There
is widespread pessimism about workers’ potential to take successful industrial
action in the UK today. Structural transformation from manufacturing into
services and increasing precarisation would make resistance almost impossible.
Not so writes Jane Hardy in her fascinating new book Nothing
to lose but our chains: Work & Resistance in Twenty-First-Century Britain
(London: Pluto Press, 2021). Workers continue to organise and challenge capitalist
exploitation. There are no 'no go' areas for trade unions. In this post, I will
review the key contributions and major claims made by Hardy.