The return of British socialism: Where does it comes from? Why now? And where is it going? The remarkable advance of "Corbynism" did not emerge from nowhere. It is the product of developments in socialist and working-class politics over the past forty years and more. The Thatcher era witnessed a wholesale attack on the post war consensus and welfare state, through a regime of deregulation, attacks on the unions, privatisations, and globalisation. However, at the same time, there has been a persistent resistance to the growing powers of neo-liberalism - yet this side of the story is rarely told as it was considered to be a history of defeat. Yet out of this struggle emerged a thoroughly modern socialism. This book is essential reading for those who want to know where Corbynism comes from: the policies, personalities and moments of resistance that has produced this new horizon. This includes the story of power struggles within the Labour Party, and the eventual defeat of New Labour. The movements outside it - trade unions, feminists groups, anti-fascists activists, anti-war protestors - that have driven the policies of the movement forward. And the powerful influence of international groups that have shaped the potential for a global progressive politics.

'THE POLITICAL BOOK OF THE YEAR' Tim Shipman A blistering narrative exposé of infighting, skulduggery and chaos in Corbyn's Labour party, now revised and updated. * A Times, Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Sunday Times and i Newspaper Book of the Year * Left Out tells, for the first time, the astonishing full story of Labour's recent transformation and historic defeat. Drawing on unrivalled access, this blistering exposé moves from the peak of Jeremy Corbyn's popularity and the shock hung parliament of 2017 to Labour's humbling in 2019 and the election of Keir Starmer. It reveals a party at war with itself, and puts the reader in the room as tensions boil over, sworn enemies forge unlikely alliances and lifelong friendships are tested to breaking point. This is the ultimate account of the greatest experiment seen in British politics for a generation. 'Gripping... Every bit as good as people say' Guardian 'Reads like a thriller...told with panache and pace' Financial Times 'The definitive post-mortem of the Corbyn project' Sunday Times

This volume of essays constitutes the first history of Labour and left-wing politics in the decade when Margaret Thatcher reshaped modern Britain. Leading scholars explore aspects of left-wing culture, activities and ideas at a time when social democracy was in crisis. There are articles about political leadership, economic alternatives, gay rights, the miners' strike, the Militant Tendency and the politics of race. The book also situates the crisis of the left in international terms as the socialist world began to collapse. Tony Blair's New Labour disavowed the 1980s left, associating it with failure, but this volume argues for a more complex approach. Many of the causes it championed are now mainstream, suggesting that the time has come to reassess 1980s progressive politics, despite its undeniable electoral failures. With this in mind, the contributors offer ground-breaking research and penetrating arguments about the strange death of Labour Britain.

An excellent resource for teaching and learning, this book explores the rise and decline of left radicalism in Scotland c.1872 to 1932. A journey through these turbulent times observes the response of Scottish artisans to legal restrictions on trade-union activities in the 1870s, trade union formation among the unskilled from the late 1880s, and the origins and impact of the Scottish socialist movement. The Labour movement in Scotland was to face many new challenges by the twentieth century. During the era of 'Red Scotland', 1910 to 1922, we see Scottish workers fully engaged in the labour and social unrest in the years before the Great War; monitor the incubation of workers' grievances during the war; see the growth of the anti-war movement and the influence of revolutionary politics from 1918; and witness Scottish Labour on the threshold of an extraordinary political breakthrough by 1922. The 1920s saw the rapid rise of Labour, but growing unemployment and a massive emigration of Scottish workers helped to fragment the left and set in motion the decline of left radicalism in Scotland. This book represents a major and up to date survey of the most dramatic years in the history of Scottish Labour.

Around the world, parties of the left and center-left have been struggling, losing ground to right-wing parties and various forms of reactionary populism. This book brings together a range of leading academics and experts on social democratic politics and policy to offer an international, comparative view of the changing political landscape. Using case studies from the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, France, Australia and New Zealand contributors argue that despite different local and specific contexts, the mainstream center-left is beset by a range of common challenges. Analysis focuses on institutional and structural factors, the role of key individuals, and the atrophy of progressive ideas as interconnected reasons for the current struggles of the center-left.