ABSTRACT
‘The immense haunt of misery’ is Engels’ phrase. In reformulating Engels’ phrase for the title of this book we do not mean to suggest that the working class in Britain is in a revolutionary situation. Far from it. Antagonism against capitalism is real and widespread. But one can no longer share Engels’ conviction that class is the only or the most salient dimension of opposition. In the last twenty-five years, movements based on gender, race, and subculture (e.g., ecology groups, CND, youth groups, etc.), have emerged which lack a distinctive or consistent class character. Similarly, Dale and Foster (1986: 96) attack social workers influenced by psycho-dynamic approaches for not recognising ‘that the problems faced by their individual female clients might have been more related to their positions in society than to their individual psyches’.
