Capital & Class

Examining the policies and practices of trade unions during the 1980s, the authors investigate the tension between bureaucratic and collective participative relations within and between unions: finding that bureaucratic forms, involving accommodation with government policies, have predominated.

Bob Carter's account of the miner's strike in South Derbyshire locates it in relation to the broader debates about the character of the strike. He argues that the events in Derbyshire suggest a modification to existing pictures of the dispute.

After reviewing, briefly, Marxist theories of the law, Denham examines the operation of recent unfair dismissal law; finding that few rights for workers are included to counter the enhancement of managerial decision making and ideological control.

Research into the divisions of domestic work between men and women living in Wearside — an area which suffered high and sustained levels of male unemployment in the 1970s and 1980s — suggests that the restructuring of the local economy is having a significant impact on gender relations within the home.