How do solidaristic worker’s movements emerge and what makes them sustainable? Maya will examine this question through a comparison of trade union politics in the US and UK at the turn of the twentieth century. Throughout much of the nineteenth century, both movements rejected government aid in favour of an exclusive set of trade union benefits. By the early twentieth century, the movements had diverged: whereas the British Trades Union Congress came to embrace universal state benefits, the American Federation of Labor clung to its exclusive benefits system and campaigned against state aid. I show that this divergence was a reflection not of trade union members, but of government regulation. In both contexts, state legitimated and promoted the sort of trade union associations that aligned with their developmental priorities. For our contemporary context, this history suggests that states play a critical role in promoting solidaristic political mobilisation. Policy makers should ensure that the legal environment fosters the sort of movements they want to see. Maya Aderath teaches Political Sociology at the LSE.

We hope to see many of you there. We will meet in the foyer and walk to the ground-floor (easy-to-access) room.