Coal elds Regeneration: Dealing with the Conis as yet ambiguous and unclear. The Regional Econom... more Coal elds Regeneration: Dealing with the Conis as yet ambiguous and unclear. The Regional Economic Strategies and implementation plans of the RDAs appear sequences of Industrial Decline, K. BENNETT , H. BEYNON and R. HUDSON , Joseph Rowntree very diVerent in their degree of regional speci city and rather more uniform in their re ection of central Department Foundation Area Regeneration Series, Policy Press, Bristol (2000). vi + 51 pp., £13.95 (pbk). ISBN of Environment Transport and the Regions’ guidance. Similarly, beneath the super cial appearance of collaborative and 1 86134 224 1. inclusive partnerships for community development often lies the reality of tightly centralized funding mechanisms. Regional Agencies and Area-based Regeneration, B. ROBSON , J. PECK and A. HOLDEN , Joseph Rowntree Responsibility is devolved but not the power that ows from having the appropriate resources to undertake the job at hand. Foundation Area Regeneration Series, Policy Press, Bristol (2000). viii + 63 pp., £13.95 (pbk). ISBN Third, inter-territorial and institutional competition appears ingrained in the new politics of area regeneration. 1 86134 257 8. Disadvantaged regions and localities are locked into a battle for exogenous forms of growth through attracting investment The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has a long tradition of producing academically-grounded and policy-relevant and jobs. Local partnerships have to bid against other partnerships for funds as part of centrally orchestrated competitions. research. These studies are no exception. Each report addresses critical issues in area regeneration at a time of The RDAs established in all – not just the relatively disadvantaged – English regions are all seeking to grow their econoradical change and experimentation in the politics and organization of territorial development and governance under mies faster than the national average. This is an arithmetical impossibility. Arming each English region with the same ‘New Labour’. Coal elds Regeneration . . . argues that persistent regeneration problems would be tackled better by initiainstitutional architecture will do little to narrow interor intra-regional disparities within the UK or to temper such tives that focus on the needs of communities rather than national policy directives. Regional Agencies . . . is concerned competition for investment and jobs. Perhaps the time has come to think more imaginatively about the utilization of with the new forms of governance and interrelations with local regeneration initiatives associated with the early activiendogenous growth models – in combination with the more conventional exogenous forms – for area regeneration. ties of the Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) in the English regions. Both reports oVer detailed analysis and an Fourth, each study emphasizes the tensions in marrying the three parts of the government’s regeneration agenda array of insights. Several important themes are recurrent and run through between economic, social and environmental concerns. Signi cantly, each study reveals the diYculty in operationalizing both reports. First, there is a tension between universalism and particularism in policy development and implementation. this agenda and the ways in which mainstream economic questions tend to be privileged and prioritized in practice. On the one hand, central government appears to seek common and uniform solutions to territorial development Last, the reports point to the attempts to move away from regeneration approaches solely based upon ‘bricks and morproblems that can be designed and largely controlled centrally, then rolled-out to localities and regions as a kind of tar’ and the creation of ‘hard’ infrastructures toward strategies to address the people and social issues, including ‘capacity ‘Whitehall template’. On the other hand, government is also devolving responsibility for the success (or otherwise) of local building’ as well as both basic life skills and conventional education and training. These often require a more nuanced initiatives by requiring local and regional bodies to shape and adapt central government initiatives to the particular needs and sophisticated approach to the theory and practice of regeneration. of their speci c places. This fundamental tension between supply-led policy driven out from the centre and the demandEach study is written in an engaging and accessible style. Coal elds Regeneration . . . presents a holistic approach to led needs of local and regional interests often remains unresolved and presents problems on the ground. understanding economic, social and political change. Theory, method and policy are closely intertwined. This approach is Second, and overlapping the rst theme, is the tension between centralization and local control. To what extent further ‘humanized’ by an emphasis upon seeing this change as lived and experienced by real people in their places – are the local and regional partnerships…
Contemporânea - revista de sociologia da UFSCar, 2019
Resumo: O escrito traz um panorama geral sobre as novas formas de trabalho, transformadas especia... more Resumo: O escrito traz um panorama geral sobre as novas formas de trabalho, transformadas especialmente pela tecnologia, sobretudo pela produção de máquinas cada vez mais sofisticadas e pela extensão dos princípios que regem esta era ao escritório e a uma ampla gama de indústrias de serviços, aceleradas pelas TIC e pela revolução digital. Para isso, é desenhado um percurso no qual se parte dos estudos iniciais da sociologia do trabalho, passando pelo neofordismo e pós-fordismo, pelo trabalho estatal até os dias de hoje. Assim, discute-se sobre como tais tendências globais, se pensadas em escala mundial, serão o novo foco da sociologia do trabalho, visto que os gestores se esforçam para imaginar e criar um mundo no qual se diminuam ineficiências na produção, enfatizando as maneiras pelas quais as novas tecnologias facilitam as estratégias off-shoring a fim de manter as margens de lucro com base em trabalhos flexíveis de baixa qualificação. Palavras-chave: Sociologia do trabalho; realidade do trabalho; transformações trabalhistas; revolução digital.
