The mechanical properties of anisotropic polymers

The work in this period can conveniently be split into two parts which are reported separately. Part I is concerned with experimental work on the stress-strain properties of anisotropic polythene. This work was initiated as a first step in the collection of data on anisotropic polymers. The results provide a very useful, general idea of the properties of a polymer, together with their variation with anisotropy. The experience gained during this work has also been of use when considering apparatus design details for creep measurements. Part II is concerned with the design of an apparatus for creep studies. The design considerations are discussed in Section 1; an outline of several design proposals being given in Section 2. The design project was started in the latter part of the period under review and therefore no comprehensive tests have yet been performed

Revolutionary syndicalist opposition to the First World War: An international comparative reassessment

It has been argued that support for the First World War by the important French syndicalist organisation, the Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT) has tended to obscure the fact that other national syndicalist organisations remained faithful to their professed workers’ internationalism: on this basis syndicalists beyond France, more than any other ideological persuasion within the organised trade union movement in immediate pre-war and wartime Europe, can be seen to have constituted an authentic movement of opposition to the war in their refusal to subordinate class interests to those of the state, to endorse policies of ‘defencism’ and to abandon the rhetoric of class conflict. This article, which attempts to contribute to a much neglected comparative historiography of the international syndicalist movement, re-evaluates the syndicalist response across a broad geographical field of canvas (embracing France, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Britain and America) to reveal a rather more nuanced, ambiguous and uneven picture. While it highlights the distinctive nature of the syndicalist response compared with other labour movement trends, it also explores the important strategic and tactical limitations involved, including the dilemma of attempting to translate formal syndicalist ideological commitments against the war into practical measures of intervention, and the consequences of the syndicalists’ subordination of the political question of the war to the industrial struggle

Syndicalism and the influence of anarchism in France, Italy and Spain

Following the Leninist line, a commonly held assumption is that anarchism as a revolutionary movement tends to emerge in politically, socially and economically underdeveloped regions and that its appeal lies with the economically marginalised lumpenproletariat and landless peasantry. This article critically explores this assumption through a comparative analysis of the development and influence of anarchist ideology and organisation in syndicalist movements in France, Spain and Italy and its legacy in discourses surrounding the nature of political authority and accountability

Leadership and union militancy: The case of the RMT

The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), which represents the majority of mainline railway and London Underground workers, is currently one of the most militant and left-wing trade unions in Britain. Drawing on the study of leadership provided by mobilisation theory, this article explores the extent to which union leadership, dominated by left-wing activists at every level of the union, has been an important contributory catalyst, symptom and beneficiary of union militancy relative to other influencing factors such as the impact of privatisation, managerial belligerence, and immediate grievances over pay and conditions