Eric Hobsbawm would not have supported University of London boycott

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/feb/11/eric-hobsbawm-would-not-have-backed-university-of-london-boycott

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The event referred to in your report (Talk about Marxist historian under fire for breaching workers’ rights boycott, theguardian.com, 7 February) was held to launch my book Eric Hobsbawm: A Life in History. I don’t think Eric Hobsbawm would have approved of the boycott.

This was not an official union picket line but was staged by the International Workers of Great Britain, which is not affiliated with the TUC. Eric Hobsbawm always despised leftwing sectarianism. The fact that the IWGB union split away from Unison and Unite to operate independently would have struck him as undermining the trade union movement.

The handful of people who stood outside the meeting distributing leaflets did not arrive until many people were already inside the hall. We were given no notice of the boycott until it was far too late to call the meeting off.

All that said, I and many others at the launch support the ending of outsourcing labour at Senate House under different conditions from those under which those directly employed there are employed. I took a bundle of leaflets into the meeting for the audience to read. As I told one of the young people at the entrance, this was a far better way of publicising their cause than cancelling the meeting and sending 150 people home disappointed.

I understand that the University of London is taking steps to reduce and eventually cease the outsourcing of labour and hope that its efforts come rapidly to fruition.Richard J EvansBarkway, Hertfordshire

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University of London

Trade unions

Eric Hobsbawm

Higher education

History books

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