case of the effects on employment of national and international economic restructuring and de-industrialisation . Whilst employment opportunities for manual workers have declined, the prospects for low paid women workers have remained relatively buoyant . The couples I chose to interview were representative of this shift in the regional labour market : whilst husbands were out of work, their wives were in either I

Research into the divisions of domestic work between men and women living in Wearside - an area which suffered high and sustained levels of male unemployment in the 1970s and 1980s suggests that the restructuring of the local economy is having a significant impact on gender relations within the home .

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part-time or full-time employment, and I became interested in trying to establish the links between capital restructuring and the internal dynamics of the household .

A spatial economic framework for a post-industrial society

Let us then look briefly at the elements of a theoretical framework for understanding how structural economic change is taking place and for linking it with changing employment patterns and the restructuring of work . Any periodisation of post war history is reliant on long wave theory, initially propounded by Kondratieff, but used since by a range of analysts, who have seen different forces at work in determining the transition between each quarter century (or thereabouts) of boom and recession . For Mandel (1975) it is changes in the profit rate that are crucial, while Armstrong, Glyn and Harrison (1984) see the transition to recession as a crisis of overaccumulation of capital . A Neo-Schumpetarian interpretation of the post war boom would see the simultaneous explosive growth of several new technologies as the most convincing cause, and Freeman, Clarke and Soete (1982) provide a variant here using the concept of 'new technology systems' . Yet others see the importance of changes in the capitalist labour process : for Dunford and Perrons (1983) technology is merely one component of change, which is also put into effect through new principles of work organisation . Marshall (1987) advocates an eclectic use of long wave theory, and this is the most useful for the purposes here . A second useful analytical framework is Aglietta's theory of capitalist regulation (Aglietta, 1979) . He argues that post war prosperity was based on a system of monopolistic regulation relying on a process of intensive accumulation . This involved raising the rate of relative surplus value by the application of Taylor's principles of scientific management and emphasis on the production of goods for which economies of scale are possible, both of which meant a sustained rise in the productivity of labour, with a consequent renewal of the opportunities for investment . Within such a framework it is possible to argue that by the early seventies the regime of intensive accumulation had come to an end, and capital responded with Neo-Fordist techniques of control over the labour process . The end of the regime of intensive accumulation was at one and the same time both a cause and a reflection

Capital restructuring and domestic economy of the destruction of the post war international economic order based on us hegemony . (Aglietta, 1982) Finally, no analytical framework would be complete without an awareness that changing patterns of production affect consumption patterns as well as employment patterns, and that consumption in turn influences production . Intensive accumulation in the post war period went a long with a transformation of the conditions of existence of the wage earning class and of the mode of consumption of Fordism . There are several views of the effect of the changing patterns of consumption on the domestic economy . There is firstly the perception that the growth of mass consumption and the 'commodification' (an awkward term, which implies the extension of the purchase of commodities on the market) this entails, means the progressive displacement of the family as a unit of production and its increasing importance as a unit of consumption . Women entering the labour market are significant in demand terms in that they boost family incomes and purchase labour saving consumer durables . Gershuny (1978), in contrast, argues that the growth of the 'service economy', which seems to be part and parcel of changing consumption patterns, is more accurately the expansion of a 'self service' economy . Households purchase consumer durables and undertake the service function of, say, washing, at home using a washing machine, instead of going out to a launderette . Such an argument runs counter to the 'commodification' argument . Gershuny's model of socio-technical innovation (briefly, the use of capital goods in the household, rather than the purchase of their services in the market) is useful in that it links the household to the process of accumulation, though Gershuny himself does not examine the gender implications of his model . The process of industrial restructuring which has occurred since World War 2 has involved a parallel process of social recomposition, or class restructuring . The major changes in the structure of employment that have taken place can be looked at in terms of three processes : feminisation of the labour market, its internationalisation, and, most recently, its casualisation . The effect, as Cutler, Williams and Williams (1986, 87) point out, is that since the war there has been 'a secular change in the identity of the typical wage earner and in the sources of (as it used to be thought) his wages' . This change

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started during the long boom, when it was a matter of (married) women going out to work and contributing to the family income . It has continued with the recession of the seventies, during which time men tended to lose jobs, whilst female employment continued to expand . It has also been a feature of such recovery as has been in evidence since the beginning of the 1980s, for it seems likely that recovery will continue to draw in more lower paid, part-time workers . In theory, the service jobs created (for women) are equivalent to the manufacturing jobs lost (by men) . But in fact, service jobs are lower paid and tend to be part-time . The changes in the composition and level of employment have thus hit certain groups particularly severely . It is especially working class two parent families who have suffered from the collapse of the relatively well paid manufacturing sector . (Cutler, Williams and Williams, 1987) It is the effect of economic restructuring on the household labour process in this group in particular that is the focus here . What is the potential for changes in gender relations, both in the home and in paid work, resulting from the new employment patterns? if one takes the fairly widely accepted feminist model, which sees the status of women in the labour market as the result of the interaction between the two social systems of patriarchy and capitalism, these new employment patterns threaten patriarchal structures, at the same time as being of considerable importance to capitalism in its efforts to maintain profitability . The potential conflict between patriarchy and capitalism will become even greater if the current crisis continues to move in the direction of low wage competition, with women's 'flexibility' being duplicated by lower wages and poorer conditions for men . The spatial dimensions to the economic restructuring process which has gone on at the national level, add further force to the importance of the gender dimension in the parallel process of social recomposition . From the early 1960s to the late 1970s, the North East, in common with other British regions, saw high rates of growth of female employment (especially amongst the married, the part-time and the unskilled), a feature which coincided in the latter part of the period with a dramatic fall in male employment . This has lately been interpreted in terms of a 'North/South divide' within the UK economy . Wearside, the location for the empirical study,

Capital restructuring and domestic economy provides a particularly stark case of such regional differentiation, where the contraction of manufacturing since 1979 has specially affected male employment opportunities, as have the cutbacks in the public sector (including shipbuilding and coal mining), whilst the service sector is still providing some buoyancy for women's jobs . (See Stone and Stevens, 1986 ; Wheelock, 1990 ; Stubbs and Wheelock, 1990) From the late 1950s, decentralisation of manufacturing production was an early response of capital to the problems in the Fordist mode of accumulation, encouraged by state regional policies and by the existence of reserves of labour . This resulted in some diversification of the regional economy . However, the type of employment provided was radically different, for it was production operations and assembly work, involving unskilled or semiskilled or routine managerial work that tended to be decentralised . In the North East, for example, this meant a movement from skilled or heavy manual work done by men on shifts to semi or unskilled routine assembly work done by married women (Hudson, 1986) . Changes in the organisation and location of industry thus generated a demand for female labour, but this was a response to, and shaped by the spatial distribution of, female labour reserves . The latter were a function of previous patterns of industry and employment, where the strict division of labour made women relatively inexperienced ('green labour') and cheap . (Lewis, 1983) This was the period during which female activity rates in the British regions began to converge . Regions with initially low percentages of women paid workers (characterised either by heavy industry, or agriculture, or both as in the North) saw sharp increases in the proportion of women in the labour force . The rise of female activity rates was reinforced by the growth of the service sector and by the transfer of government offices to the periphery, both of which tended to involve routine office jobs . The year 1966 can be seen as a watershed in spatial patterns of employment . The decline of regional differences in industrial structure marked the beginning of a shift to a 'new spatial division of labour' (Massey, 1979) . The inter sectoral divisions of labour originally laid down in the nineteenth century had persisted through the post war boom, but were now being transformed into an intra sectoral division of labour, the latter involving specialisation in different stages of

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the process of accumulation within the same industrial sector . During the seventies, then, the quantitative decline of manufacturing employment seen at a national level, was accompanied by qualitative changes in ownership and control and technical organisation involving a spatial redistribution of such employment . This resulted in the 'external control' of regional development exemplified in a 'branch plant economy' . As Hudson (1986) sees it, the North East became one link in the chain of corporate production and restructuring, increasingly on a global basis . However, gains from inward investment proved to be short lived, and branch plants were slimmed or closed down in the subsequent rounds of corporate restructuring at the end of the decade . By the end of the 1970s, spatial inequalities were not merely visible in terms of the quantity of job opportunities, but also in the quality of working conditions and in the kind of jobs available . Job losses in the old industrial areas had lead to a decline of employment opportunities for traditional, skilled, unionised, male, manual labour, whilst new areas provided growth in employment opportunities for unskilled, poorly unionised female labour . Many other commentators would agree with Marshall that 'the process of industrial restructuring has involved a process of social recomposition or class restructuring' (Marshall, 1987 ; 218) . The restructuring process that went along with the establishment of branch plants in the North East, as in other British regions, was based on intra-sectoral spatial distinctions, as already mentioned . The result, as Massey (1979) suggests, is a three fold spatial division of labour . Mass production or assembly lines are located in areas of semi-skilled, low-waged, relatively poorly organised labour . This tends to be in areas (such as the North East) dominated by declining industries like mining and with a formerly non-active female population . Such branch plants have low internal linkages compared with the heavy industrial complexes which preceded them . At the second stage of accumulation, processes are not significantly automated, and involve skilled labour in the old nineteenth century cities . This stage is less significant now, its importance having been undermined during the first stage of regional decline at the end of the sixties . The third stage of accumulation involves the concentration of higher management, research and development, and financial and professional service centres at

Capital restructuring and domestic economy 109

the central metropoles . Thus although some regional convergence was being experienced during the seventies, a gap was also growing between centres of management control located at the core, and areas with externally controlled industrial development, such as the North East, at the periphery . Whilst the restructuring of the seventies meant diversification in the range of industries in the regions, there was homogenisation of the labour process and types of work, and disparities in the types of employment opportunities available in the regions are probably as important as levels of employment in the longer run . The regional picture shows that occupational disparities between the north and south of Britain have been widening rapidly over the decade . As Rhodes (1986) points out, the fact that an already existent bias of the north to manual labour is increasing, does much to explain disparities in unemployment rates between northern and southern regions, since manual (and particularly unskilled) workers have higher unemployment rates than non-manual .

On Wearside it is very clear that a process of social, or class, and gender recomposition of the labour force has gone on alongside a process of economic restructuring . I will draw on the work of Stone and Stevens (1985, 1986) to analyse the changes that have taken place in the Wearside labour market since 1970, first looking at overall trends in labour demand and Unemployment levels, and then at some of the changes in the structure of employment . It is worth pointing out that Wearside consists of two major centres of population with contrasting economic characteristics : there is the old industrial town of Sunderland based on shipbuilding and mining with its heyday at the beginning of the century on the one hand, and the new town of Washington with a range of new industrial plant on the other . Changing employment patterns in the two centres therefore tend to offset one another . Table I shows that total employment on Wearside fell by 10% in the period 1971 to 1981, a decline which was considerably greater than that for Britain as a whole, or for the Northern region . Most of this decline was concentrated in the years between 1978 and 1981, as the recession deepened ; but throughout the decade the growth of employment in Washington disguised a dramatic decline on the rest of

The Wearside local economy

Capital & Class

110

Wearside amounting to the loss of 17 % of jobs between 1971 and 1981 . In the period between 1981 and 1984, the table shows that total employment on Wearside fell by a further 4 .1 %, a greater fall than that for Britain as a whole, but a slightly better performance than that of the Northern Region, due largely to continued growth in the New Town . These changes in overall levels of employment, however, mask very considerable changes in the relative numbers of male and female workers on Wearside over the period . Whilst male employment declined by as much as 21 % between 1971 and 1981 (see Table 2), female employment actually rose by 9%, a figure which admittedly included a period of relatively slow decline during the height of the recession between 1978 and 1981 . Male job contraction occurs at a greater rate than that for either the country as a whole, or for the Northern Region . Table 1 Comparisons of change in total employment on Waearside 1971-1984 Total employment

