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THE PEOPLE The Rise and Fall of the Working Class reviewed

THE PEOPLE 

The Rise and Fall of the Working Class

Selina Todd

£10.99 - John Murray 

The author attended a socially mixed comprehensive school in north east England. Yet when she went to University to read history she searched in vain for her family’s story before realising that she would have to write it herself if she wanted to ensure that the history of working class people in Britain from the start of the 20^th century was properly recorded. 

Selina Todd can therefore be very proud of her efforts. Because the result is an easy to read book packed full of personal testimonies, myth busting information, basic facts, official statistics and a very strong conclusion demonstrating that greater social inequality is not only unnecessary but it means working class voices are – still – rarely heard in public spaces. 

Rightly, Todd also does not fall into thinking the working class are exclusively male, white and unionised. Which is why she starts her book in 1910 with a chapter titled ‘Defiance Below Stairs.’ This features the millions of, largely young, domestic servants who when given the chance to enter the munitions factories in World War One did so with relish in order to enjoy better pay and work less hours. 

Little wonder most never returned to being a maid and resisted pressure from employers, the government and some men to be coerced back beneath the stairs. Some then took part in the fight for improvements in health care for expectant mothers and young children as well as better housing that pushed Stanley Baldwin’s government into introducing the 1936 Housing Act. Local authorities were charged with providing homes for ‘the working classes.’ 

Council house building was significantly expanded. When the Second World War ended one of the key moments in many working class people’s lives was when they were handed a key to a council house and they could move out of a slum dwelling. 

“The People’s War’ of 1939-45 led to a significant redistribution of power in favour of the working class but did not make Britain classless. Most politicians had no interest in making things more equal and only when it became absolutely necessary did they oblige middle and upper class people to share in the sacrifices being made by workers and ordinary troops. 

Today it is generally accepted that the British people were as one in wanting to defeat fascism. Yet Mass Observation, a progressive social research organisation dedicated to exploring how ordinary people lived, found that many were unsure that Nazi tyranny would be worse than the poverty they’d endured under ‘democracy.’ 

A desperate ruling class was forced to ensure Prime Minister Winston Churchill brought several Labour members into his War Cabinet including Ernest Bevin, the former general secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union. (One of Unite’s predecessor unions) 

The greater state intervention that followed proved highly popular. In 1942, when the war was little more than halfway through, Sir William Beveridge was being tasked with drawing up a programme of comprehensive welfare provision that included the creation of the NHS, which duly arrived on 5 July 1948 under a first ever Labour majority government. 

The return of the Tories in 1951 was, in part, the result of a promise to build more council houses than Labour and a continuing pledge to maintain full employment. 

With employers in desperate need of workers, Commonwealth migrants began arriving in search of a better life after 1948 and thousands of married women took up the chance to work part-time to buy extras for their children and an increasing range of domestic appliances. 

Many people became better off, inequality levels fell but Britain remained a society in which class still mattered. That became even more the case in the 1960s when despite material improvements in many people’s lives there was the realisation that these were the result of having two full-time wage earners in the house rather than one. Some couples hardly saw each other if they had children to bring up.

When workers demanded greater pay and control over the organisation of their lives there were numerous strikes throughout the 60s and 70s. Under pressure from employers, governments sought to undermine the trade unions and the collective economic and political strength of ordinary workers. 

Lurking in the background was a New Right that under Margaret Thatcher successfully persuaded many working class people that economic growth was being held back by commitments to welfare spending and full employment. Further, that the growth of the public sector restricted the private sector and that local authorities and trade unions obstructed ‘ordinary people’s’ freedom. People were encouraged to build their own independence and to ‘help’ they were cajoled into use credit and debt, including mortgages. 

Unemployment leapt – a “price worth paying” said Thatcher as during the 1980s new divisions amongst the working class were encouraged and exploited especially between those in work and those on the dole. Racist rhetoric against immigrants encouraged further division. New laws severely restricted trade unions of much of their economic and political power. Employers exploited the weaknesses by forcing many workers on to less secure contracts. As pay levels dropped, inequality rose considerably. 

The arrival of New Labour under Tony Blair resulted in much of the same, with working class people increasingly relying on debt as a means to get by. 

