Social and Labour History News

El Partido Comunista de España en Extremadura durante el Frente Popular. República y Guerra (1936-1939)

2 days 12 hours ago

by José Hinojosa Durán

Este obra analiza la organización interna y la evolución política del Partido Comunista de España en Extremadura durante el primer semestre de 1936 y la guerra civil. Los dirigentes y afiliados de este partido político, la elaboración y puesta en marcha de sus líneas políticas antes y después del 18 de julio de 1936, la relación con otras fuerzas políticas y sindicales (espacialmente en el Partido Socialista Obrero Español y la Unión General de Trabajadores), tanto en los meses del Frente Popular como durante la guerra civil, el impacto del comienzo de conflicto bélico (verano y otoño de 1936), las iniciativas adoptadas ante el nuevo contexto histórico y geográfico que supuso la clara delimitación de una Extremadura republicana desde noviembre de 1936 hasta mediados de julio de 1938 o la situación del PCE en Extremadura y su política en la última fase de la guerra civil (agosto de 1938 hasta el 1 de abril de 1939) son algunas de las temáticas centrales de esta obra.

https://libreriavirtual.dip-badajoz.es/es/inicio/el-partido-comunista-d…

Behind the Pages: Lives of Early Career Historians. Resource Sharing and Podcast Production Workshop

2 days 12 hours ago

Workshop in Glasgow, 11 September 2025

Convenors: Dr Anna McEwan (University of Glasgow/Leibniz-Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung (ZZF) Potsdam), Dr Eliska Bujokova (University of Glasgow/University of New Brunswick)

We are inviting participants to a one-day workshop resulting in a podcast entitled, Behind the Pages: Lives of Early Career Historians: Resource Sharing and Podcast Production. The event will take place at the University of Glasgow on September 11th 2025.

The workshop will bring together early career historians to discuss the multifaceted challenges in the early stages of our careers.  We aim to create a forum for collective resource sharing and reflection as well as a podcast tailored to the needs of early career historians. The workshop is underpinned by two interrelated goals:

  • Community Building: We hope to build community among early career historians across institutions and historical subjects, providing a space for participants to share experiences, exchange resources, and foster connections. Navigating the early career stage often involves a range of uncertainties, from securing funding to managing life transitions. This workshop seeks to demystify these challenges through collaborative engagement.
  • Creation of a Long-Term Resource: We will record the workshop discussions to produce the podcast which will offer themed episodes focussed on the challenges of the early career lifestyle, including international travel, parenting and navigating precarity. Our aim is to produce a resource that complements existing guidance on academic processes, is accessible, relatable, and useful to early career historians.

The workshop will be structured around five themes (though we are open to alternatives), each corresponding to a podcast episode:

  • Choosing the Right Path: Navigating the post-PhD Stage
  • Moving Country for Career
  • Parenting with a Postdoc
  • Competition versus Collaboration
  • Navigating a Short-Term Lectureship

We are seeking UK-based participants in the early stages of their career (broadly defined) who can speak to the above episode themes or have alternative suggestions that fit broadly with the framework. Participants are asked to submit a 250-word expression of interest by 31st July 2025, covering the theme they would like to speak to as well as a short bio. Please send expressions of interest to: anna.mcewan@zzf-potsdam.de. Refreshments and lunch will be provided. Limited travel funding is available, please indicate in your submission whether this is something you require.

CfP: Working Group Precarious Labour, ELHN Conference 2026

5 days 12 hours ago

The Precarious Labour Working Group will participate in the Sixth ELHN Conference with thematic sessions. We invite members of the Working Group, and all other interested colleagues, to come up with paper and session proposals under the following call:

We hope to receive session and paper proposals on the history of precarious labour from all over the world. We encourage the participation of researchers at all stages of their work life as well as researchers without institutional affiliation, and we welcome researchers anchored in various disciplines and investigating different historical periods.

For this conference the Working Group Precarious Labour aims to organise sessions on the topics listed below. We explicitly invite papers dealing with studies from across the globe and in different time periods. This includes studies in contexts where concepts such as standard employment and precarity do not apply or was/is not widely used, but where tensions between stability vs precarity play a role.

  • Trade unions, precarious and unorganised labour
    How did trade unions in the past respond to precarious working conditions? What was the role of trade unions in establishing standard employment relationships – and how did trade unions relate to workers outside or on the fringes of standard employment? For example, which strategies and repertoires did they use?
  • Women in precarious labour
    The working group is interested in examining social groups that are more likely to work under precarious conditions. For this conference we will organise one or two sessions on women workers. What are factors that contribute to precarisation of women’s labour? How do women experience working in precarious conditions? How do social factors such as racialisation, migration, age, education, language etc., relate to gender experiences of precarity? Which resistance strategies have women in precarious work conditions made use of (from collective actions to individual strategies, including for example “weapons of the weak”)?
  • If you work on precarious labour or related topics but your paper does not match the two topics above, please feel free to submit it anyway, and we will see if the proposals can fit together thematically.

Information on the Working Group Precarious Labour can be found here.

Meeting of the Working Group Precarious Labour

All scholars with an interest in precarious labour history around the world are invited to join a discussion that will be held during the ELHC 2026 about ideas and themes for future research and collaboration within and beyond the Working Group.

How to submit proposals

Please send an abstract (max 300 words) and a short bio (max 100 words, including contact details) to the WG coordinators, by September 9, 2025.

If you have any further questions, do not hesitate to contact the coordinators:

Time and Location

The 6th conference of the European Labour History Network (ELHN) will take place in Barcelona, Spain, from 16 to 19 June 2026. Registration to the ELHN Conference is expected to open in February 2026. More details will follow. Costs of registration, travel and subsistence are at the expense of the participants. There will be a reduced registration fee for students and scholars without institutional affiliation. If you have an urgent request, please contact the network at elhn@iisg.nl.

CfP: Nordic Labour Internationalism in the 20th Century

5 days 12 hours ago

Call for Papers
Nordic Labour Internationalism in the 20th Century
15–16 January 2026, University of Oslo, Norway

 
Global challenges loom large for the future of Nordic labour movements. Labour parties must address international or borderless issues like migration, climate change, and weakening security alignments, all while contesting with populist movements for voters and attention. Trade unions meanwhile confront a labour market reconfigured by (de)industrialization, European integration, and globalized trade. To appraise where this present situation may lead, it is necessary to reflect on previous responses. How have Nordic labour movements interacted with international challenges and developments in the past?  

We invite participants to revisit and resituate Nordic labour internationalism in the 20th century. Nordic labour movements actively contributed to shaping geopolitical landscapes and global trade, at times supporting, moderating, or challenging economic and political orders under different geopolitical hegemonies. We encourage participants to explore the strands of internationalist thought in Nordic labour movements, as well as Nordic activity in international and transnational arenas. Of special interest are papers involving trade unions, labour parties, and leftwing activists from one or more Nordic countries, including both top leaders and the rankand-file, with the goal of understanding how workers’ movements influenced and interacted with broad international trends.  

  • How and why did Nordic labour movements engage with the broader world, and what were the tangible results of this activity?
  • Did Nordic labour internationalism contribute to international tensions and conflict, or durable cooperation and solutions to international challenges?
  • To what extent did traditions for international engagement develop in the Nordic labour movements?  

The workshop will take a multilevel approach, from the translocal trade union to the international organization, and invites perspectives both from inside and outside the Nordic region to explore different scales and forms of international engagement. This includes diplomacy, aid and solidarity, propaganda, policy and ideational transfer, activity in international organizations, and migration responses. By bringing together scholarship in such areas, the workshop will constitute an arena for exploring varieties and common characteristics within Nordic labour internationalism and for reflecting on its prospects for the future.  
 
Submission of abstracts

Please submit an abstract of maximum 300 words and a short bio by the 31st of August 2025. Participants chosen for the workshop will have the opportunity to present papers and receive individualized comments from a senior researcher. The goal of the workshop is to draft articles for a special issue in an international journal. Emerging scholars are especially encouraged to apply.

The workshop will take place on the 15th and 16th of January 2026 at the University of Oslo. Travel and accommodation expenses will be covered by the workshop organizers, as will lunch and dinner.

Abstracts can be delivered by email to Byron Rom-Jensen at byronr@iakh.uio.no and Eirik Wig Sundvall at e.w.sundvall@iakh.uio.no.

CfP: Working Group Labour and Family Economy, ELHN conference 2026

5 days 12 hours ago

What contribution can the history of labour provide to the study of family economy?  The ELHN Working Group Labour and Family Economy aims at developing a labour centered reflection on a classical topic in economic and social history: the historical forms taken by family economy in different economic, geographical and institutional contexts.

We consider the family as an economic unit and its members’ labour and activities in a broad sense, including consumption patterns and the whole range of resources’ allocation and distribution within the family. Following a flourishing literature, we would like to consider the family not only as knot of blood tights but also as an extended web taking different forms according to cultural and institutional contexts: maisonnées, kinship coalitions, active parenthood, etc.  

