Trade Unions Under Capitalism is a substantial Marxist anthology examining what unions can achieve within capitalism, where their limits emerge, and whether workplace organisation can become a genuinely transformative political force.

Rather than treating trade unionism as automatically revolutionary—or dismissing it as merely reformist—the collection stages the argument through competing traditions of labour theory and practice. The book moves through classical Marxist writing, revolutionary syndicalism, the sociology of trade unionism, workplace control and the institutionalisation of organised labour. Contributors include Marx, Engels, Lenin, Rosa Luxemburg, James Hinton, Alan Fox, Richard Hyman and others. The central tension is between unions as defensive organisations, built to secure wages and conditions, and unions as possible sites of class consciousness, direct action and challenges to managerial authority.

Published during a period of intense industrial conflict in Britain, the anthology is historically situated but hardly embalmed. Its disputes over bureaucracy, rank-and-file power, reformism and the relation between economic struggle and political organisation remain embedded in contemporary debates about labour. A useful reader for anyone interested in union history, Marxist theory or the recurring problem of how institutions formed for resistance become institutions of negotiation.

Fontana, 1977. First edition paperback. Moderate cover rubbing, creasing and edge wear, with a few marks and softened corners; pages age-toned but clean and binding sound.