Wearside TTWA Northern Region Great Britain

1971 122,193

1978 121,385

1981 110,010

1984 105,515

1,206,280

1,240,508

1,113,902

1,024,902

21,637,883

22,226,343

21,092,016

20,477,061

1971-81 -10.0

1981-84 -4 .1

Change in employment

Wearside TTWA

1971-78 -0.7

1978-81 -9 .4

Northern Region

2 .8

-10.2

-7 .7

-7.9

Great Britain

2 .7

-5 .1

-2 .5

-2 .9

Source: Stone and Stevens 1985

Capital restructuring and domestic economy Women's employment rose faster than the rate for the region, but slightly slower than the national rate . Back in 1951, women accounted for only 29 % of total employment compared with 31 % nationally, and whilst women had comprised less than a third of the Wearside workforce in 1966, by 1981 they made up nearly 45 % . This was well above both the regional proportion of 42% and the national proportion of 43% . Between 1981 and 1984 there was a continuation of the trend away from male and towards female employment, such that by 1984 women made up 47 .5% of the Wearside workforce compared with 44 .5 % regionally and 43 .9 % in the country as a whole . Indeed, in Washington, women outnumber men in the workforce, and make up 51 .3% of the total . There are also marked changes in the proportion of parttime employment over the period, which particularly affected female employment, since part-time employment of men is relatively unimportant, being less common on Wearside than in other parts of the country . Whilst in 1971 the proportion of women working part-time on Wearside (33 .3%) was slightly lower than that nationally (33 .5%), by 1981 it had risen to 45 .1%, above both the regional (42 .7%) and the national proportion (41 .5 %) . This trend also continued in the period up to 1984, with a 12 .4% increase in the number of female part-timers since 1981, so that by 1984 over 49% of Wearside women were working part-time . As will be shown when examining the changing structure of employment on Wearside, most of this dynamism in part-time female job opportunities can be put down to the development of light manufacturing and service employment in the early and midseventies . Unemployment rates on Wearside have remained at almost twice the national average since 1971, and also well above the rates for the Northern Region . Regionally, as nationally, men have always made up a large proportion of the unemployment figure, which can be explained in terms of the social security system and the 'discouraged worker' . Changes in the definition of unemployment by the present government have also meant that the increases in unemployment have been less than they would otherwise have been . The age distribution of unemployed men has become more concentrated in the 20 to 59 age group since 1971 ; reflecting legislative changes and the trend towards early retirement . The age distribution of

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Capital & Class 112

unemployed women differs from the male pattern, for whilst there has been a decline in the proportion of under 20s and an increase in the over 25s, there has not been a decline in the oldest age groups, again particularly reflecting the impact of the social security system . The length of time that people remain out of work has also risen steeply over the period since 197 1, in particular the rate of long term unemployment . Long term unemployment is higher than both the regional and national figures : in 1974, 36 .7 % of men and 14 .3 % of women on Wearside had been out of work for more than a year ; by 1985 this had risen to 56% of men and 38 .2% of women . The proportion of men and women out of work for more than a year had risen even more steeply, and by 1985 well over one third of unemployed men had been unemployed for over two years . Changes in the pattern of employment and unemploy-

Table 2 Comparative changes in male and female employment 1971-84 (a) Men 1971-78

1978-81

1971-81

1981-84

Wearside TTWA

-0.8

-14 .1

-21 .0

-9.3

Northern Region

-2.8

-13 .1

-15 .6

-12 .2

Great Britain

-2.5

-7 .4

-9 .8

-5 .2

Wearside TTWA

12.0

-2 .6

9 .1

2 .4

Northern Region

12.9

-5 .8

6 .3

-1 .7

Great Britain

11 .3

-1 .8

9 .3

0 .2

(b) Women

Source: Stone and Stevens 1985

Capital restructuring and domestic economy ment have thus been more marked on Wearside than either regionally, or especially nationally . In addition there have also been major changes in the structure of employment on Wearside since the beginning of the seventies, such that 'the commonly held view of Sunderland - as a town characterised by heavy industry and with a male-dominated employment structure - needs to be revised' (Stone and Stevens, 1985 ; ix) . Taking the primary sector (mining, quarrying and agriculture) first of all ; this has traditionally provided a major source of employment for men on Wearside, essentially in coal mining . In 1971 coal still accounted for nearly 15 % of total employment, despite the substantial decline in mining jobs that had already occurred . Even after the decline of 43 % that occurred in the decade to 1981, the primary sector remains twice as important as the Northern Region as a source of employment, and three times as important as nationally . Employment in this sector is overwhelmingly in the public sector, and of course is almost all male . In contrast, despite the traditional picture of Wearside as a centre of manufacturing, particularly in terms of shipbuilding and engineering, the proportion of the workforce employed in manufacturing has remained consistently below regional and national levels . In 1971, nearly 36% of the Wearside work force was employed in manufacturing, but by 1981 this proportion had declined to 27%, with nearly one third of all employment in this sector disappearing . Rates of decline of manufacturing employment were higher (at -32 .9%) than either regionally (-26 .417o) or nationally - 24 .3%) . Stone and Stevens estimate that rates of decline of manufacturing from 1981 to 1984 continued to be above the national average, but somewhat below that for the region . Whilst manufacturing on Wearside has always employed more male than female labour, the decline in female employment has been far steeper than that for men : a fall of 43 % as against 28 .7 % . Thus the proportion of the growing female workforce employed in manufacturing fell from 29% in 1971 to only 15 % in 1981 . The period also saw a significant move towards part-time employment in manufacturing, particularly of course for women . The public sector makes up some 30% of manufacturing, where almost all of the employees are men . Looking finally at the service sector, this sector has experienced a more rapid growth rate than nationally, but

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from a lower base . In common with the national picture, services rose in importance in the Wearside economy, making up only 42 % of employment in 1971, but rising to 58 % by 1981, while between 1981 and 1984 it rose by a further 4 .1%, compared with 1 .9% nationally and -0 .6176 in the Northern region . The service sector is of course dominated by female and part-time employment . In 1981, women made up 2 out of every 3 service sector jobs, and indeed 82% of employed women worked in the service sector, while only 38% of men did so . Over a third of service sector jobs were part-time, while for women alone half were part-time . Over 40% of service jobs are in the public sector, a sector which is a more significant provider of jobs for men than for women .

The empirical work

In the light of the processes of social and gender recomposition of the labour force in the North East (and on Wearside) resulting from economic restructuring, it was particularly appropriate to examine changes in the organisation of family work when husbands left the labour market in families where the wife was in employment . Indeed, the bulk of my empirical work focussed on the changes in intra-household activity within the domestic economy when husbands became unemployed . A homogeneous sample is especially important for the research method adopted : that of a taped semi-structured interview . This method was adopted for two main reasons ; the need for sensitivity in establishing the gender division of family work, and the difficulty of assessing how far change had taken place when husbands become unemployed . I based my hypothesis on a 'changing roles' perspective (Pleck, 1979), which looks at concrete strategies that might bring changes in gender roles within the family about . In order to identify possible mechanisms for change, it is therefore important to take a sample where a gender shift in the domestic burden is likely . I chose a sample of families where the wife was in full-time or at least part-time employment, whilst the husband was not employed, and where there were also children . My hypothesis was that under such family circumstances, the time available to undertake domestic tasks would be doubly altered . Men, not being in paid employment, would have more time to undertake domestic work ; whilst women, being in the labour market, would have less . If there

Capital restructuring and domestic economy were also children in the family, the burden of domestic work would be relatively large, making changes both more imperative and more observable . The sample families were obtained from a project examining employment potential in Sunderland, which involved a questionnaire interview with a 10 per cent sample of households in selected areas of the Borough . In the event, it was found difficult to identify a sufficient number of families with unemployed husbands, employed wives and with children under 16 from the survey . This meant that the sample was less homogeneous than was originally intended in two respects . Firstly, families with adult children still living at home were included, and secondly, so were families with nonemployed men below the retirement age of 65 . In particular, this latter meant the inclusion of men who were sick, either on a temporary or permanent basis . Just as Martin and Roberts (1984) have shown the flexibility and lack of clear cut distinctions in any meaningful definition of women's unemployment, so, as job opportunities decline and long term unemployment grows, the definition of unemployment for men also becomes less clear . In particular of course, men who have retired early or who are sick, but not incapable of work, may become 'discouraged workers' and give up seeking work given the poor prospects . As an analytical starting point, four categories of organisation of domestic work were distinguished : traditional rigid, traditional flexible, sharing, and exchanged role . In the traditional rigid form of organisation, the husband performs almost no domestic tasks apart from some predominantly male minor tasks such as mowing the lawn . In the traditional flexible household, the wife may still be busy at the weekend or regularly do housework before or after going to work, but her husband will undertake some non-traditionally male minor tasks, as well as, perhaps, washing up, a major gender-neutral task . In the case of sharing households, a range of tasks including some of the five major tasks (hoovering, washing up, making the main meal, washing and ironing) are shared between husband and wife, or may even be done by the husband . The sharing household often has an ideology of mutual support and company . In exchanged roles, the husband does a substantial range of tasks, either alone or shared with his wife, whilst she is

115



Capital & Class 116 Table 3

Individual families and the degree of change Length of non-em-

Length of employment for Mrs

Mrs hours of work

No . of Type of change families

% of families

Names of families

TR and Regressive

10%

Coulthard Milne

6y ly 7y

23y 6y 6m

16

Briggs Moody Tennet Ward'

9m 3y 6m 1y

4y 10y 5y 12y

121/2 14 121/2 mornings

Bewick Bolam Carrick

1 1/2y 11m 4y 6y 21/2y

13y 9y 12y 15y 121/2y 16y

221/2 221/4 18 251/2 FT

TR and No Change

Brown 3

4

13%

Some Change TR -> TF

14

47%

Crowther Dennis Hogg O'Brien Potts

ployment for Mr

3y 6m 7y

Sh

More Sh

Smart

10m

TF

Sh

Archer Harris Kidd Laws White

5m

Substantial Ch TR Sh TF

Giles

Ex 6

TR

20%

Ex

Nonassessable

3

10%

51/2y 2y 8m 10m

3y

5 4

13y 12y

71/2 20 4 1/2

2y

29 1/2

3y 7y 21/2y 3y 21/2y

121/2 18 20 221/2 20

15y

20

Bradshaw Kelly Turner

2'/4y 4y 11M

2y 6y 51/2y

FT 32 FT

Sterling Toward

5'/2y 11M

21/4 1'/2y

FT FT

Johnson 2 Kirby 3 Mawson2

19Y 2y 13y

7m 14y 12y

15 20 32



Capital restructuring and domestic economy NB All names have been changed to preserve confidentiality . TR = traditional rigid, TF = traditional flexible, Sh = sharing, Ex = exchange roles . 1 Probable : this was a doorstep interview. 2 Unemployed for a long period . 3 Recently married.

either the family breadwinner or has more or less full-time employment . Whilst the wife may have little to say about domestic matters, her husband may well describe his household routine in some detail, and will have substantial responsibility for the household, at least through the week . Although this form of organisation involves a much looser gender segregation than the others, there will still be residual elements of tradition . An exchanged role organisation implies just that ; there has been some exchange of roles between husband and wife, but there is certainly not complete role reversal . As Table 3 shows, when husbands became unemployed, in nearly half the families there had been some change in organisation of domestic work (8 from a traditional rigid to a traditional flexible form of organisation, 5 from traditional flexible to sharing), and there was substantial change in a further 6 families, with 3 families moving from traditional flexible to exchange and 2 from traditional rigid . In other words, 20 families (nearly 70 per cent of the sample) underwent change towards a less rigid division of labour within the household, while only 7 families (less than a quarter) did not, although 3 families couldn't be assessed, either because they had been unemployed for such a prolonged period or because they had only recently married . This is a striking indication of the responsiveness of the gender organisation of households to the non-employment of husbands, although two reservations must be kept in mind . In a few families change took place in response to other circumstances in addition to the husband's unemployment . Secondly, it has already been emphasised that even the change to exchanged roles means that there is still a core of household and childcare tasks undertaken by the wife . With regard to the process of change, time available

117

Capital & Class 118

proved crucial to the gender distribution of family work precisely in the double sense that was assumed when the project was initiated . On' the one hand, unemployment is a precondition for men taking on more work than is involved in a traditional flexible form of household organisation . If the wife is employed, male unemployment does indeed tend to lead to a positive change in gender distribution and only in a minority of cases will there be no change or a regressive change . On the other hand, the amount of change will tend to be related to the number of hours that wives work . This a far cry from the Andy Capp image of the North East . At a society wide level, unemployment leads to a change in the distribution of wealth and opportunity . At an individual level, when a member of a family becomes unemployed, and leaves the labour market, they are likely to suffer a drop in income, but the other major change is in time available . Economic theory would predict that this should bring about the possibility of a series of substitutions . Firstly, more extra self-consumption activities might be undertaken within the domestic sector to replace the purchase of goods or services which have become too expensive to buy in the formal economy . Secondly, more use might be made of the voluntary economy, since this again is a less expensive source for families on a lower income . Finally, the unemployed might replace employment in the formal economy with employment in the irregular sector, or they might become purchasers of cheaper goods and services from that economy . Each of these substitutions relies on a reallocation of the unemployed person's time, so that work activity is transferred from one sector to another . Looking at extra self-consumption activities, the households in the sample did not appear to have taken on many additional activities in this category . Rather over half the wives and a third of the husbands did work in the household which could alternatively be provided through the market . The nature of the tasks undertaken indicated a traditional gender division of labour, but the extent of extra selfconsumption activity appeared comparable between spouses . Whilst there was, then, some level of additional domestic economy activity in the sample, it was by no means at the level that a recent article in the Economist (1987) sees as possible . This may in part be explained by a lack of the necessary equipment and materials for replacing market put-