We would like to deal with these topics in a long period perspective. Family-based production is a pervasive phenomenon not only in early modern societies but also in modern times. Our aim is, finally, to broaden the scope of our discussion beyond labour history.

For ELHN Congress in Barcelona, we aim to explore different topics dealing with family economy such as care work, reproductive labour,  migration and family economy. We welcome contributions from various disciplines, including case studies and comparative analyses., from the early modern  period up the the 20th century.

We kindly ask you to consult the call for papers for each proposal to obtain more information.

How to apply

Please send a 500-word abstract and a short academic CV to the organizers of the session. The proposal should include name, surname, current affiliation and contact details of the proponent. The subject of the email needs to be: “Labour and Family Economy ELHN 2026”. If you have any further questions do not hesitate to contact the organizers.

Time and Location

The 6th conference of the European Labour History Network (ELHN) will take place in Barcelona, Spain, from 16 to 19 June 2026. Registration to the ELHN Conference is expected to open in February 2026. More details will follow. Costs of registration, travel and subsistence are at the expense of the participants. There will be a reduced registration fee for students and scholars without institutional affiliation. If you have an urgent request, please contact the network at elhn@iisg.nl.

TURIN HUMANITIES PROGRAMME: Slavery and Serfdom in Europe and the Americas in the Early Modern Period

1 week ago

10-12 September 2025, Turin

Fondazione 1563 per l’Arte e la Cultura (hereinafter “Fondazione 1563”) has since 2013 supported research and advanced training in the field of the humanities. In a wider effort to pursue this goal, in 2020 Fondazione 1563 launched the Turin Humanities Programme, a research initiative that allows junior scholars to work on interrelated research projects under the guidance of especially appointed Senior Fellows.

THP aims at promoting two-year research projects about relevant global history topics. Under THP Fondazione 1563 launched a fourth (2024-26) call for applications for research on Slavery and Serfdom in Europe and the New World: Debates in the Early Modern Period.

SUMMER SCHOOL 2025 AND ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS

The Turin Humanities Programme and Fondazione 1563 are pleased to invite doctoral students and early career researchers to submit their applications to the Summer School Slavery and Serfdom in Europe and the Americas in the Early Modern Period.

The Summer School aims to explore the modern debates surrounding slavery and serfdom in Europe and the Americas within the timeframe of the Early Modern period, defined here broadly as stretching from the sixteenth century to the beginning of the nineteenth.

The project will aim to encourage a comparative perspective, focussing on three key aspects:
1. Early Modern and Enlightenment debates ranging from race and ethnicity to the rights of man.
Debates about enslavement begin with ethical, economic and theological questions, and evolve in the period towards a greater focus on race, ethnicity and discussion of the rights of man. How are notions of race debated in the period? Is racial discrimination an underlying cause of enslavement, or rather a consequence of it? In what ways is slavery essential to early-modern capitalism and commerce?
2. Serfdom and slavery.
Serfdom existed widely across Europe in the Early Modern period. The challenges relating to research into serfdom in part mirror the challenges concerning enslavement, yet the two phenomena are almost always studied separately. To what extent are there parallels between serfdom and slavery? Are these two phenomena entirely distinct from one another?
3. The role of imaginative literature and the creative arts.
Novels, stories, plays, operas, paintings and prints play an increasingly important role, in the Enlightenment period in particular, in exploring notions and constructions of otherness, and in creating often paradoxical fictions of enslavement. Creative works play a crucial part in communicating these unresolved questions and tensions to a broader public.

The THP 2025 Summer School provides a forum for postgraduate students and early career researchers in the field of humanities and the social sciences (history, philosophy, literature, art history, music, anthropology, religion) to engage with the most up-to-date academic debates on enslavement, serfdom, ethnicity and race in Europe and the Americas in the early modern period, and to approach these questions from a wide range of methodological approaches.

English will be the default language of the Summer School. 

The Summer School programme includes keynote lectures by Demetrius Eudell (Vassar College, USA), Marisa Fuentes (Rutgers University), Vanessa Massuchetto (Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory), Darrin McMahon (Dartmouth College, USA), Pärtel Piirimäe (University of Tartu), Ann Thomson (European University Institute, Florence), Devin Vartija (University of Utrecht), research presentations by the Junior Fellows of the Turin Humanities Programme, feedback sessions and roundtable discussions.

To foster dialogue between senior and young scholars, the 2025 Summer School offers its participants a unique opportunity to contribute to the broader discussion on themes of slavery and serfdom in Europe and the Americas in the Early Modern Period with their own ideas and research.
Successful applicants will also have the chance to present their papers in panel sessions which will be followed by a Q&A led by a panel discussant.

HOW TO SUBMIT AN APPLICATION

To apply for the Summer School, prospective participants should submit a brief academic CV (max. 2 pages), an abstract of the research they wish to present (max. 400 words) and a short essay on why they would like to attend the Summer School (max. 200 words).

Please, upload these materials within the application form that can be found on the website of Fondazione 1563 at the following link www.fondazione1563.it/application-form-thp-summer-school/ by 10.00 PM (Italian/CET time) of June 15, 2025.

The Summer School will be activated only with a minimum of 10 participants; a maximum of 12 participants is allowed.

COSTS AND FEES

The participation in the Summer School is free to all Italian and International postgraduate students and early career researchers.

Travelling expenses to and from Torino and accommodation expenses in Torino will be borne by the participants.

Upon acceptance of the participation in the Summer School, the participants will be asked to confirm their participation in the social events proposed by Fondazione 1563.

For information, please contact the organisers at info@fondazione1563.it

SUMMER SCHOOL 2025 SELECTION CRITERIA

The candidates will be selected based on their resumes and the relevance of their intended contributions to the general subject of the Summer School.

They will be informed of the result of the selection by early July via the email address they included in the application form.

Successful applicants will receive the attendance form that will have to be signed for acceptance and returned, on pain of forfeiture, within 5 working days starting from the date of the communication.

Fondazione 1563 reserves the right to suspend, modify or cancel this selection procedure or the Summer School in any moment at its incontestable discretion, without that being in any way for the Candidates a right or a demand to claim any refund, compensation or reimbursement.

The Fight Over Jobs, 1877-2024: An Accounting of Events Distorted, Suppressed or Ignored

1 week ago

by Fred Siegmund

Americans work "at will" and can be fired or laid off at any time. Work and the boss can be difficult; sometimes we strike, picket and protest. Take the time back in July 1877 after the Pennsylvania Railroad cut wages 20 percent and the Pittsburgh superintendent laid off half his conductors, flagmen and brakemen. Striking crews blocked the tracks, except railroad officials declared to "clear the tracks" and found a compliant governor ready to call out the National Guard. His troops fired directly into the crowds at Pittsburgh's 28th Street grade crossing, leaving 16 dead and 27 wounded. Follow along with the "angry surging tide of humanity" descending into the rail yards for three days of arson, looting and rioting. Take a trip through the Sunday aftermath to consider the burned-out ruins of 1,200 freight cars, 126 locomotives and two miles of smoldering Pittsburgh.

The Fight Over Jobs narrates these street battles in one strike after another along with the confrontations on the picket line, the shop floor, the bargaining table, in Congress and the courts over the years 1877 to 2024. Here is a book that recounts corporate America's never-ending quest for cheap labor. Follow the efforts of their labor organizing opponents and the political and judicial role of Congress and the courts in the competition to control America's labor relations. Tote up the victories and defeats in these never ending battles and decide for yourself: Which side are you on?

Arbeit, Gewalt und Zwang. Industriekultur und Verantwortung (German)

1 week ago

Conference in Halle (Germany), 20-21 November 2025

Die Tagung widmet sich den dunklen Seiten der Industriekultur: Zwangsarbeit, Rüstungsproduktion, Arbeitsunfälle und strukturelle Gewalt. Beiträge aus Wissenschaft, Museen, Gedenkstätten, Vereinen und Unternehmen sind eingeladen, Formen unfreier Arbeit, gewaltvoller Arbeitsbeziehungen und erinnerungskultureller Verantwortung zu beleuchten. Ziel ist es, Industriekultur in Sachsen-Anhalt und darüber hinaus kritisch zu reflektieren und Fragen von Identität und Verantwortung neu zu verhandeln. Vorschläge können aus vergleichender oder transregionaler Perspektive eingereicht werden.

