ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that 1972 was generally a ‘glorious summer’ for British trade unionism and presents a very different role model to that manufactured by politicians and press in the so-called ‘Winter of Discontent’, which has dominated public debate ever since. The events of 1972 marked the high point of class struggle during the long postwar boom, a year when the British state’s increasing politicization of industrial relations clashed with a generally undefeated and increasingly self-confident and militant working-class. The combination of three features in the disputes – the centrality of rank and file involvement, the widespread use of pickets, and the successful outcomes – was responsible for the immediate shift in policing policy in industrial disputes and the Conservatives’ later legislative initiatives. The policy shift toward more aggressive policing was to be seen more publicly in the later stages of the Grunwick strike in 1977.
