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The National Unemployed Workers' Movement, 1921–36

Bibliographic Data

ID9969867
AuthorsRalph Hayburn (corresponding author)
Year1983
Volume28
Issue3
Pages279-295
Publication date1983-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Review of Social History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-8590 • E-ISSN: 1469-512X
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0020859000007690
OpenAlexW2132150858
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited4

Between the wars, the response of the British Labour Party and Trades Union Congress to the problem of the unemployed was extremely limited. Committed to gradualist philosophies, the leaders of the labour movement were unwilling to attempt genuine socialist remedies in office, and, in opposition, to provide a militant leadership for the protest movement. The National Unemployed Workers' Movement, begun in 1921 and not finally dissolved until after the outbreak of the Second World War, was the only body which attempted to mobilise unemployed discontent. After 1926, the Labour Party Executive and the General Council of the TUC consistently refused to have any contact with this organisation on the grounds that, like the National Minority Movement and the later Rank-and-File Movement, the NUWM was merely a subsidiary of the British Communist Party. This article is an attempt to show that by a process of induction the Labour leaders branded the unemployed movement as a whole on the basis of the known Communist allegiance of a number of its leaders, and to demonstrate that they allowed themselves to become so sidetracked by the issue of whether or not the NUWM was a Communist front that their own efforts on behalf of the unemployed suffered in consequence

Allegiance · Communism · Militant · Movement (music · Opposition (politics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · United front · Australian History and Society · Labor Movements and Unions · Law · Political and Economic history of UK and US

  • Workfare – a Blast from the Past? Contemporary Work Conditionality for the Unemployed in Historical Perspective

    Open Access•Del Roy Fletcher•Social Policy and Society•2014

  • Employers' organizations, unemployment and social politics in Britain during the inter‐war period∗

    Terence Rodgers•Social History•1988

  • Managing industrial discontent in Britain, 1927-1930

    Emanuel Nicolas Bourges Espinosa•Labor History•2021

  • The Slump

    John Saville, John Stevenson et al.•The American Historical Review•1979

  • The British Communist Party

    Open Access•E J Hobsbawm•The Political Quarterly•1954

  • The Left Book Club

    Open Access•Stuart Samuels•Journal of Contemporary History•1966

  • The Shop Stewards' Movement and Workers' Control, 1910-1922

    Branko Pribicevic•Economica•1960

Unique citing works3
Citations per year0,08
Citation span1988 - 2021 (34)
Citation velocityhistorical
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 3

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