Arbeit, Gewalt und Zwang. Industriekultur und Verantwortung

Industriekultur wird häufig von einer Fortschrittsgeschichtsschreibung begleitet. Menschlicher Erfindergeist, Solidarität am Arbeitsplatz und im Arbeitskampf sowie unternehmerische Risikofreude bilden üblicherweise das Koordinatensystem, in dem Industriekultur erzählt und vermittelt wird. Tatsächlich existieren zahlreiche Verbindungen zwischen industrieller Entwicklung und Gewaltstrukturen, wie Zwangsarbeit oder prekären Arbeitsbedingungen. Auch die Rüstungsindustrie als eine auf Zerstörung gerichtete Produktion spielt in industriekulturellen Großerzählungen nur selten eine Rolle. Dies gilt insbesondere für das Gebiet des heutigen Sachsen-Anhalts, dessen industrielle Entwicklung wie die kaum einer anderen Wirtschaftsregion Europas mit den Gewaltverbrechen des 20. Jahrhunderts verbunden ist. Die Tagung stellt Fragen nach den verschiedenen Formen von Arbeit, Gewalt und Zwang seit dem Ersten Weltkrieg bis heute und damit einhergehend nach Formen der öffentlichen Erinnerung und Verantwortung von Institutionen. Wie können diese negativen Folgen und Voraussetzungen von industrieller Entwicklung in ein Narrativ von Industriekultur in Sachsen-Anhalt eingebettet werden? Wie verhalten sich also Identität und Verantwortung, Erinnerung an die industrielle Arbeitswelt und Gedenken an staatliche Massenverbrechen, zueinander?

Die Tagung wird initiiert vom Landesheimatbund Sachsen-Anhalt e. V. und dem Institut für Landesgeschichte am LDA Sachsen-Anhalt in Kooperation mit dem Netzwerk Industriekultur, dem Museumsverband Sachsen-Anhalt sowie der Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Sachsen-Anhalt.
Eingeladen sind Beiträge aus den Bereichen Wissenschaft, Museen, Gedenkstätten, ehrenamtliches Engagement sowie weiteren erinnerungspolitisch relevanten Institutionen.

Mit den Beiträgen soll eine Diskussion eröffnet werden, in der danach gefragt wird, welche Formen von Gewalt mit Industrie verbunden sind oder durch Industriezweige befördert werden. Im Fokus steht der mögliche Umgang mit der Geschichte von Gewalt an Orten der Industriekultur sowie in industriekulturellen Großerzählungen. Mögliche Beispiele ergeben sich aus heutigen und früheren Initiativen des Gedenkens sowie über Fallbeispiele der Industriegeschichte selbst und ihrer Thematisierung in Museen als Orten der Erinnerungskultur. Neben öffentlichen Institutionen erarbeiteten auch zahlreiche ehrenamtlich engagierte Personen Gedenkorte an Zwangsarbeit. Die ehemaligen Produktionsorte der Rüstungsindustrie von Kriegstechnik (Magdeburg), über Sprengstoffe (Coswig) bis hin zur chemischen Entwicklung des Giftgases Zyklon B (Dessau) weisen teils bereits durch die Arbeitsbedingungen schwerwiegende Verletzungen und tödliche Unfälle aus. Davon unbenommen sind die Erzeugnisse der Produktionen mit Tötungsabsicht hergestellt worden. Darüber hinaus können auch die Arbeitsbedingungen in der Braunkohlen- und in der chemischen Industrie der DDR Thema sein, die Ausbeutung und Ausgrenzung mit sich brachten wie die der (politischen) Strafgefangenen und der Bausoldaten oder von ausländischen Arbeiter:innen. Ebenso können mehr-als-menschliche Beziehungen, der Umgang mit Tieren im Kontext von Krieg, Gewalt und Industrie thematisiert werden.

Insgesamt erbitten wir Vorschläge aus den folgenden vier Themenbereichen der sachsen-anhaltischen Industriegeschichte, gerne in vergleichender oder transregionaler Perspektive:

1. Unfreie Arbeit: Welche Formen und Ausprägungen unfreier Arbeit lassen sich in der sachsen-anhaltischen Industriegeschichte identifizieren? Welche Bedeutung erlangten Formen unfreier Arbeit in der Industriegeschichte des Landes?
2. Arbeitsunfälle und Berufskrankheiten: Wie können Arbeitsunfälle und Berufskrankheiten als Thema der Industriegeschichte und der Landesgeschichte erforscht und vermittelt werden? Welche spezifischen Strukturen des Umgangs mit Arbeitsunfällen und Berufskrankheiten bildeten sich heraus?
3. Arbeitsbeziehungen: Welche gewaltvoll strukturierten Arbeitsbeziehungen lassen sich identifizieren? Welche Bedeutung haben Sexismus, Rassismus und Klassismus in der Industriegeschichte sowie der Erinnerung?
4. Unternehmen: Welche Unternehmensgeschichten lassen sich in die Geschichte von Industrie und Gewalt einordnen? Welche Bedeutung haben dabei insbesondere Unternehmen der Rüstungsindustrie? Welche Verbindung sachsen-anhaltischer Unternehmen zu staatlichen Gewaltverbrechen des 20. Jahrhunderts lassen sich identifizieren?

Analytisch begrüßen wir sowohl Beiträge aus dem Bereich der Arbeits-, Wirtschafts-, Unternehmens- und Sozialgeschichte des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts als auch aus der Erinnerungsgeschichte sowie der Museologie. Besonders freuen wir uns über Vorschläge von zivilgesellschaftlichen Initiativen und Vereinen.

Einreichungen von Themenvorschlägen im Umfang von 300 Wörtern und einer biographischen Notiz bitte bis zum 15. Juni 2025 an info@lhbsa.de

Reisekosten werden übernommen. Eine Publikation ist vorgesehen.

Rückfragen an: John Palatini (palatini@lhbsa.de) / Dr. Jan Kellershohn (jkellershohn@lda.stk.sachsen-anhalt.de) / Justus Vesting (jvesting@lda.stk.sachsen-anhalt.de)

Contact

Landesheimatbund Sachsen-Anhalt e. V.
E-Mail: info@lhbsa.de

Volume XLVI of NeMLA Italian Studies: Culture, History, and Memory of the Italian Seventies (English/Italian)

1 week 2 days ago

~ Traduzione italiana segue ~

Editors: Sergio Ferrarese (William & Mary) and Judith Tauber (Cornell University)

The Italian 1970s have often been described in reductive terms, reflecting a narrative diffused by politicians and controversial judicial rulings, both of which profoundly influenced public perception of this decade. Of these descriptions, the term “Years of Lead” is the most well-known, but also the most limited in its scope. In reality, Italy’s “long 1968” featured a complex, multifaceted kaleidoscope of social contestation from which emerged vibrant countercultures, revolutionary ideas, and innovative methods of self-organization. The period witnessed worker and student protests, the rise of feminism, the roots of the Italian LGBTQ+ movement, social reform, conservative backlash, changes in sexual norms, and much more.

The social contestation of the 1970s has been (re)elaborated through objects of memory, particularly in innumerable representations in literature, cinema, television, and theater. Given rising scholarly interest in the Italian 1970s in recent years, this bilingual special issue aims to highlight recent research related to the contestation of ideas, structures, and existing norms in the late 1960s–early 1980s, as well as responses to and cultural representations of those events. Issues to be addressed include—but are not limited to—the following: What radical ideas, events, and processes from the 1970s remain understudied and/or little known, and what impact have they had? What shape did public, state, intellectual, and media responses to this social contestation take? How has this activism been retold, and how might we add to or challenge these narratives? What might we learn from the 1970s for today?

We aim to foster interdisciplinary and intercontinental dialogue among scholars, so contributions from various disciplines and countries are encouraged.

We invite you to submit proposals related to individuals, groups, movements and collectives seeking to enact radical social change in Italy during the late 1960s–early 1980s, including but not limited to:
• feminists, the Fronte Unitario Omosessuale Rivoluzionario Italiano (FUORI), the Fronte di Liberazione Omosessuale (FLO), the Brigate Saffo, the Realtà Lesbica, and others
addressing gender/sexuality-related concerns, including transsexuality;
• operaisti, autonomi, and others involved in workers’ struggles;
• students involved in contestation;
• individuals engaged in countercultural creative pursuits, such as Radio Alice, Radio Sherwood, Puzz or Il Male, among many others;
• individuals involved in the lotta armata;
• anti-Fascists;
• and other entities demanding and/or enacting radical social change not listed here, especially if they are understudied.

We seek contributions regarding:
• the history of late 1960s-early 1980s social contestation in Italy;
• the countercultures (ideas, organizational structures, texts, music, art…) of groups and movements involved;
• public, state, intellectual, and media responses to this contestation;
• as well as narratives and cultural representations (cinema, television, literature, theater, art, music…) of this period’s protests.

We ask that articles directly address (even briefly in the conclusion) what lessons or ideas can be drawn from these experiences.

Please submit a title, a brief proposal in Italian or English consisting of original and unpublished research (200–300 words), and a short biography (max. 200 words) to editors Judith Tauber (jmt349@cornell.edu) and Sergio Ferrarese (sferrarese@wm.edu) by June 15, 2025. The outcome of the selection process will be communicated shortly  thereafter. Authors of the selected proposals will be invited to submit full-length articles (approx. 5,000 words, not including endnotes or works cited) in Italian or English and formatted in MLA style by December 15, 2025. These articles will be double-blind peer-reviewed and, if accepted, included in the next special issue of NeMLA Italian Studies, Volume XLVI.
 