Capital restructuring and domestic economy chases with domestic economic activities, and indeed there was some evidence of disinvestment in consumer durables amongst the sample households . Turning now to the voluntary sector, this is not much used as a cost saver, as economic theory might suggest, but rather as a time absorber . Most of this work was done by the households containing unemployed men for others . A certain amount was done on an exchange basis, but very little voluntary economy work flowed inwards . It is worth distinguishing the voluntary economy work involving relatives from that involving neighbours, friends or others . Nearly half the husbands, and just over half the wives, were undertaking tasks for relatives . Most of the men who undertook additional self-provisioning activities inside the household did male gendered tasks for relatives, but a similar number of men also undertook the more conventionally female 'caring' tasks . A characteristic of caring tasks is that they do not require capital equipment or materials, and the fact that husbands were undertaking this kind of work indicates that men are prepared to develop their skills in a caring direction . It was noticeable that these unemployed families were doing far more for their relatives than the other way round . There were fewer families who did work for neighbours, friends or others, but still over half the households were involved . Here, rather more husbands than wives were undertaking similar sorts of tasks to those done for relatives . The irregular sector was noticeable by its absence from the sample, at least in terms of working within it, with only one possible case amongst all the families . There was thus no disguised unemployment in the families interviewed . Unfortunately families were not asked whether they made purchases in the irregular economy, which was one of the methods used in the us study by Ferman and Berndt . (1981) Taking both the voluntary sector and the additional selfconsumption activities performed by families over and above the housework and family care performed within each household, it can be concluded that there was an extensive involvement in the social economy amongst the sample families, particularly with respect to relatives, but also with other outsiders . Pahl and Wallace (in Redclift and Mingione 1985 ; 218) talk of a process of polarisation between busy households with many workers who are employed, do domes-

119

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tic tasks, own homes and cars and have money to maintain them, and unemployed households . In contrast, despite the men being out of work in the Wearside sample, families were participating in the social economy to a considerable extent . Where wives do work, even for low wages, and despite the deterrent effect of state benefit regulations, 2 it would seem that families are able to avoid some of the most debilitating features of the unemployed household . The evidence also points to a lack of gender differentiation in this involvement, although there was some gender division in the type of work done . Taking their involvement in the social economy together with the gender shift in housework and child care already mentioned, it would seem that men on Wearside who have no employment are being responsive to a total household work strategy within which their wives have taken on paid work . I would argue that the flexibility and adaptability shown by the men in the sample was primarily based on a pragmatic response to practical circumstances . 3 In general it was practical circumstances that lead to change rather than abstract attitudes to roles . Nevertheless there could be serious conflict between traditional, patriarchal attitudes, and practice ; in which case the gender division of labour actually adopted within the household tended to be more liberal than attitudes . In other words, the complexities of adjustment and adaptation appear to be primarily practically based . Now of course the Wearside families studied were in circumstances which negated much of the basis for a patriarchal attitude : none of the husbands were in employment, and unemployment makes a nonsense of ideas of a male breadwinner and a family wage . Indeed, particularly wives in fulltime employment, were often regarded as the breadwinner, whilst, as we have seen, a substantial proportion of husbands were taking on more domestic work than previously . Negotiations over the gender division of labour within and outside the household were thus subject to a conflict between the traditional, or patriarchal model and the rationality, or maximisation of economic interests model . (See Yeandle, 1984) The state exacerbates this possibility for conflict within the family in two ways . Firstly, there is the gender bias in the benefits system which derives from the assumptions under-

Capital restructuring and domestic economy lying the Beveridge system, and which, as we have seen in Section 2, no longer correspond to the structural realities of the British economy . Thus paid employment no longer prevents financial poverty . Female heads of household in particular are likely to be low paid ; full-time work is no longer the norm, again predominantly for women ; full employment for men is proving no longer feasible, particularly in the regions ; and finally, married women who undertake paid employment are no longer appropriately regarded as financial appendages of their husbands or co-habitees . Many of the families in the Wearside sample were subject to the `poverty trap' - or more specifically the `unemployment trap' . 2 It is the combination of the unemployment trap with women's low pay which undermines the incentive for families to move towards role reversal as a response to male unemployment, and encourages the polarisation of households into those where husbands and wives are both in employment, and households where neither are in employment . My Wearside sample was surprising in two respects . Firstly, women did work despite the restrictions of the benefit system and their own low earnings . Secondly, the number of hours that some women were prepared to work was unexpectedly high . The popular conception of low paid female workers is that they are uncommitted to the labour market . This was certainly not the case for the majority of women in the sample : not merely were many prepared to work despite the disincentives of the benefit system and of low pay, but also hours worked and length of time in current job indicated a substantial commitment to the labour market . The empirical evidence just examined suggests a third model for negotiations over the gender division of household work strategies in addition to the traditional and the economic rationality models : a model of self-respect . In a substantial proportion of the sample - some 10 families in all - wives continued to work despite the fact that the family was at best only very marginally better off, and in some cases was actually worse off as a result . Whilst the present government is anxious to present a picture of scrounging and dependence on the state, legislation actually encourages the traditional, patriarchal attitudes which undermine families' ability to act in an economically rational manner . Yet the concern for self-respect, in some of the sample families at least, was sufficiently strong

121

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122

to overcome both economic rationality and traditional attitudes . The potential for conflict within families where husbands are not working and their wives are in low paid work is thus high . Not merely are households the arena within which the gender conflict between the economic rationality demands of capitalism and the traditional demands of a patriarchal rationality is playing itself out ; the household is also the focus for resolving the conflict between market rationality and the urge towards self-reliance and independence from the state . In households where men have become unemployed, it is wives who hold the key to the self-respect which the family can obtain by irrationally working in the labour market in order to avoid dependence on the welfare system, itself in conflict with traditional views of the gender division of labour . Despite Wearside men taking on new roles which by no means correspond to traditional stereotypes, adjustment to nonemployment is not easy since the potential for conflict within the family is large . Household work strategies, then, and negotiations between the sexes over such strategies, are not merely adopted in response to market forces, but also to pressures from traditional views and from the state, these two reinforcing each other ; as well as arising from the family's sense of self-respect . Market forces themselves are in any case not purely economic in nature, but are affected by the historical development of the gender division of labour, which can both be reinforced by traditional ideology and actually masked by it . In seeking self-respect, families are on the one hand keeping the market at bay through the development of inter-personal relations within the household which lead to a household work strategy which conflicts with economic rationality . On the other hand, they are keeping the state at bay by attempting to avoid dependence on the welfare state as far as possible, where again the household work strategy conflicts with economic rationality, as well as with the traditional rationality incorporated in the benefit system . This can be seen as the adoption of a personalised family life style as opposed to a public one . Yet it is a process of personal privatisation not merely with respect to the state, but also with respect to the market . In wider terms, the self-respect model as a basis for negotiation over the gender pattern of household work strate-

Capital restructuring and domestic economy 123

gies indicates that a material theory of human needs is inadequate . This is of course something that many people, including certain economists, have been aware of anyway . As Jane Humphries puts it : 'Thus the family, as an institution, has been shaped by the aspiration of people for personalised non-market methods of distribution and social interaction' (in Amsden, 1980 ; 154) . Pahl and Wallace see this in terms of a domestic life style, where 'domestication' is 'the product of a value system which puts home-centred activities as the central focus of a distinctive life-style' (1985 ; 219), with selfprovisioning, and an enlarging of work within the domestic economy, flowing largely, but not entirely from a home centred value orientation . Pahl and Wallace contrast the way in which self respect links in with an enlarged domestic economy at the more affluent end of the working class income scale with unemployed households . They see the former as a 'dependent domesticity' in the sense that it relies on the wages of multiple earners in a declining labour market . My own research shows working class households who are in an intermediate position, with certain of them being able to move towards a household work strategy allowing for selfrespect for the family and for the individuals within it, through gender congruence in the complementary and the formal economies . On the one hand, this is a gender congruent version of Pahl and Wallace's household work strategy ; on the other, it is also an 'independent domesticity' . Self-respect in this case is pursued regardless of market and state welfare pressures .

One of the classic assumptions of economics is that time and

'Rational

income are substitutes for each other . This assumption lies

economic

behind the long cherished idea of economists that work is a

families'?

'disutility', and that people therefore need to be paid a wage or salary to persuade them to give up leisure time . There is, in other words, an opportunity cost to participating in the labour force in terms of leisure foregone . Gary Becker (1965) and the new home economics school provide a revised theory of consumer choice that treats all commodities symmetrically by stressing only their differences in relative time and earning intensities . This means that market work and domestic work can both be seen as contributing to the production of basic

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commodities yielding utility, while leisure is desirable in its own right . Households are then assumed to allocate time so as to maximise returns . If a household member works at home, this is because returns from unpaid housework are perceived as equal to or higher than those from market work for that individual . Commentators have pointed out that this opportunity cost approach can be problematic because the real world does not necessarily give people the option of making choices about the use of marginal hours, or even total hours . Indeed, for neither the affluent nor the unemployed do time and income appear to be substitutes for each other . The 'harried leisure class', to use Linder's (1970) apt terminology, have substantial incomes, but a shortage of time . As Burns so pithily expresses it : 'For most of us, affluence is the privilege of waiting for help in a department store, searching for a parking spot' (Burns, 1977 ; 171) . For the individuals who make up the success story of Thatcher's Britain, time is the final scarcity ; for the fate of those with higher than average incomes, is to be trapped in isolated pockets of temporal scarcity . The dogmatic emphasis of the New Right on the importance of material incentives ignores the fact that larger incomes cannot buy time. British Chancellor Nigel Lawson's 1988 budget, in substantially reducing taxation for the rich strengthened their monetary incentives . This does not deal with temporal poverty, but gives the already materially or better off the limited satisfaction of being able to purchase still more goods . The yuppie lifestyle can be seen as a modification of the conspicuous consumption and waste posited by Thorstein Veblen at the turn of the century . He pointed out that the struggle for wealth is different from the struggle for subsistence, in that the former is concerned with emulation . Waste then becomes the common characteristic necessary for demonstrating the possession of wealth . The restructuring of taxation brought about by the 1988 budget, then, encourages pecuniary emulation and thus conspicuous waste where 'articles are to an extent preferred for use on account of their being conspicuously wasteful ; they are felt to be serviceable somewhat in proportion as they are wasteful and ill-adapted to their ostensible use' (Veblen, 1912 ; 126) . Veblen argues that emulation is second only to self-preservation as the strongest

Capital restructuring and domestic economy of economic motives : small wonder then that in promoting a narrowly economic rationality for the already well off, the spending boom should continue and Britain's balance of payments move further into the red . There is an inevitably inflationary effect in boosting what has to be conspicuous consumption for a harried leisure class whose real shortage is time rather than income . The underside of the success story of Thatcherite Britain is the underclass of unemployed families who have too much time and not enough income . Here again, material wealth and temporal wealth are mutually exclusive, but from the opposite starting point . For families where the man is unemployed, the state benefit system suppresses economic rationality and confirms patriarchal rationality and the gender bias of the market mechanism . The spatial impact of the changing economic structure means that marginal opportunities for unemployed men and women are often not available in terms of self-employment or the irregular economy any more than wage earning . The New Right focuses on the idea of self-help and the role of the individual in the market, yet in practice the unit is the family, and it is within families that decisions are made about work strategies . The institutional framework of state welfare and low pay, especially for women, tends to structure whole families into unemployment . Unemployed families with low incomes and ample time are the opposite side of the coin of those enjoying success in eighties Britain . For neither the timeless unemployed nor the harried leisure class are time and income substitutes for one another . But perhaps it is unfair to the opportunity cost model to take the two extremes of the income spectrum . Pahl and Wallace looked at another category of families who might be considered Thatcherite success stories : two earner, working class, owner occupier families in the South . The surprise from this study is that paid and unpaid work appeared as complementary . Employment and work in the complementary economy went together, and 'There is an indication that people actually choose to do this domestic work' (Pahl and Wallace, 1985 ; 215) . Such a choice is not understandable from the standpoint of pure economic rationality, even if it is accepted that perceptions of economic rationality may differ between men and women . It is a gender differentiated economic rationality which is modified by the adoption of a