I n Brazil it is still appropriate to talk in terms of a workers' movement. Alone in the states o... more I n Brazil it is still appropriate to talk in terms of a workers' movement. Alone in the states of Southern America, the trade unions in Brazil still have a capacity to organize workers and to exert a powerful influence upon workplace activities. The main trade union federation is linked to a new political party-the Workers' Party (PT-Partido dos Trabalhadores)-that retains a commitment to a socialist programme. And, more generally, the fact that land reform has emerged as a major political issue (as a consequence of an innovative and radical social movement of the landless) indicates that class struggle-in the fullest sense of the term-is very much alive in Brazil. Brazil is a country of many economic and social contrasts which makes it difficult to talk of a working class with a uniform profile. In a real sense the situation in Brazil can best be understood as a process of combined and uneven development within which the working class is in the process of 'making' and being made. Given the characteristics of the Brazilian social formation, any consideration of class and politics needs to focus on class formation, a process with a spatial and temporal dynamic which is very different from the advanced capitalist countries. THE BRAZILIAN SOCIAL FORMATION Brazil's GDP (US$ 777.1 billion in 1998) ranks it among the richest countries in the world, and its economic and political elites benefit enormously from this. Corporate executives in Brazil are amongst the most highly paid in the world. But it is also one of the most unequal societies, with an income distribution ratio that is rarely matched for its extremity. The size and geographical
P ost-war British society has witnessed a very significant inward migration of people from the 'N... more P ost-war British society has witnessed a very significant inward migration of people from the 'New Commonwealth', and the complex diaspora this immigration has created in many British cities is widely recognized as having fundamentally altered British society. Some observers have emphasized the positive aspects of the change, suggesting that the new kinds of identity and forms of living which it has produced have resulted in a transition towards an ethnically plural society. Others, while welcoming the changes, have drawn attention to the inequalities experienced by ethnic minorities and the persistence of racism in daily life, and in the major institutions of British society. The role of the state, and the ways in which 'the race card' has been played in British politics, have from the outset been the subject of extensive and often heated debate. A key focus of this debate has been crime and policing. In 1979 the Institute of Race Relations raised policing as a central issue for ethnic minorities in Britain. It concluded that there was powerful evidence to suggest that arrest and police powers were being used to keep the black community in its place both physically and psychologically. 1 In 1983 the Policy Studies Institute extended this finding by examining the operation of the 'sus' law. This law (originally instituted to control the working class in the early nineteenth century) made it a criminal offence to be 'a suspicious person loitering with intent to commit a crime'. The PSI established that a disproportionate ratio (8:1) of young black men were being stopped, compared with young white men of the same 'crimeogenic' age. 2 A central theme of the racialization of crime, and the criminalization of Afro-Caribbean youth in the 1970s and 1980s, was the construction of 'mugging' as a threat to British society, and as a crime committed by young black men. The media, the police, the courts and politicians succeeded in importing a racialized
i rj_676 200..221 This article deals with issues relating to trade union density and the fact tha... more i rj_676 200..221 This article deals with issues relating to trade union density and the fact that while over the past 30 years, union densities have followed a declining path in all regions, this retreat was not uniform across space. Analysis of the Labour Force Survey reveals that Wales exhibits among the highest levels of union density in the UK. The reasons for this are examined through statistical analysis, historical analysis and interview data. These analyses reveal that there appear to be intrinsic differences in the nature of workplace representation in Wales; one linked to a particular style of trade unionism supported by the authority of a devolved state that continue to contribute to higher levels of membership.
