Mobilising the Periphery: Brazil's My House My Life Programme and the Homeless Workers' Movement

Brazil's Movimento de Trabalhadores Sem Teto (MTST, Homeless Workers' Movement) has grown dramatically in recent years. This growth was partly provided for by the use of a large government housing programme, Minha Casa Minha Vida (MCMV, My House My Life), which allowed the MTST to construct housing for its members and swell its ranks with thousands of new members. Yet some have argued that the MCMV programme used by the MTST may compromise the autonomy of civil society organisations. This article, by contrast, argues that while the MCMV programme encouraged bureaucratic practices, it also helped to promote the cultural politics of the MTST.     

坚持和发展职代会制度的几点思考

职代会制度是推进企业实行民主管理和民主监督的基本制度。企业改制后,同样应该得到坚持和发展。工会应当适应形势,充实和调整职代会的职能,正确处理与股东大会、董事会、监事会的关系,切实发挥职代会的应有作用。     

Managing commercial risks in open source software licensing

Legal context: The article reviews the commercial risk allocation clauses intypical open source licence terms and discusses their enforceabilityand implications. Key points: The enforceability of warranty disclaimers and limitation ofliability clauses in common open source licence terms is questionable,particularly in a cross-border context, and commercial licensorsshould take additional steps to protect themselves from down-streamrisks. Practical significance: Open source software presents a number of unusual commercialissues, because it is available free of charge and the providerstry to disclaim warranties and liabilities. End users and resellershave to adjust their own in- and out-licensing models to accommodatethis situation.     

辛亥百年,沅澧群英——《辛亥沅澧人物史话》课程建设随笔

在波澜壮阔的辛亥革命中,地处湘西北的常德诞生了一批品质优秀的民主革命志士,他们在辛亥革命的不同时期扮演了重要的角色,对近代中国历史的进程作出了较大的贡献。为了缅怀革命先烈,继承革命传统,湖南文理学院历史专业增开了《辛亥沅澧人物史话》。就该课程的开设动因、基本原则、主要内容、学习方法和建设意义作个简单汇报,以期对高校特色课程建设和改革进行探讨。     

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。     

All the labor problems fit to print: the New York Times and the cultural production of the U.S ‘labor problem’, 1870–1932

The period that spanned the Gilded Age to the onset of the Great Depression saw the rise and relative decline of the US labor movement. The salient events of labor movements over these years undoubtedly shaped public perception about labor issues, and some scholars have been attempting to unpack the mechanisms through which depictions and characterizations of the ‘labor problem’ were produced in authoritative venues that could have shaped the future of the movement. This study goes beyond the standard practice of explaining news report volume to feature the political valance of the reports on the labor problem over a 63-year time period. The aforementioned period also saw significant changes in news reporting practices, with the rise of objective informational writing and the embrace of journalism as a profession. The change within journalism itself could potentially shape the depiction of the labor problem, yet such change has been overlooked by existing literature pertaining to the topic. This research makes a theoretical case for integrating social processes central to the labor movement and journalism from 1870 to 1932 and explains patterns in the cultural production of the labor problem in the New York Times by analyzing these two tracks of history in conjunction using both qualitative and quantitative data.     

“男权王国的叛逆者”——为英国妇女选举权而战的男性知识分子

本文着重考察男性女权主义知识分子对英国妇女选举权运动所起到的推动作用。男性女权主义先锋,顶住重重压力,"背叛"了男权王国。他们成为妇女选举权运动的发起人与推动者,并为之做出巨大贡献。从19世纪上半叶至20世纪初,男性妇女参政论者支持妇女选举权运动的活动经历了由分散到集中,由"宪政"至"战斗"的历程,其指导思想也由自由主义转向社会主义。1928年英国妇女最终获得平等选举权,这一辉煌成果中包含着几代男性妇女参政论者的不懈努力。     

Differences in the executive council of the American federation of Labor

The 1936–1937 General Motors sit-down strike may be the most famous work stoppage in American history. The victory in Flint so heartened workers that a veritable “sit-down fever” wave spread across America. But are labor scholars guilty of unintentionally spreading a Whiggish view of history? Just 7 weeks after the victory in Flint, Hershey Chocolate workers sat down. Within 7 days they were forcibly ejected from the factory and beaten by a mob. This article takes a look at the events in Hershey with an eye toward raising questions about the overall efficacy of sit-down strikes. Although it by no means wishes to diminish the heroism or the usefulness of the Flint sit-down, it argues that a balanced look at the past requires a deeper look into the strikes that failed. The question is of the utmost importance for the contemporary labor movement, as some activists have called for a revival of sit-down militancy as a tactic for organized labor to reverse decades of decline. This may not be wise strategy, as past sit-down strikes are too narrowly filtered through the triumphant lens of Flint.     

Contested Resource Extraction,Anti-Corporate Protests and the Politics of Movement Alliance in Bangladesh

Why do activist groups form alliances and why do some alliances later fall apart? This article asks these questions in the context of a popular mobilisation against resource extraction in Bangladesh. It focuses on the dynamics of a strategic alliance between a locally organised community mobilisation against a British mining company and an urban radical activist group, known for its anti-capitalist activism, to explore the subsequent collapse of the alliance and the demobilisation of one group. Based on the qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews with activists and organisational documents, the article probes the underlying causes of rupture. Although several individual and organisational factors are identified, it is argued that Bangladesh’s confrontational political culture and its authoritarian party system played a critical role, with local activists vulnerable to co-optation or being silenced by powerful political actors. The article contributes to social movement scholarship by emphasising that specific political cultures can undermine efforts to build strategic alliances between diverse social movement organisations.