Irish nationalism shaped English working-class consciousness more than production did

Evidence

The formulation of an explanation for the revival and dominance of trade-union consciousness among the English working classes is not a simple task. For one, it must take account of what Thompson terms the “counter-revolution” of the dominant classes that struck such decisive blows to working-class radicalism in 1834,1835, and 1848;37 it must also encompass the historical processes by which industrial forms of production were established in England, including the patterns of labor recruitment from the villages and countryside of England (and the subsequent forms of work discipline established to proletarianize the recruits), and the divisions of labor that characterized the international structure of British capitalism. But perhaps most important to the understanding of the evolution of working-class nationalism in Britain, and more to the issue here, is the role another nationalism—Irish nationalism-played in the formative period of English working-class development and its concomitant construction of English working-class culture. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 241

Categorization

• XREF: Radicalizes E.P. Thompson’s counter-revolution thesis from The Making of the English Working Class; Robinson insists the class formation story must include Ireland. — connects to: The bohemia-working-class alliance drove British and Irish pop culture for three decades