Paul Bagguley "From Protest to Acquiescence?: Political Movements of the Unemployed" (Macmillan)
"Unemployment reached unprecedented levels in Britain during the 1980s, but this did not result in widespread social protest. During the 1930s, in comparison, protest was well organised and widespread. In this book the author sets out to explain why. The book develops a theoretical analysis of the changing relationship between the unemployed and the state and a theory of mobilization and collective action. Using interviews with the unemployed during the 1980s, those who have been involved in attempts to organize the unemployed are compared with those who have been quiescent."
Apart from the precis from Amazon, this is a succinct summation of the problems with organizing the unemployed into a coherent political force. Pertinent now as it was for the dark days of Thatcherism.
The first five chapters look at the problem from a theoretical and sociological aspect whilst from the latter chapters take anecdotal evidence and rounds up the study in a quantitative approach. What struck me most is that the isolation and lack of money echo the same problems now as they were in the eighties.
Special mention was made of the Brighton Unemployment Centre which used volunteers from those looking for work to help run the centre , and to which it gave them a focus other than just sitting at room. I also thought that what we need now is a UWU (or an Unemployed Workers Union).
