Search Results: Trade Unions and the Labour Movement from John Atkins

24 pages.

Paper wrapper, rubbed, somewhat soiled, and a little creased. Text clean. Crease to the top corner of all pages.

Mainly a short history of the militant building workers union (the National Federation of Building Trades Operatives), as told though the pages of its newspaper 'The New Builders Leader', launched in 1935. A few photographs and illustrations. Scarce.

Postage will be significantly less than the average cost quoted in my store listings. Over-payments will be refunded.

23 pages.

Card cover. Text clean and unmarked.

Chartism, industrial struggle, and the 1842 general strike in South Wales.

Postage will be less than the average cost quoted in my store listings. Over-payments will be refunded.

32 pages.
Paper wrapper slightly creased and age-toned. Text clean and unmarked.

Written by the then Branch Secretary of the Ardsley Branch of Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF).

The Ardsley Branch of ASLEF was opened on 14 October 1894. "There were no National conditions of service, rates of pay and conditions of service varied from Company to Company, and even from depot to depot on the same Company. The District Superintendent was a local despot, and ruled with a rod of iron, he could fine, punish, or even dismiss men at his own whim or fancy." Trade unions were not recognised and meetings had to be held in secret. "The branch was not born in a wave of enthusiasm, as the outcome of a Strike, but a stark necessity which speaks to the determined attitude of men who….were prepared to pay the price asked of them".

This short pamphlet is full of detailed, interesting, and now perhaps less easy to find details of pay rates, hours of work, holidays, and the actions of… Read More

48, [4] pages.

Card cover, somewhat grubby. Internally clean and unmarked.

Published to give "the ordinary worker" a picture of the scope and effect of the Act and the rights of workers under the Act. Also published to give assistance to trade union officers in advising union members of their rights and procedures to follow.Postage will be significantly less than the average cost quoted in my store listings. Any over-payments will be refunded.

36 pages.
De-accessioned ex-library copy with shelf-mark to cover and stamps to rear blank of foreword. Card cover a little dusty and marked. Marks (glue spots?) to margins of inside front cover and first page. Text clean.

The Bristol Siddeley Engines Shop Stewards' Combined Committee represented manual workers of the main Bristol Siddeley Engines (BSE) factories/plants at Coventry, Bristol, Watford and Sunderland. The BSE Combined Committee set up a workers' study group which produced this discussion document on British aircraft industry nationalisation and workers' control.

Postage will be less than the average cost quoted in my store listings. Any over-payments will be refunded.

8vo., 283, [3] pages + 14 pages of advertisements
Red cloth covered boards with black embossed title lettering. Some age-toning to end-papers, text clean and unmarked, top edge of pages a little dusty. Very good condition.
In rare orange dust-jacket with black lettering. Age-toned and sightly rubbed with slight chipping to extremities. Good condition.
The American Labor Year Book was a 20th century review of labor in the United States, published by the Department of Labor Research of the Rand School of Social Science.
The Rand School of Social Science (1906-1956) was a school for workers and socialists, associated with the Socialist Party and, after 1936, with the Social Democratic Federation. It offered a variety of courses on contemporary topics, traditional subjects and socialist theory. Established in 1906 with funds from the will of Mrs. Carrie Rand and with the able leadership of George D. Herron, the Rand School provided working men and women with an opportunity to continue their education.
The… Read More

46 pages.
Card cover, age-toned and a little dusty. Text clean and unmarked. Minor creasing to page fore-edge margins.
Short preface followed by 11 articles.
Postage will be less than the average cost quoted in my store listings. Over-payments will be refunded.

15, [1] pages.

Paper wrapper, spotting, with tears to the fore-edge. Shelf-marks(?) to front. Pages age-toned and a little brittle. Text clean.

Report of a 3-week visit to the Soviet Union (May 1949) with 3 photographs.

Postage will be significantly less than the average cost quoted in my store listings. Over-payments will be refunded.

43, [1] pages.

Card cover a little dusty and age-toned. Staples with signs of rust.

Prepared by Kuczynski and a study group of the Central London Branch of the Association of Scientific Workers (ASW), which was formed early in 1942, covering trade union history with special reference to the development of non-manual organization and the history of the ASW in particular. The booklet is in five chapters: why trade unions were formed in Great Britain and how they were developed; how scientific workers came to found a trade union; a short history of the Trades Union Congress; the structure of the Trades Union Congress; and the story of the Association of Scientific Workers; with suggestions for further reading.
Postage will be significantly less than the average cost quoted in my store listings. Over-payments will be refunded.

40 pages.

Card cover with price sticker to the inside front.

Short but useful account of the 1926 General Strike. Includes a 2-page bibliographical note.

Postage will be less than the average cost quoted in my store listings. Over-payments will be refunded.

