http://www.newstatesman.com/writers/anthony_blair en http://www.newstatesman.com/law-and-reform/2007/06/trade-union-government-codes http://www.newstatesman.com/law-and-reform/2007/06/trade-union-government-codes Thu, 21 Jun 2007 12:00:00 GMT Anthony Blair From The New Statesman 29 August 1980 Tony Blair claims that one of his many achievements in office was not to repeal the employment laws passed by Margaret Thatcher's government to weaken trade union power. But Blair, as a young and politically ambitious barrister, was a staunch supporter of trade union rights. In this article, published in 1980, he even backed the use of mass picketing in strikes, something he later condemned as part of the unacceptable face of trade union power. Selected by Robert Taylor

]]> http://www.newstatesman.com/society/2007/05/industrial-action-union http://www.newstatesman.com/society/2007/05/industrial-action-union Mon, 14 May 2007 12:00:00 GMT Anthony Blair A young Tony Blair argues for the repeal of Margaret Thatcher's anti-union laws

]]> http://www.newstatesman.com/200609110058 http://www.newstatesman.com/200609110058 Mon, 11 Sep 2006 12:00:00 GMT Anthony Blair Taken from the New Statesman archive, 22 February 1980. When he wrote this, Tony Blair (for it is he) was a lawyer of 26 and still three years away from becoming an MP. It was one of several articles he contributed on legal themes around this time. The Prior he mentions is Jim, Margaret Thatcher's first employment secretary, and the MacShane is Denis, who was then president of the NUJ and whom you may read on page 17. The ISTC is the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation, now called Community. Selected by Brian Cathcart

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