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The Truth About the '37 Oshawa GM Strike

1 month ago

by Tony Leah

“Oshawa has fallen!” wrote the monthly New Commonwealth. “One week ago it was known as ‘The Home of General Motors.’ Today it belongs to the United Automobile Workers, International Union.”

How did autoworkers at the GM plant in Oshawa in 1937 beat a rabidly anti-union government, a hostile press, and the world’s largest corporation? The conventional wisdom popularized by academic Irving Abella has obscured the truth about the ’37 strike for 50 years. Abella claimed the international UAW was a hindrance, not a help. He downplayed the role of both reds and rank and file workers. And Abella completely ignored the role of women strikers, stewards and bargainers.

Tony Leah reveals what actually took place at the Oshawa GM plant in 1937 through the voices and actions of rank-and-file workers and shop-floor activists that have been covered up for decades. We need to study the lessons of the ’37 strike; it can provide a guidepost for workers today who are striving to revive a fighting labour movement that can win.

 

“It’s clear, it’s thorough. It reads almost like a novel.” Wayne Lewchuk, Professor Emeritus, McMaster University School of Labour Studies

“It takes the tenacity and truthfulness of a grassroots activist to tell the real story of working-class politics. Tony Leah does just that in this behind-the scenes tale of the historic ’37 GM strike.” Sid Ryan, former President, Ontario Federation of Labour.

Tony Leah is a long-time union activist with experience in bargaining, shop-floor representation, labour education, and political mobilization. A maintenance and construction welder with GM, Oshawa for nearly 40 years, he has held many positions at Local 222 and with the national union. He holds an MA in Labour Studies (2023) from McMaster University and lives in Toronto.

The flyer attached has info on the Toronto Book Launch on October 30, 2024 at 7 PM at A Different Booklist, 779 Bathurst St., Toronto.

Número 25 de Archivos de historia del movimiento obrero y la izquierda (Spanish)

1 month ago

https://www.archivosrevista.com.ar   ISSN: 2313-9749 | ISSN en línea: 2683-9601

Índice

  • Presentación, Hernán Camarero

Dossier: “Luis Emilio Recabarren y la izquierda socialista-comunista en Chile”

  • Presentación del dossier, Ximena Urtubia Odekerken
  • El tránsito hacia el comunismo de Luis Emilio Recabarren, Sergio Grez Toso
  • De Valparaíso a Buenos Aires. Recabarren y la disputa por la politización obrera (1916-1918), Ximena Urtubia Odekerken
  • La temprana construcción patrimonial de Recabarren. Muerte y política en el movimiento obrero chileno de la década de 1920, Jorge Navarro López

Artículos libres

  • Los inicios del trotskismo mexicano y la polémica del frente único, 1929-1938, Josué Bustamante González
  • Un “fascista comunista” en el interior de Córdoba. Una disputa local desde referencias internacionales en la Argentina de entreguerras, Eugenia Sánchez 
  • Resistir, producir e innovar: el caso de la fábrica recuperada Madygraf (exDonnelley) durante la pandemia de covid-19 en Argentina (2020-2021), Ernesto Alejandro Najmias

Intervenciones

  • A 50 años de la Revolución de los Claveles: de África a Lisboa, rasgos de una revolución ultramoderna, Raquel Varela y Roberto della Santa

Documentos

  • Autonomía, burocratización y peronismo. Un documento de la CGT (1949) y un texto inédito de Juan Carlos Torre para Pasado y Presente (1974), Hernán Camarero
  • El debate de la CGT sobre la autonomía sindical en 1949, Juan Carlos Torre
  • Actas del Comité Central Confederal. 2 de diciembre de 1949

Crítica de libros

  • Daniel James y Mirta Lobato. Paisajes del pasado. Relatos e imágenes de una comunidad obrera, por Paula Varela
  • Wolfgang Frutz Haug, Frigga Haug, Peter Jehle y Wolfgang Küttler (eds.). Edición en castellano de Mariela Ferrari, Víctor Strazzeri y Miguel Vedda. Diccionario histórico-crítico del marxismo. Teoría crítica y cambio social, por Antonio Oliva
  • Jacinto Cerdá. Negras tormentas. La FORA anarquista en la ciudad de Buenos Aires (1930-1943), por Gisela Manzoni

 

 

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

Refugees in the Mediterranean. Flight, Migration, and Relief during the Twentieth Century

1 month ago

Rome, 23-24 October 2025

This workshop invites contributions that investigate displacement, migration, and refugee relief in Southern European countries, the Balkans, the Middle East, and North Africa during the Twentieth Century. The main temporal focus lies on (but is not limited to) the period between the early 1920s and the late 1960s, discussing the effects of continued or renewed conflicts on refugees in the Mediterranean from the first postwar period to the aftermath of the Second World War and the first decades of the State of Israel.

