Challenge of Labour

The Challenge of Labour (1980) explains the changing forms of labour’s relationship with British society during the period of 1850 to 1930 – as the economic and social relations of Britain, the pioneer of modern industrial development, were undergoing a profound transformation due to increasing pressure from foreign competitors. It looks at the importance of the forces of production in determining the character of the relationship, whilst regarding labour as a creative act, identifying man as a social animal. This important period gave rise to a unique symbiosis in terms of a mutually dependent but simultaneously antagonistic relationship, reflected in the growth of trade unionism, associations for working class ‘self-help’, and labourist political movements during the years 1850–70. The book goes on to explain why and how these forms of labour’s relationship with British society as a whole were subsequently to be transformed as they were affected by the changing direction of Britain’s economic development after the 1870s. This resulted in a recognisable ‘modern’ pattern of British social relations, marked by a growing acceptance of ‘corporatist’ solutions to problems of economic and social instability.

Keith Burgess