~ ~ ~
CFP per il numero XLVI della NeMLA Italian Studies
1970: Cultura, storia e memoria degli anni Settanta in Italia

Editors: Sergio Ferrarese (William & Mary) and Judith Tauber (Cornell University)
 
Gli anni ‘70 sono stati frequentemente etichettati in modo riduttivo, riflettendo un discorso dominato dal potere politico e da esiti giudiziari controversi dell’epoca, che ha influenzato profondamente la percezione pubblica di questo decennio. Tra le diverse definizioni, quella degli “anni di piombo” è la più nota, ma risulta anche la più limitativa. In realtà, il lungo Sessantotto ha rappresentato un universo complesso e sfaccettato, da cui sono emerse espressioni controculturali sofisticate, idee innovative, metodi di autorganizzazione e autogestione politica e culturale e, infine, percorsi rivoluzionari. Da questa stagione di fermento sociale sono nati il femminismo, inteso come critica radicale al patriarcato, i primi movimenti per i diritti LGBTQ+, nuove pratiche di liberazione sessuale e molto altro.
 
Gli anni ‘70 sono stati immortalati e rielaborati nel cinema, nella letteratura, nelle produzioni televisive e in drammi teatrali, attingendo alla memoria individuale e collettiva. Considerato il recente aumento dell’ interesse del mondo accademico verso una rivisitazione critica di questo decennio, il volume collettaneo che proponiamo intende mettere in luce i recenti risultati degli studi condotti su questo periodo della storia italiana, in relazione alla radicale messa in discussione della società tra il 1968 e i primi anni ‘80, e alle reazioni e alle rappresentazioni di quel tempo. Alcune tra le molte domande guida da considerare nell’elaborazione dei saggi sono: Quali forme, idee ed eventi di radicalismo politico rimangono ancora inesplorati? Quale impatto hanno avuto? Quali modalità hanno assunto le risposte del potere politico e dell’opinione pubblica a questa stagione di contestazioni? Come è stato narrato l’attivismo di quegli anni e in che modo possiamo fare luce su o criticare tali narrazioni? Che insegnamenti possiamo trarre dagli anni ‘70 e come possiamo utilizzare la loro eredità nel presente?
 
Il volume si propone lo scopo di promuovere un dialogo interdisciplinare e intercontinentale tra studiosi del decennio in esame. Si incoraggiano pertanto contributi provenienti da varie discipline e da altri paesi.  

Si invita a presentare proposte relative a persone, gruppi, movimenti e collettivi il cui obiettivo era il cambiamento radicale della società italiana tra la fine degli anni Sessanta e i primi anni Ottanta che affrontino:
• Femministe, il FUORI (Fronte Omosessuale Rivoluzionario Italiano), il FLO (Fronte di Liberazione Omosessuale), le Brigate Saffo, la Realtà Lesbica, e altri che trattano questioni relative al genere, alla sessualità e transessualità;  
• Operaisti, autonomi e altri individui impegnati nelle lotte operaie;
• Studenti attivi nella contestazione;
• Persone impegnate in varie espressioni controculturali come Radio Alice, Radio Sherwood o Puzz, Il Male…;
• Persone legate alla Lotta armata;
• Antifascisti; E altre entità, in particolare se poco studiate, che hanno richiesto o  hanno portato a compimento dei cambiamenti radicali all’interno della società.  

Si invita inoltre ad inviare contributi che riguardano:
• La storia della contestazione sociale dalla fine degli anni Sessanta ai primi anni Ottanta
• Controculture (idee, forme di aggregazione sociale alternative, scritti, musica, arte…) di gruppi della sinistra extraparlamentare e movimenti;
• La risposta dei media, dello stato italiano e dell’opinione pubblica agli eventi legati agli eventi tumultuosi del lungo ‘68;
• Narrazioni ed espressioni culturali (cinema, televisione, letteratura, musica, arte…) del decennio in esame.  

Si richiede che gli articoli affrontino direttamente (anche brevemente nella conclusione) quali lezioni si possono trarre da quel periodo di intenso attivismo politico per il presente.
 
Si prega di inviare un titolo, una proposta originale ed inedita (200-300 parole) in italiano o in inglese, e una breve biografia (massimo 200 parole) ai curatori del volume Judith Tauber (jmt349@cornell.edu) e Sergio Ferrarese (sferrarese@wm.edu) entro il 15 giugno 2025. L’esito del processo di selezione sarà comunicato poco dopo. Gli autori delle proposte selezionate saranno invitati a inviare articoli completi (di circa cinquemila parole, note e bibliografia non incluse) in italiano o in inglese, seguendo le norme redazionali del manuale della MLA, entro il 15 dicembre 2025. Gli articoli saranno sottoposti a revisione paritaria e anonima e, se accettati, saranno inclusi nel prossimo numero speciale, XLVI, della NeMLA Italian Studies.

Labour History: a Journal of Labour and Social History (Volumne 128): Workers, their workplaces and the value of case studies

1 week 2 days ago

Liverpool University Press is pleased to inform you of the latest content in Labour History: a Journal of Labour and Social History, published on behalf of the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, the journal is essential reading for those working in and researching social and labour history in Australasia.

Browse all articles in Volume 128 >  
Read a free issue >

If you would like to read content from this journal, please use our online form to recommend a subscription to your librarian.

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Table of contents

 

EDITORIAL

EDITORIAL

DIANE KIRKBY

 

RESEARCH ARTICLES

“A CALCULATING BLOW”: THE 1937 MELBOURNE STAY-IN STRIKE

PHILLIP DEERY

 

MOBILITY AND LABOUR IN THE COLONIAL PRISON, INDIA C. 1820–70S

NABHOJEET SEN

 

LOST DEBATES: THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY AND WORLD WAR I, 1918

MURRAY PERKS

 

COMPENSATION HID BEHIND ASBESTOS WALLS: CLASS, PROTEST, AND JUSTICE IN THE DUST DISEASES TRIBUNAL OF NEW SOUTH WALES

JAMES WATSON

THE AUSTRALIAN RAILWAYS UNION AND RANK-AND-FILE DEMOCRACY IN NEW SOUTH WALES, 1925–60

JOSEPH STARK

 

THE 1913–14 DRYLAND AGRICULTURE STRIKE IN NEW SOUTH WALES

ROBERT TIERNEY

 

RESEARCH NOTE

RESISTING THE ANTI-WELFARE STATE BACKLASH: THE AUSTRALIAN COUNCIL OF SOCIAL SERVICE’S SOCIAL WELFARE ADVOCACY, 1975–83

PHILIP MENDES

 

OBITUARY

FAY MARLES (1926–2024): TRAIL BLAZER, FEMINIST, CHANGEMAKER

MARY CROOKS

 

LES LOUIS (1929–2025): LABOUR HISTORIAN

PETER LOVE

 

BOOK REVIEWS

GARY S. CROSS, FREE TIME: THE HISTORY OF AN ELUSIVE IDEAL

STEPHEN ALOMES

 

MICHAEL EASSON, IN SEARCH OF JOHN CHRISTIAN WATSON: LABOR’S FIRST PRIME MINISTER

D. A. CLANCY

 

ALEX ETTLING AND IAIN MCINTYRE, EDS, KNOCKING THE TOP OFF: A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF ALCOHOL IN AUSTRALIA

FRANK BONGIORNO

 

HANNAH FORSYTH, VIRTUE CAPITALISTS: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE PROFESSIONAL CLASS IN THE ANGLOPHONE WORLD, 1870–2008

CHRISTOPHER SHEIL

 

KATE LAING, SISTERS IN PEACE: THE WOMEN’S INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE FOR PEACE AND FREEDOM IN AUSTRALIA, 1915–2015

HANNAH VINEY

 

IOLA MATHEWS, RACE MATHEWS: A LIFE IN POLITICS

CHRIS MONNOX

 

DENIS MURPHY, SCREEN WORKERS AND THE IRISH FILM INDUSTRY

LEWIS FITZ-GERALD

 

MICHAEL QUINLAN, CONTESTING INEQUALITY AND WORKER MOBILISATION: AUSTRALIA 1851–1880

SEAN SCALMER

 

IMOGEN RICHARDS, GEARÓID BRINN AND CALLUM JONES, GLOBAL HEATING AND THE AUSTRALIAN FAR RIGHT

FRANK BONGIORNO

JAMES ROBB, TO FREE THE WORLD: HARRY HOLLAND AND THE RISE OF THE LABOUR MOVEMENT IN AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND AND THE PACIFIC

BOBBIE OLIVER

 

NINA TRIGE ANDERSEN, LABOR PIONEERS: ECONOMY, LABOR, MIGRATION IN FILIPINO-DANISH RELATIONS 1950–2015

DIANE KIRKBY

 

