Description
Book SynopsisWe shall not be moved provides a detailed analysis of the range and depth of responses by Liverpool''s working class to the onslaught of compulsory redundancies, factory closures and government cuts on Merseyside during the age of Thatcher and beyond.The last quarter of the twentieth century brought enormous change to working-class Britons. This transformation came mainly in the form of widespread industrial closure and the penury associated with permanent unemployment. The presence of mounting joblessness was arguably the most pervasive feature affecting both the economy and society of Liverpool during this period and the despair of idleness and economic deprivation blighted Merseyside to a significantly greater extent than any other major British conurbation. Whilst Liverpool and the surrounding Merseyside region had frequently been prone to industrial unrest since 1945, it was the dawn of Thatcher and the rise of neoliberalism that made the city a nucleus of resistance against the e
Trade Review‘Overall, Brian Marren has produced a very good book which for many years to come, will certainly contribute to the debate about political activism during the Thatcher years. Furthermore, through the gradual release of government archives and as historians begin to research the 1980s in greater depth, this study will in no doubt, feature in a number of books and articles about Liverpool and the Merseyside region, especially when reflecting how far the city has travelled and progressed over the past few decades.’
Neil Pye, University of Huddersfield, Labour History Review
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Table of ContentsIntroduction
1. Unravelling of the post-war consensus and the peculiarities of Liverpool
2. Employment and unemployment on Merseyside, 1945–98
3. British Leyland’s closure of the Triumph TR7 Plant in Speke: ‘The Shape of Things to Come’?
4. The TGWU 6/612 Branch for the Unemployed: Working-Class Politicisation and Mobilisation
5. The Toxteth Riots, 1981: unemployed youth take to the streets
6. The Militant Tendency and the Liverpool City Council’s fight to save ‘jobs and services’, 1983–86
7. Sit-ins and factory occupations: a case study of Cammell Laird Shipyards
8. The Liverpool Dock Strike of 1995–98: the end of the line?
Conclusion
Bibliography