This data set contains 7 Working Papers from the Coalfields Research Programme, conducted in the ... more This data set contains 7 Working Papers from the Coalfields Research Programme, conducted in the 1990s at the universities of Cardiff and Durham.
Margaret Thatcher's death in 2013 was followed by extensive tributes to her achievements, often d... more Margaret Thatcher's death in 2013 was followed by extensive tributes to her achievements, often describing her role in 'saving Britain'. Other more sceptical voices pointed to the destructive aspects of her politics. This article explores these issues through an examination of the major confrontation with the coal miners and their trade union the NUM. Through published sources and interviews with key actors it argues that the dispute epitomised Mrs Thatcher's concern to weaken trade unionism and defeat socialism. This (rather than issues of employment or energy policy) is seen as her strategic objective and her success can be measured in the changed nature of the Labour Party. In this the exercise of state power was decisive. However, the article questions the extent to which 'Thatcherism' and the associated individualism has prevailed as an hegemonic force. It provides examples of a continuing patterns of collective behaviour and beliefs and raises the possibility of an emerging and different form of labour movement.
... Up to that time, Hayden — and Ford executives generally — had associated Japanese expan-sioni... more ... Up to that time, Hayden — and Ford executives generally — had associated Japanese expan-sionism with automation on the one hand ... This situation brought forth an interesting evaluation by William Abernathy, Kim Clark and Alan Kantrow in their book Industrial Renaissance ...
This article explores the erosion of the standard working-time model associated with the UK's... more This article explores the erosion of the standard working-time model associated with the UK's voluntarist system of industrial relations, and argues that its renegotiation is likely to be a critical factor in shaping the employment relationship of the future. As numerous studies over the last two decades have revealed, organizations have increasingly seen ‘time’ as a variable that can be manipulated to increase productivity or expand service provision, through making workers work harder, longer or according to management demands. These studies have also drawn our attention to the wider consequences of the increasing demands that organizations place on their employees in the name of ‘flexibility’, impacting both on what workers do while at work and how they organize and plan the other aspects of their lives. This article brings together two literatures, one on time and the other on industrial relations, and suggests that new working-time arrangements are changing the wage-effort ...
Os estudos sobre protesto e conflito no Reino Unido são dominados há décadas pelas pesquisas sobr... more Os estudos sobre protesto e conflito no Reino Unido são dominados há décadas pelas pesquisas sobre o local de trabalho e as atividades sindicais. Nos anos 80 e 90, o declínio dos antigos setores industriais combinou-se com a crescente insegurança econômica e com a legislação governamental, causando um enfraquecimento das organizações de trabalhadores. A greve dos mineiros em 1984-1985 é vista como a última das grandes lutas dos sindicatos. Surgiram, contudo, novas formas de manifestação pública, de cunho ambiental, identificadas como legítimas formas de protesto, que acabaram por influenciar políticas governamentais, em particular no que concerne à crescente exploração de minas de carvão a céu aberto. Nas duas últimas décadas viu-se, assim, a mobilização de uma "nova classe", que veio a formar a espinha dorsal dos novos movimentos sociais e que trouxe questões específicas como a paz e o meio ambiente para o primeiro plano da vida política.