In the opening to her book, Todd informs the reader that she sought to write ‘a hopeful history.’ Yet at the end, Todd rightly identifies Britain remains ‘a society divided by class…….and the gap between the richest and poorest is wider than it has been at any time since  the early 20^th century.’ She thus uses her afterword to put forward a credible alternative to the current situation. 

This involves seeking to demolish five myths:-

• The economic crisis was caused by the welfare state.
• We can only solve the economic crisis by all working very hard.
• Women and immigrants block working class people’s opportunities. 
• Social mobility, promoted by selective and private education, can solve inequality.
• People’s greed and selfishness prevent us from creating a different sort of society. 

She makes some important points in her attempt to reveal ‘an alternative way to live better than neo-liberalism’, which as a system is continuing to impoverish more and more working class people. 

Remembering those we have lost

http://unitelive.org/remembering-those-we-have-lost/

Remembering those we have lost

NE Lincs remember colleagues 

Mark Metcalf, Tuesday, April 28th, 2015 

Unite members in North East Lincolnshire have played a major role in today’s International Workers Memorial Day (WMD April 28) events in their area.

This is the 13th year in which services have been held. They began when Unite member Herbert ‘Nobby’ Styles spotted an advert in the Hazards magazine urging trade unionists to Remember the Dead and Fight for the Living.

Nobby worked for Blue Star Fibres in Grimsby for 37 years until he was made redundant in 2013 and during which time he performed many union roles.

Working with local trade unionists, Nobby raised funds to get memorial stones laid and trees planted in Immingham, Grimsby and Cleethorpes and the first WMD services were held at each on 28 April 2003.

Today, Nobby warmly welcomed all those who attended at the three locations.

Numerous wreaths were laid by, among others, families who have lost loved ones, representatives of many local union branches, companies and the Labour Party.

Silence

A minutes’ silence was held, the names of 35 local people killed at work were read out and speakers highlighted the continuing unacceptable loss of life.

Each year, over 1,400 people are killed at work in the UK and another 50,000 die of workplace related cancer, heart and lung disease. Worldwide, 2.3m people are annually killed by work, a figure that exceeds those killed by war.

At Immingham, Steve Elliott, a retired Unite member who worked in the chemical industry for many years laid a wreath on behalf of the NE Lincs TUC, which he is secretary of.

He told the crowd that he was “increasingly seeing former work colleagues of mine dying far too early of asbestos related diseases.” He stressed the need for workers to collectively organise within unions to push management into taking health and safety seriously.

Peter Barrass (pictured), chair of the Unite branch at Lindsey Oil Refinery, made the same points when he laid a wreath. “Having a strong trade union is important because by working with management and the HSE we can make workplaces safer.”

The day though belonged to the families of those workers who have lost their lives such as Paul Doyley, a Unite safety representative at Millennium Chemicals, now known as Cristal Global. He died five years ago when a valve at work exploded. The company were heavily fined after they were found culpable.

Paul’s father, mother and his sister, Jill attended the WMD event next to the War Memorial in Grimsby. An emotional Jill said, “We are remembering my lovely brother and paying tribute to all those other people who have lost their lives through work.”

Jill added, “I would like to thank those Unite members, especially at Paul’s workplace, and officers who were so supportive to our family when he was killed.”

Special award for safety campaigner

http://unitelive.org/we-will-remember-them/

We will remember them

Campaigner Hilda Palmer wins award for safety work 

Mark Metcalf, Tuesday, April 28th, 2015 

A Unite member who won an International Women’s Day award from Manchester City Council for campaigning for safer workplaces wants her fellow union members to participate in today’s International Workers Memorial (WMD) Day nationwide events (April 28).

Hilda Palmer is the co-ordinator for the independent Greater Manchester Hazards Centre that provides advice on health, safety, welfare and hazards at work.

Hilda is also acting chair of the National Hazards Campaign. This is a UK wide network established in 1988 and which brings together Hazards Centres, trade unions, health and safety groups and specific campaigns that include Families Against Corporate Killers (FACK).

This was started in 2006 by families left angry and frustrated at knowing their relatives had been unlawfully killed at work with their killers mostly escaping significant punishment. Hilda is the FACK facilitator and works tirelessly to support families who have lost loved ones.

Around 1,400 people are annually killed in work-related incidents and up to 50,000 die as a result of a work-related illness. The Health and Safety Executive says that 70 per cent of these deaths are due to management failure.