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self-reliant home centred life style . Certain economic conditions - the availability of employment - are a necessary, but not a sufficient condition for adopting this domestic life style, which is thus undoubtedly moulded by economic circumstances, but not determined by them . My own empirical work seems to indicate a group which exists despite Thatcher's New Right, in that some families are adopting a work strategy based on a self-respect which actually conflicts with economic rationality . As a result of economic restructuring in the regions there has been a change in the balance of gender power and authority within the household which has meant a shift in work strategies for men and women within households in a gender congruent direction . This movement has taken place not merely in opposition to economic rationality in some cases, but also despite pressures from traditional views of roles and from the state . The selfrespect model of family motivation tends to be associated with a gender congruent life style which involves sharing between husband and wife . Work for such families is not seen as a disutility, but instead self-respect is being derived from paid and unpaid work . Wives - and to some extent husbands - are deriving self-respect from female participation in paid work, whilst men are able to gain a rather lesser degree of self respect from unpaid work . As employment opportunities have altered, men have become economically less powerful and their wives more so, thus changing the balance of the domestic bargain in favour of women . Feminists, whether women or men, may see hope for a less gender segregated future arising from the changing behaviour of this group . However, as the last section has shown, the presence of conflicting rationalities tends to focus economic and social conflict within the family, though my empirical work was not designed to identify the possible long term effects of this on families . Effectively the market mechanism and the economic individualism of the New Right are structured so that any individuals or families who base their decision making on selfrespect will at best be taken for granted, at worst taken advantage of or exploited by the economic system within which they find themselves . Goldschmidt-Clermont (1987) draws attention to the fact that the concept of maximising returns is culturally bound, so that the concept of opportunity cost is of limited use in Third World societies where con-

Capital restructuring and domestic economy formity to tradition and community life and support are valued, as opposed to societies where the value of achievement, competition, personal initiative and social mobility are praised . But my own research, and that of Pahl and Wallace for instance, indicates that there may be varying value systems within families in developed capitalist economic formations too, reflected in the adoption of different life styles . The value of self-respect cannot readily be assessed in terms of the value of saving time . Yet families are left to pick up the pieces for themselves when internal conflict is the result of a value system of self-respect ; such conflict is, in terms of economic jargon, an externality for a Thatcherite market . In order to reduce conflict within the family and to harness people's sense of self-respect, economic rationality and self-respect need to be brought into line with each other in a humanised incentive system, which does not simply rely on selfish monetary rewards . This could be done by a concerted and effective effort to make institutional changes to reduce the conflict introduced by low pay, by the state benefit system, by the taxation system, and by owner occupation . There would also need to be a genuine attempt to reduce the impact of patriarchal rationality . Proper recognition for the motive of self-respect can only be achieved by considering the family as a whole, and in particular both sexes within it, rather than the individual . There is thus finally a need to bring economic rationality into line between men and women . As things stand at the present moment, the family has relatively little choice in terms of its work strategy ; it is inflexible due to the framework within which it is placed, where economic and patriarchal constraints render it unadaptable . Labour market rigidities not only prevent labour substitution within the market, but also substitution of market for non-market work for low paid, working class women . Rigidities in performing domestic activities also mean that paid work and unpaid work are complementary in many ways . This means that for many families there is not even choice with regard to all hours, let alone marginal hours . Such lack of choice makes for a sense of helplessness and alienation . I have looked at a minority of families who have adapted their work strategies in nontraditional and economically irrational ways . Society will be the better if motivations based on self-respect and gender congruence can be encouraged by giving them economic

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rewards, rather than being economically discouraged . Families need to be allowed to forge their own life-style of self-reliance, without it being at variance with economic rationality . In broader terms, such a system would be one which reduces the mutual exclusiveness of time and wealth . It would be less alienating because it would allow of proper consideration of a total work strategy which takes account of all forms of work, and not simply of reasonably paid male work . Whilst the orthodox economic paradigm views work as a disutility within a framework that considers only purely economic motivations, a Marxist paradigm integrates work activity into the development of the whole human being . For whilst it is true that the majority of Marx's economic analysis is concerned with capitalist development as a process of creating material wealth, he is also concerned to ask how material wealth becomes real wealth through the all-sided and full development of each individual . Julkunen (1977) has shown that Marx ultimately reduced the whole of economics to the economy of time, and a development of his analysis makes it possible to link the allocation of time with the development of personality . The historical evolution of capitalism was examined by Marx as the saving of living labour, so that the saving of labour time is identical with the development of the productive forces . Making a comparison between developed and underdeveloped countries, Julkunen suggests that the capitalist economy was the first economy of conscious time saving, and that from the basic law of value and capitalist competition springs the urge to minimise the consumption of working time . It is this which allows of the growth of material wealth, but the saving of living labour also forms the basis for the emergence of disposable time, which can be used for the creation of new material and spiritual needs . However, 'in the economy of working time, off-work time has only a peripheral status . The principle of time saving of off-work time is important only insofar as it ensures the sufficient reproduction of human vital power as regards the work process' (Julkunen, 1977 ; 11) . The full development of each individual is only possible when work no longer appears as work, but as the full development of human activity itself . This personality development is only possible if both the society as a whole and the individuals within it allocate time in the right proportions

Capital restructuring and domestic economy to all activities, not simply in terms of paid working time, but of the entire time fund of the society and the individual . At this stage, it is not sufficient to think in terms of purely individual economic motivations, and wider aspirations for fulfilling other aspects of what it is to be a human being must be brought into play . 'In the spirit of Marxist tradition socialist research on leisure time and official ideology have emphasised that leisure time is time which ensures harmonious personality development' (ibid p . 13) . On the basis of Marx's analysis, Julkunen suggests that the process of economic development involves the development of a sense of time . The paradox is that with more highly developed productive resources, time becomes relatively more expensive and valuable, so that the more time is saved the scarcer it becomes . It is for this reason that poverty and scarcity do not appear as a lack of time in underdeveloped conditions . One of the major cultural conflicts between European colonisers and those whom they colonised arose from different perceptions of time . The colonisers had a strongly developed sense of time deriving from the importance for capitalism of saving scarce time, but for the poor in the colonies, time was not scarce . Within developed economies themselves a similar dichotomy can be observed, where the unemployed have no scarcity of time . The social experiences of the employed and the unemployed are thus very different because there is no external necessity for the latter to maintain their sense of time . There is a similar gulf between the employed and the unemployed as there is between the rulers of empire and the ruled . However in the case of the unemployed, they are distinguished from the rest of society by the poverty of their temporal experience . What they do with their time is not of significance to society as a whole, provided they do not resort to criminal activities . It is in this sense that the unemployed are an 'underclass' . Indeed when Jahoda (1982) says that, as well as its financial rewards, a job has certain latent functions in providing access to important categories of experience, she is essentially arguing that employment renders time valuable, and therefore scarce . The problems that the unemployed face in adapting, express themselves primarily in terms of 'too much time', for time has ceased to be scarce for them . But the theory of personality sketched out by the French marxist Lucien Seve

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based on Marx's theses of personality and the economy of time suggest that we can go further in exploring the

effect of

unemployment on personality . Seve argues that `personality appears as the `accumulation' of the most varied activities in time' Qulkunen, 1977 ; 13) . The infrastructure of personality is formed on the basis of individual activity, which must be a temporal structure . Seve sees two dimensions to activity, the first involving the contrast between sector I activity where learning activities are undertaken and sector II in which learning is used to gratify needs .

(This parallels Marx's

distinction between economic departments I and II where means of production and articles of consumption are respectively located) . The other dimension distinguishes abstract and concrete work ; abstract activity is alienated activity, subject to external necessity, while concrete activity is unalienated, personal activity . For those in employment, abstract, alienated needs gratification activity looms largest in the individual's time plan . For the unemployed, concrete, unalienated, personal activity will become at least proportionately more significant . Problems in adaptation arise because such activity is often trivial, and because it is through abstract activity that individuals come into contact with developed

productive forces and

culture . For the employed, on the other hand, conflict arises from over-emphasis on activities which are subject to selfish monetary motivations . It is interesting that in the wake of what many have seen as an obscene budget handout to the rich, the Thatcher government seems to have been groping towards a realisation that a reliance on selfish monetary motivations is not sufficient, and the better off have been urged to donate some of their budget benefits to good causes . The market mechanism demands the pursuit of self-interest . But nineteenth century style charity from large companies and rich citizens cannot prevent the pursuit of self-interest from undermining the selfrespect of employed and unemployed alike . Only a radical rethink can bring individual morality and the market mechanism into line with each other, by taking account of a nonmaterial theory of human needs .

Capital restructuring and domestic economy To understand how the economic system is regulated, I should

Conclusions :

like to develop a typology of productive economic institutions .

regulating the

This will help to highlight the interrelations

between the

social and formal economies . Figure 1 shows some of the similarities and differences between the sectors of these two economies . Firstly, whilst work takes place throughout the whole economy, it can be divided into two types . In the social economy, work is for self-consumption, but in the rest of the economy - the formal economy, together with the irregular sector - work is undertaken for the income which is earned . Whilst production in the latter case is production for the household, in the social economy, production is also taking place : in this case within and between households . The domestic sector involves production within households ; the voluntary sector, between them . Whilst many might regard the market as the core of the production process, a consideration of total economic activity

thus shows it to be an

intermediary . Secondly, this interrelationship has a further significance and

in that the combination of work for self-consumption

work for income 'constitutes the reason for the connection between the reproductive cycle of the unit and the general process of accumulation or development' (Mingione, 1985 ; 25) . Now in Section 2, structural economic

change was

analysed in the light of the changing patterns of the accumulation of capital and of the reproduction of labour and capital within the capitalist world economy . Figure 1 summarises the role that the different sectors of the economy play in these respects . The social economy plays a primary role in the production and reproduction of labour, with its responsibility for the care of children, the elderly, the sick and the disabled . The domestic sector also accumulates substantial amounts of household capital . (Burns, 1977 ; Gershuny, 1978) The state sector of the formal economy plays a far smaller role in the reproduction of labour through

its health and education

services, and accumulates capital in the form of state capital . Monopoly and non-monopoly sectors together play a very important role in the accumulation of capital, whether it takes the form of international, financial, monopoly or nonmonopoly capital (See Wheelock, 1984) . In terms of reproduction, it makes sense to consider the irregular sector as part of a petty competitive sector which

Post-industrial economy

131



w

N Figure 1 -A typology of productive economic institutions

Total economic activity measured

unmeasured

Formal economy

Complementary economy

.I

I

I

marketed

Non-marketed :

I

I

marketed

Fully non-marketed

Irregular sector

Social economy

valued on imputs

I State sector

Monopoly sector *

Non-monopoly or competitive sector

Illegal or extra-legal

• includes international and financial capital

I

I

Inter-household activity

Intra-household activity

I

I

Voluntary sector

Domestic sector

Capital restructuring and domestic economy includes the self-employed sector of the formal economy . This sector is characterised by the very small scale of its units whose status as a form of capital is ambivalent . Both the irregular and the self-employed sectors provide an outlet for what Marx termed the industrial reserve army, who may or may not be successful in establishing themselves as capitalist entrepreneurs in the non-monopoly sector, so avoiding a return to unemployment or employment .

What distinguishes this

sector from the rest of the marketed sectors is that it incorporates not only the possibility of the accumulation of non-monopoly capital, but also the reproduction of labour . The employment structure is becoming more characterised by fragmentation, particularly along gender lines, but including rises in self-employment, unemployment and flexible working for both men and women . This can be represented in terms of differences in the costs of reproduction between different sectors of the economy . Labour in the social economy is not paid, since it involves work for self-consumption . In the state, monopoly and non-monopoly sectors there tends to be a high ratio between gross income and working time, whilst in the petty competitive sector there is a low ratio between gross income and working time (Mingione, 1986 ; 30) . Labour market fragmentation is part of the process of competition between different forms of capital, including international capital . Competition also involves differences in the costs of reproduction within sectors, as well as between them . The household, as the unit of reproduction, must apply its working activities to earning and to directly supplying goods and services through self-consumption . Household work strategies require the individuals who make up this unit to negotiate and decide a balance between work for income and for self-consumption . These decisions will however be made in the light of the social and gender recompositions brought about by the process of international economic restructuring . Such restructuring involves an articulated combination of the reproduction of labour power and of capital . The result will be to rearticulate the gender divisions of labour within the household . Pressures to change the division of labour are likely to be particularly great in regions where male unemployment is high and where opportunities for female employment are relatively buoyant, and Section 3 indicated such a process of change in North East regional economy .

