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Manipulating hegemony : British Labour and the Marshall Plan
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Vickers, Rhiannon (1998) Manipulating hegemony : British Labour and the Marshall Plan. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
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Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b1363700~S15
Abstract
This study examines the impact of the Marshall Plan on the British Labour
government and the trade union movement. It argues that the British government
was able to 'manage' relations with the US in terms of limiting unwanted US
influence, while restructuring relations with its domestic support base. in this
way, the British government was able to play what Putnam has referred to as a
two-level game, satisfying demands at both the national and international levels.
The Marshall Plan provides evidence of how, as Putnam explains, 'central
decision-makers strive to reconcile domestic and international imperatives
simultaneously'. By drawing on TUC archives it shows how the government and
the leadership of the TUC used the Marshall Plan to realign the unions and
increase their control over the labour movement.
The study rejects arguments that the Labour government was forced to change its
policies because of the Marshall Plan. Instead it shows that the Labour
government used American pressure to persuade its own constituents of the value
of its policies. The government and trade union leaderships were able control
those on the left through an anti-communist campaign while removing
communists from positions of authority. Through its role in the establishment of
an anti-communist, pro-Marshall Plan international trade union body, the British
Trades Union Congress weakened the left's source of external support. The
establishment of a network of pro-Marshall Plan organisations such as the
European Recovery Programme Trade Union Advisory Committee and the
Anglo-American Council on Productivity, helped the trade union leadership to
delineate the parameters of debate and to assure the longer-term marginalisation
of the far left.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
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Subjects: | D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain | ||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Marshall Plan, Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 1945-1964, Great Britain -- Foreign relations -- United States, Labor unions -- Great Britain -- History -- 20th century, Trades Union Congress -- History | ||||
Official Date: | February 1998 | ||||
Dates: |
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Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
Theses Department: | Department of Politics and International Studies | ||||
Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Burnham, Peter, 1959- | ||||
Extent: | v, 298 leaves | ||||
Language: | eng |
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