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.     

The Student Movement of 1968 and the Mexican Press: The Cases of Excélsior and Siempre!

The Student Movement of 1968 was a watershed in Mexican political history. This article explores how it was reported in the daily newspaper Excélsior and the weekly magazine Siempre! from August to October 1968. It analyses the work of specific journalists to reveal the extent to which criticism of the government was voiced in a climate of apprehension and oppression. In doing so the important role played by Carlos Monsiváis in promoting and sustaining the students' cause, and the commitment to impartial news coverage of editors Julio Scherer García and José Pagés Llergo, become evident.     

The sounds of silence: American history textbook representations of non-violence and the Abolition Movement

In this paper we examine how the Abolition Movement’s approach to non-violent resistance has been silenced in four American history textbooks. Despite extensive research that reveals an extensive network of groups dedicated to the peaceful abolishment of slavery little of this historical record is included in the textbooks. Instead, a skewed representation of the movement is conveyed to the reader, one that conveys an image of a movement that contributes to a climate of social violence. Through a critical discourse analytical approach to the data we carefully deconstruct how this process of misrepresentation occurs. By employing the discursive tools of narrative framing, positioning, and stance we lift up what is often hidden from the reader and demonstrate how language use communicates powerful social messaging to the reader. We argue that student readers are left with an impoverished sense of how non-violent democratic change has occurred when presented with a limited portrayal of the Abolition Movement. We therefore emphasize the importance of equipping students with the skills needed to critically interrogate both historical and contemporary sources that purports to convey the inevitability of war to resolve complex social problems; we maintain this is both an educational imperative and a civic obligation.     

孙中山工农观的转变——基于五四运动前后工农运动的考察基于五四运动前后工农运动的考察

孙中山从辛亥革命和两次护法运动的失败以及五四运动和十月革命的胜利中逐渐地认识到:帝国主义和封建军阀是中国革命的真正敌人,工农革命力量才是中国革命的主要动力。因此,孙中山实现了工农观的转变:从轻视脱离工农到重视依靠工农。这一转变进而推动了中国革命向前迈进了一大步。但孙中山工农观的转变是不彻底的,具有时代和阶级的局限性。     

五四运动与中国传统文化的现代转型

五四运动的发生有其历史文化渊源,是中国传统文化面临道德危机、信仰危机和政治秩序危机的必然结果.五四运动反对儒家中维护封建统治的“三纲”封建伦理,而“全盘西化”只不过是一种策略选择.在传统文化现代转型的过程中,我们要反对保守主义和全盘西化两种倾向,坚持时代性和民族性的统一.     

马来西亚华教运动与华人权益争取——以政治社会学为视角

社会运动自20世纪60年代兴起以来,已成为广大公民争取自身权益,表达利益诉求的重要管道。马来西亚华教运动的形成有其制度根源,在几十年的斗争过程中也积累了一定的经验,能为广大的海外华人及少数族裔争取自身权益提供一定的借鉴意义。虽然马来西亚华教运动在争取华人权益方面发挥了一定作用,但效果有限。这就要求少数族裔除了通过社会运动的方式争取权益外,更要积极培育及鼓励本族群的参政热情,提升本族群的政治话语权,或与国内其他少数族裔形成合力,以形成具有实质影响力的压力集团来影响政府政策的制定。     

Coming in from the Cold: Grenada and Cuba since 1983

Abstract

The Grenada Revolution’s radical course was stamped by the bold turn to Cuba in April 1979. Cuban commitment to Maurice Bishop’s regime was crucial to its consolidation. In 1983 counter-revolution and invasion ruptured Grenada–Cuba ties and damaged Havana’s relations with Caribbean Community states. Since the demise of the Cold War, Havana’s survival strategy has prioritised regional integration and cooperation in the Americas. In the Anglophone Caribbean, Grenada has been at the centre of this rapprochement since 1993. Despite Washington’s disapproval, Grenada champions expanded ties with socialist Cuba. The rekindled alliance brings tangible mutual benefits and validates the strategy of South–South cooperation advocated by Maurice Bishop’s People’s Revolutionary Government and New Jewel Movement.     

A Landlord's Notice to Quit: The May 2012 Municipal Elections in Italy

This article explores the significance of the local elections of May 2012 for the general direction of change in Italian politics. The forces of the centre-right were deserted en masse but without those of the centre-left effectively capitalising on the discontent, which was, instead, expressed by the spectacular advance of the ‘non-party’, the almost completely novel Five-Star Movement. As the last major contest on the political agenda before the next general election due in no more than a year, the May outcome revealed just how difficult it was likely to be for either of the two coalitions to obtain a clear victory on that occasion. The article discusses the extent and the nature of these difficulties – deriving from voters' clear rejection of ‘politics as usual’ – by analysing the run-up, the campaign, the outcome and the aftermath of the May elections.     

ACTING OUT REFORM: THEATER AND VILLAGE IN THE REPUBLICAN RURAL RECONSTRUCTION MOVEMENT

Abstract

Rural theater reform was a component of the Republican Rural Reconstruction Movement from its mid-1920s beginnings in mass literacy efforts. Amid the economic and political upheaval of the 1920s and 1930s, reformers argued that national salvation depended on the unity and continued relevance of village communities, and they believed that rural theater could contribute to bringing village communities together. One important example, the Mass Education Movement project in Dingxian, illustrates how reformers used the theater to reinforce the village as the unit of reform and national reconstruction. Reformers hoped rural theater would transmit to villagers ideas about citizenship and the new responsibilities this political role entailed. However, it was equally important that the reform theater — a group activity performed for a village audience — enable and sustain a reconstitution of the village community. In this way, the Rural Reconstruction Movement demonstrates an alternative to the top-down rule that characterized most Guomindang state-making efforts.     

Family ties: A case study of coverage of families and friends during the hijacking of TWA flight 847

When U.S. citizens are held hostage in a foreign land, U.S. journalists have problems making the story meaningful for their readers. The hostages are usually not accessible. The political causes are far too complex to translate well into 90‐second nightly news stories or 20‐inch newspaper articles. Friends and families of the hostages provide journalists with a way for focusing on the human element of the story. This case study of the 1985 hijacking of TWA 847 illustrates how such a focus can lead to exploitation of friends and family to manipulation of news media.