Towards a Politics of the Rainbow

This title was first published in 2002: The trade union movement in twentieth-century Britain has been a cornerstone for society's marginalized members - women, disabled people, lesbians and gay men and people from black and ethnic minority communities. As these groups of workers self-organized to reform their unions, they built a bridge between the old social movement based around class position and labour identity and the new social movements based around civil rights and status stratifications. This book presents a detailed look at self-organization within public sector unions through the emergence of four self-organized groups within NALGO and later, UNISON. Drawing upon unique insider knowledge of the alliances and antipathies between the self-organized groups and the host union, the book also provides fascinating revelations of the tensions between self-organized groups themselves. This study will be essential reading for students of political sociology and industrial relations.

Jill C. Humphrey

Contents: The Rain Clouds: Trade unions and civil rights; Oppression and its overcoming. The Creation of a Rainbow: The NALGO experiment; The UNISON constitution; Some separatist dilemmas. The Colour Purple: Out of the work place closet; Out and about in the union; Some feminist dilemmas. Beneath and Beyond the Rainbow: Reflections from the field; Reflections for the future; Bibliography; Index.