Populism and Peasant Iconography: Turkish painting in the 1930s

The Six Day War is renowned for its impact on the shaping of the Middle East. In the last few decades, much research examining the reasons for the outbreak of the Six Day War, its development and its ramifications has been published. Most of the research has focused on an examination of Israeli government policy before and after the war, on the Egyptian regime's hatred of the ‘Zionist entity’ and on the involvement of the superpowers during and after the war. Some research has also touched on Syria's role in the outbreak of the war. Researchers such as Eyal Zisser and Moshe Maoz have shown Syria's decisive role in initiating the war and suggest that various factors, such as a lack of government stability in Syria, precipitated the conflict. This research continues, to a great extent, in the line of those researchers: indeed, it points to Syria as being the main factor behind the outbreak of war through an examination of the changes that occurred in the character of its government from 1966. However, unlike other research so far, this attempts to show that the unique character of the neo-Ba'ath regime is what brought war to the region and that, had the Ba'ath coup not occurred in 1966, it is doubtful whether Syria would have entered the conflict. This article seeks to emphasize that the Syrian regime went blindly into the war despite military unpreparedness and a lack of political and military cooperation with other Arab countries and with the Soviets. It also exposes, for the first time, the state of the Syrian troops on the front and in the cities, as well as the feelings of the senior officers on the eve of the war, and reveals documents about the military and political cooperation between Syria and Egypt that would eventually force President Nasser to enter a war he did not want to get involved in. Moreover, the research exposes the deep rift – which many believe pushed Syria to take rash independent measures –between the Soviet leadership and the Ba'ath regime before the war. And, finally, the research exposes the atmosphere in Syria following the war, and the administrative and military steps the Syrian regime took immediately after the defeat in order to consolidate its power.     

Taking the bus in 1920s and 1930s Tel Aviv

This article examines the role and effects of the state on the operation of social capital through a case study of Islamic holding companies in Turkey and their social networks within transnational space. In the last two decades, there has been a proliferation of Islamic enterprises, banks and holding companies which formed their own business organization in 1990. The capital outlay of these holding companies was created, without any legal basis, through mobilizing the savings of hundreds of thousands of pious small savers in Turkey and across Europe. While the state actors initially overlooked, at times encouraged, this mobilization of savings, the development of political Islam in the 1990s raised a concern that political Islam along with its economic base and power posed a significant threat to the secularist political regime. Consequently, the secularist state elites actively intervened in both domestic and transnational spheres to disrupt and undermine these networks which provided monetary inflows into these companies. The intervention and campaigns of the state in Turkey and Europe led to bankruptcy of several Islamic holding companies, exposed the mismanagement of fund by some companies and resulted in widespread distrust toward Islamic holding companies among small local and migrant investors.     

Population in Motion: Salvadorean Refugees and Circulation Migration

The profound socio-political crisis in El Salvador fully revealed itself in the events of 1979 and 1980, developing into an open civil war beginning on 10 January 1981. The conflict generated a series of profound changes in the social structure of the country (Segundo Montes, 1988:107).     

Outmanoeuvring Defence: The Australian Debates over Gay and Lesbian Military Service, 1992

On 24 November 1992, Australia overturned its longstanding ban on gay and lesbian service in the Australian Defence Force. The ban was on the political agenda throughout 1992, though it was never a government priority or subject to mass protest. The debates over gay and lesbian military service have subsequently received scant attention from historians. The arguments against gay and lesbian service centred on troop morale, security concerns, fears of predatory homosexuals and the spread of HIV/AIDS. The arguments to permit gay and lesbian service hinged to an extent on principles of non‐discrimination, but even more so on international law. This article examines the debates in 1992 leading up to the repeal of the ban, focusing in particular on the Labor Party divisions and the ways international law influenced the decision‐making process.     

