In this era of Brexit, the British Labour Party and the wider labour movement face the twin challenges of globalised capitalism on the one hand, and an upsurge in backward-looking nationalism on the other. Siren voices call on Labour to embrace one side or the other. In this context it seems more necessary than ever to re-examine the internationalist tradition within British labour and democratic movements over the preceding two centuries. Socialist History, the journal of the Socialist History Society, is planning a special issue, to appear in spring 2020, on ‘the British Labour Movement and Internationalism’. This issue will be guest-edited by Duncan Bowie, and we are seeking contributions of between 6000 and 10000 words on any aspects of British Labour and Internationalism in historical perspective.
Themes for contributions may include, but are not limited to:
- Nationalism and internationalism within the British labour movement
- The British labour movement and national identity
- British Jacobins and the French Revolution
- Chartist Internationalism
- British trade unionists and republican exiles in the 1850s to 1870s
- British radicals and socialists and international peace movements
- ILP, SDF and the Second International pre WW1
- British socialists and the second and third internationals in the inter-war period
- British socialists and communists and anti-fascism in the 1930s
- British Labour, the reconstitution of the Labour and socialist
- International and the Cold War
- British socialists and decolonisation/pan-Africanism
- Labour and the European Union/European socialism
- British socialists and the rise of the right in Europe and beyond in the 2010s: lessons from the past
- British socialists and international solidarity, women’s or youth movements
Proposals for contributions, in the form of a synopsis of no more than 500 words, should be sent to Duncan Bowie on duncanbowie@yahoo.co.uk by 30 September 2019.
For details about Socialist History and its submission guidelines, please visit our webpage on https://www.lwbooks.co.uk/socialist-history.
Please note that articles in Socialist History are refereed before publication, and that acceptance of a proposal does not imply any automatic undertaking to publish the ensuing article.