NOTICE BOARD

NOTICE BOARD

 

RESEARCH NOTICE BOARD

RESEARCH NOTICE BOARD

 

ASSLH DIRECTORY

AUSTRALIAN SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF LABOUR HISTORY

Archivos de historia del movimiento obrero y la izquierda (número 26) (Spanish)

1 week 2 days ago

Índice

  • Presentación, Hernán Camarero

Dossier: El enigmático argentino Félix Weil. Tentativas a cincuenta años de su muerte”

  • Presentación del dossier, Santiago Roggerone y Hernán Camarero 
  • Félix Weil en el debate sobre la socialización tras la revolución de noviembre en Alemania, 1918-1921, Jacob Blumenfeld
  • El joven Félix Weil y la Argentina: entre el comunismo,el estudio del movimiento obrero y el proyecto del Instituto de Frankfurt, Hernán Camarero
  • Félix Weil, el Colegio Libre de Estudios Superiores y la economía marxista (1930-1940), Natalia Bustelo
  • Félix Weil, historiador del tiempo presente, José César Villarruel
  • “Fuera de lo común”. En torno a la vida y la obra de Félix Weil. Entrevista a Hans-Peter Gruber, Jacob Blumenfeld y Santiago M. Roggerone 

Artículos libres

  • Inconsciente, cosificación y democratización en Historia y conciencia de clase, José Luis Moreno Pestaña
  • Huelga azucarera y revancha patronal: estrategias de lucha y experiencia obrera en los ingenios Ledesma y La Esperanza, Jujuy (1920-1949), Nicolás Hernández Aparicio
  • La división de la Federación Anarquista Uruguaya y la fundación de la Alianza Libertaria del Uruguay (1963-1965): la crisis del tercerismo en las filas anarquistas, Maite Iglesias 

Comunicaciones

  • Hacia una nueva historia internacional del socialismo: contribuciones recientes de la historiografía francesa, Lucas Poy 

Crítica de libros

  • Jordi Sancho Galán. El antifranquismo en la universidad. El protagonismo militante (1956-1977), por Mariano Millán
  • Luis Campos. La Fortaleza. Sindicatos, Estado y relaciones de fuerzas (Argentina, 1945-2001), por Leandro Molinaro
  • Rodolfo Laufer. La CGT clasista de Salta. Radicalización obrera y peronismo revolucionario en la Salta de los años 70, por José Barraza

 

Archivos de historia del movimiento obrero y la izquierda, revista de acceso abierto, es una publicación científica de historia social, política, cultural e intelectual, que tiene como objetivo impulsar la investigación, la revisión y la actualización del conocimiento sobre la clase trabajadora, el movimiento obrero y las izquierdas, tanto a nivel nacional como internacional, propiciando el análisis comparativo. Es una publicación semestral (marzo-agosto y septiembre-febrero) y todos sus artículos son sometidos a referato externo con el sistema doble ciego. Las colaboraciones deben ser originales y no estar sometidas simultáneamente a evaluación en ninguna otra publicación.

Archivos de historia del movimiento obrero y la izquierda se encuentra indizada en el Núcleo Básico de Revistas Científicas Argentinas, en SCOPUSERIH PLUS (European Reference Index for the Humanities and Social Sciences), en Dialnet (Universidad de La Rioja), en el catálogo 2.0 de Latindex, en CLASE (Citas Latinoamericanas en Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, dependiente de la UNAM), en el DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) y en la REDIB (Red Iberoamericana de Innovación y Conocimiento Científico). También es parte de las siguientes bases de datos, indexaciones y directorios: EuroPub, Journal TOCsMALENA (CAICYT); BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine); CIRC (Clasificación Integrada de Revistas Científicas, de España); MIAR (Matriz de Información para el Análisis de Revistas, Universitat de Barcelona); BIBLAT (Bibliografía Latinoamericana en revistas de investigación científica y social, UNAM); BINPAR (Bibliografía Nacional de Publicaciones Periódicas Registradas); REDLATT (Red Latinoamericana del Trabajo y Trabajadores); Latinoamericana (Asociación de revistas académicas de humanidades y ciencias sociales) y LatinREV (Red Latinoamericana de Revistas Académicas en Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades de FLACSO Argentina). El CEHTI es miembro de la International Association of Labour History Institutions (IALHI).

Archivos es una publicación del Centro de Estudios Históricos de los Trabajadores y las Izquierdas (CEHTI)

Director y Editor Responsable: Hernán Camarero

Secretarios de Redacción: Diego Ceruso y Martín Mangiantini

Asynchronous Histories Summer School: First Edition: Conceptual Change

1 week 2 days ago

22–26 September 2025, Warsaw

The Asynchronous Histories Summer School aims to explore regions and moments in history marked by the coexistence of asynchronous sociopolitical tendencies and processes. These conditions often reveal paradoxical outcomes when seemingly well-established actors and mechanisms are put into practice. The absence—or inefficiency—of “The Great Synchronizer,” whether imperial order, centralized state apparatus, or the power of capital, has, in various periods and regions, created fertile grounds for blending the old and the new in unequal and unexpected ways.

Rather than viewing this coexistence of asynchronicities as a static phenomenon, we understand it as a dynamic and intricate process. In such situations, old forms may act as tools paving the way for new developments, while new forms may consolidate old arrangements, laws, and privileges. This interplay also triggers epistemological challenges, as research tools developed in global centres often fail to yield productive results when applied to these complex settings. This is why it is both challenging and indispensable to abandon normative definitions of phenomena and states of affairs in favour of listening to local actors, whose diversity ultimately calls into question apparently universal models and descriptions of reality—models that, in practice, are deeply rooted in Western centres.

In the first edition of the Asynchronous Histories Summer School, we seek to stimulate reflection on the theme of conceptual change, broadly understood. Our goal is to examine how concepts, ideas, and ideologies evolve amidst the coexistence of asynchronicities. We aim to move beyond binary perspectives, such as portraying given actors as never-fully-Western imitators or as guardians of domestic traditions. Instead, we propose thinking outside such frameworks, exploring the diverse intellectual stakes pursued by actors in the world’s “grey zones.”

Exemplary areas of inquiry include:

  1. Western ideologies in non-Western settings.
  2. Domestic political terminologies and procedures.
  3. Christian ideas in non-Christian worlds.
  4. Non-institutionalized areas of intellectual debate.
  5. Transfers as resistance; transfers as domination.
  6. Unrealized potentials, repressed imaginaries, and projects halted midway.
  7. Local academic traditions in the history of ideas or philosophy.

Confirmed Lecturers

Among the distinguished lecturers for the first edition are:

  • László Kontler (Central European University)
  • Franz Fillafer (Austrian Academy of Sciences)
  • Augusta Dimou (University of Leipzig)
  • Waldemar Bulira (University of Maria Curie-Skłodowska in Lublin)
  • Jan Surman (Academy of the Sciences of the Czech Republic)
  • Elías José Palti (University of Buenos Aires; National University of Quilmes)
  • Olena Palko (University of Basel)
  • Banu Turnaoglu (Sabancı University)
  • Maciej Janowski (Tadeusz Manteuffel Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences)
  • Jani Marjanen (University of Helsinki)

Organizing Institutions

Institute of Applied Social Sciences, University of Warsaw

in partnership with

Tadeusz Manteuffel Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences

The History of Concepts Group

Organizing Committee

Anna Gulińska, Bartłomiej Błesznowski, Jan Krakowian, Piotr Kuligowski

Eligibility and Application

We welcome submissions from PhD students. Advanced MA students and early career postdocs (up to two years post-defence) are also encouraged to apply.

How to Apply

Please submit the following materials by May 31, 2025:

  • A short CV (maximum two pages).
  • A concise description of your research interests (up to 1,000 words).

Send your application to ahss.warsaw[at]gmail.com

Participation Fee

The participation fee is 150 EUR. In justified cases, this fee may be reduced.

CfP: Working Group Workers' Education, ELHN Conference 2026: Perspectives on Workers’ Education

1 week 5 days ago

Call for papers for the working group Workers’ Education, European Labour History Network’s Conference, June 16-19, 2026, Barcelona

Early on, workers' education was organised by and for the working class and served multiple purposes. Workers’ education aimed to compensate for the limited formal education available to many workers. In such contexts, workers’ education was a bridge to higher education and a pathway to upward social mobility. Workers’ education also became a means for the cultural empowerment of the working class. Importantly, workers’ education also constituted the institutional foundation for the political education of the working class. These programs ensured members had the skills to manage organisations, represent labour parties in parliamentary institutions, and engage meaningfully with ideological debates. While the structure and goals of such educational initiatives have varied between countries, many formats have been used, including labour colleges, folk high schools, study circles, lectures, and correspondence courses.

