With the globalisation of capital so much in the air, the challenge to trade unionists to think in transnational terms has provoked much thought and discussion.

In this issue Emmet O Connor and Jonathan Jeffries both explore the relationship between the British trade-union movement and colonialism, the former in the context of Ireland, the latter that of Gibraltar. O Connor argues that the colonising effects of the British unions persisted well beyond the moment of partition; while Jeffries describes how British unions colluded more actively in the maintenance of a colonial system of labour relations.

Steve Cushion's contribution on the French miners' strike Of 1941 provides a different perspective on the political role of trade unions, here providing a catalyst for wider resistance, including armed resistance, to the Nazi forces of occupation. In a further contribution on the theme, Sarah Glynn deals not with industrial militancy, but with the political mobilisation of Bengali migrants in East London at the time of the Bangladeshi War of Independence in 1971.

This issue also includes two contributions in a new 'Perspectives' section, intended to feature articles which fall outside the issue's main theme. In the first, Ralph Darlington offers his case for 'alterfactual' history, again drawing extensively on trade-union examples. Finally, Mike Haynes offers a robust critique of A History of Britain of Simon Schama.