Ken Coates

Spokesman Books | Ken Coates

Ken Coates Books

Ken Coates was the editor of our journal The Spokesman and wrote many books on the issue of Workers' Control all of which can be found below.

<span style='font-size: 14px;'>Tom Mann's Memoirs</span>Tom Mann's Memoirs
Introduce by Ken Coates

The first secretary of the Independent Labour Party, the President of the dockers' union, the first General Secretary of the Amalgamated Engineering Union: a mere roster of the positions he held in the Labour Movement, of which this is a tiny fraction, would establish Tom Mann as a Pioneer. But what he did was always more impressive than the positions from which he did it. He was an initiator, a catalyst, a goad to action. Whenever a real crisis came, his stature found its true proportions, and again and again Tom Mann became a pivot for the actions of downtrodden people. Throughout his lifetime as a militant socialist, whatever the stages of evolution of his thought, he invariably displayed a gift for finding himself at the centre of every major struggle of his time. For this reason it is important that these Memoirs, first published in 1923, should again become available.

Price: £15.00

278 pages | Paperback | Indexed
ISBN: 978 0 85124 7588
Socialist Classic Series


Quantity:  

<span style='font-size: 14px;'>What Went Wrong</span>What Went Wrong
Edited by Ken Coates

Contributors: Michael Barratt Brown, Geoff Bish,
Francis Cripps, Frank Field MP, Tom Forester,
Stuart Holland MP, John Hughes, Michael Meacher MP, Frances Morrell

We are reprinting What Went Wrong at a time when it has become a matter of conventional wisdom, a popular myth hardly ever challenged, that the Callaghan Government fell in 1979 because of unbridled trade union mutiny and turbulence. The accounts in this book demonstrate that this explanation is not only grossly over-simplified but is also a travesty of what really happened. Foreword to 2008 Edition

Alistair Graham reviewed this title in the August edition of The Forest & Wye Clarion.

Price: £12.00

256 pages | Paperback
ISBN: 978 0 85124 7540


Quantity:  

<span style='font-size: 14px;'>One Big Union:</span>One Big Union:
Reviewing the History of a Big Idea
by Ron Todd and Others

The two lectures published here celebrate the publication of the history of the Transport & General Workers’ Union. They show how the dream of its founders was the creation of ‘One Big Union’. With the formation of UNITE the Union, the realisation of that dream is brought that much closer. UNITE brings together people working in diverse occupations and locations, as did the founders of the T&G themselves all those years ago. In this booklet, Ken Coates and Tony Topham tell some of that story. For their full account, it is necessary as the reviewers urge, to read The Making of the Labour Movement.


Price: £6.00

67 pages
Available April 2008
ISBN: 978 0 85124 752 6


Quantity:  

<span style='font-size: 14px;'>The Making of the Labour Movement</span>The Making of the Labour Movement
The Formation of the Transport and General Workers' Union 1870-1922
by Ken Coates and Topham

This authoritative and comprehensive history does more than tell a story. It shows how trade unions created permanent organisation, based on "recognition" as a key concept. Those who had formerly been locked out from society now recognised their own strength in association, and saw that strength reflected in the eyes of their bosses.

Price: £15.00

909 pages
Indexed
ISBN: 978 0 85124 5652
Paperback


Quantity:  

<span style='font-size: 14px;'>Empire No More!</span>Empire No More!
... the Lion and Wolf shall cease
By Ken Coates


Wars and threats of war seethe all around us. The end of the Cold War, far from bringing a new era of universal peace, gave place to a frenzied new drive to build more powerful and deadly weapons, and a permanent Orwellian ‘war on terror’ which is self-renewing, and, it is to be feared, unwinnable.