Negotiating Gender Identities during Mixed-Gender Activities: Amateur Theatre in the 1930s and 1940s in Turkey

This article focuses on the amateur theatre of the People's House and the consumption of state-promoted mixed-gender activities in the 1930s and 1940s in Turkey. The People's Houses were community centres established in many Turkish towns between 1932 and 1950. They performed activities in adult education and political indoctrination with the chief aim to propagate the socio-cultural changes the state had been initiating since 1923. Drawing on complaint letters and investigative reports, this article focuses on the presence and activities of women in the People's Houses; reviews the tension produced upon the introduction of mixed-gender entertainment and social interaction like theatre within largely sex-segregated local societies; studies the practices performed by men and women and the discourses they articulated in response to and in an attempt to manage such moments of tension; and considers their significance as practices contributing to the negotiation and shaping of social identities.     

Making Mala: Malaita in Solomon Islands, 1870s – 1930s

Making Mala: Malaita in Solomon Islands, 1870s – 1930s . By Clive Moore (Canberra: ANU Press (Pacific Series), 2017), pp. xxvii + 550. Seventeen Maps. AU$68.00 (pb).     

The representational base of the Norwegian Labour Party in the 1930s

SUMMARY

The article charts the transformation of the Norwegian Labour Party, known by its acronym DNA, into a people's party. Having formed a government under Johan Nygaardsvold in 1935, in the election of 1936 the DNA reached out to almost everyone. The theme is the representation of social groups, and it is shown that the self-perceived base of the party as manifested in its propaganda and speeches went beyond blue-collar workers. In the elections of 1930 and 1933 the DNA addressed itself more often to smallholders and fishermen than to the industrial proletariat. Several writers have seen this as the key to its success, and have postulated that other Socialist parties should have copied this strategy. This article argues that there was a variety of reasons why European Socialist parties usually were not as successful as their Scandinavian counterparts. The British Labour Party did pursue the same strategy as the Norwegians, but for other reasons could not match their success. In spite of a comparative strand, the primary focus is on the appeals the DNA made in the three elections of the 1930s. The DNA's development along the road to representing all but the elite, and becoming hegemonic, is shown. The ideology of the party had only a small effect on whom it sought to represent.     

The Kurds of Damascus in the 1930s: Development of a Politics of Ethnicity

The article discusses Russian and Greek rivalry over the influence in the Patriarchates of Jerusalem and Antioch from the end of the Egyptian occupation to the Young Turk Revolution. While Greece ultimately aimed at including Orthodox Arabs in a Pan-Hellenic nation, Russian private and state actors were motivated by the cultural and political commitment to the defence of Orthodoxy from western inroads. Throughout this period, Russian diplomats were able to continue their traditional partnership with many Ottoman Greek prelates even after the Bulgarian schism of 1872. But when their leadership seemed to be the cause of mass defections from orthodoxy, Russian foreign policy makers from local consuls to the tsar were drawn into supporting the restoration of native Arab control. The article brings fresh archival evidence to put into context the development of some of the earliest modern Arab autonomous institutions. It also contributes to the discussion of the strength of dynastic and religious identities before 1914.     

东北亚人口跨国流动与迁移的难点与问题

近年来东北亚地区的国际贸易与投资的迅猛增长和人口跨国流动与迁移的严重滞后形成强烈反差.日韩企业的集体主义和家族主义的文化理念及其制度化,对自由劳动构成限制的同时排斥了对外国劳动力的雇用.两国对变相农奴制的采用推动了经济发展和产业升级,而由此带来的劳动力成本攀升和结构性劳动力短缺,则由劳动密集型产业迁移海外加以调整,由役使外国劳工的变相农奴制加以补充.东北亚统一人力资源市场的最终形成,还需要多种因素的共同促进尤其是市场力量和全球化趋势的大力推动.     

The Burden of White Supremacy: Containing Asian Migration in the British Empire and the United States

The Burden of White Supremacy: Containing Asian Migration in the British Empire and the United States . By David C. Atkinson (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2016), pp.334. AU$31.50 (pb). Available in Australia through Footprint Books.