Labor History symposium: Gay W. Seidman,Beyond the Boycott

The Machinists. By Mark Perlman, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1961, 325 pp. $7.50.

The Triangle Fire. By Leon Stein. J. B. Lippincott Co. Philadelphia &; New York, 1962. 224 pp. $4.50.

The Promised City. By Moses Rischin, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1962, 342 pp. $7.50.

Chicago and the Labor Movement. By Barbara Warne Newell, Champaign, 1ll., University of Illinois Press, 1961, 288 pp. $6.00.     

A stroll down memory lane: my fifty years-plus association with Labor History

Mexico's rail workers’ struggle of 1926–27 encompassed one of the largest strikes following the 1910–20 revolution, yet contemporary official government statistics omitted any mention of it. The labor struggle involved an independent, militant confederation of transport workers and, opposed to it, the largest rail company in the country (heavily indebted to foreign creditors), the state, and its principal labor ally. While the strike was broken, the confederation leading it obtained an impressive judgment from the nation's supreme court against the authoritarian federal executive power, which, moreover, vindicated the right to strike affirmed in the 1917 Constitution. But the judicial and administrative decisions reached in connection with the strike subsequently served to structure and limit labor's right to strike. This article analyzes the railroad strike of 1927, the judicial and administrative response to it, and its legal significance, which together have contributed to the formation of the nation's post-revolutionary system of regulating industrial conflict.     

Surveying the Survey Texts: Recent Works in American Labor History

In this paper I first detail some of the geographical concepts that help us make sense of capitalism's spatiality. I then provide several brief vignettes which illustrate how conflicts over how capitalism's geography is made can be central to disputes both between and within groups of workers and capitalists. The paper's purpose is to argue that understanding how social life is geographically structured can add important insights to explaining economic and political praxis.     

简述中国劳模的历史发展

中国的劳模现象和劳动模范迄今已有七十多年的历史。它孕育成长在革命战争时期,发展壮大于新中国成立初期,与时俱进于改革开放和社会主义现代化建设新时期。中国劳模的产生发展过程及其不同历史时期的特征与作用启示我们,必须科学选树劳模,充分发挥劳模作用;健全完善劳模工作运行机制,推动劳模队伍可持续发展;不断丰富发展劳模精神的内涵,使劳模文化得以传承光大。     

民主革命时期开滦工人运动在中国工运史上的地位

开滦煤矿是中国近代较大的工业企业之一,有数万产业工人,建矿后的几十年间,矿工进行了数十次罢工运动,沉重打击了晚清政府、英国资本家、日本帝国主义和国民党反动派的反动统治,在中国民主革命时期工人运动史上占有极其重要的地位。     

Labor History on the World Wide Web: Thoughts on Jumping onto a Moving Express Train

Most historians believe that inside contracting (IC), a system that had its origins in the early industrial revolution, remained an important practice throughout nineteenth-century America. Under IC, proprietors appointed a senior worker who agreed to supply components or completed articles at an agreed price. It was the contractor who bore the risk of failure or pocketed the profits. Here was a system that created an alternative locus of power within the workshop. Focusing on machine building, this article argues that IC should be seen as a feature of the earlier nineteenth century, primarily associated with New England's industrial development. In the workshops of 1870s and 1880s Philadelphia, proprietors and workers used the language of ‘contracting’ but its meaning was altogether different. In Philadelphia, a system of piece contracting (PC) emerged, encouraged by the crisis of the 1870s depression, as proprietors attempted to reduce costs and control skilled labour—in contrast to earlier IC which was an expression of owners’ reluctance or inability to take charge. At the Baldwin Locomotive Works and Cramp shipyard a sophisticated system of gang PC also developed. PC did not offer a share of the profits but only limited inducement to a layer of labour aristocrat ‘contractors’; overall, it intended to constrain the world of the skilled mechanic.     

女性劳动力市场两极化的劳动经济学分析

通过对女性二元劳动力市场中两极的代表群体——下岗再就业女性和高层白领女性的工作生活状态和心理状况的描述分析及对比,阐述了二元劳动力市场中女性在各个方面的分化,并从劳动经济学角度,结合制度结构、权力关系以及社会文化习俗等视角探讨了分化的原因和影响。     

新中国劳动经济史的历史分期探析

新中国劳动经济史研究的对象是1949年新中国成立以来在中国共产党领导下社会主义劳动经济的产生、演变和发展的历史。当前研究新中国劳动经济史,应从全面建设小康社会、城乡统筹发展视角,从工业化、市场化和现代化视角,以劳动力资源配置方式变革为主线,进行全面系统研究。新中国劳动经济发展可以划分为六个阶段:1949-1956年两次社会经济形态转变中的劳动经济,主题是"转变中建立";1957-1978年计划经济体制下的劳动经济,主题是"曲折中探索";1979-1991年向市场经济转轨初期的劳动经济,主题是"摩擦中改革";1992-2001年建立市场经济体制时期的劳动经济,主题是"定向中转轨";2002-2012年完善市场经济体制时期的劳动经济,主题是"统筹中完善";2013年以来的劳动经济,这个新阶段目前还没有结束,其主题应该是"共享中发展"。