Dave Smith: Class Struggle in the Construction Industry

17 June
2020, 6:30 PM – 8 PM

Wednesday, June 17, 2020
6:30 PM 8:00 PM

Please sign up in advance of the event here.

Did you miss a talk? No problem! Recordings of past events are available here.

In our third union talk, Dave Smith will provide a short history of class struggle in the construction industry, centred around rank and file union organizing and employers’ counter-mobilisation.

The construction union movement has faced a long history of illegal strategies by construction companies to keep union activists away from their places of work, in collusion with the police and security services, which resulted in victimization, violence and unemployment, with terrible effects on families and communities. From the building sites to the High Court, unionising in the construction industry is a story of ordinary working people taking on some of the most powerful transnational companies in the world.

Dave Smith will cover the history of the building workers struggles, including syndicalism, new unionism and migrant workers.

Dave Smith has been a construction union activist since the 1980s, secretary of the Blacklist Support Group, co-author of the book ‘Blacklisted: The Secret War between Big Business and Trade Union Activists’ and recently completed a PhD at the University of West of England.

Please sign up in advance of the event here

Did you miss a talk? No problem! Recordings of past events are available here.

Photograph: Hot Shots/Alamy Live News