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Any re-articulation of work strategies within the household is subject to four major constraints : economic rationality, pressures from the state benefit system, traditional ideology, and the desire for self-respect . Women and men, however, have different perceptions of economic rationality . On the one hand, economic rationality must take account of employment opportunities, levels of pay and access to state benefits for both husband and wife . On the other, economic rationality will also be coloured by the unequal access that women and men have to the family wage . The state has done much to butress concepts of a continuing traditional gender division of labour within the household, yet economic restructuring has undermined the economic basis of such traditional ideology in a number of important, if somewhat ambivalent, ways . Finally, Section 3 has shown that families may decide household work strategies on the basis of self-respect, and under these circumstances, wives may decide to work in the formal economy, whilst their husbands become more involved in the social economy, the result of which is a more gender congruent division of labour . A household work strategy based on self-respect can be understood in terms of a reconceptualisation of the labour process . The labour process within the household involves the adoption of a personalised life style . Indeed, one of the hallmarks of the social economy is that it allows of the development of a personalised life style, based on home centred values, which, as we saw in Section 3, may be at variance with economic rationality . In contrast, the marketed sectors of the economy satisfy private, rather than personal needs, needs which are directly circumscribed by market based values . Indeed, different sectors of the economy satisfy different needs : the state provides for collective needs, the market for private needs and the social economy for personal needs, corresponding to different systems of distribution . A distribution system depends upon differing levels of commodification between sectors : in the social economy there is a personalised system of distribution, which can be contrasted with the private, market based system of the monopoly, non-monopoly and petty competitive sectors, and the public distribution of the state sector . The boundaries between the institutional mechanisms by which the three types of needs - collective, private and personal - are met are of course porous and

Capital restructuring and domestic economy variable . For example, the collective need for education or health can also be supplied through the market, as is made very clear by the New Right, or indeed within the domestic or the voluntary sectors . Personal needs can and are transformed into private needs through the medium of advertising by the market sectors . By talking in terms of personal needs and the development of a personalised life style, I am not denying the importance of household work strategies as survival mechanisms . Indeed, the balance between work for self-consumption and for income is a function of the qualitative and quantitative structure of labour demand . But the relation between the family and occupational structure goes beyond survival strategy to the importance of the division of labour in the domestic unit . The domestic unit 'filters the demand and regulates the supply of labour in the market' (Connolly, 1985 ; 80) . Families may choose to adopt a personal life style in addition . Institutionalists argue that value theory is a study of the process by which judgements about values are made . It is important to realise that such judgements are made in the context of the dynamic process of technological accumulation . 'The innovation and use of the better and more desirable technologies is a process that occasions changes in the structure of institutions and in their behaviour norms, which those institutions are imposing on individuals . And those institutionalised behaviour norms are the values of institutions and in turn are affecting the values of individuals .' (Adams, 1980 ; 37) There is thus a process of self-correcting value judgements, against a background of technological change . The household is significant as an institution within such judgements are made, and Gershuny (1978, 1985) puts forward a theory of socio-technical innovation which provides a framework for linking the domestic sector to the formal economy . He points out that the connection between needs and economic demand is not a direct one, but rather mediated by technology . A socio-technical innovation is one where the means by which a need is satisfied changes, so that households' demand for commodities change too . There are new modes of provision for particular needs ; and instead of catching the bus to work, people buy cars which they drive themselves . Sociotechnical innovations like the private motor car, television,

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video-recorders, washing machines, freezers and microwaves, have a two fold effect . Firstly the new modes of provision for particular needs affect the structure of the economy through final demand, while secondly they influence the division between paid and unpaid time and thus household activity patterns . Gershuny's theory suggests not merely an interrelation between the household sector and the formal economy, but that the domestic sector may well be a causal factor for economic development . Such a shift to the domestic provision of services also has important gender implications, of which Gershuny is aware, although he does not develop them . They have been sketched out in this paper . There are thus three important implications for economic theory arising from the arguments put forward here . Firstly, economic maximisation is not sufficient as a rationale for economic activity . Some professional economists, not to mention many students when they are first introduced to economic concepts, have an intuitive antipathy to 'homo economicus', and not simply on the basis of the sexism that is implied, though that in itself is significant enough . Veblen labelled orthodox economic man as 'that spinning globule of desire', while Gruchy 'found the orthodox conception of man repugnant : amoral, hedonistic, deficient in not admitting of mutual empathy, unappreciative of individual and cultural differences . . . knowing all but understanding nothing' (in Adams, 1980 ; 12) . For Hollis and Neil, rational economic man is rarely portraited, but introduced furtively : 'We do not know what he wants . But we do know that whatever it is, he will maximise ruthlessly to get it . . . as consumer he maximises utility by omniscient and improbable comparison of, for instance, marginal strawberries with marginal cement .' (Hollis and Nell, 1975 ; 54) My study of Wearside families indicates that such moral and philosophical arguments against 'rational economic man' are supported by empirical evidence . The individual units of economic analysis, households - more widely known as families - may make their decisions about work strategies on the basis of self-respect, and not simply on the basis of economic rationality, whether or not this is modified by traditional views of the division of labour . The second important implication is that households, or families, should not be considered as a single unit as they are in economics, but rather appreciated as a group who bear the

Capital restructuring and domestic economy brunt of the contradictions arising from the need to reconcile the conflicting rationalities of self-respect, traditional views and the rationality imposed by the market . Economic and social conflict thus become focussed on the family . Not merely does the market avoid the costs of such conflict, the market actually gains in terms of people's desire to work even though it may be economically irrational to do so . Structural change in the economy is in any case mediated within the family through differentiated gender perceptions of economic rationality . The final implication is that it is not possible to separate either the domestic sector or the social economy from the formal economy . The social economy is neither at the margins of reproduction nor of accumulation, and indeed the complementary and the formal economies combine in provisioning society . The boundary between the formal and the social economy is established by how production decisions within the household are made, but households use multiple work strategies, so that this also provides the link between the complementary and the formal economy . However, the decisions that households make are not necessarily on the basis of economic maximisation . So whilst the regulatory system within the social economy cannot be independent of that within the formal international capitalist system, it does have a separate pole . True, work for self-consumption within the social economy may be a coping response to inadequate resources and entirely a function of economic constraints . But there may also be work for self-consumption which allows a personalised life style and a sense of creativeness . In terms of regulation of the total economic system, there is thus an enigmatic interaction between the social and the formal economy . This is because on the one hand work within the social economy may be the result of the market constraints of increasing poverty ; on the other hand it may be the result of increasing affluence and a relative separation from economic constraints represented by the adoption of a personalised life style . The interaction is rendered all the more ambivalent by the fact that even some of the least well off-and the Wearside families certainly fell into this category - may choose to base their work strategies and their life style on self-respect . The intimate relationship between the formal and the complementary economies means that the mode of regulation of monopoly

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capitalism is modified by the personal wishes and aspirations put into effect within the social economy . The labour process debate emphasised the importance of work as a relation between human beings as well as an economic category . A study of the labour process within the household indicates that women and men may partially liberate themselves from market forces by choosing a gender congruent work strategy which incorporates a personalised life style at variance with economic and traditional rationalities alike . The effect of international changes in the nature of monopoly capitalism on household work strategies are mediated through gender perceptions of economic rationality, and based on intra-household negotiations over the division of labour, which will also be coloured by traditional, patriarchal views . The regional concentration of economic decline and restructuring mean that in developed economies the issue of changing gender roles appears in a particularly stark form in declining regions . There are indeed constraints on challenges to gender identity, but there is evidence of work as a meaningful and purposive activity for both women and men which does something to overcome state and institutional constraints on role change, whilst economic constraints can do much to neutralise the force of traditional attitudes on the part of both sexes . It should be possible to develop policies that would encourage such shifts towards more gender congruent life styles .



Capital restructuring and domestic economy 1. I would like to thank the Equal Opportunities Commission for the grant which made this work possible, and the Wearside families who so kindly agreed to be interviewed . This is a revised version of a paper presented at the Socio-Economics Conference at Harvard Business School in March 1989 . I should like to thank participants for their comments . Part of this article is appearing in the Journal of Behavioral Economics (1990) . The article draws heavily on the analysis in my recently published book, Husbands at Home. 2. At the time when this research was carried out (Winter 1985/6), unemployment benefit was normally payable for one year . After that time social security became payable, which was subject to a number of conditions . Amongst these was the stipulation that neither recipients nor their spouses could earn more than £4 a week without a corresponding deduction from benefit, a figure that had remained disincentive for low paid wives to work when their husbands were unemployed . The new system of income support make some changes in this respect .

Notes

3. For full details of the argument here, see Chapter 5 in Wheelock (1990) .

Adams, J . (1980) Institutionalist Economics, The Hague, Nijhoff. Aglietta, M . (1979) A Theory of Capitalist Regulation, London, New Left Books . Aglietta, M . (1982) 'World capitalism in the eighties', New left Review, no . 137 . Amsden, A . H . (ed .) (1980) The Economics of Women and Work, Harmondsworth, Penguin . Armstrong, P ., Glyn, A . and Harrison, J . (1984) Capitalism since World War II, London, Fontana . Becker, G . (1965) A theory of the allocation of time, Reprinted in A . H . Amsden (ed .) . Burns, S . (1977) The Household Economy, Boston, Beacon Press . Connolly, B . (1985) The politics of the informal sector : a critique, in N . Redclift and E . Mingione (ed .) . Cutler, T ., Williams, K . and Williams, J . (1986) Keynes, Berveridge and Beyond, London, Routledge & Kegan Paul . Dex, S . (1987) Women's Occupational Mobility, London, Macmillan. Dunford, M . and Perrons, D . (1983) The Arena of Capital, London, Macmillan .

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Dunford, M . and Perrons, D . (1986) The restructuring of the post-war British space economy, in R . Martin and B . Rowthorn (ed .) . Economist, The (1987) The Shadow Economy, September 19 . Ferman, L .A . and Berndt, L .E . (1981) The irregular economy, in S . Henry (ed .) . Freeman, C ., Clarke, J . and Soete, L . (1982) Unemployment and Technical Innovation, London, Francis Pinter . Gershuny, J . (1978) After Industrial Society, London, Macmillan . Godfrey, M . (1986) Global Unemployment: the New Challenge of Economic Theory, Brighton, Wheatsheaf. Goldschmidt-Clermont, L . (1987) Economic Evaluations of Unpaid Household Work, Geneva, International Labour Office . Henry, S . (ed .) (1981) Can I Have it in Cash? London, Astragal . Hollis, M . and Nell, E . (1975) Rational Economic Man, Cambridge University Press . Hudson, R . (1986) Producing an industrial wasteland : capital, labour and the state in North East England, in R . Martin and B . Rowthorn (ed .) . Jahoda, M . (1982) Employment and Unemployment : a Social-Psychological Analysis, Cambridge University Press . Julkunen, R . (1977) A contribution to the categories of social time and the economy of time, Acta Sociologica, Vol . 20 no . 1 . Lewis, J . (1983) 'Women, work and regional development', Northern Economic Review, Summer . Linder, S .B . (1970) The Harried Leisure Class, New York, Columbia University Press . Mckee, L . and Bell, C . (1984) Marital and family relations in times of male unemployment, in B . Roberts, R . Finnegan and D . Gallie (eds) . Mandel, E . (1975) Late Capitalism London, New Left Books . Marshall, M . (1987) Long Waves of Regional Development, London . Macmillan . Martin, R . and Rowthorn, B . (1986) The Geography of Deindustrialisation, London, Macmillan . Massey, D . (1979) 'In what sense a regional problem?' Regional Studies, Vol . 13 no . 2 . Massey, D . (1986) The legacy lingers on : the impact of Britain's international role on its internal geography, in R. Martin and B . Rowthorn (ed . ) . Mingione, E . (1985) Social reproduction of the surplus labour force, in N . Redclift and E . Mingione (ed .) . Morris, L . (1985) Renegotiation of the domestic division of labour in the context of redundancy in B . Roberts, R . Finnegan and D . Gallie (eds) . Pahl, R .E . (1984) Divisions of Labour, Oxford, Blackwell . Pahl, R . E . and Wallace, C . (1985) Household work strategies in economic

Capital restructuring and domestic economy

recession, in N . Redclift and E . Mingione (ed .) . Purcell, K ., Wood, S ., Waton, A. and Allen, S . (1986) The Changing Experience of Employment, London, Macmillan . Redclift, N . and Mingione, E . (ed .) (1985) Beyond Employment : Gender, Household and Subsistence, Oxford, Blackwell . Rhodes, J . (1986) Regional dimensions of economic decline, in R . Martin and B . Rowthorn (ed .) . Roberts, B ., Finnegan, R . and Gallie, D . (eds) (1985) New Approaches to Economic Life, Manchester University Press . Stone, I . and Stevens, J . (1985/6) 'Employment on Wearside : trends and prospects,' Northern Economic Review Winter no . 12 . Stubbs, C . and Wheelock, J . (in press) A Woman's Work: Gender and the Local Economy, Aldershot, Gower Avebury . Veblen, T . (1912) The Theory of the Leisure Class, London, Macmillan . Wheelock, J . (1984) 'Competition in the Marxist tradition', Capital and Class, Winter no . 21 . Wheelock, J . (1986) Unemployment Gender Roles and Household Work Strategies on Wearside, Sunderland Polytechnic EDU for EEC/ Borough of Sunderland . Wheelock, J . (1990) Husbands at Home: the Domestic Economy in a Postindustrial Society, London, Routledge . Wheelock, J . (1990) 'Families, Self-respect and the Irrelevance of "Rational Economic Man" in a Post Industrial Society Journal of Behavioural Economics, Vol 19, no 2 . Yeandle, S . (1984) Women's Working Lives, London, Tavistock .

