Scabs and Traitors: Taboo, Violence and Punishment in Labour Disputes in Britain, 1760-1871

241 Pages·2018·1.861 MB·English

by  Thomas Linehan

‘Tom Linehan here reaffirms his reputation as one of Britain's foremost historians.
Scabs and Traitors takes us deep into the formative class struggles of the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries, uncovering the treatment afforded to those who resisted
the call to collective action. An important book: wonderfully researched and
engagingly written.’
– Professor Matthew Worley, University of Reading
‘This beautifully written and deeply researchedmonograph casts anempathetic and
judicious eye over an all too often hidden aspect of modern labour history, the
conflict between collectively-bound and individual workers. It is a compelling and
fascinating history from a historian at the height of his powers that deserves a wide
readership.’
– Professor Ian Thatcher, Ulster University
‘This volume brilliantly exposes the nature of class struggle in an industrialising
British society over the course of the late eighteenth and nineteenth century.
Linehan reveals the ways working class communities sought to protect themselves
from the perpetual threatof employers using non-unionlabour to underminetheir
livelihoods, and by extension, their families and communities. This is compulsive
reading and a major addition to our understanding of the history of British trade
unionism.’
– Dr Peter Wilkin, Brunel University
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SCABS AND TRAITORS
In itsbroadestsense,this book isconcernedwiththe attempt byworkersinBritain
during the period 1760–1871 to engage in collective action in circumstances of
conflict with their employers during a time when the nation and many of its tradi-
tional economic structures and customary modes of working were undergoing
rapid and unsettling change. More specifically, the book principally focuses on the
attempt by those workers favouring a collective approach to struggle to overcome
what they felt to be one of the main obstacles to collective action, the unco-
operative worker. At times during these decades, the sanctions directed by collec-
tively inclinedworkmen atthose workersdeemedtohave engagedinacts contrary
to the interests of the trade and customary codes of behaviour in the context of
strikes and other instances of friction in the workplace were severe and uncom-
promising. Stern and unforgiving, too, was the struggle between the collectively
inclined worker and the uncooperative worker in a more general sense, a contest
that occasionally took a violent and bloody form. In exploring the fractious and
hostile relationship between these two conflicting parties, this book draws on
concepts and insights from a range of scholarly disciplines in an effort to shift the
perception and study of this relationship beyond many of the conventional para-
digms and explanatory frameworks associated with mainstream trade union studies.
Thomas Linehan is Lecturer in History, Brunel University. He is the co-editor
(with JohnRoberts)oftheRoutledgeStudiesinRadicalHistoryand Politics book
series. His previous publications include Modernism and British Socialism. Palgrave
Macmillan (2012), Communism in Britain, 1920–39: From the Cradle to the Grave.
Manchester University Press (2007), British Fascism 1918–39: Parties, Ideology and
Culture. Manchester University Press (2000), East London for Mosley: The British
Union of Fascists in East London and South-West Essex 1933–40. Routledge (1996).
ROUTLEDGE STUDIES IN RADICAL HISTORY AND POLITICS
Series editors: Thomas Linehan, Brunel University, and John Roberts,
Brunel University
The series Routledge Studies in Radical History and Politics has two areas of interest.
Firstly, this series aims to publish books which focus on the history of movements
of the radical left. ‘Movement of the radical left’ is here interpreted in its broadest
sense as encompassing those past movements for radical change which operated in
the mainstream political arena as with political parties, and past movements for
change which operated more outside the mainstream as with millenarian move-
ments, anarchist groups, utopian socialist communities, and trade unions. Secondly,
this series aims to publish books which focuson more contemporary expressions of
radical left-wing politics. Recent years have been witness to the emergence of a
multitude of new radical movements adept at getting their voices in the public
sphere. From those participating in the Arab Spring, the Occupy movement,
community unionism, social media forums, independent media outlets, local
voluntary organisations campaigning for progressive change, and so on, it seems to
be the case that innovative networks of radicalism are being constructed in civil
society that operate in different public forms.
The series very much welcomes titles with a British focus, but is not limited to
any particular national context or region. The series will encourage scholars who
contribute to this series to draw on perspectives and insights from other disciplines.
Forafulllistoftitlesinthisseries,pleasevisithttp://www.routledge.com/Routledge-
Studies-in-Radical-History-and-Politics/book-series/RSRHP
Titles include:
Challenging Austerity
Radical Left and Social Movements in the South of Europe
Edited by Beltrán Roca, Emma Martín-Díaz and Ibán Díaz-Parra
Contemporary Trotskyism
Parties, Sects and Social Movements in Britain
John Kelly
Scabs and Traitors
Taboo, Violence and Punishment in Labour Disputes in Britain, 1760–1871
Thomas Linehan
SCABS AND TRAITORS
Taboo, Violence and Punishment
in Labour Disputes in Britain,
–
1760 1871
Thomas Linehan
Firstpublished2018
byRoutledge
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©2018ThomasLinehan
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BritishLibraryCataloguing-in-PublicationData
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Names:Linehan,ThomasP.,author.
Title:Scabsandtraitors:taboo,violenceandpunishmentinlabourdisputesin
Britain,1760-1871/ThomasLinehan.
Description:FirstEdition.|NewYork:Routledge,2018.|Series:Routledge
radicalhistoryandpoliticsseries|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2017058563|ISBN9781138926523(hardback)|ISBN
9781138186057(pbk.)|ISBN9781315680538(ebook)
Subjects:LCSH:Labordisputes--GreatBritain--History--18thcentury.|Labor
disputes--GreatBritain--History--19thcentury.|Labormovement--Great
Britain--History18thcentury.|Labormovement--GreatBritain--History19th
century.
Classification:LCCHD5365.A6L562018|DDC331.892/94109034--dc23
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2017058563
ISBN:978-1-138-92652-3(hbk)
ISBN:978-1-138-18605-7(pbk)
ISBN:978-1-315-68053-8(ebk)
TypesetinBembo
byTaylor&FrancisBooks
To my daughter, Ciara
‘AndwhatisaScab?Heistohistradewhatatraitoristohiscountry’
(ArticlesoftheFriendly andUnitedSocietyofCordwainers.4June1792)
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements x
Abbreviations xii
Preface xiii
Introduction 1
1 Blackleg economics 24
2 Tabooed persons 46
3 Vows and sacred lines 73
4 The call to arms 94
5 Carnivalesque rituals 112
6 Magic rituals and tabooed things 132
7 Shaming and degradation rituals 152
8 Retribution 178
Conclusion 212
Index 223