In the tradition of Engels’ ‘Conditions of the Working Class’, the nineteenth century is conceptualised with extreme deprivation and exploitation of the working class. The rapid processes of urbanisation and industrialisation, in combination with the violence of clearance and primitive accumulation, was deeply traumatising for many. Across the world’s imperial core, individuals were ripped from their communities, and forced to find employment within the dark satanic mills and found themselves, in the words of Oscar Wilde, ‘living in fetid dens and fetid rags, and bringing up unhealthy, hunger-pinched children in the midst of impossible and absolutely repulsive surroundings.’
The Dickensian imprint of this period is no falsity, but is only a partial reflection of working class life in the nineteenth century. Since the 1960s and the advent of history from below, a counter-reading has sought to recover the agency of working class communities and their incredible resilience to abject conditions. Through mutual improvement societies, self-education, temperance groups and sports clubs, the infant urban working class built extensive resources to combat the poverty of everyday life. Simultaneously, the trade union movement, combatting state repression, developed weapons to both defend and advance their social and material conditions.
In the present day, the once vibrant infrastructure of everyday working class life has returned to a position not unlike the nineteenth century. The shift within global capitalism, which has reoriented production along the global north-south axis has produced similar effects to primitive accumulation, with deindustrialisation ripping the heart out of communities. Simultaneously, the rapid development of digital technologies, over the space of the last two decades, has wholly altered the social and material nature of everyday life. While the true impact of this advancement may not emerge for several decades, elements of its traumatic impact can be seen in the rise of addiction – whether that is social media, online gambling, or pornography addiction. In many respects, this situation was foreseen by the great Gaelic poet and Socialist, Sorley Maclean, who before the turn of the millennium reflected:
‘Our way of life besieged by the forces of international big business, our countries beggared by bad communication, our culture is vitiated by the sentimentality of those who have gone away. We have, I think, a deep sense of generation and community but this has in so many ways been broken. We have a history of resistance, but now mainly in the songs we sing.‘
Like our predecessors in the nineteenth century, however, there is a recognition that we cannot meekly lie down and accept the poverty of our present conditions. Amongst the most exciting of these developments has been Forth Valley’s Trade Unions in Communities (TUiC). To those behind TUiC, there is a recognition that the labour movement must reclaim its role at the heart of working class communities, and offer real material help and support to rebuilding the past strength of working class power. This is all the more pertinent given the build up of extreme right wing organisation within Falkirk and the wider Forth valley. Local trade unionists have been at the heart of the fight against opportunist who have mobilised local disillusionment against asylum seekers. However, TUiC recognises that this is not enough and that the far right must be defeated through delivering hope and real material change for the working class.
On 28th February, TUiC celebrated the grand opening of their community hub in Falkirk. A range of speakers from across the labour movement, including STUC General Secretary Roz Foyer, local councillor Laura Mutagh, and Interim TUiC chair Gary Clark, spoke and reaffirmed the vision of a labour movement which reasserts its place at the heart of everyday life. It was a heartening and genuinely hopeful afternoon, which stood in direct defiance of the far right who have dominated the headlines coming out of Falkirk over the past year.
As many of the speakers made clear though, this is merely a beginning. Putting the infrastructure in place to deliver greater support to our communities is a huge step forward but there is much work still to do be done by our movement. At present we find ourselves in a battle over the very soul of the Scottish working class. It is our task that we reaffirm the values within our communities; the values of solidarity, of defiance, and of kindness, and challenge those who would undermine this.
The conditions of our present times are extremely challenging, and we must acknowledge the weaknesses within our movement. Yet TUiC offers an authentic vision of what could be. Like their counterparts of the past, they have the potential to challenge the poverty of everyday life and contribute to the rich tapestry of Scottish working class culture. The fight over the soul of the Scottish working class is still to won, but the TUiC has provided a blueprint as to how.
