ABSTRACT
The chaos of multi-unionism means the British trade union ‘movement’ is ill-prepared to modernise. Mealy-mouthed views of the need for the ‘moderates’ to crush ‘extremism’ in the unions implies militant trade unionism should have no place in a free, democratic society. Britain remains a society divided rigidly by class and status. There is one major indestructible barrier to any effective and radical trade union movement in Britain and nobody has found a way of removing it. As Alan Flanders wrote, management and governments in Britain have for too long seen union leaders as ‘mainly managers of discontent’. A handful of union leaders are painfully aware of the inadequacies of the present structure. There is an often unappealing sectional self-interest about the motives of union leaders as well as members. Union leaders are practical, hard-headed people, who devote long hours to union business and take their heavy duties seriously.
