Download or read book Class Struggle and Social Welfare written by Michael Lavalette and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-04-15 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For too long the collective struggles of the oppressed over welfare provision and welfare settlement have been ignored, yet such struggles punctuate recent British history. By presenting a series of case-studies of episodes of collective action from the field of social policy and social welfare, Class Struggle and Welfare aims to rediscover this 'hidden history'. Organised chronologically, the book covers some of the most important welfare struggles from the early nineteenth century, some of the issues covered are: *the growth of capitalism *the development of the poor laws and the anti-poor law movement *working class self-help welfare in the nineteenth century *rent strikes on the Clyde in 1920s *the squatters movement in the 1950s *the struggle for abortion rights *an analysis of the urban riots in the 1980s *the great poll tax rebellion.