141

Norman Geras Discourses of Extremity Verso, ISBN 0 86091 980 3, £8 .95 . Reviewed by Andrew Duncan

142

Subtitled 'Radical Ethics and Post-Marxist Extravagances', this book is divided into two parts . The first argues that Socialism must engage in ethical discussion, and the second demonstrates the vacuity and extravagance of a particular version of postMarxism . Geras claims that the book might enable socialists to critically reappraise 'the areas of weakness or neglect' [p . xi] within their theory, and also to discriminate between this and 'less salutory pressures . . . of intellectual fashion' (p . xi} . As a whole, the book 'is concerned with the current status of Marxism, in the light of alternatives to it' [p . xi) . Geras says that, irrespective of the particular arguments he puts forward, 'there might emerge a useful contrast between two different styles of critical approach to the inherited corpus of socialist ideas : one of them committed to analytic care and precision, some real effort of discrimination of respective strengths and weaknesses within competing - complex bodies of thought ; the other ungoverned by any rule of rigour and reckless with the intellectual resources we have' [p . xiii} . Geras asks the reader to consider which of the two kinds of critical reflection best addresses practical questions about revolutionary ethics, and it is on this basis that the book itself must be evaluated . Does Geras successfully persuade Socialists that ethics is a worthy area of discussion? And does he persuade us that the latest intellectual fashion is less worthy than the practical consideration of radical ethics? Part One of the book is two essays under the title 'The Ethics of Revolution' . The first, 'Marxism and Moral Advocacy', focuses on 'just one tradition within socialist

Book reviews

thought, namely, Marxism, in an area in which it has been, arguably, at its weakest : namely ethics' [p . 3) . There is, he says, 'a genuine contradiction of belief [p . 5) in Marxism's view of morality : on the one hand it treats morality as ideological, relative and shaped by social and class determinations, and itself claims to be based on some rejection of moral ideas (usually in the name of science) ; and on the other, Marx's and Marxist writing is liberally infused with moral judgements and with a 'vision of a better world' [p . 4] that it is difficult not to see as moral . This contradiction is for Geras 'a major weakness within the Marxist tradition' [p . 5) . By embodying an ethical dimension at the same time as denying it, Marxism obfusticates its own nature and leaves important problems inadequately discussed, if at all . However, Geras believes that the scientific aspirations of Marxism are, perfectly compatible with commitment to ethical principles : in general these should be 'stated openly, tested against normative analysis and argument, measured against criticisms in the light of other viewpoints, and so forth' [p . 5] . In this essay, Geras focuses on two issues that concern Marxism's vision of a better world - the ideas of human needs and equality . In this better world, the particular level of need satisfaction and the 'desirable equalities, allowable inequalities and their limits' [p . 6) should be determined by processes of social definition - that is by public deliberation and decision . The context for Geras' discussion is not the abstraction of classical ethics but the material reality before us all - 'wretched, desperate human need, coexisting with massive inequalities' [p . 7) . The project of Socialism is to do something about this since we surely know enough about human beings to be able to say what common, basic human needs must be catered for to make

possible a decent human existence for all : 143 adequate nourishment and protection against the elements, therefore housing, clothing, fuel ; proper medical care and educational provision ; some meaningful and agreeable work and the possibility - which anyone can refuse - of significant (to large) amounts of time free from work for social, cultural and recreational activities, with some resources given to these ends . [p . 8] In the face of material reality, these are, of course, tall orders, and Geras accepts this, but they neatly establish the context in which any radical discussion of ethics must take place . Geras' approach here is in the tradition of critical theory . The two ethical discourses that he tackles are : Robert Nozick's theory that justice obtains if everyone's property has been gained through some sort of original acquisition - i .e . through appropriation of previously unowned natural objects - or by purely voluntary transfers ; and Peter Singer's idea that if it is possible to prevent something bad from happening without any sacrifice of anything of comparable moral importance, then it should be done . Geras also engages with Bryan Barry's extension of the latter into the issue of how wealthy countries should provide poor ones with humanitarian relief . Throughout this first essay, Geras is always mindful of his own standards, and, although he does not always demonstrate that Marxism as a whole has been unwilling to talk about moral advocacy, his critique ably demonstrates that if Marxists are to undertake ethical analysis, they should do so 'with some thought for the social and material conditions of attaining any given ideals, the means of and agencies for attaining them, the social interests and movements that can conceivably be coupled with or become attached to the ideals and imperatives in question' [pp . 16-17) . For Geras, Socialism

Capital & Class

144

will result from the efforts of those with an

This essay is wide ranging and largely

interest in creating it (otherwise it is a

agreeable, and it is clearly written - as its

dream) and this revolutionary force is the working class - all those whose labour is

title would suggest - with the distinction

exploited for capitalist profit . This preparatory work done, Geras turns

between their morality and ours uppermost . The discourse of just War Theory is however concerned with the rules of combat

in his second essay to 'Our Morals' . This considers 'by what normative principles

between states which have no interest in

socialists might be guided, whether in

against them . Nevertheless, there is no

judgement or in action, when it comes to

reason why the forces of revolution should

revolutionary change' [p . 21) . Geras' overall intention is here to 'argue that socialist

purposes . Geras cites numerous cases of

discussion of revolutionary ethics( . . .),and the discussion in particular of ends and

exercise of physical force so as to kill or

means, tends to be framed in abstract

injure, inflict direct harm or pain on,

generalities of a sort which yields neither

human beings' [p . 22)) perpetrated both by

specific rules or norms of conduct nor much

forces of oppression and revolution, and also

practical guidance for concrete cases ; and to suggest that there is a lot to be learned here,

those acts of violence meted out during

by way of trying to repair the deficiency,

crowds and the various agents of reaction -

from another tradition of discourse entirely'

police, soldiers, agents provocateurs,

[p . 22) . The particular discourse in question

mers, collaborators, and so forth . He tests

is just War Theory .

all cases against his critique of just War and

applying these rules to forces of revolution

not adapt these concerns to their own hideous violence (by which he means 'the

direct confrontation between revolutionary infor-

His starting point is the principle that

argues that we need to discuss violence in

people may legitimately revolt against what used commonly to be known as tyranny and

absolute terms - or at least in terms so near to absolute that it makes no difference . I In

is now often termed political oppression'

general we are perfectly justified in acting

[p . 23], and his discussion is premised on the rejection of two positions : one, that the

violently under certain circumstances, but

use of violence is never justified ; and the

we should not engage in the wholesale slaughter, torture and terror that is often

other, that with regard to revolutionary

done in the name of counter-revolution . In

violence, no question of justification arises .

other words, we should make our own

For Geras, '[i)f war is sometimes justified,

violence rather than repeat theirs .

then so too is revolution, the reasons given

Inevitably, it is in reference to what might be conveniently labelled 'street

on their behalf being of a kind : self-defence, autonomy, rights and freedoms, the throw-

fighting' that the discussion of ethics is put

ing off of an oppressor, and so forth' [p . 37) .

to its hardest test . How, for instance, are we

But more remarkably, just War Theory

to regard the common practice of placing

provides

of 'the

burning tyres round the necks of those

methods of legitimate warfare, whether or not in a just cause ; rules applicable to both

accused of collaboration with the South

parties ; the obligation to fight even against aggression within certain moral limits'

accused are innocent? And how, in our own

[p . 37) . In comparison to the Socialist

strators

literature, this body of doctrine is, for

sporadic and arbitrary attacks from riot

Geras, extremely rich .

police? In the first case, a particularly

minute

consideration

African government when sometimes those country, do we justify anti poll tax demondefending

themselves

against

Book reviews

extreme one, justification seems difficult ; and in the second, we can easily think of

Geras argues that the authors are ex-Marxist

reasons why direct assaults in return are

Marxist

perfectly justified . Although he does not

'Ex-Marxism Without Substance' - is a

mention the poll tax,

revisionists and not, as they claim, postrevolutionaries;

the

second

-

Geras carefully

detailed response to Laclau and Mouffe's

demarcates between justifiable and unjusti-

response to Geras' original critique in which

fiable cases of revolutionary violence, but he

Geras argues that the response is not a

steadfastly refuses to condemn the latter . As

response at all but a simple reiteration of the

a good Marxist, he implicitly accepts some

position that he has subjected to critique

version of the 'they started it' argument, and

and that fails to address the substantive

always looks for reasons why particular acts

points that Geras has already made . It is

of violence make sense or are understandable

extremely difficult to review these two

in a given context . In general, it is up to

essays . This is largely because Laclau and

revolutionary movements to establish the

Mouffe's contributions to the argument are

discipline of a 'defensible code of ethical

absent from Geras' book, and, without

principles and constraints' [p . 45} . For

refering to their book and to the issue of

Geras, the normative basis for the extension

New Left Review in which their response to

of just War Theory into revolutionary

Geras' critique of it was first published, the

struggles is the 'principle that individuals

reader is in no position to judge whether or

have rights - against being killed or violated

not Geras' polemics against them are in any

- rights that may not, in general, be set

sense justified . Moreover, Geras himself

aside ; unless they forfeit them by making

spends quite a lot of time towards the end

war themselves in defense of tyranny or

of

grave injustice' [p . 46] . A reasonable basis

argument and taking stock . To this extent,

surely for revolution, and as good a context

the book reviews itself . In the face of this

the second essay reflecting on the

as any for asking how we should conduct

intensive layering of commentary critique

ourselves .

and self-analysis, and with the feeling that

The first part of Geras' book is a comprehensive map of the ethical territory and it is clearly preferable to the rush to condemn that usually accompanies the violence of

the subtext here is vast, this reviewer can only tell a fable . Once upon a time all the Marxists lived

revolutionary movements . Moreover, in the

happily together overseeing the forces of revolution . Then, during the 1960s, they

second essay, Geras ably indicates the

were attacked for no reason that was obvious

practical vagueness of rather a lot of the ethics of the Socialist/Marxist tradition . The

to them by a motley collection of thinkers - largely French - who said that they had

second (and largest) part of the book is less

good reason to believe that the Marxists

persuasive . It is entitled 'The Ways of

were of no use at all in their revolutionary

"Discourse" ' and is again composed of two essays . These are however not pieces in their

struggles . For a while, the Marxists thought

own right as are the two in the first part of

more deeply upon their place in the world

the book . Rather they are Geras' side of an

and eventually listened more carefully to the

argument he has had with Laclau and

fashionable ideas of the new philosophers .

Mouffe .

