Extending Democracy: Railway Workers and the Popular Front in France, 1936-1938
French railway workers played no part in the historic Popular Front strikes and workplace occupations of May–June 1936. Yet, in November 1938, this group of workers placed themselves in the vanguard of attempts to defend the social legislation passed by the Blum government. Both events have been analysed as evidence of the reformist aims and materialist calculations of French railway workers in the interwar period. Following the failure of the 1920 general strike, railway workers are understood to have renounced political militancy, embracing a narrow corporatist vision of industrial relations. Their attempted participation in the 30 November 1938 general strike has been similarly read as a defence of material interests. In contrast to such views this article argues that railway trade unionism in the Popular Front period built upon well-developed communist policies emphasizing workplace dignity and the extension of worker power within both the railway industry and capitalism more widely. Rather than pursuing purely materialist calculations, union policy sought to defend a vision for French industrial relations predicated upon shared responsibility and partnership between management and labour in economic decision making. Such an analysis raises questions regarding the wider meaning of the Popular Front for French workers and its longer-term significance in contemporary French history.
Quelle: http://ehq.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/44/3/458?rss=1
The Societe Typographique de Neuchatel (STN) and the Politics of the Book Trade in Late Eighteenth-Century Europe, 1769-1789
Disseminating literature in eighteenth-century Europe was an immense and intricate undertaking. This article concentrates on a somewhat neglected facet of the print trade during this age; namely the role and significance of political support and protection. Making use of the extant records of an eighteenth-century publishing house, this article highlights how government agents collaborated and cooperated with book traders. The Société typographique de Neuchâtel was a Swiss publishing business which harnessed the power of government agents from across the continent by enlisting their assistance as commercial intermediaries. Whilst the capabilities, willingness and opportunities available to these individuals limited the scope of their actions, they were nevertheless participants in a network of patronage which helped to sustain the international print trade of eighteenth-century Europe.
Quelle: http://ehq.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/44/3/439?rss=1
Family Strategies and Transregional Mobility: The de Piro in Eighteenth-Century Malta and Sicily
This article analyses the formation of transregional families through a case study on the attempts by a Maltese nobleman, Giovanni Pio de Piro, to establish his household in the Kingdom of Sicily in the eighteenth century and what the consequences were for his heirs. Drawing on recent perspectives on transregional and transnational families, this paper considers the evolution of inheritance and marriage strategies directed towards migration in the broader context of eighteenth-century Malta and Sicily. In doing so it discusses how those features of kinship most commonly associated with the ‘rootedness’ of noble households were also adapted towards transregional mobility.
Quelle: http://ehq.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/44/3/419?rss=1
Index on Censorship | 2/2014
Brick by brick - Freedom 25 years after the fall
Quelle: http://www.eurozine.com/journals/indexcensorship/issue/2014-06-18.html
A 2 | 12 (2014)
Post-anarchism
Quelle: http://www.eurozine.com/journals/a2/issue/2014-06-18.html
