Fellow Travellers considers the origins and development of the Communist presence among French railway workers, how Communist activists adapted to the particular environment of railway industrial relations, and examines the foundations of what was to become one of the most powerful and enduring constituencies of Communist support in modern France.
This stimulating collection of essays by distinguished British, American, Australian and German scholars, originally published in 1985, offers a picture of the upsurge of New Unionism and the growth of old unions, and looks at the severe setbacks which occurred in the labour movements of Britain and Germany between the 1880s and the First World War. Labour history is seen from a European perspective and special emphasis is placed on the role of the state in Britain and Germany in its desire to contain and suppress trade union activity by law or force. Insights are provided into the political allegiances of the unions and their members to the parties of the working class and the state.
Railway workers were a uniformed and respectable section of the Victorian and Edwardian working class. They built their trade unions in the face of employer hostility and their organisations played a crucial role in the construction of effective labour politics. Local political organisations owed much to the patience and creativity of railway workers, not least in small towns and country districts. Respectable Radicals uses rich archival sources to analyse this history through a series of case studies. It focuses, among other topics, on disasters, strikes, the modernisation policies of companies, inter-union rivalries and the promises and frustrations of labour politics. A dominant theme is the complex relationship between changing experiences of work, shifting trade union strategies and political identities. The result is a new perspective on a significant sector of trade unionism and on the character of labour politics from the 1890s to the 1950s.
DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "A History of Trade Unionism in the United States" by Selig Perlman. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.
The author of this British book states that "The reader must not expect to find, in this historical volume, either an analysis of Trade Union organisation, policy, and methods, or any judgment upon the validity of its assumptions, its economic achievements, or its limitations." The book instead explains how, since the original publication of the book in 1890, the trade union movement has grown to encompass 60% of all workers, and how it may now form the foundation for a new political party.
The Russian Revolution excited men, and captured their imaginations. It seemed to herald the fulfillment of the nineteenth-century socialist movement. Socialists believed that with the proper use of technocracy they could scourge poverty and hunger from the earth. They felt that a social system based on equality and social justice could overcome the traditional division of each society into rich and poor. They were convinced that they could overcome social problems that, seething and bubbling beneath the surface, threatened to be as destructive as wars fought between great powers. These were the ideals and objectives of both 1917 revolutions. They were exciting and contagious. The Russians were seen by many as being on the threshold of a new and great experiment, one which would lead the world to peace, democracy, and security-the dream of ages. Support grew quickly. A worldwide movement committed to the extension of the ideological and moral principles of the Revolution and to the defense of the Soviet Union grew and became a significant factor in world politics. It did not turn out that way. Much of the story of this tragedy is to be found in labor struggles-the split between the Communist Party, the trade unions, and the workers. The labor movement, which had been pushing for a democratic alternative, turned against the Bolsheviks soon after 1917, and labor opposition left the Bolsheviks at the crossroads of history. The Bolsheviks had to choose between dictatorship or democracy. Under Lenin's guidance they opted for minority dictator ship, the outcome of which was tyranny over the very people in whose name they fought. This classic volume, originally published in 1969, has not been surpassed as a description of how and why this occurred. Jay B. Sorenson, professor emeritus of political science at the University of New Mexico has been a Professor of Government at Smith College and an Associate of the Harvard University Russian Re search Center. He is the author of Japanese Policy and Nuclear Arms, and Uranium Mining and Milling and Environmental Protection: Mitigation of Regulatory Problems.
First published in 1939. This book provides a balanced picture of Trade Unionism as it was in the 1930s, both in general and in each of the principal industries and services. The study opens with a brief outline of Trade Union history, before examining Trade Unions in various industries, including mining, transport, and the postal service. British Trade Unionism To-Day will be of great interest to students and scholars of labour and political history.
First Published in 2017. Volume 6 of the directory contains the Trade Unions of Building and Construction, Agriculture, Fishing, Chemicals, Wood and Woodworking, Transport, Engineering and Metal Working, Government, Civil and Public Service, Energy and Extraction in the United Kingdom and Ireland, Shipbuilding.
