The TGWU, Bevin and the Economic Crisis

Abstract

This chapter deals with the union’s response to mass unemployment, the economic crisis and the failure of the labour government to make good on its election pledges- in particular its unwillingness to repeal the 1927 Trades Disputes Act. Thus trade union support for the MacDonald government waned Bevin’s alternative economic policy was based on Commonwealth tariff preference – this was attacked by the left. Bevin was also attacked for concentrating power in his own hands and for his industrial relation strategy based on an accommodation with capital. Under the control of Bevin and Citrine, the Daily Herald was transformed into a mass circulation paper, published by Odhams Press.