Because workers’ education has diverse aims, the educational sphere within the labour movement has often been marked by conflict. Different branches of the movement have competed for control over workers’ education institutions, bourgeois forces have attempted to curtail or co-opt these efforts, and funding has frequently been a source of contention.

In these sessions, we aim to explore educational practices, teaching methods, and the cultural and political significance of workers' education. We welcome contributions from various disciplines, including case studies and comparative analyses. Papers may examine workers’ education in different national contexts.

We particularly welcome papers that address:

  • Conflicts surrounding workers’ education, such as tensions between factions within the labour movement or between labour organisations and the state
  • The funding and financial organisation of workers’ education
  • Influential individuals who played a key role in advancing workers’ education

We especially encourage contributions that approach workers’ education from a gender perspective.

Coordinators:

  • Elina Hakoniemi, University of Helsinki
  • Jenny Jansson, Uppsala University
  • Jonas Söderqvist, Swedish Labour Movements Archives and Library

Please send abstracts and a short bio to Jenny Jansson (jenny.jansson@statsvet.uu.se) by 1 August 2025.

Between Two Oceans: Connected Histories of Labour, Race, and Gender in the Americas (16th–19th centuries)

2 weeks ago

Hybrid seminar at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, 2 November 2025

In recent years, labour and its many worlds have once again occupied a central place in historiographical debates on the history of the Americas. This renewed interest has not only brought a critical lens to hierarchies, coercion, and violence—both past and present—but has also sought to examine the agency, negotiations, connections, and strategies of those who, from below, acted amid various forms of inequality. We are grounded in a tradition of social and cultural labour history that seeks to understand the heterogeneous labour realities across the Americas. This field of study has placed workers—men and women—their families, support networks, spaces of socialisation, and lives in movement at the centre of analysis, enriching the notion of "worlds of labour" by showing how labour experiences are deeply intertwined with cultural values, political identities, and racial and gender relations. This fertile historiography has pushed beyond the factory, the union, and the white male worker as the privileged historical subject and beyond the classic periodisations that defined labour as a by-product of capitalism and the industrial revolution.

From this perspective, we aim to contribute to the global and connected histories of labour, focusing on the period between the 16th and 19th centuries, and inviting reflections on how racial and gendered relations shaped these labouring worlds. We seek to make explicit how collective imaginaries of difference have been inscribed in labour dynamics, reinforcing, challenging, and subverting established hierarchies. We aim to echo these entangled conversations and are particularly committed to including the voices of young scholars from the global South—voices that have too often been sidelined in these historiographical debates. In addressing these absences, we highlight, on one hand, disparities in access to research funding and the pervasive preference for English as the default language for narrating the history of the Americas. On the other hand, we underscore the persistence of historiographical traditions that have long taken methodological nationalism as both their point of departure and arrival.

We are especially interested in contributions that question, expand, or reframe methodological nationalism in the Americas by focusing on the transnational circulation of people, ideas, and labour practices. We welcome, in particular, studies that explore connections between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and labour circuits across the Pacific that can challenge Atlantic centrality. To that end, we invite research that explicitly employs connected history methodologies (e.g., multi-case studies, network analysis, prosopography, or transnational microhistory) and that integrates interdisciplinary approaches (history, anthropology, sociology, gender studies) to investigate the intersections of race, gender, and labour. By centring the Americas in this analysis, we open space for comparative and relational inquiries into colonisation, population movements, the imposition of diverse forms of coerced labour, and the formation of global markets and exchange networks.

In this spirit, we encourage submissions in multiple languages (Spanish, Portuguese, English, and French) and, through a hybrid format, seek to broaden participation among researchers with limited access to funding or traditional academic venues.

Important information:

The seminar Between Two Oceans: Connected Histories of Labour, Race, and Gender in the Americas (16th–19th centuries) will take place on 12 November 2025 at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), in a hybrid format. The event is promoted by Laboratório de Pesquisas em Conexões Atlânticas (CNPq/PUC-Rio). We look forward to welcoming in-person and remote participants whose proposals are selected.

Deadline for abstract submissions: 31 May 2025
Deadline for extended abstracts (up to 12 pages): 15 September 2025
Submissions to: gmitidieri@gmail.com / fidelrodv@gmail.com

Contact Information

Fidel Rodríguez Velásquez (fidelrodv@gmail.com)
Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio) 

Gabriela Mitidieri (gmitidieri@gmail.com)
Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio)
Instituto de Investigaciones de Estudios de Género (UBA)

Contact Email fidelrodv@gmail.com

"Punitive education. On the relationship between violence, ideology and care in 'total institutions' under communist rule"

2 weeks ago

Conference in Dresden, 15-17 April 2026

8. Hermann-Weber-Konferenz zur Historischen Kommunismusforschung (2026): “Punitive education. On the relationship between violence, ideology and care in ‘total institutions’ under communist rule”

Organizers: Prof. Dr. Thomas Lindenberger (Hannah Arendt Institute for Totalitarianism Studies at TU Dresden /HAIT/), Dr. Klára Pinerová (Institute of Contemporary History of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague /ÚSD/, HAIT) and PD Dr. Udo Grashoff (HAIT) in cooperation with the “Jahrbuch für Historische Kommunismusforschung”, funded by the “Gerda-und-Hermann-Weber-Stiftung in der Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung”.

Location: Gedenkstätte Bautzner Straße, Dresden

Date: April 15-17, 2026

Deadline for abstracts: June 15, 2025

The communist regimes of the 20th century are often referred to as ‘educational dictatorships’ as they saw the (re-)education of each individual as the basis for building a socialist society. According to the communist understanding of the historical necessity of transition from capitalism to a communist society, it was not only the power structures and production relations that were to be overturned. At the same time, a ‘new man’ was to emerge who would leave behind the individualistic and egoistic attitudes of the exploitative society and, thanks to his intellectual and moral abilities, would harmonise with the collectivist principles of Marxism-Leninism out of his own ‘insight into necessity’. Only then, according to the communist dogma, would the antagonism of individual and society, as well as the division of society into classes, be finally overcome.

This ‘historical necessity’ had to be achieved through control and, if necessary, coercion. The ‘new man’ – later on in the context of the GDR: the ‘fully developed socialist personality’ - was to be created through targeted intervention in all areas of society with the help of surveillance and punishment. This applied to the party itself, it applied to the centre of society in large companies, mass organisations, education and leisure. This communist educational compulsion was also implemented and experienced in a particularly striking way at the margins of society where individuals branded as ‘parasites’, ‘asocials’ or ‘insane’ did not behave in accordance with social norms or deliberately violated them.

The conference will focus on those institutions and social places where people were particularly exposed to repressive re-education. We are talking about labour colonies, camps, youth work centres, special children's homes, but also regular prisons, in which the idea of re-education through labour and within a collective, often in reference to the Soviet pedagogue Makarenko, was the official guiding principle. For the study of these institutions it is important to pay close attention to the relationship between ideals and norms and practice. According to theory, the logic of revenge and retribution did not inform such re-education. The explicit aim was to reintegrate everyone into socialist society. However, the practices of punitive education in numerous ‘total institutions’ of real socialism thwarted these self-declared goals and turned them into their opposite. They caused or favoured the development of group dynamics that were characterised by a high degree of violence, humiliation and contempt for humanity, and this systematically and permanently. In consequence, communist rule created and reproduced its own ‘asocial’ or ‘negative’ milieu.

This ambivalence of re-education practices in communist dictatorships stands at the center of the conference. Its aim is to develop a differentiated understanding of the Janus-faced nature of the relationship between care, education and repression in communist regimes. Based on the treatment of non-conformists and delinquents in different contexts and regions, communist practices and concepts combining education and repression will be explored. Focusing on generic institutions will also allow comparisons with the rival systems in the West and with precursors of these typically ‘modern’ institutions. The conference is based on the conviction that the treatment of people in state-enforced custody and care - be it prisoners in prisons and camps, patients in psychiatric wards, children and young people in residential care, or similar - is one indicator of the humanity or inhumanity of the ruling system.

We are looking for contributions addressing topics of one of the following panels. In particular panels I and III:

  1. COMMUNIST CONTEXTS: IDEOLOGY, THE PARTY, AND THE MILITARY
  • The education of the ‘new man’ / the ‘developed socialist personality’, the party culture including criticism and self-criticism and penal education, the militaristic society, the reception of Makarenko's pedagogy in different countries of the East and the West.
  1. PENAL INSTITUTIONS
  • Prisons, camps, penal colonies, banishments, gulag, including re-education experiments in prisons
  1. SOCIAL ENGINEERING, CONTROL, AND DISCIPLINE
  • Children's homes, youth work centres,  medical and care institutions, discipline and punishment through the exclusion of marginal groups such as ‘parasites’, ‘asocials’, 'rowdies', members of ethnic minorities and sub/counter-cultures.

Proposals
Proposals of 300–500 words, accompanied by a short biographical note, should be sent by June 15, 2025, to the following address: punitiveeducation.conference@tu-dresden.de.

