The National Umemployement Workers’s Movement

Emanuel Bourges, second year PhD student in Social Science, talked about “The National Unemployment Workers’s Movement”

His presentation is titled as “The National Unemployment Workers’s Movement” and it is available here

Abstract

Abstract: Between 1926 and 1936, the National Unemployed Workers’ Movement was isolated from the British labour movement and threatened by the hostility from the State and the traditional trade unions. Just after the Russian Revolution had taken place, when corporatism dominated British administrations, with unemployment rising up to 23 per cent in national terms –over 30 per cent in some areas– the NUWM, led by members of the Communist Party of Great Britain, challenged trade unions’ monopoly over workers’ affairs and demanded both Conservative and Labour governments to use public expenditure to guarantee the unemployed to live with dignity. Work or full maintenance for the unemployed, as well as the abolition of the “not genuinely seeking clause”, the means tests and workers’ transference, were the NUWM’s claims on behalf of the unemployed. This research analyse the triangular relationship between the state, the traditional trade unions, gathered in the Trade Union Congress, and the NUWM. Emanuel Bourges

Author

Emanuel Bourges is originally from Mexico City. He studied a Bacherlor’s in History and a master’s degree in Government and Public Affairs at the National University of Mexico. He has researched on contemporary Mexico and Spain, and is interested in comparative politics, political economy and political contemporary history. He is currently doing a PhD in Political Science and International Studies.