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This is volume 1 of 6 accessible volumes covering UNITE’s history from 1880-2010. This book covers the formation of the TGWU, rooted as it was in an era in which, from the 1880’s a mass trade union movement evolved. The drive to amalgamate the unions was spearheaded by Ernest Bevin and resulted in the creation of the TGWU, 1920-22 - a period that witnessed the intensification of pre and post war militancy which continued, unevenly, until the 1926 General Strike – a watershed moment in British labour history in which the TGWU played a key role both in the strike itself but also in its aftermath. Politically the union had a close relationship with the Labour Party and its two minority governments. This volume examines the role of the TGWU in both, as well as its response to the underlying economic, political and industrial issues of this turbulent period.

The Atlantic Ocean not only connected North and South America with Europe through trade but also provided the means for an exchange of knowledge and ideas, including political radicalism. Socialists and anarchists would use this “radical ocean” to escape state prosecution in their home countries and establish radical milieus abroad. However, this was often a rather unorganized development and therefore the connections that existed were quite diverse. The movement of individuals led to the establishment of organizational ties and the import and exchange of political publications between Europe and the Americas. The main aim of this book is to show how the transatlantic networks of political radicalism evolved with regard to socialist and anarchist milieus and in particular to look at the actors within the relevant processes—topics that have so far been neglected in the major histories of transnational political radicalism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Individual case studies are examined within a wider context to show how networks were actually created, how they functioned and their impact on the broader history of the radical Atlantic.

The First World War has often suffered from comparison to the Second, in terms of both public interest and the significance ascribed to it by scholars in the shaping of modern Britain. This is especially so for the relationship between the Left and these two wars. For the Left, the Second World War can be seen as a time of triumph: a united stand against fascism followed by a landslide election win and a radical, reforming Labour government. The First World War is more complex. Given the gratuitous cost in lives, the failure of a ‘fit country for heroes to live in’ to materialise, the deep recessions and unemployment of the inter-war years, and the botched peace settlements which served only to precipitate another war, the Left has tended to view the conflict as an unmitigated disaster and unpardonable waste. This has led to a tendency on the Left to see the later conflict as the ‘good’ war, fought against an obvious evil, and the earlier conflict as an imperialist blunder; the result of backroom scheming, secret pacts and a thirst for colonies. This book to moves away from a concentration on machinations at the elite levels of the labour movement, on events inside Parliament and intellectual developments; there is a focus on less well-visited material. This book argues that labour patriotism characterised the left’s stance on the First World War, the anti-war stance was marginalised, and this patriotism both held the labour movement together and ensured greater electoral success after 1918.

This book explores the general development of transnational radicalism between the 1850s and 1940s. This is achieved by means of a new and original study of the connected transnational lives and wider radical worlds of two important socialists, British-born Tom Mann (1856-1941) and Australian-born Robert Samuel Ross (1873-1941). Mann and Ross were very active, as labour organisers, editors and educators, in socialist and labour movements in the Anglophone world and beyond. They met in Australia in 1903, worked individually and together in trans-Tasman radical circles in Australia and New Zealand, and developed strong connections with radicals in the wider world. They kept in close touch after Mann’s departure for Britain, via South Africa, in 1910. They helped to build radical transnational movements and networks that sought to create a socialist alternative to capitalism and capitalist globalisation. These have been largely neglected in the literature. Based upon extensive primary- and secondary-based research, this book seeks to recapture this partly hidden world of transnational radicalism. In so doing it also makes a case in favour of transnational history against the ‘methodological nationalism’ which has dominated the subject of history for so long. It attempts to make a new and useful contribution to the literature on transnationalism, globalisation and social movements. It will appeal not only to historians but social scientists in general and all those interested in radical politics, especially those seeking radical alternatives to today’s neo-liberal globalisation and capitalism.

The political diaspora played a major part in the history of the international anarchist movement. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, hundreds of militants, escaping from domestic persecution and following their internationalist ideals, took the path of exile and established colonies in European and non-European countries. This book unveils the intriguing world of anarchist refugees in London from the second half of the nineteenth century to the outbreak of World War I. It combines an investigation of anarchist political organisations and activities with a study of the everyday life of militants by identifying the hitherto largely anonymous anarchist exiles from Italy who settled in London. Central to the book is an examination of the processes and associations through which these Italian anarchist exiles created an international revolutionary network which European and American governments and police forces esteemed to be an extremely dangerous threat. By investigating the political, social and cultural aspects of the colony of Italian anarchist refugees in London, the nature of the transnational anarchist diaspora and its relevance in the history of anarchy are made evident.