Ethical socialism and the trade unions: Allan Flanders and British industrial relations reforms

"Allan Flanders was one of the leading British industrial relations academics and his ideas exerted a major influence on government labor policy in the 1960s and 1970s. But as well as being an Oxford academic with a strong interest in theory and labor reform, he was also a lifelong political ac...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Kelly, John
Institution:ETUI-European Trade Union Institute
Format: TEXT
Language:English
Published: Abingdon 2010
Routledge
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.labourline.org/KENTIKA-080312480859-ethical-socialism-and-the-trad.htm
_version_ 1771659892936933378
author Kelly, John
author_facet Kelly, John
collection Library items
description "Allan Flanders was one of the leading British industrial relations academics and his ideas exerted a major influence on government labor policy in the 1960s and 1970s. But as well as being an Oxford academic with a strong interest in theory and labor reform, he was also a lifelong political activist. Originally trained in German revolutionary ethical socialism in the early 1930s, he was the founder and joint editor of Socialist Commentary, the leading outlet for 'revisionist' social democratic thinking in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s. He was also the leading figure in the influential 1950s 'think tank' Socialist Union and played a key part in the bitter factional struggles inside the Labour Party. The main argument of the book is that Flanders' ethical socialist ideas constituted both his strength and his weakness. Their rigor, clarity and sweep enabled him to exert a major influence over government attempts to negotiate labor reforms with the trade unions. Yet he proved unable to explain the failure of the reforms amidst rising levels of industrial conflict, as his intellectual rigor turned into ideological rigidity. The failure of negotiated reform led to Margaret Thatcher's neo-liberal assault on trade union power in the 1980s."
format TEXT
geographic United Kingdom
id 080312480859_5bf03e537c4041cf96e0b2309f5fa7cf
institution ETUI-European Trade Union Institute
is_hierarchy_id 080312480859_5bf03e537c4041cf96e0b2309f5fa7cf
is_hierarchy_title Ethical socialism and the trade unions: Allan Flanders and British industrial relations reforms
language English
physical 246 p.
Paper
publishDate 2010
publisher Abingdon
Routledge
spellingShingle Kelly, John
history
labour relations
socialism
trade unionism
Ethical socialism and the trade unions: Allan Flanders and British industrial relations reforms
thumbnail https://www.labourline.org/Image_prev.jpg?Archive=124000294228
title Ethical socialism and the trade unions: Allan Flanders and British industrial relations reforms
topic history
labour relations
socialism
trade unionism
url https://www.labourline.org/KENTIKA-080312480859-ethical-socialism-and-the-trad.htm