ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author concentrates on an examination of way in which the governments attempted to restrict civil liberties in the industrial sphere, in the context of the more general factors which relate to the introduction and use of those restrictions. In other words, all the time the Chamberlain government laid great importance on the development of consensus and on the continuity of production, they had little option but to appease the labour and trade union movements. Thus, as with manpower controls and the control of employment act, the Chamberlain government chose appeasement rather than confrontation on both a political and an industrial level. The establisment of ‘tripartism’ as the formation and work of such joint bodies has become known, was clearly an important feature of wartime administration. By the autumn of 1943 industrial unrest had reached such a pitch that it was seen as a real threat to the production programmes necessary to support the invasion of Europe.
