Love and Labour
Red Button Years: Volume 1
Ken Fuller
Ken Fuller’s book on London bus workers, Radical Aristocrats (*) , was published in 1985. In this he drew upon his work as a bus driver within the TGWU, who he subsequently became an officer for.
In his attempt to build on his earlier book, Ken has written the first volume in a series of novels. Love and Labour covers developments within the London and Provincial Union of Licensed Vehicle Workers (LPU), known as the red-button union, in the period from 1913-1919.
The book is very well written and is centred around two fictional characters and lovers, Mickey Rice, a working class tram driver from Reading, and Dorothy Bridgeman, a socialist from wealthy stock. Unfortunately, I was unsure why Bridgeman, like many real characters from similar backgrounds, was fascinated by socialism. Readers must make their own minds on that one.
Ken does a very good job in explaining how some of the LPU leaders such as George Sanders helped develop the trade union and political consciousness of such as Rice ensuring that they took on leadership roles within their depots and the working class generally. In doing so these industrial and political militants attracted enemies across the capitalist class, the state and public authorities, as well as those within the labour movement who were content with the status quo. LPU officials were elected by the membership. This rank and file control ensured its officials were required to understand the needs of those they represented and sought to satisfy them.
Mickey’s bravery, his graft at work alongside his workmates, allied to a willingness to watch and learn from more skilled union negotiators lies behind his increasing credibility within the LPU membership. This enables him to win workers into taking action to defend and extend their pay and conditions.
It is an interesting story.
As is the descriptions of strikes, why they took place and the organisation needed by transport workers to win when forced to oppose not only their employers, but also the Government and State that is set up to ensure that, unlike events in Russia in 1917, which are well explained in the book, there is no serious threat to the ruling class.
In conclusion this is a very decent attempt by the author to explain the class struggle as it arose during the period surrounding WWI and I’d recommend it with the proviso that it will take quite a bit of time to read as it is 220,000 words long. I feel that with some editing, cutting some of the descriptions of meetings particularly, it should have been possible to reduce the word count of as I think the more people would read it. I would also like to have had the opportunities to find out more about the characteristics, warts and all, of the bus drivers and conductors themselves. Having previously described them as Radical Aristocrats then who were these workers, what were their attitudes, where did they spring from?
- Radical Aristocrats: London Busworkers from the 1880s to the 1980s
Review of book at:- https://markwrite.co.uk/2018/10/05/radical-aristocrats-london-busworkers-from-the-1880s-to-the-1980s/
Love and Labour costs £15 and is available at:- https://www.amazon.co.uk/Love-Labour-Red-Button-Years-1/dp/1699092788/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=love+and+labour+by+ken+fuller&qid=1579689077&s=books&sr=1-1
No comments:
Post a Comment