After a few decades, it became clear that the

nothing of it but they soon began to reflect

The first essay - 'Post-Marxism?' - is an

motley collection was now of Marxists and

intense critique of Laclau and Mouffe's

that the new philosophers of the sixties -

Hegemony and Socialist Strategy

along with their successful progeny - were

in which

145

Capita! & Class

146 to be found collecting under a single banner . The clothes of this post-modern intellectual emperor were textual, but they were still transparent to the roving band of Marxists who believed - in one form or another - in the primacy of working class struggle . To the Marxists, this loss of power is frustrating since, apart from its tendency to call itself post-something, their enemy is very difficult to identify . They are reasonably sure that they are right to be Marxists, and they are on the whole convinced that the enemy is just another version of idealism covering up the continuing violence of capitalist production . For its part, the enemy is quite happy to look at the Marxists with a benign (albeit worrying) smile, and to treat Marxism as it treats everything else - as a discourse in need of deconstruction . Returning to reality, there is an extremely complex discourse of debates between Marxism and post-modernism . And within each of these there are many equally complex critical arguments which are directed both outwards and inwards . Inevitably, this intellectual orgy produces all manner of ideas and arguments some of which are valuable and some of which are not . Moreover, some elements of the postmodern movement are useful to Marxists and some are not . 2 Whatever else is the case, the two intellectual traditions are as diverse within themselves as they are different from each other, and, as with all intellectual traditions, there are points of contact between them as much as there are radical differences . And returning to Geras, the final two essays in his book go on a very long journey through some of these . They do not, however, do so in any generalisable way : although Geras makes many general points, these are embedded in a point by point polemic with an absent enemy . To be fair to Geras, he does extensively quote Laclau and Mouffe (as well as Laclau and Mouffe

quoting Geras and vice versa), and if all this quotation is accurate, then his argument is a very readable and entertaining polemic against two rather naive and stupid followers of Derrida or maybe Foucault, but it is hard to tell . On the other hand, if Geras' target is not just Laclau and Mouffe, but something approaching post-modernism more generally - as might be expected from his stated intention for the book as a whole - then the arguments fail . To this extent, Geras is setting up a staw man with which to demonstrate the superiority of his own argument. Moreover, there is plenty in the book as a whole for fastidious deconstructionists (and much more sophisticated ones than Laclau and Mouffe) to get their teeth into . For instance, one of Geras' complaints against Laclau and Mouffe is that their argument that 'Marxism' cuts the ground from beneath its own feet, itself cuts the ground from beneath its own feet . The trouble for Geras is that his own argument could well cut the ground from beneath its own feet . Unfortunately, the protracted battle between the two parties becomes trapped by the peculiar reflexivity of postmodern thought . The possibilities for further discussion here are quite literally infinite . But it is sufficient to note that not all of post-modern theory is valueless (although some of it is undoubtedly deplorable rubbish), and also that Geras himself emerges relatively unscathed and manages to stop the endless play of textuality within the covers of his book . But then again, it is his book! Returning to the question of whether Geras' book succeeds in persuading Socialists to think about ethics more rigorously, and in demonstrating the extravagance of 'postMarxism' : In general, the answer to both of these questions is 'yes' . But in general these positive answers amount to little more than a reminder that most Marxists have been well aware that, when theory turns to the

Book reviews 'what is to be done?' question, it moves into the issues posed by classical ethics, and also that any Marxist worth her salt has long ago learned the difference between the dubious seductions of intellectual fashion and genuine theoretical insight . To this extent, Geras is preaching to the converted . However, Geras undoubtedly argues the ethical case with great care and precision, and with due respect for the enormous diversity of the Marxist tradition . And there is no doubt that he also demonstrates the extravagance of an old and false critical strategy against Marxism - 'to represent it as essentially crude, oversimplified, reductionist and so forth, by just writing out of Marxism everything within the tradition that is otherwise ; so that what is there is either impoverished or is not really Marxism' [p .xiil . But in spite of this, Geras' overall strategy does not do his general project much service : on the one hand, his polemical target is so specific and the details of the argument so arcane that he does not demonstrate that the intellectual tradition of post-modernism fails to offer practical advice to revolutionaries ; and on the other, he is finally not talking about Marxism and the alternatives to it, but about his carefully argued kind of Marxism and his objections to the post-Marxist extravagance of Laclau and Mouffe .

Notes 1 . Geras' argument here is in keeping with his previous book, Marx and Human Nature (Verso, 1983) . 2 . There is at least one excellent review of the major issues : Michael Ryan's Marxism and Deconstruction (John Hopkins University Press, 1984) .

147

Erik Olin Wright et al . The Debate on Classes Verso, London-New York, 1989 ISBN 0 86091 966 8, pbk, £10 .95 ISBN 0 86091 251 5, hbk, £32 .95, pp . 356 Reviewed by Filio Diamanti In this collection of essays a whole variety of theoretical strands - within the broader neo-Marxist framework - come together with the aim of answering the long and troublesome question of what social class is and its impact on the wider terrain of politics and Left strategies for socialist advance . The role of the 'historic subject of change', the influence of the intermediate layers or what Marx called the 'ideological classes' and the significance of cultural and gender identities are discussed in the course of a theoretical (re)evaluation . The Debate on Classes is a discussion of Wright's use of Analytical Marxism and his theory of 'contradictory class locations' as it was formulated in his previous work especially Classes . (Verso, 1985) What is missing from The Debate on Classes is the very idea of class as a relation of struggle . The predominant issue is the role of the middle classes, on which conflict is focussed, in that other issues are seen as peripheral and as surrounding this . Class

Capital & Class

148 by some of the commentators - Wright inclusive - is treated as an ahistorical entity, without any reference to the role of the state as not only shaping but also shaped by class conflict . For example the notion of the middle class is discussed as a specifically capitalist phenomenon which is strange because if one takes a look at pre-capitalist formations then one can see more that two classes in the class structure . An example is the situation of the Athenian City State or Polis, where side by side with the two main antagonistic classes, namely the free citizens and the slaves, there was a whole middle stratum - I leave the question of women aside not because it is unimportant but because of its importance which might change the whole picture - the so-called Metoikoi (they were predominantly foreigner merchants) with no political rights . So here you are with a nice middle class . Why then such a fuss over the 'ideological classes' or 'intermediate layers' in the capitalist mode of production? Why are they so significant now? The latter can be explained in connection with the questions of alliances and of the diminishing role of the working class so common to the Eurocommunist discourse . If classes are seen as unified subjects already formed in a given class structure then the whole idea of alliances becomes meaningless . Wright's concentration on class formation rather than class structure is challenged by some of the contributors and it is not difficult to see why . If classes are not defined objectively according to their relation to the means of production and their position in the division of labour then the idea of class formation takes predominance over the concept of class structure . The middle classes in the class formation and the importance of 'contradictory class locations' based on income and skill credentials become the most important elements in the formation of hegemonic blocs between classes and fractions ranging

from the working class to sections of the bourgeoisie itself. If the question of capitalist exploitation becomes a question of hegemony over capitalist relations of power distribution among classes then capitalism becomes an 'open system' with infinite possibilities which in turn suggests that there is no reason to abolish it . The other issue is the concept of exploitation . For Wright exploitation is ' . . . an economically oppressive appropriation of the fruits of the labor of one class by another .' (Wright, 1985, p . 77), that is an economic not a social relation . Exploitation together with the concept of the ownership of the means of production are seen as relations of appropriation, thus as relations of distribution instead of relations of production . Wright suggests that exploitation means appropriation of the fruits of someone else's labour, or its equivalent, consuming more than one produces Carchedi's criticism of this notion is that exploitation should not be seen as an economic relation having to do with skills and their appropriation but as a relation of production having to do with who produces for whom and who appropriates what, that is as having to do with the appropriation of surplus product which under capitalism is the struggle over the distribution of surplus value (Wright et al, 1989, p . 109). For Wright there are two kinds of assets in the capitalist formation which define the position of the middle classes and have to do on the one hand with the ownership of skill assets (prototypically belonging to experts) based on credentials and on the other with per capita share assets or organization assets (prototypically belonging to managers and supervisors) . The working class, - or what Wright calls the 'uncredentialed and non-managerial employees' then, consists of those wage-earners who are exploited both by the owners of skill (the new middle classes) and the owners of

Book reviews

capitalists) .

corresponding relations arising from the

Exploitation then has to do with a causal relationship between wealth and poverty not

production process . As Marx put it 'The

between economic positions . Skill's ownership and their exploitation has little to do

surplus-labour is pumped out of direct

with collectivities such as classes ; it predominantly focusses on individuals in

rulers and ruled, as it grows directly out of

organizational

assets

(the

specific economic form, in which unpaid producers, determines the relationship of

their capacity to generate income . Class in

production itself and, in turn, reacts upon it as a determining element . Upon this,

its turn becomes an occupational group and

however, if founded the entire formation of

Wright's neo-Marxist theory is only a step

the economic community which grows up

away

stratification

out of the production relations themselves,

theory . If this classification is stressed to its

thereby simultaneously its specific political

limits

form .' (Marx, 1984, pp . 791-2)

from it

the

bourgeois

supplies

some very peculiar

outcomes, for example, the unemployed are

In the capitalist mode of production the

not exploited since they do not take part in

extraction of surplus value takes place as an

the production process ; women too . Both

economic process, separated from other

groups would be better off if they left the

social relationships, whereas in earlier forms

capitalist society and set up one of their own

of societal organisation, based upon the

in terms of 'game theory' analysis .

labour of slaves or serfs, it required some

Exploitation serves another purpose too .

kind of extra-economic coercion . But this

For Wright an exploitation-centred analysis

also means that exploitation is less apparent ;

of classes would make possible the overcom-

for, while the slave or serf experience directly

ing of the methodological difficulty of the

the fact that a part of the product of his

concept of 'manipulative oppression', that

labour is appropriated by a dominant group,

is, that classes can be defined as relations of

the wage-worker is engaged in a process of

oppression and/or domination primarily

production in which he/she apparently

from

between

exchanges labour for other commodities (via

individuals . According to the exploitation-

the relations

generated

the wage) and the mechanism by which a

centred analysis women's oppression under

surplus product is generated and appropriated is misty . Hence the need, according to

capitalism does not make them a distinct (Wright et al, 1989, p . 133ff) in order to

Marx, for a scientific analysis of the capitalist economy in order to reveal,

criticize the voluntarist and atomised post-

beneath the surface appearance, its funda-

Marxist understanding of class in Laclau and

mental structure and mode of operation, and

Mouffe's book Hegemony and Socialist Strategy

the crucial importance in such an analysis of

(Verso, 1985) where everything is reduced

the distinction between 'labour' and 'labour

to discourse and subjectivity . But although Wright's intention is to overcome the

power' . Exploitation is the cement of the capital-

oppression-centred approach to classes at the

labour relation . Without the extraction of

end he only offers a modified version of it

surplus value for the sake of capital accumu-

by bringing in economic relations alongside

lation unpaid labour takes a different

personal exploitation .

meaning according to how it is used .

class . This idea is taken up by Uwe Becker

The concept of exploitation is one of the

Surplus labour is not a characteristic of

most important concepts in Marxist theory having to do with the way surplus labour

capitalism alone . An amount of surplus in

is appropriated in capitalism and the

required for the reproduction of society, the

the form of surplus product is always

149

Capital & Class

150 problem is how and for whose sake it is extracted . Regardless of rising living standards and higher wages the basis of the system remains the same . The formation of class in capitalist society as based on the capital-labour antagonism is constantly reproduced because of the unsuccessful challenge to the basis of this relation by the exploited and this is the main issue that should be addressed by the Left . As Marx put it : 'We have seen that the capitalist process of production is a historically determined form of the social process of production in general . The latter is as much a production process of material conditions of human life as a process taking place under specific historical and economical production relations, producing and reproducing these production relations themselves and thereby also the bearers of the process, their material conditions of existence and their mutual relations, i .e ., their particular socioeconomic form . . . The surplus labour appears as surplus-value and this surplus-value exists as a surplus product .' (Marx, 1984, pp . 818-19) Wright is defining classes as based on property relations but this is problematic . If exploitation is the supreme manifestation of the organisation of the capitalist mode of production then the concepts of the division of labour and property relations take on a specific meaning unique to capitalism . Classes are the outcome of the division of labour and the rise of different material interests associated with the collective form of material existence of individual producers . Property relations are the result of alienated forms of labour and not the constituting essence of them . If this proposition is correct then what is primary in the constitution of classes fur rich are not property relations but the division of labour between producers which enable some of them under certain historical circumstances to control the means of existence for their

own sake and appropriate the surplus (religious sects, absolute monarch, victorious warriors etc) . Hence, subjectively classes are not only constituted according to their members' relation to the means of production but also according to their position in the division of, labour . This position carries with it not only the integration of their objective class situation but also their subjective subordination/desubordination to the whole spectrum of material and ideological relations . Class is the subjective and objective form of the dialectical constitution of real material interests arising from the organisation of society into antagonistic class forces . Class constitutes its members, and is constituted in the class struggle . Class struggle is not a vague term used whenever we are out of concrete concepts of analysis . Class struggle is the fight over the rate of exploitation which is manifested in struggles over wages, over working conditions, over the false separation of the personal from the political over myriads of issues challenging the dominant mode of production . If the above propositions are correct then classes are not groups of individuals who occupy a certain place in the work hierarchy according to their wage but class individuals who are constituted as such according to their material interests in relation to capital . That is the working class is not only the manual workforce par excellence. What Marx meant by the proletariat was the class of society which has as its only private property its labour power to sell in order to keep going as a class in the most material sense . The working class is the class of the people who are exploited in the form of the extraction of surplus value which is used for the subsistence and reproduction of the capitalist class and more specifically for the reproduction of the relations of production as capitalist relations of production . Even if

