Chavs: The Demonisation of the Working Class
Owen Jones £9.99
Hard to believe that anyone has still not read this book but it remains a steady seller in the shop and on pop-up stalls when we are out and about around the country. Owen Jones explores how the working class has gone from salt of the earth to scum of the earth. Parts of the media and politicians across parties dismiss a vast, underprivileged swathe of society as feckless, criminalised and ignorant. They have become stereotyped by one, hate-filled word: chavs.
Jones argues that the chav stereotype is used by governments as a convenient fig-leaf to avoid genuine engagement with social and economic problems, and to justify widening inequality. This is a damning indictment of the media and political establishment and an illuminating, disturbing portrait of inequality and class hatred in modern Britain.
The People Speak: Voices that Changed Britain
Colin Firth & Anthony Arnove (ed.) £17.99
The story of Britain through the voices of the dissenters, rebels and everyday folk who took on the Establishment. Here are their stories, letters, speeches and songs, from Thomas Paine to Oscar Wilde. From the peasants’ revolts to the suffragists to the anti-war demonstrators of today. It’s about everything that matters to us, love and life, sex and death, justice and freedom. There are amazing speeches from the most unlikely places, British and Irish voices that have been ignored for centuries because history is a tale often told by the winners.
A People’s History of the Second World War
Donny Gluckstein, £19.99
Fifty million people died across five continents, including 28 million civilians. London, Berlin, Warsaw, Stalingrad, Rotterdam and Hiroshima were destroyed or severely damaged. Yet somehow WW2 is remembered as a “good war”. Until now, most historical accounts have focussed on the conflict between the Allied and Axis powers for imperialist domination. But Donny Gluckstein shows that between 1939 and 1945 two distinct wars were fought – one ‘from above’ and one ‘from below’.
Using examples from countries under the Nazi heel, from the colonies and within the Axis and Allied camps, Gluckstein brings to life the very different struggle of the people’s and resistance movements which proliferated during the war. He shows how they fought not just fascism, but colonialism and empire and how they were betrayed by the Allies at the war’s end.
This book might just change your mind about the Second World War – both about the people who fought it and the reasons for which it was fought.
The Vote: How it was Won and How it was Undermined
Paul Foot, £13.99
The final book written by campaigning journalist Paul Foot in the run up to his death in 2004 is a searing account of the fight for democracy from the 17th century to the 21st, and how the limited democracy that has been won has failed to deliver on its promises.
Telling the stories of the radicals in the English Revolution, the Suffragettes and many others, he shows that the struggle for real democracy must continue today.
Tony Benn wrote a great review of this book when it was first published, and he has now written a new preface to this edition. In 2005 Benn said: “He starts with the famous debates that took place in Putney Church in 1647 between the Cromwellian grandees and the radical Levellers. They read with a resonance that links us directly to the same arguments that now take place between governments and big corporations on the one hand and the people on the other.”
“It gives us a new perspective for the future, to which we will often need to turn if we are to make sense of what is happening and rebuild the democracy to which Paul was so passionately committed.”
As democracy movements are taking place across the globe, Foot’s book is more relevant than ever. Having been out of print for several years, The Vote has finally been made available again in paperback.
Michael Herbert, £9.95
This short book from the North West Labour History Society tells the stories of Manchester’s radical women who campaigned for social change between 1819 and 1918. Beginning with the bloody massacre of Peterloo it includes feminists, socialists and trade unionists who shook the establishment with their campaigns for civil rights. You can read the story of the women Chartists from Ashton-under-Lyne, who wrote in 1839 “no man shall enjoy our hands, our hearts or share our beds, that will not stand forward as the advocate of the rights of man”. Stirring stuff!
William Morris with an introduction by Michael Rosen, £6.99
Most people know William Morris for his designs, but he was also an accomplished writer whose poetry was used for songs and chants by the socialist movement. Michael Rosen has written an introduction to this new book where he argues that Morris was part of a long tradition of protest writing.
While not quite what we are used to hearing on demonstrations today, the poems by Morris have a lyrical power.
This is the host that bears the word
No Master high or low
A lightning flame, a shearing sword
A storm to overthrow
China Mieville, £17.99 (Hardback)
A re-imagined Moby Dick with trains and moles. Lots of trains, and gigantic moles with flashing teeth and sharp claws. Sham ap Soorap, the novel’s teenaged narrator and protagonist, is apprenticed to the doctor on the mole-hunter’s train the Medes – a train which roams the wide world of the Railsea. The Medes hunts the “moldywarpe,” the giant moles which burrow under the earth and the tracks.
With dead seas, poisoned earth and the scrap from previous civilisations scattered around the railsea, expect to find messages about the ruination of the environment, about the madness of capitalism and a challenge to the politics of austerity. But in typical Mieville style, these are interwoven into story-telling that is exhilarating and fresh. This is a great read for teenagers and adults alike. A chance to slip away into a world of make-believe that has just enough reality to keep it truly interesting.
The paperback will be out next year, but if you need a good novel to get you through Christmas, this will do the job.
Maggie Craig, £12.99
A warm and detailed account of the Red Clydeside movement, but one that doesn’t just restrict itself to the period of the Great Unrest (1910-1919). It looks at history on the Clyde right through the 1926 General Strike, the hungry 30s, the Second World War and the Clydebank Blitz, even touching on the 1970s Upper Clyde Shipbuilders occupation in the final chapter.
The story of working class fighters who were not just leaders in their workplaces but also closely tied to the suffragette movement, the drive for working class women to access birth control and played a part in the Spanish Civil War.
The book gives a refreshing focus particularly on the struggles of women, in workplaces and in the community. Even the Glasgow tea rooms didn’t escape the Red Clydesiders. In 1920 a month-long strike by Kerr’s Cafe waitresses challenged long hours and bullying management ploys. From the spectacular 1911 Singer strike to leading Red Clydesiders such as Helen Crawford we are reminded of the central role women played throughout.
A really interesting read with a wealth of facts and stories that explore working class history and the role of workers in shaping it.
Bert: The Life and Times of A. L. Lloyd
Dave Arthur £24.99
Folk singer, writer, painter, journalist, art critic, whalerman, sheep station roustabout, Marxist, and much more – this is the story of an extraordinary life. A. L. Lloyd played a key part in the folk music revival of the 50s and 60s, but that is only part of his story. Dave Arthur documents how Lloyd became a member of the Communist Party, a forceful antifascist, trade unionist and an important part of left-wing culture from the early 1930s to his death in 1982.
Howard Zinn, read by Brian Jones £14.99
Marx is back! The premise of this witty “play on history” is that Karl Marx has agitated with the authorities of the afterlife for a chance to clear his name. Through a bureaucratic error, though, Marx is sent to Soho in New York, rather than his old stomping ground in London, to make his case. Written by Howard Zinn (A People’s History of the United States) and performed by African American actor and activist Brian Jones, this is a brilliant introduction to Marx’s life and passion for radical change.
All these books are available to buy here.
Andrea Butcher
This article was first published in https://union-news.co.uk/
