Trade union banners and the construction of a working-class presence: notes from two labour disputes in 1980s Glasgow and North Lanarkshire

摘要

This paper draws on a project Banner Tales of Glasgow', which is the result of an ongoing collaboration between geographers, museum staff and trade unionists. The paper draws on testimonies from workers involved in two labour disputes in the mid 1980s. We use these testimonies to think about the use of banners in the construction of working-class solidarities. This discussion is used to illuminate the relations between the formation of a working-class presence and the role of discourses of a moral economy in shaping particular community-making practices. Through doing so, we use a focus on banners to illuminate different aspects of the spatial practices of labour organising and argue that the construction of a working-class presence and articulations of a moral economy can be mutually reinforcing.