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The Battle within the Home: Development Strategies and the Commodification of Caring Labors at the 1975 International Women’s Year Conference

Jocelyn Olcott

in Workers Across the Americas: The Transnational Turn in Labor History

Transnational labor history—and labor history more generally—has focused overwhelmingly on commodified labor, but the vast majority of the labor performed by women historically has been ... More

Transnational labor history—and labor history more generally—has focused overwhelmingly on commodified labor, but the vast majority of the labor performed by women historically has been uncommodified. Most of this labor falls under the rubric of reproductive labor, the “caring” work that generally includes child care, housekeeping, food provision (often including subsistence agricultural production), and the maintenance of critical community networks. This chapter examines debates at the 1975 United Nations International Women's Year Conference, where policy makers and activists alike agreed that these labors remained the most imposing obstacle to women's emancipation. In the end, however, the Marxist and liberal perspectives that dominated the conference focused almost entirely on how to incorporate women into the “productive life” of commodified labor, failing to address the more challenging problem of alleviating women's reproductive-labor burden.Less

Issues and Debates

Neville Kirk

in Transnational Radicalism and the Connected Lives of Tom Mann and Robert Samuel Ross

Part One, comprising of two chapters, sets the particular case of Mann and Ross in its relevant transnational and, to a lesser extent, comparative and global contexts. Chapter One is methodological ... More

Part One, comprising of two chapters, sets the particular case of Mann and Ross in its relevant transnational and, to a lesser extent, comparative and global contexts. Chapter One is methodological and historiographical in character. It first traces the development of labour history. It then turns to consider the books key definitions and usages: transnationalism; globalisation; comparative history. This involves both a critical survey of the relevant literature and an explication of my approach and usage. The final section of the chapter explores the development, strengths and weaknesses and potential of transnational historyLess

An Overture

Kay Dickinson

in Off Key: When Film and Music Won't Work Together

This chapter criticizes the film and music combination in the motion picture Harum Scarum which starred Elvis Presley. It mentions critics' opinion that this is the worst movie in which Presley ever ... More

This chapter criticizes the film and music combination in the motion picture Harum Scarum which starred Elvis Presley. It mentions critics' opinion that this is the worst movie in which Presley ever starred. It discusses the plot of the film and attempts to locate the film's icon within the paradigms of labor history. It suggests that there is a strong but underresearched connection between the public treatment of media industry synergies that run aground and much broader anxieties about how we have earned our livings over the past fifty or so years.Less

Social Regulation and Transatlantic Accumulation

Jordana Rosenberg

in Critical Enthusiasm: Capital Accumulation and the Transformation of Religious Passion

Chapter Three builds on critical accounts of race and capitalism to argue for the influential force of colonial contexts on British moral philosophy. Though much transatlantic work has tracked the ... More

Chapter Three builds on critical accounts of race and capitalism to argue for the influential force of colonial contexts on British moral philosophy. Though much transatlantic work has tracked the impression that British political theory and philosophy made on colonial and Early American ideals, I invert this relation. In Chapter Three, I show that the racial dynamics of the colonies influenced the articulation of moral philosophy in striking ways, and I demonstrate the transatlantic, colonial, and racialized conditions of moral philosophy’s core concepts. Building on historian Robin Blackburn’s account of the role of plantation slavery in the development of capital accumulation in Britain, as well as on histories of labor alliances in the colonies, I show how moral philosophy reflects the role of New World slave and indentured labor in the processes of accumulation that laid the basis for the Industrial Revolution.Less

Making History Every Day: The Iowa Labor History Oral Project and Popular Education

Jennifer Sherer

in Civic Labors: Scholar Activism and Working-Class Studies

In this chapter, the author presents an approach to teaching labor history drawn from her experience as an educator at the University of Iowa Labor Center. In particular, she focuses on the Iowa ... More

In this chapter, the author presents an approach to teaching labor history drawn from her experience as an educator at the University of Iowa Labor Center. In particular, she focuses on the Iowa Labor History Oral Project, initiated by the Iowa Federation of Labor in the 1970s to document the experiences of workers across the state. Workers encountering these oral histories in classrooms or union halls not only learn about Iowa's labor history, but they also gain a clearer view of the contemporary workplace and organizing challenges they face; this process subordinates narrative and historical context to stimulate activism in the present and future by drawing on commonalities between present and past. The author chronicles the history and educational ambitions of the project, highlighting the creative ways in which the Labor Center harnesses this resource in educational outreach to workers. She shows that oral histories work well as an educational tool because they bring the personal and emotional experiences of workers to the surface, enabling participants to relate to one another and to labor's history.Less

Transnational Migration: A New Historical Phenomenon?

Vic Satzewich

in Workers Across the Americas: The Transnational Turn in Labor History

The past twenty years have seen a call for a new transnational perspective on migration and settlement, in that traditional approaches social scientists use to understand individuals who move and ... More

The past twenty years have seen a call for a new transnational perspective on migration and settlement, in that traditional approaches social scientists use to understand individuals who move and settle abroad are no longer suitable for an increasingly complex world; concepts like immigrant no longer suffice because they imply a permanence to migration that no longer exists. Others claim that nations and states no longer serve as adequate units of analysis. The concept of transnationalism is said to capture more accurately the central features of immigrant and ethnic community life. This chapter argues that significant aspects of the literature on transnationalism demand historical correction: An interdisciplinary dialogue might help us to historicize general hypotheses, creating a more nuanced understanding of workers' local, national, and transnational lives. A labor history that pays attention to both the local and the transnational can temper claims about the unprecedented nature of contemporary transnationalism, particularly as it relates to the understanding of immigrant lives. Furthermore, a renewed emphasis on immigrants as workers instead of simply carriers of certain transnational identities and practices can establish a more complete picture of the lives of those who cross national boundaries in search of work, business opportunities, and better lives.Less