ABSTRACT Abstract The Durham Miners Gala has taken place annually for over a hundred years. In it... more ABSTRACT Abstract The Durham Miners Gala has taken place annually for over a hundred years. In its heyday it was an immensely popular occasion. In the post-war period it became an established part of the British Labour calendar, being attended regularly by Prime Ministers, Cabinet Ministers and foreign ambassadors. The Gala can be understood as a ceremony which links twentieth century class politics with the more spontaneous and religious forms of political activity in the nineteenth century. This historical continuity is rooted in the culture of mining and mining villages, developed by the social isolation of miners and their particular legal status and adapted periodically by the formal structures of the mining union.
This paper draws on the biography of Sam Watson, a miners' leader in the North East of England, t... more This paper draws on the biography of Sam Watson, a miners' leader in the North East of England, to examine the ways in which power relations operated within the British labour movement in the forties and fifties. At that time the Marshall Plan and the concern by the US government to control the spread of communism in Europe provided a critical backdrop with the CIA's labor attaché programme providing links between the AFL and the CIO and the British TUC. Recent research has identified the significant role played in the development of these arrangements by Watson. The reliance of the Labour Party on the networks of national, regional and local trade unions has not been a central concern of students of this period. Certainly in accounts of the Marshall Plan, national figures like Ernest Bevin predominate. The "unveiling" here of Watson suggests the possibility of more fruitful investigations on a wider canvass. His relationship with the US mission in itself raises questions as to the social and political processes that made it possible for a middle ranking trade union official to occupy such a significant position of power and influence. The article draws on archival research and, most significantly, upon interviews conducted by the authors in the late seventies with key trade union officals and polticians. It explores the different ways that Watson dealt with communism and with members of the Communist Party, and the key role he played during critical struggles within the Labour Party. The detail of the "insider" accounts reveals the complex ways in which power was performed across and within different arenas-in North East England as regional secretary of the NUM; in London on the national executive committees of the Labour Party and NUM; and abroad as a member, then Chair, of the Labour Party's International Committee. "So let us look at history as history-men placed in actual contexts which they have not chosen, and confronted by indivertible forces, with an overwhelming immediacy of relations and duties and with only a scanty opportunity for inserting their own agency-and not as a text for hectoring might-have-beens." 2
Coal elds Regeneration: Dealing with the Conis as yet ambiguous and unclear. The Regional Econom... more Coal elds Regeneration: Dealing with the Conis as yet ambiguous and unclear. The Regional Economic Strategies and implementation plans of the RDAs appear sequences of Industrial Decline, K. BENNETT , H. BEYNON and R. HUDSON , Joseph Rowntree very diVerent in their degree of regional speci city and rather more uniform in their re ection of central Department Foundation Area Regeneration Series, Policy Press, Bristol (2000). vi + 51 pp., £13.95 (pbk). ISBN of Environment Transport and the Regions’ guidance. Similarly, beneath the super cial appearance of collaborative and 1 86134 224 1. inclusive partnerships for community development often lies the reality of tightly centralized funding mechanisms. Regional Agencies and Area-based Regeneration, B. ROBSON , J. PECK and A. HOLDEN , Joseph Rowntree Responsibility is devolved but not the power that ows from having the appropriate resources to undertake the job at hand. Foundation Area Regeneration Series, Policy Press, Bristol (2000). viii + 63 pp., £13.95 (pbk). ISBN Third, inter-territorial and institutional competition appears ingrained in the new politics of area regeneration. 