Book reviews we accept that capitalism has changed quantitatively it has not changed qualitatively, that is the realisation of higher living standards and material wealth for the working class does not change its position in the production process and in the whole sphere of the reproduction of its material and mental existence, thus in the reproduction of the antagonistic relations of production . In which case there is no need to give the primacy to a theoretically privileged 'new middle class' or to myriads of discoursive subjects . The Debate on Classes carries a value per se . It is predominantly the discourse of neo-Marxism trapped between 'neo' and 'Marxism' and it is worth studying in order on the one hand to see how Marxist categories of analysis can be negated even while using a Marxist language and on the other hand the shortcomings of analytical Marxism and of 'game theory' . The major lesson to be learned from The Debate on Classes is that capitalism is not a game but a very serious business especially for those who live under it in a by no means playful way .

Notes Laclau, Ernesto & Mouffe, Chantal (1985) Hegemony and Socialist Strategy, Towards a Radical Democratic Politics, London-New York : Verso Marx, Karl (1983) Capital, A Critique of Political Economy, Vol . I, London : Lawrence & Wishart Marx, Karl (1984) Capital, A Critique of Political Economy, Vol . III, London: Lawrence & Wishart Wright, Erik, Olin (1985) Classes, London : Verso Wright, Erik, Olin et al . (1989) The Debate on Classes, London-New York : Verso .

151

Henry Patterson The Politics of Illusion : Republicanism and Socialism in Modern Ireland Hutchinson Radius (London, 1989) pp . 247, £7 .95 pb . Reviewed by Peter Gibbon 'Republican Socialism' is a tendency within Irish Republicanism which has proved one of its most enduring features . While never a particularly successful force in Irish politics it has always proved a major asset for Republicanism's external image, particularly with the British left . However, while there is an extensive literature on Republican Socialism's intellectual origins (Mellowes, O'Donnell, etc) and while Republicanism generally has been the subject of a series of treatments by historians from Macardle onwards, there has been no serious study of Republican Socialism - let alone a Marxist one - prior to this subtle and highly intelligent new work by Henry Patterson . Irish Republicanism as a modern political movement first became a major political force in 1916-21, when it seized the initiative in the independence struggle from constitutional nationalism . Its political line has been defined by a commitment to 'full' national sovereignty, constitutional and territorial, and by the use of physical force

Capital & Class 152

to

establish

it .

Organisationally

the

tradition has been embodied in the Sinn

in order to give a flavour of Patterson's argument .

Fein party and its armed wing, the IRA . Its social base was originally southern and

party in 1926 provoked a serious crisis for

rural, with support mainly from middle and

Sinn Fein . Fianna Fail aimed at an identical

small peasants, but also from a significant section of large peasants . After 1921 its

social base to Sinn Fein and articulated an

large peasant support was transferred to

decision to participate in the Free State

more explicitly right-wing Irish parties . Since 1970 its base has been located almost

parliament and to downplay physical force .

wholly in the urban north, where it is the

led by Peader O'Donnell endeavoured to

dominant force amongst the unemployed

outflank Fianna Fail by combining militant

Catholic working-class of the ghettos of

positions on the national question with

Belfast and Derry .

campaigns on social and economic issues

The launch of De Valera's Fianna Fail

identical political platform, excepting its

For the next decade, the wing of Sinn Fein

Patterson identifies Republican Socialism

with 'anti-imperialist' dimensions - notably

not with any distinct class or class fraction

the annuities paid by peasants to the British

in the Republican movement, but with a political strategy which from time to time

state in lieu of rents to formerly British landed property . These efforts culminated in

has been adopted by sections of the move-

O'Donnell and his supporters leaving Sinn

ment to address crises of stagnation in its characteristic has been the 'broadening' of

Fein to set up the short-lived Republican Congress . This first phase of Republican Socialism failed to attract mass support to

the question of national sovereignty to

either Sinn

development .

Its

ideologically-defining

include economic as well as constitutional

Fein or its more radical offshoots, since it overestimated the extent

and territorial 'freedom', where economic

to which Fianna Fail's abandonment of

freedom denotes local and 'socially just'

abstentionism and physical force would pre-

control of the means of production . The

clude it from developing the more popular

content of this 'social justice' has normally

Republican theme of political sovereignty

been Proudhonist or simply vague . Republi-

even in office . Moreover, Fianna Fail proved

can Socialism has always coexisted with

capable of absorbing the annuities campaign

other ideological tendencies in Sinn Fein,

too . The explicitly socialist element of

notably narrow nationalism, militarism and

Republican

clericalism .

undeveloped as O'Donnell made little effort

Patterson distinguishes

three

major

phases of Republican Socialism since the end of the Irish Civil War in 1923 . The first of these

lasted

from

1926-35

and

Socialism remained

largely

to win over the urban working-class or campaign within their organisations . After the failure of Republican Social-

was

ism's first expression, Sinn Fein's emphasis

expressed organisationally in Saor Eire and

changed to the territorial aspect of the

the Republican Congress . The second emerged in 1963-70 and was

national question, 'freeing the Six Counties

expressed by the movement's leadership prior to the Provisional split of January

proved an abject failure in its own terms,

1970 . The third was expressed by the Adams-Morrison leadership of the Pro-

Ireland in 1956-62 mobilised little more than a diffuse sentimental level of support

visionals themselves in the period 1977-86 .

either side of the border . In a situation of

A few words will be said about each period

general demoralisation the Sin Fein/IRA

from British control' . This strategy also particularly when insurgency in Northern

Book reviews

leadership of Goulding, Cronin and Roche resurrected Republican Socialism . The content of this second version of the trend was largely supplied by two intellectuals from the Communist Party of Ireland, Anthony Coughlan and Roy Johnston, whom Goulding invited to join Sinn Fein . It identified the then ruling Fianna Fail party with a compradorial betrayal of the Irish revolution and called for a 'broad antiImperialist alliance' against 'Green and Orange Tories' both sides of the border . In keeping with their cet provenance these positions were accompanied by others emphasising secularism, gradualism and demilitarisation . The political corollary was Sinn Fein's involvement in popular struggles around housing in Dublin and its crucial stimulative role in the Civil Rights movement in the north (1967-9) . Republican Socialism Mark II was as unsuccessful as its predecessor . While the campaigns Sinn Fein stimulated mobilised mass support individually, no 'broad antiimperialist movement' materialised . Since the 1950s social radicalism had become dissociated from nationalism in the south . The working-class who supported the housing campaigns were in employment terms beneficiaries of Fianna Fail's compradorialism, which by attracting non-British TNCS to Ireland had stemmed the tide of emigration and allowed a general rise in living standards . Meanwhile in the north, popular support for Civil Rights preserved rather than dissolved communalistic forms of politics, and actually intensified them as the brittle local state which partly institutionalised them began to disintegrate . Unlike in 1935, Republican Socialists kept nominal control of Sin Fein after 1970 . On the other hand, by 1972 a large majority of Irish republicans were to be found in the breakaway Provisional organisation . This advanced the position that the communalism unleashed in the north in 1969-70

should be harnessed into supporting a mili- 153 tary campaign to force British withdrawal from what was (probably correctly) seen as a basically unreformable state . In the process, demilitarisation, gradualism and secularism were all abandoned . The Provisionals campaigned in the south only on the issue of territorial completion . By 1977 a new Provisional leadership emerged around Gerry Adams and Danny Morrison, who argued that while communalism had re-established a significant popular base for Republicanism in the north, this would remain confined to the ghettos unless it addressed broader social questions both sides of the border . A condition of this was a limited degree of movement away from the now predominantly military profile - which had in turn given rise to a basically anti-Provo 'peace movement' . The Provisionals now hesitantly moved toward mobilising popular social grievances by setting up advice centres, differentiating themselves on social and economic questions from the SDLP, campaigning for political prisoner status for IRA men and women in the Maze and Armagh jails, as well as seeking to establish a 'broad national movement' in the south . Spectacularly successful as popular opinion was mobilised by hunger strikes in the Maze, this strategy was to some extent the victim of its own short-term effectiveness . Mass support for the political status campaign concealed the extent to which this was based on the deeply resonant but unsustainable tactic of martyrdom . Once the deaths ceased popular support in the south evaporated . Simultaneously, the success of the Provisionals in consolidating a political base of about 12 percent of the northern electorate persuaded the British government to concede the Anglo-Irish agreement of 1986 . By giving the southern government, and by implication the SDLP, a consultative role in northern administra-

Capital & Class 154 tion this threatened to seriously marginalise the Provisionals . Adams and Morrison adjusted to this situation after 1987 by an opening to the SDLP . This has entailed a dilution of Republican Socialism and a `refining' of the military campaign . Of course this has had little or no impact in the south, where neither the Provisional's social radicalism of 1977-86 nor their revived asocial nationalism of 1987-90 has made much impression on an already crowded political stage . The conclusion which Patterson draws from these insightful and stimulating analyses are as follows . In the south there probably was a base for Republican Socialism until the 1950s, but this was increasingly squeezed by Fianna Fail's unanticipated capacity to broaden Irish political sovereignty while pursuing a certain degree of social radicalism . After Fianna Fail's dramatic shift of emphasis from a Republican to an essentially Welfarist form of hegemony based on an internationalised economy in the late 1950s, the class forces which would support socialist objectives became largely indifferent to nationalist ones . In the north a social basis for Republican Socialism has been maintained by the continued combination of political oppression and economic exclusion of the Catholic working-class . The uniqueness of this situation is a source of difficulty as well as strength however, as it allows the Provisionals to be marginalised and by-passed by the major players in Northern Ireland politics . Besides its analysis of Republican Socialism Patterson's book contains much else . Of greatest originality and interest is what amounts to an oral pre-history of the Workers' Party . Just as Fianna Fail slowly disengaged from republicanism to become a wholly bourgeois political formation by the late 1950s, so between 1970 and 1982 the Workers' Party disengaged from the

wreckage of Republican Socialism Mark II . Patterson does not join in the debate about the exact characterisation of what it has become since 1982 but instead leads the reader through the byzantine, painful and for some fatal events involved . In the process he makes clear that the main conditions for the Workers' Party's emergence as a serious force in southern politics included the emergence of a new group of southern Marxist intellectuals around Eoghan Harris influenced by the revisionist historiography ofJohn Murphy, L . M . Cullen and others, the violent deaths of some of the less flexible northern leaders of Official Sinn Fein and the defection of the 1962-7 generation of coi 'import', the Irish Labour Party's suicidal strategy of coalitions and electoral pacts with the Thatcherite Fine Gael party, and above all the need for a sharp differentiation from Republican Socialism as it became articulated by the Provisionals . Patterson takes this process as far as 1977 when its main elements were broadly settled . Settled too is the virtual impossibility of the Provisionals following this path . The Politics of Illusion is a great book which in effect completes the process of differentiating Marxist and nationalist analyses of Irish history in which Patterson and his collaborators (chiefly Paul Bew) have played such a major role . This process has run alongside the political differentiation of the Workers' Party from Republican Socialism and been closely associated with it . Over the last decade, as this separation has become ever more definite, the work of this school has moved nearer to contemporary and (for the wp) more sensitive issues . This book represents a settling of accounts with all that is most positive in the republican tradition . Which socialist tradition the wp will be part of in the future remains to be determined, as does the role of intellectuals in this process .

155

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