The British trade unionist and Labour MP A. A. Purcell (1872-1935) once enjoyed international notoriety. An outspoken champion of Soviet Russia, he nevertheless performed the highest labour movement responsibilities and was a leading figure on the TUC General Council. Purcell was a member of the earliest British labour delegations to Russia and his presidency of the International Federation of Trade Unions coincided with the TUC's energetic promotion of the cause of Anglo-Russian trade union unity, culminating in the publication of a glowing TUC report on the Soviets in 1925. However, as a leading TUC 'left' his credibility was badly dented by the failure of the General Strike in 1926, and the following year he lost his position with the IFTU. He ended his career in the relative obscurity of the Manchester and Salford Trades Council.
Les mer
Part of a three-volume series, this work examines attitudes to Soviet Russia as a way of opening up questions about the character of the British left between the 1890s and the 1940s.
1 Around a life 2 Syndicalism, internationalism and the furnishing trades 2.1 Syndicalists without syndicalism? 2.2 Socialist and syndicalist 2.3 Syndicalism and the Furnishing Trades 2.4 'An international class' 2.5 War, revolution 3 Roads to freedom in the 1920s 3.1 The swing of the pendulum 3.2 Non-party communist 3.3 Guild socialist 3.4 Parliamentary socialist 3.5 The persistency of syndicalism 4 Labour's Russian delegations 4.1 Insular internationalists 4.2 Russia 1920 4.3 'Getting together' 4.4 Russia 1924 4.5 Social anti-imperialism 5 'Swimming against a flood': Emma Goldman in London 5.1 A habit of truth-telling 5.2 That damn fake Purcelle 5.3 Anarchism and the English psychology 5.4 A nation of shopkeepers 5.5 The Russian superstition 6 The other future? 6.1 The future in America? 6.2 Fordism and the left 6.3 Workers vs robots 6.4 Cultural critique 6.5 Purcell in America 7 The General Strike 7.1 The strike as social myth 7.2 The dynamics of solidarity 7.3 Strike discussions 7.4 The nine days 7.5 A melancholy comparison 8 Democracy or dictatorship? 8.1 The 'Congress of Reckoning' 8.2 Citrine as new exemplar Epilogue: A claim-making performer
Les mer

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781905007271
Publisert
2013-04-04
Utgiver
Vendor
Lawrence & Wishart Ltd
Høyde
216 mm
Bredde
138 mm
Aldersnivå
UU, UP, 05
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Antall sider
480

Forfatter

Biographical note

Kevin Morgan is Professor of Politics and Contemporary History at the University of Manchester. He is the author of Harry Pollitt and co-author of Communists in British Society 1920-1991.