Masters and Servants: Class and Patronage in the Making of a Labour Organisation : the Durham Miners and the English Political TraditionThe Durham Miners' Gala has traditionally been a central festival of the British labour movement - a tribute to the pivotal role of the Durham Miners' Association, which at its peak accounted for a quarter of mining union membership. This was the cradle of a trade unionism which aimed to secure workers' rights rather than to protect a craft. But Durham was quite unlike the world of class known to Marx and Dickens. It was a world of small, initially semi-feudal industrial villages; its natural leaders were strongly religious, and politically Liberal. This made it a source both of strength and of division in British class politics. Masters and Servants, a pioneering work of historical sociology, develops an analysis of trade unionism which extends beyond the workplace. Drawing on primary sources, Huw Beynon and Terry Austrin trace the development of the mining communities and of their solidarity. The people, speaking through contemporary reports, official evidence, autobiographies and through the authors' own interviews, are at the heart of their account. It provides a new and detailed understanding of mining society, and the complex ways in which both public and private life in the communities was regulated through custom and formal organisation. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
The Old Establishment | 9 |
Bonded Labour and Independent Miners | 29 |
Copyright | |
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Masters and Servants: Class and Patronage in the Making of a Labour ... Huw Beynon,Terry Austrin No preview available - 1994 |
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agent Armstrong and H Association banner Barnard Castle Beatrice Webb became Bestford Beynon eds Bishop Auckland Boldon British candidate Chapel checkweighman Chopwell club co-operative coal mining coal owners colliery Committee Conservative constituency County Record Office Crawford Cuthbert Headlam Dalton defeated Diaries district Durham coalfield Durham County Durham County Record Durham Miners Durham society Easington Past economic election employers established Fabian father Gala George Headlam History Horden Hugh Dalton Ibid industry involved Jack Lawson John Wilson Labour Party Lawther leaders Liberal lives lodge London Londonderry MacDonald Maurice Ridley meeting Methodist MFGB mining villages mother Newcastle Newcastle upon Tyne North East Northumberland officials op.cit organisation parliamentary Peter Lee pitmen political Present Archive Quoted remember represented Seaham seat secretary Sidney Webb social socialist strike struggle Sunderland trade union vote wages women workers working-class