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Labour and the Unions: After the Brighton Conference*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2014

Joni Lovenduski  and
Pippa Norris
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Extract

A Discussion of Last Autumn's Debate over Candidate selection in the British Labour Party and a consideration of the party's links with the trade unions may seem inappropriately provincial in an international journal of comparative politics. However, when viewed as an example of the continued search for political relevance by socialist parties in opposition, the issues raised by Labour's struggle to modernize take on more general interest. During long periods in the wilderness parties characteristically try to revive their fortunes by reforming organizational structures, ideological platforms and electoral strategies. For Labour, this started under the leadership of Neil Kinnock and continued with John Smith. The party has moved cautiously towards the centre ground, streamlined its election machine, modernized its communication strategy, and produced a more unified and moderate image. Labour's reforms of its relationship with the union movement are clearly part of this general attempt to reverse its electoral fortunes.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 29 , Issue 2 , 01 April 1994 , pp. 201 - 217
Copyright
Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 1994

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Footnotes

*

This article draws on data from the British Candidate Study funded by an ESRC research grant. Jackie Goode conducted the interviews. See P. Norris and J. Lovenduski, Political Representation, Cambridge University Press, forthcoming.

References

1 Norris, Pippa, ‘Labour Party Factionalism and Extremism’ in Heath, Anthony et al., Can Labour Win, Aldershot, Dartmouth Press, 1994;Google Scholar Smith, Martin J. and Spear, Joanna, The Changing Labour Party, London, Routledge, 1992.Google Scholar

2 The recent ins and outs of the relationship are painstakingly traced by Minkin, Lewis in The Contentious Alliance, Edinburgh University Press, 1991.Google Scholar

3 See Norris, Pippa and Lovenduski, Joni, Political Representation: Gender, Race and Class in the British Parliament, Cambridge University Press, forthcoming.Google Scholar

4 Dmcker, Henry, ‘The Influence of the Trade Unions on the Ethos of the Labour Party’, in Pimlott, Ben and Cook, Chris, Trade Unions in British Polities, London, Longman, 1982.Google Scholar

5 Patenon, Peter, The StUctaraU, London, MacGibbon & Kee, 1967.Google Scholar

6 Kavanagh, Dennis, The Politics of the Labour Party, London, Allen & Unwin, 1982.Google Scholar

7 BCS Interview No. 17.

8 BCS Interview No. 9.

9 BCS Interview No. 39.

10 The exact proportion was calculated by membership and affiliation lists at the start of selection (the ‘freeze date’).

11 BCS Interview No. 13.

12 Labour Party Rult Beak 1989 -90, London, Labour Party.

13 This is Minkin’s central argument. Minkin, op. cit., 1991.

14 Philip Basset, ‘Labour and the Unions in the 1980s and 1990s’ in Ben Pimlott and Chris Cook, Trade Unions in British Politics, The First 250 Years, 1991, L. Minkin, op. cit.; Hefterman, R. and Marquese, M., Defeat from At Jaws of Victory, London, Verso, 1992.Google Scholar

15 Schattschneider, E. E., Party Government, New York, Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1942, p. 64.Google Scholar

16 Smith, John ‘One Man Won’t Rock the Boat’, The Guardian, 7 07 1993.Google Scholar

17 Morris, Bill ‘The Ties That Bind a Party to its Roots’, The Independent, 5 07 1993;CrossRefGoogle Scholar Edmonds, John, ‘The Cross John Smith has to Bear’, The Guardian, 14 07 1993.Google Scholar

18 Ranney, Austin, Pathways to Parliament, London, Macmillan, 1965, p. 235.Google Scholar Rush, Michael, The Selection of Parliamentary Candidates, 1969, p. 181.Google Scholar

19 Michael Rush, op. cit., Table 6 (8), p. 181.

20 See Butler, D. and Butler, G., British Political Facts, London, Macmillan, 1980.Google Scholar

21 BCS Interview No. 5.

22 ASLEF’s head office is in Glenda Jackson’s constituency.

23 Ranney, op. cit., p. 236.

24 ibid., pp. 237–38.

25 See Riddell, Peter, The Thatcher Decade, Oxford, Blackwell, 1989.Google Scholar Note too that union powers will be further constrained by the 1993 Trade Union Reform and Employment Rights Act which will, inter alia, make it more difficult to collect the subscriptions of their members.

26 The question wording was changed between 1983 and 1987. Q 1983 ‘Do you think that trade unions in this country have too much power or not?’; Q1987 ‘Do you think that trade unions in this country have too much power or too little power?’ (Coded on a five point Liken scale).