ABSTRACT
Community action and similar phrases became very much vogue terms during the 1970’s, thrown around loosely in discussion, meaning different things to different people. As far as we are concerned here, community action is a category of collective social action, based in working class residential areas, to tackle a wide range of issues arising outside the traditional places of employment. The main areas of concern for community action groups have been housing, communal space and halls, welfare rights, unemployment, vandalism, services for the young and the aged, recreation and leisure facilities, transport, education, health and arts and writing workshops. The de-subordination of women has still hardly even begun, but another important step has been made towards it, with considerable consequences, not just for the state, but also for the labour movement generally and particularly for community action.
