British Trade Unionism against the Trades Union Congress

Conceptualizing and measuring strategy implementation: A multidimensional view

“…Barney and Hesterly (), Bhidé (), Dorfman (), Geltz and Lea (), Holbrook, Padmore, and Hughes (), Keshavjee et al (), Lewis and Churchill (), and Stevenson and Gumpert ()…”

Why were capital controls abandoned? The case of Britain’s abolition of exchange controls, 1977–1979

“…As Gamble (1994: 94–95) observed, the ‘myth of the Winter of Discontent, with its images of closed hospitals, rubbish piling up in the streets, and dead bodies rotting unburied in graveyards’, reinforced the notion of the bankruptcy of benign state collaboration with the unions. A directly oppositional policy towards the union movement was now not only possible but electorally savvy: the ‘old Tory disadvantage of a cold and distant relationship with the union movement … turned into an asset’ (Dorfman, 1983: 20). This calamitous event, combined with ‘rising unemployment and de-industrialisation’, meant that ‘Mrs Thatcher inherited a strong strategic position in relation to the trade unions’ (Marsh, 1992: 64).…”

“…This calamitous event, combined with ‘rising unemployment and de-industrialisation’, meant that ‘Mrs Thatcher inherited a strong strategic position in relation to the trade unions’ (Marsh, 1992: 64). Indeed, the government ‘used their obvious political leverage over trade unionism’ to enact a radical overhaul of macroeconomic strategy ‘without so much as consulting nor considering trade union views’ (Dorfman, 1983: 20). Whereas the Callaghan government had moved tentatively on the issue of exchange control relaxation because of tense government-union relations, the Thatcher administration in fact believed that the abolition of exchange controls would ‘help the Government’s position vis-a-vis the trade unions, by showing that the Government were determined that investors should be allowed to put their money where they can earn the best return’.…”

(Re)politicising ‘the governmental’: Resisting the Industrial Relations Act 1971

“…Crouch, 1977; Holmes, 1997; Moran, 1977; Taylor, 1996; Weekes et al, 1975), no account draws on the primary documents now released at The National Archives (TNA). Moreover, while scholars have presented the Act either explicitly (Burnham, 2006a; Crouch, 1979) or implicitly (Clarke, 1988; Dorfman, 1983) as a depoliticised governing strategy – an attempt to externalise accountability for this problematic policy area – existing accounts tend to focus on the numerous strategic failings of elites and the questionable appropriateness of the law in industrial relations reform. This article contends that this attempt at depoliticised governing was in fact undermined by informal non-governmental political actors engaged in resistance to it.…”