Mr Jonathan Rutherford

My current research is an attempt explain how different legal frameworks relating to trade unions condition, or shape, trade unions’ ability to oppose or disrupt the reproduction of capitalism. To do this, it constructs a theoretical framework that can be used to assess the extent to which different legal frameworks condition radical trade unionism. It then applies this theoretical framework to two case studies, Britain and France, to historically analyse what is termed the “immanent radicality” of historical variations of the legal frameworks relating to British and French trade unions. 

The research project is not merely a retelling of the history of the development of British and French trade unionism, or the law relating to it. It is, more fundamentally, an attempt to demonstrate the role of class struggle, pursued by and through trade unions, in shaping the legal framework relating to them; and the effect historical variations of these legal frameworks have had, in turn, on trade unions’ ability oppose or disrupt the reproduction of capitalist social relations. The ultimate aim of the research is to reveal both the limitations and possibilities encased within the British and French legal frameworks relating to trade unions – i.e. the enduring features that stretch, or morph, across historical variations of national legal frameworks relating to trade unions – that bear upon radical trade unionism.