Refugees in the Mediterranean. Flight, Migration, and Relief during the Twentieth Century

With the ongoing refugee crisis in the Mediterranean and the current escalation of the Israeli-Arab conflict, research into refugees, migration and forced displacement has gained major significance in contemporary European and Global History. Works at the intersection of refugee studies and the history of humanitarianism are moving into the center of relevant investigations. In this context, the Mediterranean has received key attention as a place of origin of fascist regimes and colonial forms of rule in North Africa, a central sphere for Jewish migration, global center of the Catholic Church, and an important area of transit and socio-cultural transfer between North and South, Orient and Occident, which shaped refugee movements as well as humanitarian actors throughout the Twentieth Century. This workshop invites contributions that investigate displacement, migration, and refugee relief in Southern European countries, the Balkans, the Middle East, and North Africa during the Twentieth Century. The main temporal focus lies on (but is not limited to) the period between the early 1920s and the late 1960s, discussing the effects of continued or renewed conflicts on refugees in the Mediterranean from the first postwar period to the aftermath of the Second World War and the first decades of the State of Israel.
The workshop aims at a critical discussion of contemporary refugee history in the Mediterranean from a long-term perspective and within an interdisciplinary framework, including social, cultural, and legal sciences. The concept expresses the need for further in-depth, source-critical, and comparative studies into refugees and relief work, analyzing problems and shortcomings of the past that have persisted within international refugee policy to this day. We are interested in new research that perceive refugees (individuals and/or groups) as active historical actors, and examine critically the strategies of relief work and power structures within donor-recipient relationships, drawing on original sources such as ego documents, relevant organizational archives, visual documents, oral history projects, etc.

Papers are welcome that correspond to the following broad themes:
- The role of gender, race, and social class in human mobility and refugeedom
- Religious, ethnic, and political identities of refugees and humanitarians and their impact on intra-Mediterranean migration and aid structures
- Intra-Mediterranean migration and socio-cultural transfer, as well as transatlantic/global connections and relief networks
- Fascistization of humanitarian movements and organizations versus anti-fascist refugee relief in national, colonial, and transnational contexts
- Displacement and forced migration as lived experience, (non-)communication of violence
- Gender-based violence and exploitation; gender dynamics and hierarchies within relevant humanitarian organizations and networks
- Human rights discourse and development of international refugee law
- Visual representation and reception of refugees
- Relations between local and global actors; intergovernmental, state, and non-state organizations

The workshop is organized in the framework of the DFG-funded project “Transnational Humanitarianism and Refugee Policy in the Age of World Wars” (Research Centre Global Dynamics at the University of Leipzig) and will take place in Rome, October 23-24, 2025.
The workshop will be conducted in English. Abstracts of up to 300 words along with a short CV should be sent by December 15, 2024, to Ruth Nattermann (natterma@hotmail.com; Ruth.Nattermann@uni-leipzig.de). Successful applicants will be notified by January 31, 2025.
Accommodation and on-the-need-basis travel reimbursement will be provided to active participants

Contact (announcement)

Ruth Nattermann (natterma@hotmail.com; Ruth.Nattermann@uni-leipzig.de)

Children and Childhood in the Holocaust in Eastern occupied territories

1 month ago

The research field of childhood experience in Eastern Europe under German occupation faces complex questions and moral dilemmas concerning the capacity of children to act and their liability. Approaches in Holocaust research with a socio-historical perspective therefore require an in-depth analysis of the society in the territories in which the Holocaust took place.

Children and Childhood in the Holocaust in Eastern occupied territories - Perceptions, Actions and Limitations of Children in the Holocaust

For many children war and persecution meant the end of their childhood in “conventional sense” now and then. About 1,1 million Jewish children lost their lives in the Holocaust. Approximately 400,000 further underage victims from other ethnicities should also be acknowledged. The lives of those who survived were shaped by the traumatic experiences.

The research field of childhood experience in Eastern Europe under German occupation faces complex questions and moral dilemmas concerning the capacity of children to act and their liability. Approaches in Holocaust research with a socio-historical perspective there-fore require an in-depth analysis of the society in the territories in which the Holocaust took place. Microhistorical approaches are developing increasingly complex analyses of individual crime scenes and more and more include the local community as an “actor”. Beyond the categories of “perpetrators, victims and bystanders” (Hilberg) emerges a “grey zone”, which reveals a range of choices for locals under German occupation.

