Introduction: radical Sheffield
1 Building from the bottom: Sheffield City Council and the new urban left
2 The labour movement: marching forward
3 Political women: class, feminism and the labour movement
4 Sexuality, ‘race’ and the women’s movement
5 Singing from the songbook: new social movements and single-issue politics
6 Lesbian and gay politics
Conclusion

Bibliography
Index

Socialist Republic s a detailed account of left-wing politics in 1980s Britain. Often considered a time of crisis for the Left, this book shows how the period actually saw a persistence of social democracy in localities like Sheffield. Drawing on archival research and oral history interviews, it examines how Sheffield City Council developed a left-wing agenda to counter Thatcherism and renew the British Left. The city’s wider activism of trade unionism, women’s groups, peace, environmentalism, anti-apartheid, anti-racism, and lesbian and gay politics interacted with the ‘Socialist Republic’, and the book illustrates how these movements were embraced, supported, restricted or ignored by the local authority.

By bringing together a wide range of movements and examining them in the context of a vibrant local government, this book uses the local to offer a methodological challenge to the study of new social movements while providing a road map for how left-wing politics can be studied in other cities. Offering a timely focus on regional politics, it demonstrates how histories of local political cultures can enrich our understanding of political developments on a national and international level. Written in an accessible style and foregrounding activists’ stories, Socialist Republic will have a wide appeal, making it essential reading for students, scholars and activists with an interest in left-wing politics and history.