Rebecca Gumbrell-McCormick and Richard Hyman (2018) Trade Unions in Western Europe

Gumbrell-McCormick, Rebecca and Richard Hyman. 2018. Trade Unions in Western Europe: Hard Times, Hard Choices. 2^nd edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

• New afterword for the paperback edition
• Covers 10 countries with contrasting types of unions, and political and economic contexts
• Written by two leading authorities on trade unions
• Sophisticated analytical approach to illustrate and discuss critically a range of theories
• Supported by extensive but accessible empirical material
• Organized thematically to cover key issues currently confronting trade unions

Robert Ovetz (2019) When Workers Shot Back

Ovetz, Robert. 2019. When Workers Shot Back: Class Conflict from 1877 to 1921. Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books.

When Workers Shot Back argues that the escalation of working-class conflict drives rather than reacts to capital's consolidation and reorganisation.

When Workers Shot Back: Class Conflict from 1877 to 1921 explores one of the most tumultuous times in United States history. Self-organized workers recomposed their power by devising new strategies and tactics to disrupt the capitalist economy and extract concessions. Mine, railroad, steel, and iron workers pursued a strategy of tension that sometimes erupted into militant class conflict and general strikes in which workers took over and ran a number of cities. Turning conventional wisdom on its head, When Workers Shot Back argues that the escalation of working-class conflict drives rather than reacts to the consolidation and reorganisation of capital and economic and political reform of the state. Studying the class composition of this period illustrates why workers escalated the intensity of their tactics, even using tactical violence, to extract concessions and reforms when all other efforts to do so were blocked, co-opted or repressed.

Pat Armstrong and Hugh Armstrong, eds (2020) The Privatization of Care

https://www.routledge.com/The-Privatization-of-Care-The-Case-of-Nursing-Homes-1st-Edition/Armstrong-Armstrong/p/book/9781138346024

Book Description

Nursing homes are where some of the most vulnerable live and work. In too many homes, the conditions of work make it difficult to make care as good as it can be. For the last eight years an international team from Germany, Sweden, Norway, the UK, the US and Canada have been searching for promising practices that treat residents, families and staff with dignity and respect in ways that can also bring joy. While we did find ideas worth sharing, we also saw a disturbing trend toward privatization.

Privatization is the process of moving away not only from public delivery and public payment for health services but also from a commitment to shared responsibility, democratic decision-making, and the idea that the public sector operates according to a logic of service to all.

This book documents moves toward privatization in the six countries and their consequences for families, staff, residents, and, eventually, us all. None of the countries has escaped pressure from powerful forces in and outside government pushing for privatization in all its forms. However, the wide variations in the extent and nature of privatization indicate privatization is not inevitable and our research shows there are alternatives.