Jordan Brown

Orginally from Oakland, California I lived in Northern California until I moved to the United Kingdom in 2015

My PhD looked at the Ulster Workers Council (UWC) in 1974 was a powerful demonstration of militant trade unionism and the ability of trade unionists to deliver significant changes to government policy. The UWC should not be considered a Loyalist paramilitary action but instead an instance of militant trade union activism. During the 1970s, many trade unionist campaigns across the United Kingdom were driven by a desire to overturn government policy. These campaigns were not exclusively concerned about conditions like wages and pensions and instead wanted to harness public opinion to overturn government policy. Organisation like the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Upper Clyde Shipbuilder (UCS) established tactics that that incorporated dissatisfaction with current government policy within a framework of trade unionism.  The project illustrated how solidarity can be cultivated beyond the shopfloor and how trade unionists pushed the boundaries of what was considered industrial action. 

My masters looked at the 1964 Proposition 14 campaign in California and the subsequent reppeal of the Rumford Fair Hosing Act.

My research focuses on the ways in which communities and indidvuals resist government policy or protests changes to their conditions without their consent. Primarily this takes the form of social movements and direct action campaings.  However, these objections can also take place on a indidivual level and these moments of resistance are equally imortant to highlight.  Not every single protest action or social movement is sucessful in achieving it aims and discovering what tactics and organising principals are most effective can better our understanding of what consitutues a social movement or protest.

To shed light on community resistance and organising that fosters a more inclusive and broad understanding of the terms social movements and protest.