Coping strategies with the German occupation were entangled with gender, material preconditions and, to a greater extent, age. The complex of childhood in the Second World War and the Holocaust has been portrayed heterogeneously in the post-war period. Children were generally excluded from history or memorized as vulnerable and inactive martyrs. From a historical perspective, this imagined passivity cannot be maintained. While Jewish children were marginalized, exploited, and murdered as victims of the nazi extermination policy soon after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, there were other conditions for children who belonged to the majority society in which they had to ensure their survival. Beyond German extermination policy in Eastern Europe, recent research shows a wide range of policies in treatment of children, such as the enslavement as forced worker (Ostarbeiter), the colonization of ethnic German children in what is now Ukraine, the forced Germanization of Polish children, the mobilization of Belarusian children in the White Ruthenian Youth Work, the penal camps and extermination for young Roma in Estonia, to name fates of children under German occupation in their various forms without claiming to be exhaustive.

This prompts us to ask how children navigated their choices for action under the constraints, demands and dangers they faced under occupation. And it seems like being a child was not solely a deprivation in the struggle for survival but could be used even more as a “resource” as the historian Yulia von Saal puts it. By focusing more on the “agency” of the child, completely new research perspectives emerge.

Beyond the genuinely historical perspective, newer research approaches, particularly from the memory studies, can be used to take an analytical look at the oral history testimonies of children and point out their special features. How do childhood experiences and narratives differ from those of adults? How can testimonies of children be interpreted with the right hermeneutics? Oral history is now considered to be the most versatile medium of children's memories, additionally autobiographies, drawings and all other material and immaterial cultures of children would be an interesting object of research. Furthermore, psychological research of children in the Holocaust and its aftermath concerning traumatic experiences are appreciated.

Given this background, a special issue of Eastern European Holocaust Studies will focus on the complex of children and childhood in the Holocaust in Eastern occupied territories. Articles of 7,000 words (including references) in English or Ukrainian are invited on any of the following themes:
- Relationships between Jewish and non-Jewish children before, during and after the war
- “Daily life” of Jewish children in camps and ghettos
- Means of survival. Hiding, evasion and help for Jewish children
- Means of resistance. Jewish and non-Jewish children's activity in the resistance
- Commemoration and Memorization. Representation of children in the Holocaust in memorial landscapes and collective memory
- Forced labor, captivity, reprisal and deportation. Nazi policy towards children in the occupied territories of Eastern Europe
- Germanization, colonization, politicization. Mobilization of children in the occupied territories of Eastern Europe
- Memory Studies and Oral History. Perspectives on childhood memories in relation to trauma and reliability
- Differences and perceptions. Comparative analysis of childhood and adult narrative
- Adultification. Children as family providers and as heads of families
- Perception of Gender. Normative expectations of “girls” and “boys” shaping their means and limitations for action
- Vulnerable bodies. Children as victims of sexual violence
- Orphanages as ambivalent spaces for survival and persecution
- In the “grey zone”. Children between forced requisition and collaboration
- Witnessing the Holocaust. Children as eyewitnesses of atrocities, shootings and violence
- Object history and immaterial legacies. Products of children during the Holocaust like drawings, magazines, games, diaries and jokes
- Justifying the Unjustifiable. The perpetrators' narratives of the murder of children during and after the Holocaust

Please submit abstracts of 500 words and a short bio until first of November 2024, to the following e-mail address: eehs@degruyter.com. Authors will be notified of acceptance shortly after. The language of submission is English or Ukrainian.

Kontakt

eehs@degruyter.com

Der Umgang mit Behinderung nach 1945. Die DDR und Westdeutschland in internationaler Perspektive (German)

1 month ago

Wir fragen: Wie lebten Menschen mit Behinderungen in den beiden deutschen Staaten nach 1945? Welche Konzepte von Behinderung gab es während des Kalten Krieges in Ost und West? Wo steht die Forschung dazu?
Sie haben Antworten darauf, arbeiten zum Thema oder planen ein Forschungsprojekt? Wir laden Sie herzlich ein, einen Beitrag für das Symposium „Der Umgang mit Behinderung nach 1945. Die DDR und Westdeutschland in internationaler Perspektive“ einzureichen, das die Stiftung Ettersberg und die Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur am 22. & 23. Mai 2025 in Erfurt veranstalten. Einsendeschluss ist der 30.11.2024.

