Managing industrial discontent in Britain, 1927-1930: the industrial cooperation talks and the segregation of the national unemployed workers’ movement

Abstract

ABSTRACT We remain without an adequate understanding of the process through which militant dissent was managed, and marginalised, during the inter-war development of British industrial relations. The industrial cooperation conferences between trade unions and business associations during the late 1920s reduced industrial conflict and reinforced the state’s strategies to avoid a crisis during the interwar years in Britain. The TUC’s involvement in the cooperation talks helped to legitimise trade unionism in the view of the state and capital. Furthermore, in joining the industrial conversations, the TUC reinforced its strategy of side-lining industrial dissident organisations, notably the National Unemployed Workers’ Movement (NUWM). Scholarship on industrial relations has inadequately grasped the relevance of the industrial cooperation talks in reducing industrial conflict and marginalising dissent during the interwar years in Britain. Using archival research and documentary analysis, this paper contributes to the literature on British industrial relations, highlighting the TUC’s attitudes against the NUWM during the late 1920s. In doing so, it advances an Open Marxist account, emphasising the role of the state in seeking to oversee smooth processes of exchange, distribution and production, which in turn has an impact upon the operation of trade unions.