Family or just good friends? The changing Labour Party--trade union relationship in Britain since 1979

Abstract

This article attempts to locate the crisis in the relationship between the union movement and the Labour Party of Great Britain in the context of a changing matrix of interest between the two, itself the result of the changing social and economic environments facing them. In short, this is an attempt to use a political economy framework to help understand changes in the party-union relationship. The argument that will be made here is that this relationship is indeed weakening, that the rhetorical claims of the current Labour leadership are accurate in their claims of greater independence, and that we can expect a qualitatively different type of relationship between union and party when the Labour Party wins in an election.

Publisher

M.E. Sharpe

Publication Date

12-1-1992

Publication Title

International Journal of Political Economy

Department

Politics

Document Type

Article

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08911916.1992.11643846

Keywords

Labor unions, Labor movement, Great Britain--Politics & government, Political parties, Political science, Right and Left (Political science)

Language

English

Format

text

Link to Full Text

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