Ladies Aid as Labor History

In the Arabic-speaking mahjar (diaspora), the plight of the working poor was the focus of women’s philanthropy. Scholarship on welfare relief in the interwar Syrian, Lebanese, and Palestinian diaspora currently situates it within a gendered politics of benevolence. This article reconsiders that frame and argues for a class-centered reassessment of “ladies aid” politics exploring the intersections of women’s relief with proletarian mutual aid strategies. Founded in 1917, the Syrian Ladies Aid Society (SLAS) of Boston provided food, shelter, education, and employment to Syrian workers. SLAS volunteers understood their efforts as mitigating the precarities imposed on Syrian workers by the global capitalist labor system. Theirs was both a women’s organization and a proletarian movement led by Syrian women. Drawing from SLAS records and the Syrian American press, the article centers Syrian American women within processes of working-class formation and concludes that labor history of the interwar mahjar requires focus on spaces of social reproduction beyond the factory floor.

STRATEGIC VISIBILITIES: DIGITIZING THE LATINA INFORMATION WORKER

Recent examples of virtual assistant technologies designed as Latina information service workers are noteworthy objects of study for their potential to bridge analyses of Latinas’ labor history and information technology. Latinas in the United States have traditionally worked in blue-collar information technology sectors characterized by repetitive labor and low-wages, such as electronics manufacturing and customer service. Latinas information service workers, though fundamental to technoscience, have been largely invisible in histories of computing. Latina virtual assistants mark a shift in this labor history by relying on the strategic visibility of Latina identity in/as the technology interface. Our research explores Latina virtual assistants designed by Airus Media, and installed as airport workers in airports along the southwestern border of the United States. We situate the technocultural narratives present in the design and marketing of these technologies within the broader histories of invisible Latina information labor in the United States. We find continuities between the ways Latinas have historically been positioned as “ideal” information workers, and the use of Latina identity in the design of virtual assistants. We argue that the strategic visibility of Latina virtual assistants is linked to the oppressive structures of invisibility that have traditionally organized Latina information service workers.

Cruzando caminhos em Ibicaba: escravizados, imigrantes suíços e abolicionismo durante a Revolta dos Parceiros (São Paulo, 1856-1857)

<p>Este artigo explora as relações entre escravizados e imigrantes europeus no oeste paulista tendo, como pano de fundo, a Revolta dos Parceiros, ocorrida em Limeira no ano de 1856. Considerado um marco na história da imigração no Brasil, o levante de colonos suíços contra o sistema de parceria na Fazenda Ibicaba contava também com o apoio dos cativos que trabalhavam nos cafezais adjacentes à Colônia Senador Vergueiro e demais fazendas vizinhas. Apagada pela historiografia, a conspiração negra de 1856 revela que a convivência entre colonos e escravizados no contexto do fim do tráfico acelerou a circulação de ideias sobre o fim da escravidão no Brasil. Ao retornar à Revolta em Limeira, este artigo aborda o encontro de perspetivas subalternas sobre o abolicionismo atlântico em Ibicaba para afirmar a geopolítica negra como elemento constituinte dos significados do mundo do trabalho na década de 1850.</p><p>Crossing Paths at Ibicaba: Slaves, Swiss Immigrants, and Abolitionism during the Sharecroppers’ Revolt (São Paulo, 1856-1857)</p><p>This article examines the relations between the enslaved and European immigrants in western São Paulo against the background of the 1856 Sharecroppers’ Revolt that took place in Limeira. Considered a benchmark in the history of immigration in Brazil, the uprising of Swiss colonists against the “sistema de parceria” at the Ibicaba plantation also counted on support from enslaved populations in the vicinity of the Colônia Senador Vergueiro. Erased by the historiography, the 1856 black conspiracy shows that interactions between slaves and settlers in the context of the ban on the African slave trade sparked the circulation of abolitionist ideas in Brazil. By revisiting the revolt in Limeira, this paper explores how subaltern perspectives of the Atlantic world met in Ibicaba and claims a place for black geopolitics in defining Brazilian labor history in the 1850s.</p><p>Slavery | Colonization | Revolt | Abolitionism</p>

Rethinking the Boundaries of Class: Labor History and Theories of Class and Capitalism

This article examines how the field of labor and working-class history has conceptualized class and assesses theories of class that can help us develop maximally illuminating concepts. Labor historians, particularly those whose work employs a transnational, gender, or racial lens of analysis, have advanced our understanding of how working people's lives are shaped by class. By connecting that scholarship to class theory, the article argues for reconceptualizing class to focus on the complex ways capitalism generates class relationships, embedding race, gender, and other historical dynamics within its formative parameters. It relies on work by Tithi Bhattacharya and Stuart Hall to articulate a specific vision of class relations under capitalism. Finally, the article concludes with praxis by applying Hall's and Bhattacharya's insights to the challenges academic knowledge workers face today amid the crisis of higher education, which is growing more pressing as a result of the economic disaster related to the COVID-19 pandemic. It concludes by addressing how our conceptualizations of class could shape efforts to build broad solidarities among knowledge workers in higher education.

Moscow and Saint Petersburg Censuses at the Turn of the 20th Century as Sources for Labor History Studies

The article studies urban censuses taken in Moscow and Saint Petersburg at the turn of the 20th century as important sources for labor history studies (a cross-disciplinary field of research). The article addresses aggregated data of urban censuses taken in Saint Petersburg in 1881, 1890, 1900 and 1910 and in Moscow in 1882, 1902 and 1912 which provide occupational data. The research subject is the structural content of census occupational tables. When analyzing Moscow and Saint Petersburg censuses, the comparative-historical method is used to identify similar and unique data of historical sources. Despite numerous studies carried out by Russian and foreign scholars addressing pre-revolutionary censuses, one of the aspects of the sources (that is temporal occupational distribution of males and females in Moscow and Saint Petersburg) is still poorly studied. The article briefly describes the creation of each census, analyzes the way occupational data were registered and shows changes in the census program of Saint Petersburg and Moscow from 1881 to 1912. One can see different formation of Moscow occupational groups. Whereas an industry branch prevailed in 1882, social status of the worker dominated 1902 and 1912 censuses. In Saint Petersburg the distribution was related to an industry branch accompanied by a production status. The author considers census structure studies important for comparing temporal data and further analysis of labor activity in Moscow and Saint Petersburg presented in the sources understudy. &nbsp;&nbsp;