The new politics of pressure – the Trades Union Congress and new Labour in government

Abstract

The TUC's political role has been in the forefront of its function for most of its history and has revived with the election of new Labour. This article argues that the TUC's current political approach is unlikely to contribute towards significant union resurgence in the workplace or politically.This article has twin starting points. First, commentators have noted the dearth of research on the work of the TUC over the last two decades. This has taken on specific significance in the light of the TUC's relaunch in 1994 (Heery 1998: a, b). Second, this absence took on particular importance with the election of a Labour government and the potential this holds for trade union resurgence and development of the unions' political role. Much of the work on union renewal has insisted that it must develop autonomously within the workplace (Fosh 1993, Fairbrother 1996. Yet all we know about union decline and resurgence suggests that the possibility of significant renewal, whatever form it may take, is intimately related to the role of the state, to political and economic factors and to the organisation of capital and labour beyond the workplace, as well as the agency of activists within it (for reviews see Towers 1997, Gall 1998). These factors constrain and facilitate what happens in the workplace. A new political and legal framework is insufficient in itself for union revival and will require vigorous exploitation. It remains necessary, and the TUC's role in establishing it is central (Towers 1997: 229).Our purpose is to develop recent investigations of the TUC which concentrate on its industrial campaigning (Heery 1998: a, b) by providing detailed exploration of its relations with the state during the first two years of the new Labour administration. A central purpose of reorganisation was to re-launch the TUC's political role as an influential social partner. Reflecting in 1998, TUC general secretary John Monks observed: 'it has been the relationship between the trade union movement and the Government which has dominated my time over the past year' (TUC 1998a:4). Ì John McIlroy is a Reader in the

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