Workers of the Empire, Unite

Yann Béliard is a Senior Lecturer in British Studies, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3. Neville Kirk is Emeritus Professor of Labour and Social History at Manchester Metropolitan University. His publications include Labour and Society in Britain and the USA (1994), Comrades and Cousins (2003), Custom and Conflict in 'The Land of the Gael' (2007, 2009) and Labour and the Politics of Empire (2011, 2014). He is editor of Liverpool University Press's series Studies in Labour History and a member of the executive committee of the UK Society for the Study of Labour History.

• Notes on contributors List of abbreviations List of illustrations Foreword: Paul Pickering (Australian National University) Introduction: Yann Béliard (Sorbonne Nouvelle University), Labour, empire and decolonisation: historiographical landmarks PART 1 – Contesting Imperialism (1910s-1950s) Chapter 1: Marie Terrier (CREW, Sorbonne Nouvelle University), Annie Besant’s fight for Home Rule in India, 1910s-1920s Chapter 2: Yann Béliard (Sorbonne Nouvelle University), Sylvia Pankhurst vs. the British Empire: the Workers’ Dreadnought experience, 1917 1924 Chapter 3: Nicholas Owen (University of Oxford), Alliances from above and below: the failures and successes of communist anti-imperialism in India, 1920 1934 Chapter 4: Matt Perry (Newcastle University), ‘The Lingua Franca of the Bangle’: Ellen Wilkinson, the Indian nationalist movement and British Labour, 1932 Chapter 5: Quentin Gasteuil (Ecole normale supérieure Paris-Saclay (ENS) / Sorbonne University), A comparative and transnational approach to socialist anti-colonialism: the Fenner Brockway – Marceau Pivert connection, 1930s-1950s PART 2 – Labour, Decolonisation and Independence (1940s-1960s) Chapter 6: Gareth Curless (University of Exeter), Decolonisation and claim making in the Sudan, c. 1945-1958 Chapter 7: Tom Sibley (International Centre for Trade Union Rights, ICTUR), Class, Cold War and colonialism: the deportation of Albert Fava from Gibraltar to Britain, 1948 Chapter 8: David Hyde (University of East London), Decolonisation and ‘Development Untoward’: crisis and conflict on Kenya’s tea plantations, 1959-1960 Chapter 9: Evan Smith (Flinders University of South Australia), For socialist revolution or national liberation? Anti-colonialism and the Communist Parties of Great Britain, Australia and South Africa in the era of decolonisation Conclusion: Neville Kirk (Manchester Metropolitan University), Eight points on labour and the end of the British Empire Afterword: Yann Béliard (Sorbonne Nouvelle University), Towards a people’s history of British decolonisation Bibliography Index

‘Workers of the Empire gives detailed insights into the history of the labour movement, left-wing activists, and the ‘proletariat’ in anti-colonial struggle. At the same time, it delves into the history of the British empire in particular by stressing the way the Empire sought to stifle anti-colonial voices in the colonies as is the case with the excellent essays on Kenya by Dave Hyde and on Sudan by Gareth Curless. In sum, this edited collection makes a significant contribution to the history of the British empire, imperialism, and especially the role of the left and the working class in anti-colonial struggle.’ Mohamed Chamekh, Labor History