Shaw wrote superbly, and he was critical of capitalism but also of leftist institutions such as trade unionism.
Aloof from official politics, non-party-aligned and sometimes distant from trade unionism, such movements reflect the growing prominence of issues and forms of profound social conflict that emerge outside the workplace.
British workers found that their trade union organisation, based on craft and sectoral unions such as boilermakers and blast-furnace men rather than the industrial unionism of Germany or Scandinavia, left them exposed.
Things that might have prevented this deterioration such as support for unionism, fair trade policies, a minimum wage that constitutes a living wage and universal health care, have all been anathema to the Republican Party.
When it comes to issues such as taxation and trade unionism, that may be true: Tony Blair has accepted most of the Thatcherite inheritance, and is calling for economic liberalisation across the EU.
Everyone involved in the programme had remarkable respect for Jack regardless of their political views, all the more surprising as trade unionism was taking such a buffeting during the Thatcher era.
Analysts arguing that a 'global system of industrial relations' is emerging must take account of such issues deriving from trade unionism's global heterogeneity.
Much of the labour union renewal literature remains prescriptive and is only beginning to escape false binaries such as business versus social unionism, the servicing versus organizing model, or 'top-down' versus 'bottom-up' administration.
Government-owned Air France is a hotbed of union power, as many travelers have learned to their dismay, but in France today there is virtually no such thing as private-sector unionism.
But of course, America has just gone through such a period, and union membership barely budged.The parts of the American private sector where trade unionism is showing signs of life are those where the working conditions are toughest.
