Tag: 1980s

Bursary reports, MA & BA bursaries

Jamie Ferris (Northumbria) on British reactions to the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

National responses to an invasion are often thought about in simplified terms, seeing it as an outrage. This was even more true of invasions during the Cold War. Britain’s response to the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan is coloured by this Cold War lens, with anti-communist figures such as Margaret Thatcher condemning the war and following the USA in taking action against the USSR. My … Continue reading Jamie Ferris (Northumbria) on British reactions to the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

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Documents & objects

The People’s March for Jobs: taking the protest to Westminster

The first People’s March for Jobs had been a great success. Five hundred marchers set off from Liverpool, Yorkshire and South Wales, heading towards Westminster in a conscious echo of the Jarrow Crusade of 1936 and with a similar objective – to highlight the plight of those at the sharp end of government economic policies that were devastating whole industries. Initiated by the North West … Continue reading The People’s March for Jobs: taking the protest to Westminster

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Documents & objects

The Edwardes Plan and Your Job: when the 1970s ended and the managerialist 1980s began

By November 1979, the ‘Winter of Discontent’ was long past, Margaret Thatcher was nearing her first Christmas as prime minister, and everything had changed. But if you were looking to identify the exact moment at which the confident trade unionism of the 1970s gave way to the rising managerialism of the 1980s, you could do worse than choose the day that this pamphlet landed on … Continue reading The Edwardes Plan and Your Job: when the 1970s ended and the managerialist 1980s began

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Documents & objects

GCHQ: a badge of honour for trade unionism

On 14 May 1997, just a fortnight after the landslide election of a Labour government, Foreign Secretary Robin Cook stood up in the House of Commons to announce that a thirteen-year ban on trade union membership at the Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ) was to be rescinded. The long-promised move brought to an end one of the longest-running industrial disputes in British history, and one of … Continue reading GCHQ: a badge of honour for trade unionism

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Labour History Review

Labour History Review Volume 86 (2021), Issue 3

Labour History Review Volume 86 (2021), Issue 3 has now been published. This special themed issue of Labour History Review on ‘Challenges to State Socialism in Central and Eastern Europe: Activists, Movements and Alliances in the 1970s and 1980s’ is edited by Daniel Laqua and Charlotte Alston. In this issue: Daniel Laqua and Charlotte Alston on Activism and Dissent under State Socialism: Coalitions and Campaigns in the 1970s … Continue reading Labour History Review Volume 86 (2021), Issue 3

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Labour History Review

Activism and Dissent under State Socialism: Coalitions and Campaigns in the 1970s and 1980s

Authors: Daniel Laqua and Charlotte AlstonThis is the abstract of an article published in Labour History Review (2021), 86, (3), 295-311. Find out more. This article introduces a special Labour History Review issue on the subject of Challenges to State Socialism in Central and Eastern Europe: Activists, Movements and Alliances in the 1970s and 1980s. Our piece highlights different stimuli for dissent and opposition in the Eastern bloc, drawing … Continue reading Activism and Dissent under State Socialism: Coalitions and Campaigns in the 1970s and 1980s

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Labour History Review

‘Gamekeeper Turned Poacher’: Frank Chapple, Anti-Communism and Soviet Human Rights Violations

Author: Mark HurstThis is the abstract of an article published in Labour History Review (2021), 86, (3), 313-337. Find out more. The inclusion of the British trade union leader Frank Chapple on the panel of the 1985 Sakharov hearings, an event designed to hold the Soviet authorities to account for their violation of human rights, raises questions about the workings of the broader network of activists … Continue reading ‘Gamekeeper Turned Poacher’: Frank Chapple, Anti-Communism and Soviet Human Rights Violations

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Labour History Review

Solidarity in Search of Human Agency: ‘Détente from Below’ and Independent Peace Activists in the Soviet Union

Author: Irina GordeevaThis is the abstract of an article published in Labour History Review (2021), 86, (3), 339-368. Find out more. While the histories of Western grassroots movements and the officially sanctioned, communist-sponsored peace movement are well known, the independent peace activists of the Soviet bloc have remained footnotes in the history of social movements. The Group for the Establishment of Trust between East and West … Continue reading Solidarity in Search of Human Agency: ‘Détente from Below’ and Independent Peace Activists in the Soviet Union

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Labour History Review

Transnational Dimensions of a ‘German Case’: The Expatriation of Wolf Biermann and the Politics of Solidarity in the 1970s

Author: Daniel LaquaThis is the abstract of an article published in Labour History Review (2021), 86, (3), 369-396. Find out more. In November 1976, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) announced the expatriation of the dissident singer-songwriter Wolf Biermann, preventing his return from a concert tour in West Germany. This step attracted widespread press coverage and sparked a substantial expression of solidarity by East German intellectuals. This … Continue reading Transnational Dimensions of a ‘German Case’: The Expatriation of Wolf Biermann and the Politics of Solidarity in the 1970s

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