Remaking the Polish Working Class: Early Stalinist Models of Labor and Leisure

Slavic Review ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Padraic Kenney
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Active Participation ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
Class Conflict

The Stalinist revolution began to accelerate in Poland, as throughout eastern Europe, in 1947, with the implementation of multi-year plans, the repression of opposition and the enforcement of unity in the bloc; by the beginning of 1950, the transformation of the bloc was more or less complete. The construction of the Stalinist system did not occur in a vacuum but was shaped in part by societies, and the regimes which emerged were thus more complex than has been generally acknowledged. That complexity stems in part from Stalinist regimes’ interest in transforming society through mobilization and integration, rather than merely subduing it. Active participation in political and economic life was required; mere acquiescence to the demands of the regime was insufficient; and class conflict was to be eliminated, replaced by an alliance between the working class and its former adversaries.

Mary Barton

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Gaskell
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Elizabeth Gaskell ◽  
Class Conflict ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Deep Sympathy ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Class Community

‘It's the masters as has wrought this woe; it's the masters as should pay for it.’ Set in Manchester in the 1840s - a period of industrial unrest and extreme deprivation - Mary Barton depicts the effects of economic and physical hardship upon the city's working-class community. Paralleling the novel's treatment of the relationship between masters and men, the suffering of the poor, and the workmen's angry response, is the story of Mary herself: a factory-worker's daughter who attracts the attentions of the mill-owner's son, she becomes caught up in the violence of class conflict when a brutal murder forces her to confront her true feelings and allegiances. Mary Barton was praised by contemporary critics for its vivid realism, its convincing characters and its deep sympathy with the poor, and it still has the power to engage and move readers today. This edition reproduces the last edition of the novel supervised by Elizabeth Gaskell and includes her husband's two lectures on the Lancashire dialect.

scholarly journals PECULIARITIES OF USING SOCIOLOGICAL DISCOURSE BY LOCAL AUTHORITIES

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (5(74)) ◽  
pp. 68-70
Author(s):  
G.A. Siyaeva
Keyword(s):  
Active Participation ◽  
The State ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Sociological Discourse

This article analyzes the role of sociological discourse in the development of the socio-economic life of the country and emphasizes the need for the active participation of citizens in the management of society and the state in carrying out reformsin updating process

Soviet and Comintern Policies Toward the British General Strike of 1926

1953 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 503-529 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morton H. Cowden
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Active Participation ◽  
Strong Interest ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
General Strike

The first general strike in the history of England, with its mass labor action, was bound to attract strong interest from the workers' state which proclaimed as its rallying cry: “Workers of All Countries, Unite!” Soviet concern for the British working class followed logically from the active participation of Marx and Engels in the movement, and the continued attention shown by Lenin to this important “section” of the “world proletariat.”

The Culture of Contentment

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Kenneth Galbraith
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
New Deal ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Economic Advantage ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Process Of Change ◽  
The Many

This book examines what it calls the political economy of contentment. It argues that the fortunate and the favored do not contemplate and respond to their own longer-run well-being. Rather, they respond to immediate comfort and contentment. In the so-called capitalist countries, the controlling contentment and resulting belief is now that of the many, not just of the few. It operates under the guise of democracy, albeit a democracy not of all citizens but of those who, in defense of their social and economic advantage, actually go to the polls. This chapter discusses how economic life undergoes a constant process of change, and, in consequence, the same action or event occurring at different times can lead to very different results. It considers some examples throughout history, such as the economic ideas of the Physiocrats in France, the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, and Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal.

Digital Platforms, Gig Economy, Precarious Employment, and the Invisible Hand of Social Class

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 597-600 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carles Muntaner
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Invisible Hand ◽  
Class Conflict ◽  
Precarious Employment ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Digital Platform ◽  
Employment Conditions ◽  
Gig Economy

Digital platform capitalism, as exemplified by companies like Uber or Lyft has the potential to transform employment and working conditions for an increasing segment of the worforce. Most digital economy workers are exposed to the health damaging precarious employment conditions characteristic of the contemporary working class in high income countries. Just as with Guy Standing or Mike Savage’s “precariat” it might appear that digital platform workers are a new social class or that they do not belong to any social class. Yet the class conflict interests (wages, benefits, employment and working conditions, collective action) of digital platform workers are similar to other members of the working class.

Upper Class Bias and Class Conflict in America

The Forum ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Witko
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Political Science ◽  
American Politics ◽  
Science Studies ◽  
Economic Inequality ◽  
Lower Class ◽  
Political Mobilization ◽  
Class Conflict ◽  
Upper Class ◽  
Class Bias

AbstractCompared to other affluent democracies, class conflict has not been very intense nor as much of an organizing principle in American politics. However, as wages stagnate for the working class and economic inequality grows, class conflict is becoming increasingly salient. Yet, reviewing recent political science studies, I argue that rather than politics becoming a clearer class “war” between the upper and lower classes, the growing class bias in political mobilization and participation, and the resulting overrepresentation of upper class actors, has prevented a clear articulation of lower class interests

The Phenomenon of Solidarity: An Attempt of Assessment

1983 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-92
Author(s):  
Alexander J. Matejko
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Mass Movement ◽  
Industrial Workers ◽  
Communist System ◽  
First Time

What happened in Poland in the early 1980s is fascinating in many respects. The possibility of changing the Communist system in a peaceful manner was once again tried without much success, this time by the mass movement of industrial workers, with some additional help offered by intellectuals. The importance of these events should be fully recognized. As Persky states, “For the first time, a workers' state had been forced to concede to its workers, among other things, the ironic right to form their own working class organization to defend themselves from the workers' state.” According to Ascherson, the success of Polish workers in setting up permanent representation beyond the control of the Party was a major achievement. In this respect the events of 1980/81 differed substantially from all previous workers' uprisings in eastern Europe.

Ethics and Economic Life in Post-Communist Eastern Europe

1994 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 295-301
Author(s):  
Yolanta Babiuch ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Economic Life
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