24 unnumbered pages.
Card cover lightly creased at edges with small tear (44mm) to bottom of cover spine. Text clean.
The IWC, founded in 1968, brought together shop stewards, trades unionists and sympathetic academics to discuss workers' control of production. The Dockers' Next Step was first published in 1966 as 'The Dockers' Next Step: An Anti- Devlin Report' which challenged the Government's proposals (1965) for rationalisation of the port transport industry. Here it is republished with an introduction setting out dock industry and trade union related events since 1966.Postage will be less than the average cost quoted in my store listings. Any over-payments will be refunded.

30, [2] pages.
Thick paper wrapper, slight crease marks to the spine. Internally unmarked.

IWC Pamphlet no. 68
A radical pamphlet written by John Bellers (1654/5 – 1725), a Quaker, and originally published in 1695, which carries forward the ideas of the 'commonweal' or common good which contributed to the philosophy of co-operativism. Marx makes several references to it in "Capital" and referred to Bellers as "a very phenomenon in the history of political economy". His work also impressed Robert Owen who re-printed this pamphlet in 1817.

With a 5-page contextual introduction by Ken Coates. (This re-print is of the 1696 new edition.)

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20 pages.
Paper wrapper. Text clean and unmarked.
Working class history and organisation in the engineering industry in South West Scotland.
Postage will be less than the average cost quoted in my store listings. Over-payments will be refunded.

18 pages.

Card cover a little age-toned. Text clean and unmarked.

Less well remembered than the miners' strike of the early 1970s, the Grunwick (Brent, north London) strike demonstrated the difficulties the trade union and working-class movement faced in taking on the political and industrial forces emboldened by the Thatcher Government.

Grunwick was a film / photograph processing company whose workforce was mainly comprised of Afro-Carribean and East African Asian workers of immigrant descent. When 137 Grunwick workers walked out on 23 August 1973, demanding union recognition in order to improve working conditions described as Dickensian, they were sacked 8 days later. This strike for the right to organise and have union representation continued until late 1977 / early 1978, and involved a wide range of other trade unions in taking action to support the strikers, as well as garnering wider community and political support. This short account (a longer analysis appeared in book form) examines the… Read More

15, [1] pages.
Paper wrapper, age-toned and a little soiled, ink handwritten price to front. Page fore-edges a little chipped. Text clean.
Written by the Marxist economic historian Maurice Dobb, this pamphlet was produced after the Soviet Union joined the Allied forces against the fascist Axis powers. A short history of Soviet trade unions post-1917.
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First published in 1912. With a new introduction by R. Merfyn Jones.

8vo., 35, [1] pages.

Card cover slightly rubbed, with remains of price sticker to front and blue biro marks to the rear. Pages age-toned but clean and unmarked.

An important source document concerning the organisation of the miner's union in the South of Wales, with wider implications for the British mining trade union movement as a whole. Part of the rank-and-file British labour movement trend towards greater trade union democracy and militancy pre-1914, and which continued post 1918 up to the 1926 General Strike.

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52 pages, plus 7 photo illustrations.
Card cover.
Reprint of this brochure first published in May 1976 on the 50th anniversary of the 1926 General Strike. Based upon a reading of contemporary newspapers and contributions from persons who could give first-hand accounts of the strike in Southwark (London), including Jack Dash (19 years old at the time of the strike) and Bert Edwards who was President of the strikers' Southwark Council of Action in May 1926.
Postage will be less than the average cost quoted in my store listings. Over-payments will be refunded.

19 un-numbered pages.
With an introduction by Hodgins, Charlie and Prescott, John (later Labour MP for Hull East).

Card cover somewhat dusty and age-toned. Internally clean with a slight printing smudge on 2 facing pages.

On 16 May 1966, the National Union of Seamen (NUS) launched its first national strike since 1911. The strike aimed to secure higher wages and to reduce the working week from 56 to 40 hours. It was widely supported and organised by rank-and-file union members causing considerable disruption to UK shipping. The political importance of the strike was considerable: the disruption of trade had an adverse effect on the United Kingdom's (already precarious) balance of payments, provoked a run on the pound and threatened to undermine the government's attempts to keep wage increases below 3.5%.

The then Labour Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, was strongly critical of the strike, publicly alleging that it had been taken over by Communists to bring down his administration. In his much… Read More

47, [1] pages

Paper wrapper with a few small marks, front cover lower corner creased and small chip to top corner. Overall a little age-toned. Text clean.

A pamphlet, written by the Assistant General Secretary of the Amalgamated Engineering Union (in a personal capacity,) about post-war economic challenges and the role for trade unions. The final page carries a list of discussion questions.

Postage will be less than the average cost quoted in my store listings. Any over-payments will be refunded.

[2], 76, [2] pages.
Card cover very slightly soiled. Internally clean and unmarked.
In October 1975 an industrial dispute involving junior doctors in the UK began. It ended in January 1976 "in a mood of pessimism, yet…successful. The changes that occurred inside the medical profession prior to, and during, this dispute are the subject of this booklet."
Postage will be less than the average cost quoted in my store listings. Over-payments will be refunded.