A Tale of Two Franceses—Temperance and Suffragism in the United States

Chapter 13 examines the Reconstruction Era struggle for women’s rights and African American rights through the American Equal Rights Association, and the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), especially the WCTU activism of acclaimed black writer Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. Born of the so-called Woman’s Temperance Crusade of 1873–1974, under the leadership of Frances Willard, the WCTU would become the most successful woman’s organization of all time. Willard’s Do Everything campaign expanded women’s activism, both nationally and globally. Despite racial tensions within the WCTU, temperance activism provided the main avenue of political organization for women across the Reconstruction-Era South, both black and white. By the 1890s Willard had made common cause between not just temperance, equal rights, antilynching leagues, and suffragist movements, but—as a Christian socialist—with both the domestic and international labor movement as well.

International Labor Migration in a Globalizing Economy

International labor migration is a multi-level, multi-dimensional social phenomenon being studied by specialists of different branches of science. Scientific views on the content of the concept, causes, and factors behind it, consequences from it, etc., have been developing together with the progress of this phenomenon and are still developing it now. The chapter is dedicated to the influence of the world economic trends (globalization, integration, transnationalization) on the international labor movement and changes of theoretical approaches to its analysis in the historical development of society on the examples of relevant contemporary concepts.

Trade Union Politics in Sub-Saharan Africa

Although unionized workers have rarely represented more than a small minority of the population anywhere in sub-Saharan Africa, trade unions have played, and continue to play, a significant political role. Trade unions still occupy strategic choke points in many African economies, particularly around transport infrastructure, and retain a spatially concentrated organizational base as well as a degree of symbolic power drawn from participation in struggles against colonialism, apartheid, and authoritarianism. Three persistent dilemmas have strongly shaped the role of African trade unions and driven much of the academic debate about them. First are debates about the relationships between trade unions and political parties. These date to the often-fraught relationships between unions and anti-colonial movements in the last years of colonial rule. Pitched struggles, both within trade unions and between unions and governing parties, were often fought in the decade after the end of formal colonization over the degree of autonomy that unions should have from governing parties. These were often resolved through the widespread repression of politically independent unionism in the 1970s. This relationship, however, became untenable under processes of structural adjustment, and unions have often played a significant role in protests against neoliberal reforms, which have spurred widespread political transformation. Second are debates about the relationships of trade unions to non-unionized workers, especially the unemployed or the “informal” sector. Critics on both left and right have long pointed to the relatively privileged position of trade unions. This has consistently been invoked by governments seeking to justify the limited political role of trade unions as well as policies for wage restraint, state retrenchment, or currency devaluation that have negatively affected organized labor. However, given the increasingly widespread nature of informality and unemployment in contemporary Africa, trade unions have begun to make tentative steps toward organizing informal and unemployed workers in some cases. Finally, the relationships of African unions to the international labor movement and to international organizations have often been important. African unions have frequently drawn on links to international trade unions, regional institutions, or the International Labour Organization (ILO) as a way of compensating for domestic weaknesses. These strategies, however, have often engendered significant conflicts around the differing objectives of African and metropolitan actors, between African unions over access to international resources, and concerning “imperialism” by American and European unions.

Historical and Methodological Approaches to the Analysis of International Labor Migration in a Globalizing World Economy

International labor migration is a multi-level, multi-dimensional, social phenomenon studied by specialists of different branches of science. The scientific views on the content of the concept, causes and factors, consequences, etc. have been developing together with the progress of the phenomenon and are developing until now. The chapter is devoted to the influence of the world economic trends (globalization, integration, transnationalization) on the international labor movement and change of theoretical approaches to its analysis in the historical development of society on the example of modern concepts.

The "Race to the Bottom" Returns: China's Challenge to the International Labor Movement

10 U.C. Davis Journal of International Law & Policy, (2003-04).

Mexican Radicals and Traditionalists Unionize Workers in the United States

This chapter explains why Mexicans joined the CIO and compares the aspirations of radicals and traditionalists within the United Packinghouse Workers of America and the United Steelworkers of America. Radical Mexican nationalists entered the CIO, because they remained committed to building a broad and left-of-center international labor movement. By comparison, traditionalists supported the CIO, because they defined it as an alternative to the radical Industrial Workers of the World and Magonistas. Repulsed by postrevolutionary Mexican radicalism and anticlericalism, traditionalists naturalized as they joined the CIO, but they did not, however, sever their cultural ties to Mexico. By the 1950s, naturalized traditionalists had developed a deterritorialized brand of mexicanidad that celebrated aspects of Mexican culture but was devoid of any allegiance to the Mexican state. Mexican traditionalists were becoming Mexican Americans.

Race and Class in the Postwar World: The Southern African Labour Congress

Understandings of class have often been highly racialized and gendered. This article examines the efforts of white workers’ organizations in Southern Africa during the 1940s to forge such a class identity across the region and disseminate it among the international labor movement. For these organizations, the “real” working class was composed of white men who worked in mines, factories, and on the railways, something pertinent to contemporary understandings of class.The focus of these efforts was the Southern African Labour Congress, which brought together white trade unions and labor parties and sought to secure a place for them in the postwar world. These organizations embodied the politics of “white laborism,” an ideology which fused political radicalism and white domination, and they enjoyed some success in gaining acceptance in the international labor movement. Although most labor histories of the region have adopted a national framework, this article offers an integrated regional labor history.

Historical and Methodological Approaches to the Analysis of International Labor Migration in a Globalizing World Economy

International labor migration is a multi-level, multi-dimensional, social phenomenon studied by specialists of different branches of science. The scientific views on the content of the concept, causes and factors, consequences, etc. have been developing together with the progress of the phenomenon and are developing until now. The chapter is devoted to the influence of the world economic trends (globalization, integration, transnationalization) on the international labor movement and change of theoretical approaches to its analysis in the historical development of society on the example of modern concepts.