From Collective Class Power to Atomised Politics: OMOV, the Christian Right, and the Weakening of Working-Class Solidarity
The history of the labour movement demonstrates that the form of organisation directly shapes the kind of politics that emerges. Where workers act collectively, through trade unions or federated structures, politics tends to reflect class solidarity and material demands. When those structures are weakened, fragmented, or replaced by atomised individual membership, space opens for reactionary currents built on cultural, moral, or national appeals. This essay compares the United States and the United Kingdom, focusing on how the weakening of union power and the shift to one member, one vote (OMOV) systems in Labour reshaped working-class politics. It argues that these processes undercut collective class strength and created conditions for reactionary tendencies like the U.S. Christian Right and the U.K.’s “Blue Labour” current. The U.S. labour movement entered the postwar era severely constrained. The 1947 Taft–Hartley Act outlawed secondary boycotts, solidarity strikes, and union politi...