Manipulating Hegemony: State Power, Labour and the Marshall Plan in Britain

202 Pages·2000·0.989 MB·English

by  Rhiannon Vickers (auth.)

Manipulating Hegemony
International Political Economy Series
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INDUSTRIAL TRANSFORMATION IN EASTERN EUROPE IN THE LIGHT OF
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THE AFTERMATH OF ‘REAL EXISTING SOCIALISM’ IN EASTERN EUROPE
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THE AFTERMATH OF ‘REAL EXISTING SOCIALISM’ IN EASTERN EUROPE
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Manipulating Hegemony
State Power, Labour and the
Marshall Plan in Britain
Rhiannon Vickers
Lecturer in Politics
University of Leeds
Foreword by AndrewGamble
First published in Great Britain 2000 by
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London
Companies and representatives throughout the world
Acatalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-1-349-41589-2 ISBN 978-0-333-98181-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780333981818
First published in the United States of America 2000 by
ST. MARTIN’S PRESS, INC.,
Scholarly and Reference Division,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Vickers, Rhiannon, 1969–
Manipulating hegemony : state power, labour and the Marshall Plan in Britain /
Rhiannon Vickers ; foreword by Andrew Gamble.
p. cm. — (International political economy series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Labor policy—Great Britain—History—20th century. 2. Labor unions–
–Government policy—Great Britain—History—20th century. 3. Labour Party
(Great Britain)—History—20th century. 4. Marshall Plan. 5. Great Britain–
–Economic policy—1945–1964. 6. Great Britain—Foreign economic relations–
–United States. 7. United States—Foreign economic relations—Great Britain.
I. Title. II. Series.
HD8391.V53 1999
331'.0941—dc21
99–049749
©Rhiannon M. Vickers 2000
Foreword ©Andrew Gamble 2000
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2000 978-0-333-77284-3
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made
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Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to
criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance
with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained
forest sources.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00
For my parents
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Contents
List of Tables ix
Foreword xi
Acknowledgements xiv
List of Abbreviations xv
Introduction 1
1 International Politics, Domestic Politics and
the Marshall Plan 6
1.1 Hegemony, power and the Marshall Plan 7
1.2 Interpretations of the Marshall Plan 11
Neo-Gramscians and the Marshall Plan 15
Labour and the Marshall Plan 16
2 The Marshall Plan 19
2.1 Marshall’s speech 19
The reasons for the Marshall Plan 22
2.2 The response to Marshall’s speech 28
The European response 29
The Soviet response 33
2.3 The Marshall Plan, Britain and the Soviet Union 35
3 The Scale and Impact of the Marshall Plan 39
3.1 The specific aims of the Marshall Plan 39
3.2 The scale and impact of the Marshall Aid Programme 43
3.3 Britain and the Marshall Plan 45
4 The Government/Union Alliance in Postwar Britain 54
4.1 The 1945 Labour government 55
4.2 The trade union movement in Britain 61
Trade union organization 63
The main unions 64
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) 65
The far left in the unions 67
The anti-communist campaign 70
4.3 The trade union/government relationship 73
vii
viii Contents
5 The Trade Union Response to the Marshall Plan 78
5.1 British trade unionism and its international rôle 78
The TUC and foreign policy 82
5.2 The trade union response to the Marshall Plan 84
The response of the trade union leadership to the
offer of Marshall Aid 86
Discontent among the rank and file in Britain 89
6 The Marshall Plan and the Split in the International
Trade Union Movement 92
6.1 The World Federation of Trade Unions 92
The decision to convene the Marshall Plan Conference 95
The WFTU splits 99
6.2 The European Recovery Programme Trade
Union Advisory Committee 100
The establishment of the ERPTUAC 101
The impact of the ERPTUAC 104
The educational campaign for the Marshall Plan 107
The establishment of the ICFTU 110
7 The Anglo-American Council on Productivity 112
7.1 The establishment of the AACP 113
The structure and activities of the AACP 115
7.2 The AACP and the discourse of productivity 117
The productivity team trips and reports 118
Criticism of the AACP 123
7.3 The AACP and the modernization of the left 126
8 State Power, Labour and the Marshall Plan in Britain 132
Notes 140
Bibliography 167
Index 180
List of Tables
3.1 Indices of industrial production in
Western Europe, 1948–1951 40
3.2 Value of Marshall Aid received by major recipients 44
3.3 Uses of counterpart funds in major European countries 48
ix