ABSTRACT
An examination of the future relationship between the trade unions in Britain and the Labour Party must commence with some analysis of what the trade unions expect from a political party and how far the unions themselves have what could be called a coherent political philosophy. The history of the Labour Party is littered with the whitened bones of arguments over the years between the political extremists in the trade unions and those holding ‘moderate’ views. The political ravine in the views of the unions is inevitably reflected in the arguments about policy in the Labour Party and also in the industrial attitudes of the unions. Mr D. W. Rawson argues that the decline of the trade union affiliated Labour Parties is inevitable because of the changing occupational patterns in industrial countries and the growth of trade unionism among non-manual workers in those countries, including Great Britain.
