Striking against and under Neoliberalism: The 2022-23 British Strike Spiral in Context

The strikes that took place in the UK in 2022 and 2023 were the first episode of industrial action on this scale since the late 1980s. As such, they were also the first to take place within and against the full force of the anti-union consensus, which is one strand of the post-1979 neoliberal hegemony. The 2022-23 strike episode can therefore not be regarded as a repetition of previous ones, since it emerged in conditions which are specific to the neoliberal context of the 2020s. As a result, the article analyses this cycle of protest in context, arguing that neoliberal dynamics, on the one hand, provoked the strikes, and, on the other hand, shaped the strategies employed by trade-unions. Building on this contextual analysis, it assesses the impact of the strikes and revisits the concept of “protest cycle”. It suggests that the 2022-23 episode of industrial action can be pictured as a spiral being part of a longer series of protests opposing neoliberalism.