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Abstract
The authors introduce the concept of political congruence and apply it to the Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU), during rearmament and war. Political congruence requires the alignment of union leaders, activists and members with a common political project. This is likely to bring strategic renewal, as was the case in the AEU. A platform of left reform developed as the influence of Communists on the shop floor and among activists developed. The union grew at an exceptional pace and opened membership and participation to women and young workers while adopting a more cooperative stance towards other unions in the industry.
Notes
1. See McAdam et al., Dynamics of Contention.
2. Almond and Verba, Civic Culture.
3. Eckstein, ‘Congruence Theory Explained’.
4. Eckstein, ‘Congruence Theory Explained’, 12.
5. Child et al., ‘Towards an Organizational Study’.
6. See also Anderson, ‘Comparative Analysis’.
7. Child et al., ‘Towards an Organizational Study’, 75.
8. Moody, Workers in a Lean World.
9. Baccaro, ‘Union Democracy Revisited’, see also Wood, ‘Introduction’, for a review of trade unions and democracy.
10. Camfield, ‘Renewal’, 287.
11. Barker et al., Leadership and Social Movements, 18. We must also distinguish between participation in a union and democracy within a union (see Pateman, Participation, for a review of this debate). We argue that decision-making structures of the union can be more or less democratic. More democratic structures are more likely to allow greater participation in union affairs, but are also more likely to challenge bureaucratic control that may be conducted by union leaderships.
12. Gamson et al., Encounters with Unjust Authority, 15.
13. Aryee and Yaw, ‘Members’ Participation’.
14. See Hooghe, ‘Value Congruence’, for a review of such theory.
15. Passy, ‘Social Networks Matter’, 41.
16. McAdam, ‘Recruitment to High-risk Activism’.
17. Argyris and Schön, Organizational Learning.
18. Choi, ‘Why and How’.
19. Kirton and Healy, ‘Shaping Union and Gender Identities’.
20. Johnson and Jarley, ‘Unions as Social Capital’.
21. Bridgford and Stirling, ‘European Systems’; Croucher, ‘ Impact of Trade Union Education’.
22. Kelly and Kelly, ‘Who Gets Involved’.
23. Rokeach, Beliefs, Attitudes, and Values.
24. Kelly and Kelly, ‘Who Gets Involved’, 67.
25. Kelly, Rethinking Industrial Relations.
26. Fantasia, Cultures of Solidarity.
27. Jefferys, Story of the Engineers, 228.
28. Jefferys, Story of the Engineers, 241.
29. Hinton, First Shop Stewards’ Movement.
30. Croucher, Engineers at War.
31. Jefferys, Story of the Engineers.
32. Hinton, First Shop Stewards’ Movement.
33. Schneer, Labour's Conscience.
34. Jefferys, Story of the Engineers; Fishman, British Communist Party.
35. The Aeroplane, 19 January 1938.
36. New Propellor, October 1937.
37. Ryan, ‘Apprentice Strikes’.
38. Croucher, Engineers at War.
39. Jefferys, Story of the Engineers, 247.
40. Labour Research, March 1939, 66.
41. Evening Standard, 5 May 1952; The Times, 4 March 1965.
42. The Times, 4 March 1965.
43. Croucher, We Refuse.
44. Bullock, Life and Times of Ernest Bevin.
45. Fishman, British Communist Party.
46. Workers’ International News, February 1941.
47. Reg Scott's diary. The diary was lent to one of the authors in 1973; its current whereabouts are unknown.
48. Daily Worker, 3 August 1940; New Propellor, November 1940.
49. ‘Note by Chairman’, 25 January 1941 and 5 February 1941, CAB 98.18, National Archives.
50. Cartoon reproduced in Croucher, Engineers at War, 151: ‘No! George refuses to have a production committee and sit together with ignorant work people!’
51. Croucher, Engineers at War; Bruley, Working for History.
52. Calder, The People's War.
53. Inman, Labour in the Munitions Industries.
54. Croucher, Engineers at War.
55. Report by Galbraith, 1 August 1942. LAB 10/363, National Archives.
56. Hinton, Shop Floor Citizens.
57. Report by Galbraith, 1 August 1942. LAB 10/363, National Archives.
58. AEU Third Report on Production, December 1942, 44.
59. Hinton, Shop Floor Citizens, 68–9.
60. Branson, History of the Communist Party.
61. Inman, Labour in the Munitions Industries.
62. Special Branch Report, 3 April 1942. CAB 66/23, National Archives.
63. Hinton, Shop Floor Citizens, 16.
64. Hinton, Shop Floor Citizens, 151.
65. Croucher, Engineers at War.
66. Croucher, Engineers at War.
67. Jefferys, Story of the Engineers, 260; Lloyd, Light and Liberty, 275.
68. Minutes of the First Annual Women's Conference, 20–21 May 1943, Blackpool.
69. National Union of Foundry Workers Executive Committee Minutes, 7 June 1943.
70. Jefferys, Story of the Engineers, 260.
71. Wightman, More than Munitions; Bruley, Working for History.
72. Croucher, Engineers at War.
73. Croucher, Engineers at War.
74. Croucher, Engineers at War, 126.
75. Hinton, Shop Floor Citizens, 155.
76. Summerfield, Women Workers.
77. Lloyd, Light and Liberty, 275.
78. Croucher, Engineers at War.
79. Jefferys, Story of the Engineers.
80. Fielding et al., ‘England Arise!’
81. Gallup Political Index, January 1964.
82. Addison, Road to 1945.
83. Croucher, Engineers at War.
84. Hinton, Shop Floor Citizens.