1 86134 257 8. Disadvantaged regions and localities are locked into a battle for exogenous forms of growth through attracting investment The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has a long tradition of producing academically-grounded and policy-relevant and jobs. Local partnerships have to bid against other partnerships for funds as part of centrally orchestrated competitions. research. These studies are no exception. Each report addresses critical issues in area regeneration at a time of The RDAs established in all – not just the relatively disadvantaged – English regions are all seeking to grow their econoradical change and experimentation in the politics and organization of territorial development and governance under mies faster than the national average. This is an arithmetical impossibility. Arming each English region with the same ‘New Labour’. Coal elds Regeneration . . . argues that persistent regeneration problems would be tackled better by initiainstitutional architecture will do little to narrow interor intra-regional disparities within the UK or to temper such tives that focus on the needs of communities rather than national policy directives. Regional Agencies . . . is concerned competition for investment and jobs. Perhaps the time has come to think more imaginatively about the utilization of with the new forms of governance and interrelations with local regeneration initiatives associated with the early activiendogenous growth models – in combination with the more conventional exogenous forms – for area regeneration. ties of the Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) in the English regions. Both reports oVer detailed analysis and an Fourth, each study emphasizes the tensions in marrying the three parts of the government’s regeneration agenda array of insights. Several important themes are recurrent and run through between economic, social and environmental concerns. Signi cantly, each study reveals the diYculty in operationalizing both reports. First, there is a tension between universalism and particularism in policy development and implementation. this agenda and the ways in which mainstream economic questions tend to be privileged and prioritized in practice. On the one hand, central government appears to seek common and uniform solutions to territorial development Last, the reports point to the attempts to move away from regeneration approaches solely based upon ‘bricks and morproblems that can be designed and largely controlled centrally, then rolled-out to localities and regions as a kind of tar’ and the creation of ‘hard’ infrastructures toward strategies to address the people and social issues, including ‘capacity ‘Whitehall template’. On the other hand, government is also devolving responsibility for the success (or otherwise) of local building’ as well as both basic life skills and conventional education and training. These often require a more nuanced initiatives by requiring local and regional bodies to shape and adapt central government initiatives to the particular needs and sophisticated approach to the theory and practice of regeneration. of their speci c places. This fundamental tension between supply-led policy driven out from the centre and the demandEach study is written in an engaging and accessible style. Coal elds Regeneration . . . presents a holistic approach to led needs of local and regional interests often remains unresolved and presents problems on the ground. understanding economic, social and political change. Theory, method and policy are closely intertwined. This approach is Second, and overlapping the rst theme, is the tension between centralization and local control. To what extent further ‘humanized’ by an emphasis upon seeing this change as lived and experienced by real people in their places – are the local and regional partnerships…
Contemporânea - revista de sociologia da UFSCar, 2019
Resumo: O escrito traz um panorama geral sobre as novas formas de trabalho, transformadas especia... more Resumo: O escrito traz um panorama geral sobre as novas formas de trabalho, transformadas especialmente pela tecnologia, sobretudo pela produção de máquinas cada vez mais sofisticadas e pela extensão dos princípios que regem esta era ao escritório e a uma ampla gama de indústrias de serviços, aceleradas pelas TIC e pela revolução digital. Para isso, é desenhado um percurso no qual se parte dos estudos iniciais da sociologia do trabalho, passando pelo neofordismo e pós-fordismo, pelo trabalho estatal até os dias de hoje. Assim, discute-se sobre como tais tendências globais, se pensadas em escala mundial, serão o novo foco da sociologia do trabalho, visto que os gestores se esforçam para imaginar e criar um mundo no qual se diminuam ineficiências na produção, enfatizando as maneiras pelas quais as novas tecnologias facilitam as estratégias off-shoring a fim de manter as margens de lucro com base em trabalhos flexíveis de baixa qualificação. Palavras-chave: Sociologia do trabalho; realidade do trabalho; transformações trabalhistas; revolução digital.