Decisions will be announced no later than June 30, 2025.

The 8th “Hermann Weber Conference on Historical Research on Communism” will take place from April 15-17, 2026, at the Gedenkstätte Bautzner Straße, Dresden. Travel and accommodation costs will be covered by the organizers after consultation. The conference language is English. It is expected that the draft papers will be submitted by March 16, 2026. They will be presented and discussed at the conference. The conference is sponsored by the “Gerda-und-Hermann-Weber-Stiftung in der Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur”. A revised version of selected conference papers will be published in German in the “Jahrbuch für Historische Kommunismusforschung” 2027 (translation resources are available; the papers will be proofread). The application requires the willingness to submit a contribution for review for this publication.

Organised by: 

Hannah Arendt Institute for Totalitarianism Studies at TU Dresden (HAIT)
Institute of Contemporary History of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague (ÚSD)

CfP: Working Group Industrial and Economic Democracy, ELHN Conference 2026: Economic Democracy and Beyond: Re-thinking the role of democratic participation in industry and the economy, past and present

2 weeks ago

6th Conference of the European Labour History Network, 16-19 June 2026, Barcelona

Panel Organizers: Aurélie Andry (Ruhr University Bochum), Thomas J. Adams (University of South Alabama), Philipp Urban (Ruhr University Bochum), Philipp Reick (TU Berlin)

Since at least the end of the 18th century, social reformers, labor leaders, organized workers, and political movements have promoted democratic control of the workplace, industry, and economic life as a crucial precondition not only for social justice and material security but also for political democracy more generally. In so doing, they have highlighted that when workers and employees lack effective voice at work and control over the labor process, their political participation and formal political equality is seriously curtailed more broadly. Indeed, many have argued that political democracy will fail to materialize or, where it existed, soon experience 'backsliding' should democratic rights over work, industry, and the economy be withheld or decline. Against this backdrop, intellectuals, political and trade union actors, and social movements proposed a wide range of theories as well as practical measures that underlined the participation of employees and labor in decision-making as a prerequisite for the sustainability of democratic rule. In light of the current attacks on democratic institutions, we believe that now is the time to re-think what role the improvement and expansion of employee participation in industrial and economic decision-making might play in the fight for the future of our democracies.

Today, growing fears of democratic erosion in the political sphere happen to follow on the heels of a general decline of economic democracy over the last decades. For this reason, we want to explore the role that 'democracy' has played in the thinking, organizing, and lived experiences of past and present-day individuals and movements pushing for greater control over individual workplaces, whole industries, and entire economies. Instead of concentrating on how workplace democracy has impacted economic performance, productivity, and employee satisfaction--the focus of much previous research--we want to go to the heart of our subject and ask: whether, how, and why democracy at work strengthens and improves democracy in a variety of other social spheres, from families and civic organizations to local communities, the nation state and the international arena? For this purpose, we are proposing a series of panels that go beyond the historical gaze of our working group's previous activities.

We invite contributions from a wide range of disciplines, including history, philosophy, sociology, law, political science, economics, and more. We are particularly interested in transnational and comparative papers and papers on non-Western and Global South debates and developments. We are open to case studies as well as theoretical and conceptual papers. We have no focus on a specific period. Rather, we hope to facilitate interdisciplinary debate that includes both past and contemporary perspectives. For case studies, we expect that presenters reflect on how their case(s) relate to some of the broader themes we explore in this panel.

We are looking for papers that deal with (but are not limited to) issues such as:

  • the relationship between industrial and economic democracy on the one hand and political democracy on the other. How have theoreticians, political actors, trade unionists, and everyday workers conceived of the influence that industrial and economic democracy would have on democracy in politics? How can the impact of industrial and economic democracy on political democracy be measured, studied, and interpreted? What are the conceptual and methodological challenges in such studies?
  • the impact of democratic participation on 'democratic mentalities'. To what extent (and how) did/do theoreticians and practitioners believe that the subjective experience of being involved in decision-making at work infuses(d) employees with the spirit and consciousness that fuels support for democratic rule and sustained democratic engagement beyond the casting of ballots? Did/does active participation equip workers with skills necessary to participate in democratic deliberation and action outside their work environment? Are/were employees who participate in democratic decision-making at work more likely to accept majority decisions? Are/were employees who participated in democratic decision-making at work more likely--in their daily political lives--to actively counter authoritarian, fascistic, colonial or other anti-democratic political forms?
  • the relationship between industrial democracy and economic democracy. Were/are some places or industries more likely than others to distinguish between democratic participation at the workplace and democratic participation in the wider economy? How did/do these two levels influence one another? Have distinct political movements been more likely to align themselves with one or the other?
  • the meaning of participation, control and representation in industrial and economic democracy. What did/does active employee participation to decisions of workplace and economic management look like? What measures were/are implemented to facilitate active participation in decision-making? Who resist(ed) these measures, and why? How did past and present actors conceive of representation? What was/is the relationship between participation and representation?

The deadline for submission is July 15, 2025. Paper abstracts of max 300 words should be accompanied by a short bio. Decisions about individual papers will be communicated by mid-September. We will submit the panel proposals by September 30, 2025. The conference organizers will communicate the final acceptance of panels on October 20, 2025. Please send paper proposals as well as all inquiries to aurelie.andry@eui.eu.

The conference is organized by TIG (Work, Institutions, and Gender) of the University of Barcelona, Spanish Network of Labor History. The conference will be an on-site event. Hybrid sessions are possible under special circumstances. The conference fee is 180 EUROS (regular) / 150 EUROS (early bird) / 120 EUROS (students and participants without institutional funding) / 100 EUROS (early bird reduced fee). There might be a limited number of bursaries and/or support for student accommodation (which will be decided by the conference organizers). For more information on ELHN and conference logistics, see https://socialhistoryportal.org/elhn.

Labor: Studies in Working-Class History (Volume 22, Issue 1)

2 weeks 2 days ago

Workers and the “Golden Age” of Social Democracy?

Stefan Berger, Leon Fink, Jan de Graaf, and Patrick Dixon, Guest Editors

EDITORS’ INTRODUCTION

Stefan Berger, Leon Fink, Jan de Graaf, and Patrick Dixon / Workers and the
“Golden Age” of Social Democracy? An Introduction 1

THE COMMON VERSE

Thomas McGrath / Slaughterhouse Music 8

ARTS AND MEDIA

Kathy M. Newman, Joseph Entin, and Patricia Hills / Philip Tipperman:
Forgotten Labor Painter of the 1930s 11

CONTEMPORARY AFFAIRS

Diana S. Reddy / Relitigating the New Deal: The Stakes of Current Constitutional
Challenges to the NLRB 24

ARTICLES

Nelson Lichtenstein / Why No Corporatism in the United States? American Versus
German Models of Industrial Relations in the Early Postwar Era 36

Gerd-Rainer Horn / Workers and Catholicism in Postwar Western Europe
and Latin America 53

Eloisa Betti / Fordism’s Underside: Women’s Work in Postwar Italy 69

Stefan Müller / Social Democracy at High Tide: The Humanization of Work in
Postwar West Germany 85

Jan de Graaf / Rethinking Shop-Floor Power in Postwar Europe: Participation
Versus Mobility in East and West 100

Andrew Elrod / Inflation, Wage Policy, and the End of the New Deal Order 115

BOOK REVIEWS
Frederick Corney / No Harmless Power: The Life and Times of the Ukrainian Anarchist
Nestor Makhno by Charlie Allison 132

Aaron Benanav / Precarious Workers: History of Debates, Political Mobilizations, and
Labor Reforms in Italy by Eloisa Betti 133

David Brundage / The Sons of Molly Maguire: The Irish Roots of America’s First Labor
War by Mark Bulik 135

Ryan Pettengill / Black Scare / Red Scare: Theorizing Capitalist Racism in the United
States by Charisse Burden-Stelly 137

Zachary Lockman / Seeking Bread and Fortune in Port Said: Labor Migration and the
Making of the Suez Canal, 1859–1906 by Lucia Carminati 140

Elizabeth Tandy Shermer / Illusions of Progress: Business, Poverty, and Liberalism in
the American Century by Brent Cebul 141

Kenyon Zimmer / Workers of All Colors Unite: Race and the Origins of American
Socialism by Lorenzo Costaguta 143

Jana K. Lipman / The Silver Women: How Black Women’s Labor Made the Panama
Canal by Joan Flores-Villalobos 145

Timothy J. Lombardo / Hillbilly Highway: The Transappalachian Migration and the
Making of a White Working Class by Max Fraser 147

Deborah Simonton / Ingenious Trade: Women and Work in Seventeenth-Century
London by Laura Gowing 149

Jim Phillips / Futures of Socialism: “Modernisation,” the Labour Party, and the British
Left, 1973–1997 by Colm Murphy 151

Jennifer Delton / Courteous Capitalism: Public Relations and the Monopoly Problem,
1900–1930 by Daniel Robert 153

William Hal Gorby / The Ruined Anthracite: Historical Trauma in Coal-Mining
Communities by Paul A. Shackel 155

Dallas Augustine / Captives: How Rikers Island Took New York City Hostage
by Jarrod Shanahan 15

 

https://read.dukeupress.edu/labor/issue

Intellectual Exchanges Between Revolutionary Africa and the Third World (1950-1990)

2 weeks 2 days ago

The Africa Centre (London), 9-10 June 2025

This workshop seeks to examine critically the rich intellectual, political and cultural exchanges that took place in the context of African revolutions and decolonization (1950-1990). Papers from different disciplines are welcome.