Inspections cut

Yet proactive inspections are being cut and even banned by the coalition government in most workplaces. Meanwhile, the blacklisting of building worker trade unionists who have raised health and safety concerns has been allowed to flourish with the coalition refusing to order a public inquiry.

FACK wants ‘urgent government action to halt the complacency about deaths at work and decent laws which will bring dangerously negligent bosses to justice.’ It wants safety reps given more rights. Organisation members participate in nationwide WMD events on 28 April that were first organised by the Hazards Campaign in 1992.

It was Hilda’s work with FACK and WMD that led to her winning the special IWD recognition award named in memory of Margaret Ashton from Manchester City Council. This was presented at a packed awards ceremony at Manchester Town Hall.

Ashton, a suffragette, was in 1908 the first elected woman to sit on the council and helped found the local Women’s Trade Union council to set up a babies hospital. She later fell from favour by opposing Britain’s participation in the First World War. Hilda has followed in Ashton’s footsteps by opposing Britain’s involvement in the Iraq war.

“I was naturally delighted to find myself presented with the award as clearly Margaret Ashton is someone to admire,” she said.

“I accepted it not for myself but for all the greats in the Hazards movement, the FACK founders and the families of relatives killed in entirely preventable incidents at work. I especially dedicate the award to Joanne Hill, mother of Cameron Minshull, and her family.” Cameron was a 16-year old apprentice when he was killed at work in January 2013.

“We will remember all those killed at work on WMD on 28 April. There are events right across the country. I’d urge Unite members to go to one of them. We will remember the dead whilst fighting for the living,” said Hilda.

Mick Whitley, the Unite NW regional secretary, was “delighted to see that Hilda’s hard work with FACK, Hazards and on WMD has been recognised. Rightly so as she has done some remarkable work.”

Fighting to keep NHS in public hands

Go to:-

http://unitelive.org/fighting-to-keep-nhs-in-public-hands/

Police watchdog accused of gagging order

From Big Issue in the North magazine. Please buy a copy if you see a seller.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission should publish its completed report into the policing of events at Orgreave during the Miners’ Strike in 1984, says South Yorkshire’s police and crime commissioner. 

Alan Billings’ call for publication comes after the IPCC offered interested parties the chance to examine the report but only if they were bound by strict terms of confidentiality. 

The Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign (OTJC) and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) are campaigning for a public inquiry into Orgreave, which occurred in the middle of the year-long national strike by over 100,000 miners. 

Losing control 

Ninety-five miners were charged with riot and assembly when 4,500 police, many in riot gear, clashed with 8,000 striking miners at the Orgreave coking works. All charges
were dropped in 1985 due to the unreliability of police evidence. Compensation was paid to some pickets in out-of- court settlements. But no police officers were disciplined or charged for their actions, which left many miners injured. 

The events of Orgreave came under the spotlight once more after Liverpool football fans established in 2012 that the deaths of 96 supporters at Hillsborough in April 1989 were caused by the police losing control of events. In the aftermath, South Yorkshire Police (SYP) referred itself to the IPCC. 

When the press pointed out the same force had been in charge of operations at Orgreave SYP referred itself once more to the IPCC over events there. The police watchdog’s report contains its decision on whether or not to conduct a full investigation. 

Campaigners expected a decision earlier this year but the IPCC said it was “awaiting the result of our consultation with our Hillsborough investigation team and legal advice from our barrister before we can proceed further”. 

‘Unhappy’ 

Billings, South Yorkshire’s police and crime commissioner, said he was concerned about the delay. “The IPCC should publish. The former miners have been waiting too long. South Yorkshire needs closure,” he said. 

Chris Kitchen, NUM general secretary, said: “The IPCC took over two years to investigate and having finally made a decision it can’t say what it is or even when it will publicly announce what it is. That’s wrong.” 

The IPCC has offered to allow the OTJC and NUM to read the decision. The latter has sent
its legal representative to do so but Kitchen, who has not been informed of the decision, is “unhappy that it can’t be shared with all those that are concerned about justice”. 

The OTJC has refused the IPCC’s offer. In a statement it said the conditions are “effectively a gagging order where a small number of our members would obtain information they cannot discuss with other members and more widely with the many other people who support our work”. 

It added: “OTJC strongly condemns this situation and reiterates its demand for a full public inquiry into police actions at Orgreave in June 1984.” 

The story of a Sunderland trialist in the 1920's

This was originally printed some years ago but remains a good story