Women's Organizations and Movements in the Commonwealth Caribbean: The Response to Global Economic Crisis in the 1980s

In this paper I explore the emergence of women's organizations and feminist consciousness in the twentieth century in the English-speaking (Commonwealth) Caribbean. The global ideas concerning women's equality from the 1960s onwards clearly informed the initiatives taken by both women and states of the Caribbean. None the less, the paper illustrates, by use of examples, the interlocked nature of women's struggles with the economic, social and political issues which preoccupy the region's population. I examine in greater detail two case studies of women's activism and mobilization around the impact of structural adjustment policies in the two territories of Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. By tracing the connections between and among the organizations and initiatives of women in the region, the paper situates the feminist movement in the English-speaking Caribbean as a continuously evolving one, fusing episodic struggles in different territories, engaging women of different classes and groups, and continuously building on past experience.     

Popular Sexual Knowledges and Women's Agency in 1920s England: Marie Stopes's Married Love and E.M. Hull's The Sheik

This article examines popular discourses of women's sexuality in 1920s England and argues that sex manuals like Marie Stopes's Married Life and sex novels like E.M. Hull's The Sheik, despite their adherence to status quo values, were liberating for women through their affirmation of women's sexual subjectivity. Stopes's enormously popular book contributed strongly to a new understanding of women's sexual drives as natural and autonomous. The changing attitudes were reflected in the numbers of postwar women who actively participated in the creation and consumption of popular sex-novels and films, exercising both economic and sexual freedoms at once. This article focusses on the film version of The Sheik, which experienced great success as part of this growing leisure market catering specifically to women's desire, and in particular on the figure of Rudolph Valentino as a “woman-made” man. The film's “crossed” representations of sexuality (the emancipated “flapper” and the effeminate yet virile “sheik”) challenged traditional notions of femininity and masculinity, and in doing so, were liberating for women consumers at the same time that they threatened the sexual identities of men.     

‘A whisper in the assembly of nations’ United States' participation in the International Movement for Women's Rights from the League of Nations to the United Nations

This work examines North American feminist activities in the international arena from the end of the First World War to the early days of the United Nations. Led by Alice Paul and the National Woman's Party of the United States, feminists attempted to obtain greater equality for women by having nations agree to an Equal Rights Treaty and an equal Nationality Treaty. But they ran into opposition from more moderate social reform women's organizations. Believing protective legislation for women in industry to be more important than legal equality, and antagonistic to the Equal Rights Amendment to the United States' Constitution, reformers objected to the international feminists on ideological grounds. They also disapproved of the radicals' militant tactics and active publicity seeking, thereby extending the quarrel to the realm of personality differences. Thus the divisiveness caused by the ERA in the United States disrupted the international women's movement as well. Working through Pan American Congresses and the League of Nations, and continuing into the United Nations, feminists devoted more than a quarter of a century to fighting for equal rights world-wide. While their actual achievements were not notable, in the end their equalitarian ideas proved to have more enduring value than reform theories.     

The revival and decline of rank and file movements in Britain during the 1930s

The economic and political crisis of 1931 provoked the reappearance of rank and file movements in Britain. This article examines the unofficial organisations that developed in building, engineering, passenger transport and the railways – as well as more ephemeral bodies. It critically synthesises the existing historiography and replenishes it with new material from the Russian archives. The progress of rank and filism to 1939 is surveyed and the largely forgotten project of a new Communist-led rank and file organisation, a Trade Union Militant League, which would supersede the National Minority Movement, is recuperated. The article stresses the role of Comintern policy in harnessing and moulding grass-roots rebellion. It validates that strand in the literature which argues that Moscow’s subsequent turn to the popular front and aspirations to alliances with labour movement leaders predominated over, and legitimated, indigenous influences, enhanced existing adaptation to trade unionism, and encouraged subordination of oppositional movements to activity in official structures. By 1939, the Communists had abandoned the idea of a national rank and file movement they had pursued since 1923. Little survived of the revolutionary enterprise launched in 1931. Rank and filism endured only as a handful of sectional, party-sponsored, trade union ginger groups.     

Citizens of their World: Australian Feminism and Indigenous Rights in the International Context, 1920s and 1930s

Inter-war Australia saw the emergence of a feminist campaign for indigenous rights. Led by women activists who were members of various key Australian women's organizations affiliated with the British Commonwealth League, this campaign proposed a revitalized White Australia as a progressive force towards improving ‘world’ race relations. Drawing upon League of Nations conventions and the increasing role for the Dominions within the British Commonwealth, these women claimed to speak on behalf of Australian Aborigines in asserting their right to reparation as a usurped people and the need to overhaul government policy. Opposing inter-war policies of biological assimilation, they argued for a humane national Aboriginal policy including citizenship and rights in the person. Where white men had failed in their duty towards indigenous peoples, world women might bring about a new era of civilized relations between the races.     

