Austerity-driven unemployment stripped organized labor of its political power in Britain.

Evidence

An immediate consequence of Britain’s austerityinduced downturn was the wave of economic coercion that overtook British workers. Amid rising unemployment, organized labor lost much of its political power. By the end of the decade, only onefourth of the working population was unionized, down from almost 40 percent aft er the Great War (see fi gure 9.4). — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1503

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the modern neoliberal thesis that recessions discipline labor; echoes wage-suppression arguments from later austerity literature. — connects to: Britain’s gold-standard austerity doubled unemployment from 10.4 to 22.1 percent — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 514; Economic dependence on wage labor hollows out political citizenship. — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 406; Monetary austerity, by raising sterling, crushed British exports and unions — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 414 (+12 more)

Broader Connections

• Austerity regimes aim to break organized labor #expands (0.85) — Gary Mongiovi, Austerity Is an Antidemocratic Strategy…, 83
• Interwar austerity crushed class-based activism in Britain and Italy. #corroborates (0.84) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1549
• Monetary austerity deliberately induced recession to discipline workers. #expands (0.82) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 154
• Pound revaluation in the 1920s forced down wages through mass unemployment #expands (0.80) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1683
• Austerity reversed postwar labor income gains in both Italy and Britain by 1929 #corroborates (0.80) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1486
• Monetary austerity deliberately manufactures unemployment to compress wages. #corroborates (0.80) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 284
• Austerity structurally dismantled the workers’ movement and its economic alternatives #corroborates (0.78) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 654
• Unemployment in interwar England detached workers from identifying with the ruling classes. #corroborates (0.72) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1260