Der Umgang mit Behinderung nach 1945. Die DDR und Westdeutschland in internationaler Perspektive

Die Stiftung Ettersberg und die Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur führen am 22. & 23. Mai 2025 eine gemeinsame Tagung durch, die sich dem Thema ›Umgang mit Behinderung nach 1945. Die DDR und Westdeutschland in internationaler Perspektive‹ widmet.

Die aus dem interdisziplinären Forschungsfeld der Disability Studies entstandene Disability History hat in den vergangenen Jahren dazu beigetragen, bislang wenig oder nicht beachtete, komplexe Geschichten von Menschen mit Behinderungen in Ost und West in den Blick zu nehmen und so neue Perspektiven auf historische Ereignisse und gesellschaftliche Entwicklungen zu werfen. Während der nationalsozialistische Massenmord an Kranken und Menschen mit Behinderungen mittlerweile relativ gut erforscht ist1, steht die Forschung zum Umgang mit Behinderung nach 1945 noch am Anfang. Erste sozial- und kulturgeschichtliche Studien zum Leben von Menschen mit Behinderungen in Westdeutschland, der DDR und anderen Staaten Ost- und Ostmitteleuropas2 unterstreichen die Notwendigkeit eines vergleichenden Blicks, um die Spezifika zwischen den einzelnen Ländern und politischen Systemen besser herausarbeiten zu können. Welche Konstruktionen und Vorstellungen von Behinderung gab es und wie veränderten sich diese im Laufe der Zeit? Inwieweit wirkten das nationalsozialistische Menschenbild und die systematische Ermordung von Menschen mit Behinderungen auch nach 1945 in Deutschland und Europa nach? Und unter welchen politischen, sozialen, ökonomischen und kulturellen Voraussetzungen stand der Umgang mit Menschen mit Behinderungen nach 1945?

In historischen Museen und Gedenkstätten und dabei insbesondere in Dauerausstellungen zur Geschichte nach 1945 finden sich nur selten Erfahrungen und Geschichten von Menschen mit Behinderungen. Dies, obwohl Themen wie Inklusion und Barrierefreiheit in Kulturinstitutionen in den vergangenen Jahren erfreulicherweise stärker in den Vordergrund gerückt sind. Doch die Diskussion über inklusive Arbeit in Museen und Gedenkstätten beschränkt sich zum einen häufig auf bauliche Barrierefreiheit und die Teilhabe an museumspädagogischen, zielgruppenorientierten Angeboten. Zum anderen wird Geschichte auch in diesem Zusammenhang häufig aus Sicht der ›Mehrheitsgesellschaft‹ vermittelt, obwohl beispielsweise Fragen nach gesellschaftlichen Inklusions- und Exklusionsmechanismen in historischer Perspektive – vor der Hintergrundfolie gegenwärtig wieder erstarkender antidemokratischer Kräfte, insbesondere von rechts – eine zunehmend größere Rolle spielen.

An diesen Punkten setzt die Konferenz ›Der Umgang mit Behinderung nach 1945. Die DDR und Westdeutschland in internationaler Perspektive‹ an und bringt die Erkenntnisse aus der Forschung zur Disability History mit der praktischen Geschichtsvermittlung in historischen Museen und Gedenkstätten zusammen.

Wir freuen uns auf Beiträge, die sich mit dem Umgang mit Behinderung in historischer Perspektive nach 1945 beschäftigen und die einzelne oder mehrere Aspekte aus unterschiedlichen gesellschaftlichen Bereichen, Lebenssituationen und -entwürfen explizit aus der Perspektive von Menschen mit Behinderungen in den Blick nehmen:

