Next Labour? Changes in British Union-Labour Party Relations since the Election of Tony Blair

Abstract

The British Labour Party’s embrace of neoliberal policies through the government of Tony Blair was principally the result of a shift to a more passive approach to union–party relations on the part of organized labour. The labor movement’s defensiveness created the opening through which Blair and his colleagues moved to establish a close relationship with business, bringing the Party into a “neoliberal power network,” actively contributing to the reproduction of neoliberal hegemony. This passivity continued under Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband, exemplified by the unions’ endorsement of the Collins Review, thus effectively block-voting for the Labour Party to “distance itself” from them. Yet Jeremy Corbyn, who defied expectations and led Labour to sweeping victories in the recent British general election, has a quite different relationship with the unions. This paper will provide details and determine if the unions’ political and industrial strategies have substantially changed now that a clearly pro-labor MP leads the Labour Party.