Trajectories of Solidarity: Changing Union-Party Linkages in the UK and the USA

Abstract

This article analyses the linkage between trade unions and the US Democratic Party and the UK Labour Party in the twentieth century. A typology suited to longitudinal analysis of labour movement union-party linkages is proposed to help characterise and explain historical development of these two national movements through earlier types of linkage, into 'New Labour' and 'New Democratic' forms. The paper suggests that, from similar starting points, differences through time in the range of types of linkage in the two movements can be explained by a combination of factors of political economy and electoral strategy, a combination that today points towards weaker relationships.The struggle of working people for control over the immediate rules under which they are obliged to sell their labour, and their wider struggle to obtain some degree of influence over the government policies to which they and their employers are subject, is as old and as ubiquitous as capitalism itself, indeed older. What is less general, but still remarkably common in long-established industrial societies, is the centrality to both those struggles of the linkage between what are often rhetorically referred to as the 'two wings of the labour movement': the linkage, that is, between major trade unions and the main political party appealing to the working class. On occasions that linkage has been one between revolutionary parties and

Solidarity Forever? The NDP, Organized Labour, and the Changing Face of Party Finance in Canada

“…This typology should not be misunderstood as a continuum, as “an internal lobbying linkage may involve more policy influence than a union-party bonding linkage” (Ludlam et al, 2002: 233–34).…”

Labour and the Struggle over the Future European Model of Capitalism: British and Swedish Trade Unions and their Positions on EMU and European Co-operation

“…Historically, a cornerstone of unions' influence on British policy-making was their close link to the Labour party (Ludlam et al 2002, 223–225). This ensured that unions had excellent access to government, when Labour was in power.…”

“…Unions' share of the party conference vote was reduced to 49 per cent in 1995. The number of seats on party committees was cut back as was the union share of party funding (Ludlam et al 2002, 228–230). Moreover, despite the Labour government's advances, actual policies did not fulfil unions' hopes.…”

The Development of an Anglo-American Model of Trade Union and Political Party Relations

“…Today, both labor movements find themselves linked with parties they no longer dominate, parties whose leaders have adopted policies generally corrosive of union power and aims. This article examines the routes each labor movement took from early impotence to the present impasse; and does so by deploying a typology we have discussed more fully elsewhere(Ludlam, Bodah, and Coates, 2002). It is a typology that differs from others…”