'This book is a guide book for us all ... I recommend it wholeheartedly.' Tony Benn

Read reviews by:
Tony Benn
Bruce Kent
Geoff Simmons
Jim Mortimer
Matt Carr
Stan Newens
Theresa Wolfwood


Price: £11.99

288 pages | Paperback
ISBN: 978 0 85124 6949


Quantity:  

<span style='font-size: 14px;'>Empire No More!</span>Empire No More!
... the Lion and Wolf shall cease
By Ken Coates

Price: £45.00

288 pages | Hardback
ISBN: 978 0 85124 7007


Quantity:  

<span style='font-size: 14px;'>The Universal Declaration of Human Rights</span>The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Fifty Years On
Ken Coates MEP

A paper given to the New European Left Forum which met in Athens on December 10th, 1998, the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration.

Price: £2.00

10 pages | Pamphlet
ISBN: 978 0 85124 6215


Quantity:  

<span style='font-size: 14px;'>The Right to <em>Useful </em>Work</span>The Right to Useful Work
Edited by Ken Coates

More and more people are forced to worry about the decline of the British economy. In this volume various pressure groups unite to spell out the alternatives to crisis and mass unemployment, based on PLANNING BY THE PEOPLE.

Contributors to this urgently topical book include Michael Barratt Brown, Steven Bodington, Mike Cooley and Pete Thomas.


Price: £12.00

288 pages | Paperback
ISBN: 978 0 85124 744 1


Quantity:  

<span style='font-size: 14px;'>Can the workers run industry?</span>Can the workers run industry?
Edited by Ken Coates

Contributions by Hugh Scanlon, Ian Mikardo, Ernie Roberts, Michael Barratt Brown, Terry Lacey and others.

With the British Economy staggering from one crisis to the next, the issue of Industrial Democracy becomes increasingly important. Behind all the discussion of little Neddies, Income Policies and rationalisation people are beginning to realise that the most vital economic resource is the initiative of the workers themselves. The basic problem facing the C.B.I. and the Trade Unions is to ensure that the week's work becomes a challenge rather than a burden.

The aim of this book is to show that the best cure for the 'roll on Friday' attitude is to involve the workers actively and vitally in the process of making decisions. The old formula of nationalisation is not enough: there is a demand for new, experimental forms of democratic organisation.

In this volume trade union leaders, shop stewards, university teachers and political leaders present their views and plans for the future of industrial democracy in Britain.

Price: £5.95

254 pages | Paperback
First published 1972
ISBN: 0 90174 0306


Quantity:  

<span style='font-size: 14px;'>Workers' Control</span>Workers' Control
by Ken Coates

Trade Unionists in Britain pursued their hope of a more fulfilling life in the secure knowledge that if they joined together, a better world was indeed possible. Now, a new generation of trade unionists, internationally, may in turn draw inspiration from the ideas and experiences of those who came together in pursuit of industrial democracy and workers' control.

'This book is a significant contribution to the ongoing discussion around issues of workers' control...'

Jeremy Dear National Union of Journalists, Andy Gilchrist Fire Brigades Union, Billy Hayes Communication Workers Union, Joe Marino Bakers, Food & Allied Workers' union, Mick Rix ASLEF, Mark Serwotka Public & Commercial Services Union, Tony Woodley Transport & General Workers' Union.

Read a review by Jim Mortimer


Price: £7.99

190 pages | Paperback
ISBN: 978 0 85124 6826
Socialist Renewal 3:7


Quantity:  

<span style='font-size: 14px;'>Readings and Witnesses</span>Readings and Witnesses
for Workers' Control
Edited by Tony Topham and Ken Coates

This book of Readings and Witnesses for Workers' Control seeks to show the rich history of the trade union movement to win a voice in the government of industry for the people who do the work in it.

Price: £9.99

504 pages | ISBN: 978 0 85124 6994
Paperback | Socialist Renewal 5:1


Quantity:  

<span style='font-size: 14px;'>Think Globally, Act Locally</span>Think Globally, Act Locally
The United Nations and the Peace Movements
by Ken Coates

This book seeks to draw lessons from the experience of the peace movement in order to strengthen the work of the United Nations. It proposes important reforms of the structure of the world organisation, while defending key principles of international law and co-operation.

