Left‐of‐Centre Parties and Trade Unions in the Twenty‐First Century, edited by Elin Haugsgjerd Allern and Tim Bale. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2017, 432 pp., ISBN: 9780198790471, $136.50, hardback.
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/bjir.12259 |
| Date | 01 December 2017 |
| Author | Mark Bergfeld |
| Published date | 01 December 2017 |
Book Reviews 881
state-socialist ideas and assumptions’ in British labour history is unconvincing. They
do ‘protest too much, methinks’.
DAVE LYDDON
Keele University
Left-of-Centre Parties and Trade Unions in the Twenty-First Century,editedby
Elin Haugsgjerd Allern and Tim Bale. Oxford University Press, Oxford,2017, 432
pp., ISBN: 9780198790471, $136.50, hardback.
The British Labour Party has witnessed contention, movement and realignmentin its
relationship to unions in the last seven years. In 2010, Ed Miliband won the leadership
race largely due to union support. Once in position, however“Red Ed” publicly spoke
out against industrial action in the public sector. In an attempt to curtail the power
of the unions, the party then decided to give each member a vote in the leadership
election. Paradoxically, this led to left-wing backbencher Jeremy Corbynbeing elected
as party leader in 2015. Since then, accusations of closeness between Unite the Union
and Momentum – a grass-roots activist network in the Labour Party – have surfaced
in the media time and time again. Realignment has also occurred as the Fire Brigades
Union has realiatedto the Labour Party and the Bakers’ Union (BWAFU)now holds
a seat on the party’snational executive committee.
It is in this context that Elin Haugsgjerd Allern and Tim Bale’s edited volume
makes for a timely read. It systematically examines the closeness and distance of the
relationship between left-of-centre parties and trade unions in 12 dierent countries
from Australiato Switz erland. Throughtheir comparative approach, the editors hope
to explore variation between countries and relationships and aim to move beyond
surface level movements described above.
The editors define left-of-centre parties as social-democratic, socialist, labour and
communist parties “associated with the old historical labour movement and their
eective splinter groups” (p. 4). Oddly enough, this also includes the US Democratic
Party,who do not share this history and would barely be described as left-of-centre in
the British or European context.
For the editors, organizations are made up of dyads maintaining politically
significant relationships. Hence, dealings between trade unions and political parties
are multi-dimensional phenomenon constituted by “links that can provide mutual
decision-making, planning, and/or coordination of activities – or simply involve
regular communication about political issues” (p. 10). The book’s main hypothesis
is that the relationships between left-of-centre parties and trade unions are not very
strong and that variationexists in the strengths of the links in and across countries.
The organizational closeness/distance of these relationships is extrapolated from a
general cost-benefit model of resource exchange and transaction costs theory. This
theoretical approach states that links are weaker the less they return in votes, or
collective bargaining outcomes.As all authors apply this theoretical model, this book
advances a robust comparison between very dierent parties with diering historical
lineages across dierent contexts. Arguably, it lays the foundationfor further study of
the party-union relationship in the Global South, and new left formations wherever
they emerge.
The chapters on the USA, Britain and Germany underline the theoretical and
political relevance of the volume at hand. According to PaulWebb and Tim Bale, the
C
2017 John Wiley& Sons Ltd.
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