On The British Trade Union Attitudes Towards Nationalization

Britain is the cradle of the industrial revolution and birthplace of the world labor movement. Since appear, British working class struggles in many ways in order to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests. In social and political life the trade unions plays an important role in the British political, economic policy which can not be ignored. Nationalization of industry trends appear to depend on the state of development of the industrial and domestic economic environment, and the attitude of the British trade union for the nationalization is closely relation with their own economic interests and industrial environments. The policies with strong socialist overtones are upheld by the British trade union profound impact on the development of the industry. The end of the19th century to the early20th century, with the British domestic politics and the change in economic conditions, the attitude of the trade unions on the nationalization has a certain change, especially under the stimulation of the outbreak of World War I. With the outbreak of World War I, the British economy is steered into the orbit of the wartime economy. The government relating to the situation of war military industry and other important industrial sectors in order to actively copes with the impact of the war on the economy, which can be considered the prototype of state intervention in the economy. Faced with the outbreak of war, an actively cooperate with and support attitude are taken by the trade unions, which makes the union’s social status has risen and won the trust of the government. Also the union out of self-interest, they support the implementation of national control of this period. After the war, how to achieve; smooth transition of the post-war economic is an important issue that the government needs to face. The wartime national regulatory plays effectiveness to some extent, so the union believes that if the wartime state intervention in the economy extends to times of peace, the same is conducive to the recovery of the post-war economic. It can be see that the union held a positive attitude to nationalization. Post-war Britain’s traditional industries suffered a heavy blow, especially in a crisis for the coal industry as a pillar industry, eventually leading to the emergence strike in1926. After general strike the union fully accepted and endorsed the nationalization, and believed that the only achieve national control and intervention in industry can solve the main problems of the British face. Until the end of World War II, the British trade union nationalized as an important policy to promote economic development. After World War II, economic stagnancy appeared in British, the Labour government nationalized as a medicine to cure the economy. In the course of its ruling, the UK coal, electric power, transportation, steel and other basic industries were nationalized, which is the first post-war state-owned of climax. In certain circumstances, the generation of nationalization is an inevitable result with the continuous problem occurs and solving can not rely on other means of government. From the deep point of view, the emergence of nationalization by the stimulation of economic development trends, to strengthen the efforts of state intervention and implementation of government centralization in the economic development process.I will mainly discuss the following four parts:The first part introduces the development and main ideological trend of the earlier trade unions. Mainly discusses as a capitalist industrialization development of the earliest countries, the British trade union organizations emergence was inevitable. Then the union becomes an important organization in safeguarding workers’ trade unions under the influence of the various ideological trends. Before the outbreak of the First World War, due to the economic situation changes, new ideas appear in the trade unions and forming their own understanding on the nationalization.The stimulation of the war the British economy has entered a wartime track is discussed in detail in the second part. The state began to control some important industrial areas, which makes the union has a new understanding in the nationalization. The War provided an objective environment for the union to achieve important changes, starting from the wartime British problem the Confederation of Labour began discussion of a wide range of nationalization of key industrial and service sectors during the War. In this period, the unions hold a preliminary recognition and acceptance attitude to the nationalization.In the third part, the transformation of post-war British economy and changes of trade unions under this environment are concretely analyzed. The characteristics of the post-war situation in the field of industrial and trade unions decided to the Confederation of Labour gradual enlarge the scope of nationalization, which focus on the Union of Mineworkers support the nationalization of the coal industry was accelerated by coal crisis appears.