Price: £9.99

168 pages | Paperback
ISBN: 978 0 85124 504 1


Quantity:  

<span style='font-size: 14px;'>Think Globally, Act Locally</span>Think Globally, Act Locally
The United Nations and the Peace Movements
by Ken Coates

Price: £17.50

168 pages | Hardback
ISBN: 978 0 85124 503 4


Quantity:  

<span style='font-size: 14px;'>The Blair Revelation</span>The Blair Revelation
Deliverance for Whom?
by Ken Coates and Michael Barratt Brown

Whatever is happening to the Labour Party?

Michael Barratt Brown and Ken Coates seek to tell the truth as they understand it of the changes which the Labour Party has recently undergone. They have looked closely at Mr Blair's much hyped commitment to ethical socialism. They examine the meaning of his idea of 'community', and test his claims that he stands in the tradition of Christian Socialism.


Price: £6.99

224 pages | Paperback
ISBN: 978 0 85124 6055


Quantity:  

<span style='font-size: 14px;'>Poverty: The Forgotten Englishmen</span>Poverty: The Forgotten Englishmen
Ken Coates & Richard Silburn

Is Poverty in Britain a thing of the past?

Ken Coates and Richard Silburn look again at what is meant by the word 'poverty'. They conclude that vast numbers of English people, living in slums throughout the country, are, for the most of their lives, living in acute poverty. What this actually involves is spelled out by means of a detailed survey of one slum- St Ann's, an area of Nottingham which has now been cleared but is all too typical of hundreds of such districts which remain.

This work is a classic study.

'Writing with compassion, style, wit and almost a complete lack of jargon, (they) present us with inescapable facts which must remould our thinking and our actions.'  The Times

Reviews in
The Topper
by Bob Holman in The Herald


Price: £9.00

282 pages | Indexed
Paperback | ISBN: 978 0 85124 375 7


Quantity:  

<span style='font-size: 14px;'>St Ann's</span>St Ann's
Poverty, Deprivation and Morale in a Nottingham Community

Two thousand and seven marks the fortieth anniversary of the first publication of our report on Poverty, Deprivation and Morale in the Nottingham community of St Ann’s.

St Ann’s is frequently in the headlines of this twenty-first century, but we may well be asked why we think it fitting to republish this report, which concerns the thirty thousand people who lived in the old St Ann’s. Poverty has certainly changed its aspect since the 1960s, but since we were primarily concerned with its moral effects, our report remains depressingly familiar, and points up a whole constellation of attitudes and experiences which are all-too-familiar in modern times.
Ken Coates, Preface to 2007 edition

The survey was conducted under the auspices of the Adult Education Department of the University if Nottingham, and gave rise to a film directed by Stephen Frears.

Read Ken Coates and Richard Silburn's recent article in the Nottingham Evening Post.


Price: £9.00

104 pages - 20 photos
ISBN: 978 085124 7328


Quantity:  

<span style='font-size: 14px;'>Byron <em>versus</em> Elgin</span>Byron versus Elgin
By Ken Coates

In 1998, Newstead Abbey was directly in the line of advance of projected colliery workings, and there were real fears that undermining it could cause serious damage to the buildings, possibily even collapsing them. This was the problem which gave rise to the campaign to save Newstead Abbey, the ancestral home of Lord Byron. Ken Coates, then the local Member of the European Parliament, decided to try to extend the well-organised campaign of British supporters, and seek help in Greece, to prevent possible destruction of the Abbey and the Byron museum. He wrote to all the Greek Members of the European Parliament, and received a virtually unanimous response. The concern was spontaneous. It was at this point that he realised that it was necessary that solidarity should engender reciprocal support. With the Greek people so impressively united in defence of the heritage of Lord Byron, did we not need to elicit a matching response in Britain to the continued theft of the ‘Elgin’ Marbles in the British Museum, taken from the Parthenon shortly before Byron’s own first visit to Athens?

Price: £2.00

14 pages | Illustrated
ISBN: 978 0 85124 6178


Quantity:  

Spokesman Books | Ken Coates