I n Brazil it is still appropriate to talk in terms of a workers' movement. Alone in the states o... more I n Brazil it is still appropriate to talk in terms of a workers' movement. Alone in the states of Southern America, the trade unions in Brazil still have a capacity to organize workers and to exert a powerful influence upon workplace activities. The main trade union federation is linked to a new political party-the Workers' Party (PT-Partido dos Trabalhadores)-that retains a commitment to a socialist programme. And, more generally, the fact that land reform has emerged as a major political issue (as a consequence of an innovative and radical social movement of the landless) indicates that class struggle-in the fullest sense of the term-is very much alive in Brazil. Brazil is a country of many economic and social contrasts which makes it difficult to talk of a working class with a uniform profile. In a real sense the situation in Brazil can best be understood as a process of combined and uneven development within which the working class is in the process of 'making' and being made. Given the characteristics of the Brazilian social formation, any consideration of class and politics needs to focus on class formation, a process with a spatial and temporal dynamic which is very different from the advanced capitalist countries. THE BRAZILIAN SOCIAL FORMATION Brazil's GDP (US$ 777.1 billion in 1998) ranks it among the richest countries in the world, and its economic and political elites benefit enormously from this. Corporate executives in Brazil are amongst the most highly paid in the world. But it is also one of the most unequal societies, with an income distribution ratio that is rarely matched for its extremity. The size and geographical
P ost-war British society has witnessed a very significant inward migration of people from the 'N... more P ost-war British society has witnessed a very significant inward migration of people from the 'New Commonwealth', and the complex diaspora this immigration has created in many British cities is widely recognized as having fundamentally altered British society. Some observers have emphasized the positive aspects of the change, suggesting that the new kinds of identity and forms of living which it has produced have resulted in a transition towards an ethnically plural society. Others, while welcoming the changes, have drawn attention to the inequalities experienced by ethnic minorities and the persistence of racism in daily life, and in the major institutions of British society. The role of the state, and the ways in which 'the race card' has been played in British politics, have from the outset been the subject of extensive and often heated debate. A key focus of this debate has been crime and policing. In 1979 the Institute of Race Relations raised policing as a central issue for ethnic minorities in Britain. It concluded that there was powerful evidence to suggest that arrest and police powers were being used to keep the black community in its place both physically and psychologically. 1 In 1983 the Policy Studies Institute extended this finding by examining the operation of the 'sus' law. This law (originally instituted to control the working class in the early nineteenth century) made it a criminal offence to be 'a suspicious person loitering with intent to commit a crime'. The PSI established that a disproportionate ratio (8:1) of young black men were being stopped, compared with young white men of the same 'crimeogenic' age. 2 A central theme of the racialization of crime, and the criminalization of Afro-Caribbean youth in the 1970s and 1980s, was the construction of 'mugging' as a threat to British society, and as a crime committed by young black men. The media, the police, the courts and politicians succeeded in importing a racialized
i rj_676 200..221 This article deals with issues relating to trade union density and the fact tha... more i rj_676 200..221 This article deals with issues relating to trade union density and the fact that while over the past 30 years, union densities have followed a declining path in all regions, this retreat was not uniform across space. Analysis of the Labour Force Survey reveals that Wales exhibits among the highest levels of union density in the UK. The reasons for this are examined through statistical analysis, historical analysis and interview data. These analyses reveal that there appear to be intrinsic differences in the nature of workplace representation in Wales; one linked to a particular style of trade unionism supported by the authority of a devolved state that continue to contribute to higher levels of membership.
This data set contains 7 Working Papers from the Coalfields Research Programme, conducted in the ... more This data set contains 7 Working Papers from the Coalfields Research Programme, conducted in the 1990s at the universities of Cardiff and Durham.
Margaret Thatcher's death in 2013 was followed by extensive tributes to her achievements, often d... more Margaret Thatcher's death in 2013 was followed by extensive tributes to her achievements, often describing her role in 'saving Britain'. Other more sceptical voices pointed to the destructive aspects of her politics. This article explores these issues through an examination of the major confrontation with the coal miners and their trade union the NUM. Through published sources and interviews with key actors it argues that the dispute epitomised Mrs Thatcher's concern to weaken trade unionism and defeat socialism. This (rather than issues of employment or energy policy) is seen as her strategic objective and her success can be measured in the changed nature of the Labour Party. In this the exercise of state power was decisive. However, the article questions the extent to which 'Thatcherism' and the associated individualism has prevailed as an hegemonic force. It provides examples of a continuing patterns of collective behaviour and beliefs and raises the possibility of an emerging and different form of labour movement.
... Up to that time, Hayden — and Ford executives generally — had associated Japanese expan-sioni... more ... Up to that time, Hayden — and Ford executives generally — had associated Japanese expan-sionism with automation on the one hand ... This situation brought forth an interesting evaluation by William Abernathy, Kim Clark and Alan Kantrow in their book Industrial Renaissance ...
