The Archers at 75: Class without class struggle
Class without class struggle reverses the title of a well known essay by the historian E P Thompson on eighteenth century England but as a description of the Archers at 75 it fits.
Class there is in the Archers. After all the programme is named after the ruling Archers Dynasty whose family members have a hand in most things Ambridge. Perhaps the only thing missing which might be expected is an Archers link to the Borsetshire Constabulary and the Magistrates bench. Surely at least one of the leaders of the exploiting class, Brian Aldridge, Justin Elliott and Brian Aldridge would be JPs.
A recent focus in the Archers, and rightly so, is gender and with Paul sexual identities, but class lurks.
The working class in Ambridge are of course the Grundys and the Horrobins. Eddie is rarely without some doubtful scam while on the Horrobin’s side there is Clive. George Grundy straddles both.
There are environmental politics in the Archers going way back. There was the trashing of GM crops, Brian’s pollution of the Am (he largely got off) and more recently re-wilding.
There have been occasional nods to opposition to the Borsetshire Hunt and Mia’s veganism.
Meanwhile of course Pat has a history of CND activism and got involved with the more recent protests against Borsetshire Water after the sewage leak.
However when it comes to workplaces and trade unions the Archers has remained for the most part silent. There have been calls down the decades from the union that organises agricultural workers- now Unite- for it to be addressed. They have been ignored.
Surely if the chicken factory, the meat packing plant and Grey Gables were not unionised (again by Unite, different sections of) there would be campaigns for it to happen. The Employment Relations Act which became law just before Christmas will make this a bit easier. No mention so far in the Archers
There have however been two union reps in Ambridge over the last 75 years. Neil Carter and Mike Tucker. Given the workplaces under discussion and the profile of modern workforces it must be time for the first female union rep in the area.
Kmflett's Blog 
Class certainly lurks.
Or it did in Further Education in, at least one part of, the ILEA 20 years ago.
Ken Livingstone’s GLC published what we called the “golden notebooks” on Race, Sex and Class, set up an Equality Unit and made huge progress on two of the three. At one point, I contacted the Unit asking when there’d be initiatives on class. The answer was vague and I don’t remember anything positive happening.
Educational establishments had Equality Committees. I was on one such. When I brought up the issue of class at a meeting I was met with silence. When, eventually, it arrived on the agenda, it referred only to the students. I found that very telling.