Intellectual Exchanges Between Revolutionary Africa and the Third World (1950-1990)

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the independence of Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe from Portuguese colonial rule, following the independence of Guinea-Bissau two years prior. The violent struggles for the liberation of Portuguese-speaking Africa were articulated with the broader project of the African revolution, decolonization on the continent and the wider struggle for the liberation of the Third World. More-than-national politics were variously expressed in the forms of negritude, pan-Africanism, the anti-apartheid movement, Afro-Asian solidarity, the global workers’ movement and tricontinentalism.

This workshop seeks to examine critically the rich intellectual, political and cultural exchanges that took place in the context of African revolutions and decolonization 1950-1990, with particular focus on exchanges between Africans and between Africa and Latin America. We posit that this period was characterized by an energetic, if flawed, search for a theory and practice of liberation adequate to the project of revolution and decolonization in the Third World. Our approach proposes to consider the critical exchanges of ideas, themes and concepts that informed and underpinned the projects of liberation in Africa and beyond: selfreliance, dependency, underdevelopment, imperialism, tricontinentalism, internationalism, solidarity, nationbuilding, revolutionary pedagogy, military strategy, theorizations of the relationship between revolution and culture, and others besides.

The aim is to explore how these interactions can shape our present conceptions of revolution and liberation on the continent and beyond. We welcome proposals for 10-minute presentations from researchers, writers and activists in the following streams:

- Transnational Intellectuals and Travelling Concepts
- Revolution and Culture
- Solidarity and Decolonial Hubs

Please submit abstracts of up to 250 words to t.stennett@exeter.ac.uk by 15 May 2025.

Programm

09.06.2025 Conference @ the Africa Centre, London

10.06.2025 Projection of the documentary Mário by Bill Woodberry at Close-Up Film Centre, London

Kontakt

t.stennett@exeter.ac.uk

Imperial Legacies? (Dis)continuities and Comparisons between Colonialism and Nazi Rule

2 weeks 2 days ago

International Conference at the German Historical Institute Washington / Conveners: Ulrike von Hirschhausen (GHI Washington) and Robert Gerwarth (University College Dublin), 28-29 May 2026

The legacy of Western colonialism, its "imperial legacies," and its relationship to Nazi rule and the Holocaust have caused a fierce public debate raging on both sides of the Atlantic for several years now. This debate, widely known in Germany as the "Historikerstreit 2.0" revolves around two key questions: how mass crimes should be publicly remembered and whether there is a causal connection and/or structural similarities between colonial violence and Nazi mass violence, including the Shoah.

The seemingly irreconcilable positions of the debate so far have mostly been presented in programmatic essays and newspaper articles but are rarely substantiated by empirically grounded social-historical analyses.

Empirically oriented historians have so far only partially contributed to the discussion. This is precisely where the conference aims to intervene—by bringing greater objectivity to the currently heated debate through a clear empirical and social-historical analysis of systems of rule and mass violence.

We invite scholars from different methodological and historical backgrounds to submit proposals relevant to one of the planned panels of the conference.

- occupation regimes
- settlers
- counterinsurgency/partisan warfare
- camps
- collaboration
- forced labor and expropriation
-

The event is jointly organized by the German Historical Institute Washington and the Centre for War Studies, University College Dublin. The conveners are Ulrike von Hirschhausen (GHI) and Robert Gerwarth (UCD). The conference will take place from May, 28 - 29, 2026 at the GHI.

Please submit an abstract (max. 500 words) and a short biography (max. 150 words) in English via the GHI online platform by July 1, 2025.

Applicants will be notified by early September 2025. Accommodation will be arranged and paid for by the conference organizers. Participants will make their own travel arrangements. Funding subsidies for travel are available upon request for selected scholars, especially those who might not otherwise be able to attend the workshop, including early-career scholars and scholars from universities with limited resources.

Please contact Nicola Hofstetter (hofstetter-phelps@ghi-dc.org) if you have any difficulties submitting your information online or if you have other questions related to the event.

Imperial experiences in family violence: crimes and criminology in 19th–20th centuries

2 weeks 2 days ago

The University of Helsinki and the Lithuanian Institute of History are pleased to announce the international conference "Imperial Experiences in Family Violence: Crimes and Criminology in 19th–20th centuries." The event will take place at the Martynas Mažvydas National Library’s which serves as a partner in hosting the conference. This gathering aims to examine the historical dimensions of family violence within imperial contexts.By exploring legal practices, social perceptions, and criminological approaches across different empires, the conference seeks to analyze how state policies, legal transformations, and cultural norms shaped responses to violence in the family. Bringing together scholars from diverse disciplines, the event fosters a comparative discussion on the intersection of law, crime, history, and family dynamics in imperial settings.

Date and location

December 15–16, 2025

Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania, Vilnius, Lithuania

Argument

The University of Helsinki and the Lithuanian Institute of History are pleased to announce the international conference "Imperial Experiences in Family Violence: Crimes and Criminology in 19th–20th centuries." The event will take place at the Martynas Mažvydas National Library’s which serves as a partner in hosting the conference. This gathering aims to examine the historical dimensions of family violence within imperial contexts.By exploring legal practices, social perceptions, and criminological approaches across different empires, the conference seeks to analyze how state policies, legal transformations, and cultural norms shaped responses to violence in the family. Bringing together scholars from diverse disciplines, the event fosters a comparative discussion on the intersection of law, crime, history, and family dynamics in imperial settings.We invite scholars and practitioners to submit original paper proposals. Contributions may address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

  • Legal definitions and regulations of family violence in imperial systems
  • The role of courts, law enforcement, and state institutions in addressing domestic violence
  • The impact of legal reforms on the prosecution and adjudication of family violence
  • Imperial legal frameworks and their relationship with gender, family authority, and social hierarchy
  • Social perceptions and responses to family violence among state authorities, religious institutions, and communities
  • Legal and extralegal punishments for domestic crimes and their evolution over time
  • Judicial and societal treatment of intimate partner homicide, child abuse, and other forms of family violence
  • The influence of class, ethnicity, religion, and geography on legal and social responses to family violence
  • Comparative perspectives on family violence across different empires, including Russian, Ottoman, British, and Soviet contexts
  • The adaptation and exchange of legal and social measures in regulating family violence between imperial authorities
  • Family violence in colonial and peripheral regions versus imperial centers
  • The role of patriarchal norms and power structures in shaping family violence and state responses
  • Women’s and marginalized groups' strategies for resisting, reporting, and legally challenging domestic violence
  • The impact of modernization, nationalism, socialism, and colonial rule on attitudes and policies toward family violence
  • Archival, judicial, and media representations of family violence and their reflections on broader social transformation

Submission guidelines

The conference will be held in person in Vilnius, Lithuania. The working language of the event is English. There is no participation or registration fee. 

A limited number of bursaries to cover conference costs for young scholars without funding or scholars coming from low-income countries will be available.

All submitted abstracts will be reviewed by the Conference Organizing Committee to determine the final list of speakers. Accepted participants are expected to participate in the post-Conference publication (the format to be determined based on the abstracts submitted). Speakers will be required to submit a longer version of their presentation (3,000-5,000 words) before the conference by December 1, 2025.

Please submit a 300–500 words original abstract along with a short academic biography via the link here.

Submission deadline: June 15, 2025

Notification of acceptance: July 15, 2025For any inquiries, please contact: feverhelsinki@gmail.com

Organizing Committee

Chair: Dr. Sigita Černevičiūtė, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Helsinki, Till Death Do Us Part: Four Epochs of Violence in Every Family in Russia – What Makes it Russian? (FEVER)

Members:

  • Prof. Dr. Marianna Muravyeva, Principal Investigator, University of Helsinki, Till Death Do Us Part: Four Epochs ofnViolence in Every Family in Russia – What Makes it Russian? (FEVER)
  • Dr. Andrea Griffante, Lithuanian Institute of History
  • Dr. Alexander Kondakov, University College Dublin
  • Dr. Ineta Lipša, National Archives of Latvia
  • Ignė Rasickaitė, Statehood Center, National Library of Lithuania
  • Dr. Monika Rogers, Lithuanian Institute of History
  • Dr. Vitalija Stravinskienė Lithuanian Institute of History
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