This article explores the erosion of the standard working-time model associated with the UK's... more This article explores the erosion of the standard working-time model associated with the UK's voluntarist system of industrial relations, and argues that its renegotiation is likely to be a critical factor in shaping the employment relationship of the future. As numerous studies over the last two decades have revealed, organizations have increasingly seen ‘time’ as a variable that can be manipulated to increase productivity or expand service provision, through making workers work harder, longer or according to management demands. These studies have also drawn our attention to the wider consequences of the increasing demands that organizations place on their employees in the name of ‘flexibility’, impacting both on what workers do while at work and how they organize and plan the other aspects of their lives. This article brings together two literatures, one on time and the other on industrial relations, and suggests that new working-time arrangements are changing the wage-effort ...
Os estudos sobre protesto e conflito no Reino Unido são dominados há décadas pelas pesquisas sobr... more Os estudos sobre protesto e conflito no Reino Unido são dominados há décadas pelas pesquisas sobre o local de trabalho e as atividades sindicais. Nos anos 80 e 90, o declínio dos antigos setores industriais combinou-se com a crescente insegurança econômica e com a legislação governamental, causando um enfraquecimento das organizações de trabalhadores. A greve dos mineiros em 1984-1985 é vista como a última das grandes lutas dos sindicatos. Surgiram, contudo, novas formas de manifestação pública, de cunho ambiental, identificadas como legítimas formas de protesto, que acabaram por influenciar políticas governamentais, em particular no que concerne à crescente exploração de minas de carvão a céu aberto. Nas duas últimas décadas viu-se, assim, a mobilização de uma "nova classe", que veio a formar a espinha dorsal dos novos movimentos sociais e que trouxe questões específicas como a paz e o meio ambiente para o primeiro plano da vida política.
ABSTRACT Abstract The Durham Miners Gala has taken place annually for over a hundred years. In it... more ABSTRACT Abstract The Durham Miners Gala has taken place annually for over a hundred years. In its heyday it was an immensely popular occasion. In the post-war period it became an established part of the British Labour calendar, being attended regularly by Prime Ministers, Cabinet Ministers and foreign ambassadors. The Gala can be understood as a ceremony which links twentieth century class politics with the more spontaneous and religious forms of political activity in the nineteenth century. This historical continuity is rooted in the culture of mining and mining villages, developed by the social isolation of miners and their particular legal status and adapted periodically by the formal structures of the mining union.
This paper draws on the biography of Sam Watson, a miners' leader in the North East of England, t... more This paper draws on the biography of Sam Watson, a miners' leader in the North East of England, to examine the ways in which power relations operated within the British labour movement in the forties and fifties. At that time the Marshall Plan and the concern by the US government to control the spread of communism in Europe provided a critical backdrop with the CIA's labor attaché programme providing links between the AFL and the CIO and the British TUC. Recent research has identified the significant role played in the development of these arrangements by Watson. The reliance of the Labour Party on the networks of national, regional and local trade unions has not been a central concern of students of this period. Certainly in accounts of the Marshall Plan, national figures like Ernest Bevin predominate. The "unveiling" here of Watson suggests the possibility of more fruitful investigations on a wider canvass. His relationship with the US mission in itself raises questions as to the social and political processes that made it possible for a middle ranking trade union official to occupy such a significant position of power and influence. The article draws on archival research and, most significantly, upon interviews conducted by the authors in the late seventies with key trade union officals and polticians. It explores the different ways that Watson dealt with communism and with members of the Communist Party, and the key role he played during critical struggles within the Labour Party. The detail of the "insider" accounts reveals the complex ways in which power was performed across and within different arenas-in North East England as regional secretary of the NUM; in London on the national executive committees of the Labour Party and NUM; and abroad as a member, then Chair, of the Labour Party's International Committee. "So let us look at history as history-men placed in actual contexts which they have not chosen, and confronted by indivertible forces, with an overwhelming immediacy of relations and duties and with only a scanty opportunity for inserting their own agency-and not as a text for hectoring might-have-beens." 2
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