Labor Historians and Traditions of Engaged Scholarship: Progressives, Insurgents, and the Making of a New Labor History

Shelton Stromquist

in Civic Labors: Scholar Activism and Working-Class Studies

This chapter traces the history of the early paths of engaged scholarship blazed by progressive labor economists who, at some professional risk, gave birth to labor history as a serious field of ... More

This chapter traces the history of the early paths of engaged scholarship blazed by progressive labor economists who, at some professional risk, gave birth to labor history as a serious field of inquiry and by the subsequent pioneering work of two labor historians and activists: E. P. Thompson and David Montgomery. Thompson and Montgomery not only reshaped the academic field but influenced subsequent generations of engaged scholars. Of particular importance were Thompson's and Montgomery's experiences outside of academia, notably in labor and left political circles. The chapter points out that the generation of labor historians following Thompson and Montgomery shared their attention to class, their affinity for grassroots activism, and their advocacy for participatory democracy. At the same time, the succeeding generations of scholars, responding to changed political and intellectual contexts, have pursued new forms of engagement.Less

Introduction: labour, design and culture

Jesse Adams Stein

in Hot Metal: Material Culture and Tangible Labour

This introductory chapter first establishes the disciplinary spectrum within which Hot Metal operates. It outlines how recent studies of design and material culture have focused less on production ... More

This introductory chapter first establishes the disciplinary spectrum within which Hot Metal operates. It outlines how recent studies of design and material culture have focused less on production and labour, and more on consumption, interpretation and professional design, and examines the place of material culture in labour history. The Introduction opens the path to demonstrating a more effective way to interweave studies of working life, labour and design, while retaining the voices of the workers (through oral history), without aestheticising or sentimentalising labour experience. The chapter also introduces Sydney’s Government Printing Office as a rich and revealing case study that holds valuable lessons for those examining the cultural and social impacts of deindustrialisation in late capitalist economies. Finally, the Introduction sets the economic and political scene in Sydney between the 1960s and the 1980s: important background for understanding the changes that the print-workers experienced.Less

Memory of Lattimer

Paul A. Shackel

in Remembering Lattimer: Labor, Migration, and Race in Pennsylvania Anthracite Country

The memorialization of Lattimer began immediately after the trial, and the UMWA claimed the martyrs as their own. Several early attempts to commemorate the event and erect a monument failed, and by ... More

The memorialization of Lattimer began immediately after the trial, and the UMWA claimed the martyrs as their own. Several early attempts to commemorate the event and erect a monument failed, and by World War I Lattimer faded from the national public memory. Citizens at the local level kept the story alive, and in 1972, union members and local stakeholders erected a monument at Lattimer. Labor organizers and politicians attended the seventy-fifth anniversary commemoration. Through the 1990s local religious leaders organized Roman Catholic Masses at the site on the massacre’s anniversary, and many of the clergy gave pro-labor, anti-neoliberal homilies. The local community and avocational historians have continued to debate the meaning of Lattimer and have focused on the event’s relationship to labor history versus ethnic history.Less

Introduction

Geoffrey G. Field

in Blood, Sweat, and Toil: Remaking the British Working Class, 1939-1945

The introduction discusses recent historical debate about the significance of class analysis and outlines the chapter organization of the whole book.

Factors Influencing the Making and Transformation of Labour Law in Europe

Bob Hepple

in The Idea of Labour Law

The starting point of the work of the European Comparative Labour Law Group, which is outlined in this chapter, is that labour legislation is part of an historical process and the outcome of struggle ... More

The starting point of the work of the European Comparative Labour Law Group, which is outlined in this chapter, is that labour legislation is part of an historical process and the outcome of struggle between different social groups and of competing ideologies. A number of indicators are used to demonstrate path departures, or transformations, in labour law. The main factors are economic developments and policies, the changing nature of the state, the character if employers and labour movements, the growing influence of civil society, and shifts in ideology. Two underlying socio-economic factors bring into question the very survival of current labour law systems of regulated capitalism in Europe: the pace of technological change and the crisis of the banking system which makes it increasingly difficult to finance long-term corporate investment and the development of human resources, so reducing Europe's competitive advantages in global markets.Less

Beyond Heroines and Girl Strikers: Gender and Organized Labor in the South

Mary E. Frederickson

in Looking South: Race, Gender, and the Transformation of Labor from Reconstruction to Globalization

This chapter examines representations of southern women within labor history. For many generations, southern labor history focused on two primary groups of women: “heroines,” individual women who ... More

This chapter examines representations of southern women within labor history. For many generations, southern labor history focused on two primary groups of women: “heroines,” individual women who performed extraordinary feats, and “girl strikers,” women whose protests were both collective and public. These stereotypes framed popular and academic histories of southern women and the labor movement and resonated profoundly in southern culture. This chapter compares these mythical images with the reality of southern women's lives as workers and with their roles as labor activists. Challenging these enduring stereotypes helps expand one's historical understanding of the full range of southern women's involvement in the labor movement and other networks of dissent. Neither heroines nor girl strikers but conscious of that history, these women took their place in the union and saw their future and that of their children in the labor movement.Less