E113: [TEASER] Radical Reads – Forces of Labour
Working Class History
Working Class History
5.0 • 813 Ratings
🗓️ 26 November 2025
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode, we discuss Beverly Silver's pioneering work, Forces of Labour: Workers' Movements and Globalisation Since 1870, a book which was hugely influential on many of us at Working Class History. The book is epic in its breadth (looking at labour unrest around the world and across a long period of time), but also firmly committed to viewing class struggle from the bottom up.
But most important about the book is how deeply materialist and methodical it is in how it outlines the concrete conditions that gave space for working-class struggle, and how those struggles forced capital to think of new strategies in order to deal with it. Moreover, in doing so, her book also helps us to think and to strategise about working-class organising today.
Listen to the full episode here:
More information
- Buy Forces of Labour from an independent bookshop (or read it online here)
- Check out our collection of books about labour movement history in our online shop
- See the webpage for this episode at https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e113-radical-reads-forces-of-labour/
- Thanks to our patreon supporters for making this podcast possible. Special thanks to Jazz Hands.
- Episode graphic consists of two photos: textile strikers in Paterson, in the US, 1913, courtesy National Parks Gallery, and textile strikers in Egypt, 2007, courtesy Hossam el-Hamalawy https://www.flickr.com/photos/elhamalawy
- Edited by Jesse French
- Our theme tune is Montaigne’s version of the classic labour movement anthem, ‘Bread and Roses’, performed by Montaigne and Nick Harriott, and mixed by Wave Racer. Download the song here, with all proceeds going to Medical Aid for Palestinians. More from Montaigne: website, Instagram, YouTube
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi everyone. As you might know, we don't get any sort of funding from any wealthy benefactors, academic institutions, governments or political parties. |
| 0:09.0 | Our work is funded by you, our listeners and readers, on Patreon. |
| 0:13.3 | In return, our supporters on Patreon get access to exclusive content and benefits like ad-free episodes, bonus podcast episodes and two exclusive patron-only |
| 0:22.9 | podcast series, fireside chats and radical reads. So here's a little preview of our latest |
| 0:29.1 | patron-only episode. You can join us, help support our work and listen to the full episode today |
| 0:34.6 | at patreon.com slash working class history. Link in the show notes. |
| 0:43.4 | As we come marching marching in the beauty of the day. A million darkened in kitchens, a thousand mill |
| 0:53.2 | off screys, are brightened by the beauties, sun and sun discloses. |
| 0:59.0 | And the people here are seeing bread and roses, bread and roses. |
| 1:07.0 | And I actually think like this discussion of like the things that give workers power in a particular situation I think is was actually that was another thing that was like it was so methodical and I you know I hadn't thought of it like that at the time. You know I just thought like you, you know, there's obviously early 2000s, people |
| 1:29.1 | are still talking about like the death of class. We're all middle class now. You know, the working |
| 1:34.4 | class doesn't exist. It doesn't exist as a, you know, political force or whatever. And so I had, |
| 1:41.1 | you know, in my, from my political perspective, it was like, no, you still have workers. |
| 1:44.7 | You have workers who are, you know, working in shops or working in, you know, like call centers. |
| 1:51.1 | And, you know, maybe they're not like, you know, in the UK, they're not working in steel factories anymore. |
| 1:57.5 | Like, or they're not mining. |
| 1:59.6 | Like, you know, mining doesn't exist in the same way they're used to or whatever mining like you know you know mining doesn't exist in the |
| 2:01.7 | same way they're used to whatever but you still have people working for a wage but then what this did |
| 2:08.2 | was show me that actually that was that's actually still quite a kind of a flat analysis do you know what |
| 2:14.9 | I mean and I think like just as you know to to highlight how And I think like just as, you know, to, uh, to highlight how |
| 2:18.6 | often I think about this book is, uh, I thought about it while watching, sorry to bother you, |
| 2:25.7 | the, uh, the film, excellent film, brilliant film by Boots Riley. So good. Yeah, it's excellent |
... |
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