‘Overall, Brian Marren has produced a very good book which for many years to come, will certainly contribute to the debate about political activism during the Thatcher years. Furthermore, through the gradual release of government archives and as historians begin to research the 1980s in greater depth, this study will in no doubt, feature in a number of books and articles about Liverpool and the Merseyside region, especially when reflecting how far the city has travelled and progressed over the past few decades.’
Neil Pye, University of Huddersfield, Labour History Review

Introduction
1. Unravelling of the post-war consensus and the peculiarities of Liverpool
2. Employment and unemployment on Merseyside, 1945–98
3. British Leyland’s closure of the Triumph TR7 Plant in Speke: ‘The Shape of Things to Come’?
4. The TGWU 6/612 Branch for the Unemployed: Working-Class Politicisation and Mobilisation
5. The Toxteth Riots, 1981: unemployed youth take to the streets
6. The Militant Tendency and the Liverpool City Council’s fight to save ‘jobs and services’, 1983–86
7. Sit-ins and factory occupations: a case study of Cammell Laird Shipyards
8. The Liverpool Dock Strike of 1995–98: the end of the line?
Conclusion
Bibliography