A successful union in an era of decline: interrogating the growth of the Service Employees International Union, 1980-1995

ABSTRACT

Between 1980 and 1995, while John Sweeney was president, the membership of the Service Employees International Union rose from around 600,000 to over 1.1 million. It continued to increase after 1995, making the SEIU the largest and fastest-growing union in the country. This growth was remarkable because it occurred at a terrible time for unions, one where the overwhelming emphasis – in both the media and academic scholarship – was on labor’s decline. While scholars have noted the SEIU’s growth, there has been little sustained analysis of how it was achieved. Existing accounts also posit growth largely as a reflection of the union’s organizing prowess. Drawing on the SEIU’s papers and interviews, this article argues that the union’s growth under Sweeney did reflect its commitment to organizing. At the same time, the article makes a fresh contribution by showing that the SEIU also grew because of lesser-known factors, including the affiliation of independent unions and legislative advances in public sector rights. The SEIU also benefited from operating in a growing sector of the economy, where low-paid workers needed unions. These conclusions are developed through analysis of “flagship” drives at Beverly Nursing homes, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and the high-profile “Justice for Janitors” campaign.     

What is a Fair Trial? Rape Prosecutions, Disclosure and the Human Rights Act

This article engages with the vogue for predicting the effects of the Human Rights Act 1998 by focusing on the rape prosecution and trial. The specific interest is feminist scrutiny of the right to a fair trial, particularly the concept of ‘fairness’, in light of the increasing use of disclosure rules (in Canada and England) to gain access to medical and counseling records. Transcending the two contemporary narratives of ‘victims’/women’s rights and defendants’ rights in the criminal justice system, the authors argue for the infusion of the legal debate on disclosure with feminist understandings of wider cultural debates. They suggest that an increased reflexivity about intimacy, publicity and power, leading perhaps to the development of a concept of ‘democratic publicity’ (Fraser, 1997, p. 100), might help to revision the meaning of ‘relevant’ evidence in the rape trial. They also suggest that the wide-ranging cultural debate about memory, truth and history, and the emerging commitment to experimentation in responding to massive, institutionalised human rights violations (including apartheid, war crimes and child abuse) might be of use in deepening current thinking about the rape trial and listening to the ‘voice’ of the complainant. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

与时俱进保持党的先进性面临的历史性考验

跨入新世纪,我们党的建设所处的环境已经发生并还正在发生着巨大变化,新情况、新问题层出不穷。我们党要与时俱进保持先进性,将面临着国际大局变动的考验、国内发展大局变动的考验以及党自身建设的考验。     

共青团80年发展的历史必然性

共青团走过的８０年是在党领导下发展的８０年。共青团的发展具有历史的必然性,这种必然性主要由国际共产主义运动、青年运动和青年利益、社会结构优化、共青团自身相对独立运转的规律四个因素共同作用所决定。     

马克思主义“三观”给我们的启示

历史观是祖国观、民族观的基础,祖国观、民族观是历史观的直接表现。树立正确的民族观,是树立正确的祖国观的基础。有了正确的祖国观,就能够正确处理民族与国家利益的关系,坚持把国家的根本利益放在民族利益之上,自觉地抵制资产阶级民族主义思潮的影响和渗透。     

美国医疗保险制度改革的历史考察与理论检省

医疗保险法制改革是困扰世界各国的难题,而美国从20世纪初叶开始起步、至奥巴马完成的医疗保险制度的改革,充分考虑到美国的社会需求,走公私结合,政府强力推行和改革内容适当妥协相辅,革命性和渐进性兼顾的医保改革的道路,并在政府干预与市场自由的适度制度构架、多元利益(权利)的平衡妥协、政治精英与民众及媒体的协商互动等方面,形成了独具特色的公共政策制定路线和合法性供给策略。奥巴马"医改"法案的成功实施,不仅实现了美国医疗保险制度的重大突破,也为中国的医疗保险制度改革提供了有益的借鉴。     

Little Swans with Luxette and Loved Boy Pudding: Changing Fashions in Cookery Books

Cookery books are far from simple things: alongside the recipes we may find narrative, memoir, science, history, politics, travelogue and anthropology. The cookery book also reveals in a profoundly naked form the anxieties and paranoias of its precise historical moment. So the glamorous cookery books of the years between the wars try to persuade the newly servantless middle-class woman that the cooking she must now do herself is a creative and fashionable activity. And the postwar British, sick of the limited stodge of their still-rationed diet, clutched Elizabeth David to their collective bosom, unable to taste her pungent dishes, but in thrall to the sun-strewn fantasy of the good life her books offered. From Mrs Beeton, offering the mid-Victorian mistress of the house the instructions and routines she needed to hide the mechanisms of the domestic machine, to the potent contemporary fantasy of the Mediterranean peasant and his fabulously healthy lifestyle, Humble interrogates the cookery books of the last 150 years, asking what they can tell us about how changing attitudes to class, gender and domesticity intersect with the culture of food.     

从“总揽机关”到“最高机关”:“总揽”现象之宪法史阐释

在近现代中国立宪过程中,"总揽"现象是一种特殊的宪法现象。总揽机关,大致有君主、大总统以及代表国民的机关等。而关于总揽的对象,则有统治权、政务、治权和行政权等。从历史发展来看,"总揽机关"渐渐为"最高机关"所取代,后者成为宪法文件的常用术语。"总揽"现象反映了中国人对不同政体形式的认知逻辑。其背后彰显了传统法律文化中一元权力观对近现代中国立宪的影响。而"总揽"模式表现为行政集权制和民主集权制两种形式,在本质上区别于总统制、内阁制和委员会制。从历史发展来看,行政集权制与民主集权制渐渐走向融合。     

On Becoming a Community Psychologist

Abstract

Recounts the author's professional life history in the context of his personal life story. Reflects on the ways in which history and autobiography combine to create life pathways that are experienced as individually chosen, yet historically determined. Recounts the author's family life, neighborhood experiences, early education in the Philadelphia public schools, and the impact of post-World War II government programs including the GI Bill and the establishment of United States Public Health Service fellowships. Considers the influence of African American writers and the civil rights movement, as well as women returning to school, the culture of medical schools and the influence of mentors in the formation of a professional identity. Recounts the discovery of the community mental health movement and the search for a social justice agenda that led to Community Psychology. Ultimately, the author views himself as an “insider/outsider,” whose personal and professional identity crosses traditional boundaries and welcomes paradoxical, narrative and qualitative approaches to research and practice.     

香港警察侦查体制演进研究

1842年,英人占据香港岛,香港始进入英治时期.此前,香港作为广东香山县所辖,侦查体制与我国大陆同级地方别无二致.自1842年首批美军进入香港,并在驻港部队选拔警察以期维护当地法律秩序开始,香港的刑事司法开始了近代化的步伐,由于港英的英美法属性,并无检察官之设置,侦查之事权由警察机关担当,随着近170年的发展,并逐渐形成了“香港特色”的警察侦查体制.