Spanning a period which stretches from the 19th century to the present day, this book takes a novel look at the British labour movement by examining the interaction between trade unions, the Labour Party, other parties and groups of the Left, and the wider working class, to highlight the dialectic nature of these relationships, marked by consensus and dissention. It shows that, although perceived as a source of weakness, those inner conflicts have also been a source of creative tension, at times generating significant breakthroughs. The book brings together labour historians and political scientists who provide a range of case studies as well as more wide-ranging assessments of recent trends in labour organising. It will therefore be of interest to academics and students of history and politics, as well as to practitioners, in the British Isles and beyond.

Introduction: The British labour movement between unity and division - Emmanuelle Avril and Yann Béliard
Part I: Labour's first century: disputed solidarities
1 The Grand National Consolidated Trades' Union, 1833-1834. Class and conflict in the early British labour movement - Ophélie Siméon
2 The Knights of Labor and the British trade unions, 1880-1900 - Steven Parfitt
3 The struggle for control of the Durham Miners' Association, 1890s-1915 - Lewis H. Mates
4Contested coordinator. The Hull Trades Council, 1872-1914 - Yann Béliard
5 Domestic servants and the labour movement, 1870s-1914: a 'race apart'? - Anna Clark
Part II: Convergences, divergences and realignments on the left
6 'The people's main defence against monopoly'? The Co-op, the Labour Party, and Resale Price Maintenance, 1918-1964 - David Stewart
7 The British Left's attitude towards the Battle of Athens, December 1944 - February 1945: commonalities and divisions - Anastasia Chartomatsidi
8 The decline of revolutionary pragmatism and the splintering of British Communism in the 1980s - Jeremy Tranmer
9 Re-framing the debate on breakaway trade unions in an era of neoliberalism - David Evans.
10 English teachers' unions since 2010. 'A teachers' lobby divided against itself'? - Anne Beauvallet
Part III: The Labour Party today: fragmentation or mutation?
11 Dissent in the Parliamentary Labour Party, 1945-2015 - Nick Randall
12 'What dire effects from civil discord flow': Party management and legitimacy breakdown in the Labour Party - Eric Shaw
13 The conflicting loyalties of the Scottish Labour Party - Fiona Simpkins
14 The 'movementisation' of the Labour Party and the future of labour organising - Emmanuelle Avril
Concluding remarks - Emmanuelle Avril & Yann Béliard
Index

Editors

Emmanuelle Avril is Professor of Contemporary British Politics and Society at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University, Paris

Yann Béliard is Senior Lecturer in British Political and Social History at Sorbonne Nouvelle University, Paris