Leaving home: Irish press debates on female employment,domesticity and emigration to Britain in the 1930s

Although Ireland has had a long history of female emigration, the 1930s saw an important shift in emigration patterns. In the context of southern Irish nation-building, the emigration of tens of thousands of young Irish women to Britain raised serious questions about the opportunities and roles of women in the Irish Free State. This article analyses the Irish print media of the 1930s as discursive spaces within which female emigration was repeatedly highlighted and debated. Discussions of female emigration were usually related to issues of female education, female employment and the duties of women within the home. These issues need to be located within the specific context of Irish Free State economics and politics. The Conditions of Employment Act (1936) and the Constitution of 1937 were legislative measures that attempted to define and regulate the role of Irish women. But that is not to imply a simple ideological hegemony in the Free State; I argue that the media debates reveal the competing discourses surrounding women's roles in the newly established nation state. For example, one view was that young women and girls should be given training and preparation for emigration, another view was that plenty of jobs were available at home, while a third view was that women should be content to remain within the domestic sphere. The much-repeated view that women would be better off (at home) illustrates the overlapping constructions of home – domestic sphere – and home – the nation. The overlapping and interconnecting of these home spaces signified a blurring of boundaries that meant Irish women were expected to carry the responsibility for national as well as domestic well-being.     

De-naturalizing ecological disaster: colonialism,racism and the global Dust Bowl of the 1930s

This paper reinterprets the Dust Bowl on the US Southern Plains as one dramatic regional manifestation of a global socio-ecological crisis generated by the realities of settler colonialism and imperialism. In so doing, it seeks to deepen historical-theoretical understandings of the racialized division of nature and humanity making possible the global problem of soil erosion by the 1930s and forming the heart of the ecological rift of capitalism. The framework developed here challenges prevalent conceptions of the Dust Bowl, in which colonial and racial-domination aspects of the crisis are invisible, and affirms the necessity of deeper conceptions of environmental (in)justice.     

人、财、物:农村基层团组织增强活力的三大要素——基于宦溪镇的个案分析

近年来,我国农村形势发生了深刻变化,农村基层团组织面临的情况日益复杂化、多样化,新问题、新矛盾层出不穷。在新的历史条件下,增强农村基层团组织的活力,以发挥应有的作用是我们必须探究和解决的问题。以宦溪镇为例对影响当前农村基层团组织发展的"人力、财力、物力"三大要素进行了分析,并在此基础上提出了增强农村基层团组织活力的途径与思路。     

新时期社会利益结构的转型

当代中国社会规模巨大的阶层分化,实质是社会利益结构的转型,即从建国初期建立并维系了几十年的整体性社会利益结构向多样化的社会利益结构转变。这是一个关系着每一个利益群体利益得失的复杂问题。分析新时期社会利益结构转型的构成、特点与利益需求是党代表人民利益的必要前提。     

企业三方协调机制与党组织的地位

在企业平等协商机制中 ,党组织应占据重要地位并发挥其主导作用。党的性质和宗旨以及在现代企业制度建设中的作用决定了在三方协商机制中的地位。企业党组织在三方协商机制中的作用体现为领导作用、协调作用和监督作用。     

破产法与破产企业职工权益保障

破产企业职工的权益保护是我国破产法律制度的一项重要内容。本文结合我国企业破产法的有关最新规定,从破产债权、非破产财产、清偿顺序、试点城市国有企业与一般国有企业破产的区别等方面对破产企业职工保护的若干法律规定进行了研究和阐述。     

网络时代背景下高校团员教育与管理工作初探——以广东某地高校团组织工作为视角

在信息社会,网络已经成为我们学习工作生活的共同背景和显性时代特征。加强对网络时代背景下大学生思维方式与行为方式的深入研究,剖析网络所承载的人文精神,有利于增强共青团团员教育与管理工作的实效性。     

中国共青团创建初期广东青年运动概述与分析

广东是近代民主革命的重要策源地和先行地,也是中国社会主义青年团第一次全国代表大会的召开地和早期中国青年运动的重要地区之一。在中国共产党的领导下,广东社会主义青年团始终坚持思想建团、重视组织建设和人才培养、注重实际运动,带领广大团员青年,积极投身工农群众革命运动,参与并推动国民党改组工作,努力捍卫革命成果,有效地扩大了党、团组织在广东地区的影响,为广东地区浓烈革命氛围的形成和国民革命运动的开展做出了不可磨灭的贡献。     

信息网络时代高校共青团面临的挑战与对策

信息网络时代的到来 ,在直接提高高校团工作成效 ,扩大团员青年交往空间 ,张扬团员青年个性的同时 ,也会导致团员青年思想道德观念的弱化 ,处世态度的消极化 ,影响团员青年的身心健康。高校团组织必须正视挑战 ,把握机遇 ,确立现代信息观念 ,学习现代信息技术 ,加强主流建设 ,提高团员青年的思想道德素质 ,掌握网上育人的主动权     

青年组织在和谐社会建设中的优势和功能

青年组织在和谐社会建设中具有其自身独特的优势，这些优势既来自其组织对象和构成主体的特点，又来自青年组织数量上众多、分布上广泛和发展的多元化、多层次性。青年组织在和谐社会建设中的优势，决定了其在和谐社会建设中的功能。青年组织致力于解决青年问题的过程，从一定意义上就是构建和谐社会的过程。同时，青年组织积极为和谐社会建设培养和输送人才，组织动员广大青年直接参与和谐社会建设，日益成为参与和谐社会建设的生力军。