Toward Bridging Analytics and Dialectics: Nonergodic Processes and Turning Points in Dynamic Models of Social Change with Illustrations from Labor Movement History

This paper traces the history of the song “Bread and Roses” to examine labor culture and the role of song in the labor movement. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, “Bread and Roses” was included in several of the first generation song books produced by unions that reflected an expansive and inclusive labor culture closely connected with the Left. With the ascendance of business unionism and the blacklisting of the Left after the war, labor culture took a heavy blow, and labor songbooks became skeletons of the full-bodied versions they had once been. Unions began to see singing not as part of the process of social change but as a vehicle to bring people together, and songs such as “Bread and Roses” and other more class-based songs were jettisoned in favor of a few labor standards and American sing-along songs. “Bread and Roses” was born anew to embody a central concept in the women’s movement and rode the wave of new music, art, and film that were part of new social movements and new constituencies that challenged business unionism and reshaped union culture in the 1980s.

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The International Labor Movement: History, Policies, Outlook. By Lewis L. Lorwin. (New York: Harper and Brothers. 1953. Pp. xviii, 366. $5.00.)

American Political Science Review ◽

10.1017/s0003055400275163 ◽

1955 ◽

Vol 49 (2) ◽

pp. 583-583

Author(s):

Joseph G. La Palombara

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

Labor Movement ◽

International Labor ◽

Movement History ◽

International Labor Movement

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Wobblies and Mexican Workers in Mining and Petroleum, 1905–1924

International Review of Social History ◽

10.1017/s0020859000113021 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 40 (1) ◽

pp. 51-75 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Norman Caulfield

Keyword(s):

Labor Movement ◽

Transitional Stage ◽

Industrial Workers ◽

Labor Organizations ◽

The World ◽

Movement History

SummaryThe Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), or “Wobblies”, represented a transitional stage in Mexican labor movement history. The Wobblies enjoyed support from workers because their philosophy corresponded to the Mexican labor movement's deeply-rooted anarchosyndicalist traditions. While cooperating with Mexican radical labor organizations, the IWW advocated workers' control, better pay, conditions, and union recognition. In mining and petroleum, the IWW built upon the earlier organizational efforts of mutual and gremial organizations. And, although the Wobblies failed to establish a permanent foothold inside Mexico, their efforts resulted in the eventual organization of industry-wide unions.

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