- Bildung & Arbeit: Die Integration von Menschen mit Behinderungen in den Arbeitsmarkt stand in den staatsozialistischen Ländern im Vordergrund. Wie aber sahen die (Aus-) Bildungsperspektiven und die Arbeit von Menschen mit Behinderungen in staatlichen Betrieben konkret aus? Und wo stießen sie an ihre Grenzen?
- Religion & Gesellschaft: Welchen Einfluss hatten Religionen und Weltanschauungen auf den Umgang mit Menschen mit Behinderungen in West- und Osteuropa? Welche Rolle wurde behinderten Menschen im Staatssozialismus zuerkannt? Und wie sah deren tatsächlicher Alltag in den staatsozialistischen Regimen aus? Wie unterschied sich etwa der Alltag von behinderten Menschen in westeuropäischen Ländern zu dem in der DDR in den 1970er- oder 1980er Jahren?
- Kunst & Kultur: Welche Rolle nahmen Menschen mit Behinderungen in Kunst und Kultur ein? Wie gestaltete (und veränderte) sich die Repräsentanz von Menschen mit Behinderungen in Gesellschaft und Medien?
- Gebaute Umwelt & Barrieren: Wann und wo entwickelten sich Ideen zum barrierefreien Bauen? Und wie wurden sie umgesetzt? Und ging mit der Idee einer barriereärmeren Umwelt eine allgemeine Veränderung im Umgang und der Wahrnehmung von Menschen mit Behinderungen einher?
- Selbstbestimmung & Fremdzuschreibungen: Welche Vergemeinschaftungsformen von Menschen mit Behinderungen gab es in West- und Osteuropa und wie unterschieden sie sich je nach Zeit, Region und Behinderungsart? Wie organisierten sich Menschen mit Behinderungen und deren Angehörige? Welche Selbstdefinitionen, Selbstorganisationen und Selbstermächtigungspraktiken fanden Betroffenencommunities?

Darüber hinaus laden wir dazu ein, darüber nachzudenken, wie Erkenntnisse der Disability History gewinnbringend in die Geschichtsvermittlung von historischen Museen, Gedenkstätten und Lernorten der außerschulischen historisch-politischen Bildung integriert werden können.

- Welche ›weißen‹ Flecken der Disability History müssen hierfür geschlossen werden? Welche Methoden und Ideen haben sich als erfolgreich erwiesen? Welche Programme gilt es zu entwickeln? Und wie können Menschen mit Behinderungen von Beginn an in Konzeption und Umsetzung einbezogen werden?

Wir bitten darum, ein Kurzexposé (max. 2.500 Zeichen inkl. Leerzeichen auf Deutsch) des Themenvorschlages sowie einen kurzen Lebenslauf bis zum 30. November 2024 an: barrierefrei@stiftung-ettersberg.de zu senden.

Geplant ist eine interdisziplinäre Tagung, auf der sowohl Early Career Scientists als auch erfahrene Forschende und Expert:innen in eigener Sache zu Wort kommen sollen. Die Vorträge sollten 15 Minuten nicht überschreiten. Reisekosten, Übernachtungskosten und Verpflegung der Konferenzbeiträger:innen werden im Rahmen der geltenden gesetzlichen Bestimmungen und vorbehaltlich beantragter Mittel von den Veranstaltern übernommen.

Eine Publikation der Beiträge wird angestrebt.

Anmerkungen:
1 Das gilt in erster Linie für das nationalsozialistische »Euthanasieprogramm«, in dessen Zusammenhang schätzungsweise 300.000 Menschen mit Behinderungen und psychischen Erkrankungen in Europa ermordet wurden. Siehe hierzu beispielhaft: Jörg Osterloh/Jan Erik Schulte (Hrsg.): »Euthanasie« und Holocaust. Kontinuitäten, Kausalitäten, Parallelitäten (Schriftenreihe der Gedenkstätte Hadamar, 1), Paderborn 2021; im Speziellen zur so genannten »Aktion T4«: Maike Rotzoll u.a. (Hrsg.): Die nationalsozialistische »Euthanasie«-Aktion »T4« und ihre Opfer: Geschichte und ethische Konsequenzen für die Gegenwart. Paderborn 2010; bezogen auf die europäische Dimension der nationalsozialistischen »Euthanasie«-Politik siehe: Sybille Steinbacher/Jörg Osterloh/Jan Erik Schulte (Hrsg.): »Euthanasie«-Verbrechen im besetzten Europa. Zur Dimension des nationalsozialistischen Massenmords (Studien zur Geschichte und Wirkung des Holocaust, 6), Göttingen 2022, zugleich Schriftenreihe der Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, Band 11055, Bonn 2024.
2 Hier hat es insbesondere mit Blick auf die DDR-Geschichte in den vergangenen Jahren einige Veröffentlichungen gegeben. Für einen umfassenden Überblick siehe: Sebastian Barsch/Elsbeth Bösl: Disability History. Behinderung sichtbar machen: Emanzipationsbewegung und Forschungsfeld, in: Zeithistorische Forschungen/Studies in Contemporary History, Online-Ausgabe, 19 (2022), H. 2; oder neue Studien wie etwa von Pia Schmüser: Familiäre Rehabilitation? Eine Alltagsgeschichte ostdeutscher Haushalte mit behinderten Kindern (1945–1990), Frankfurt/New York 2023 oder Ulrike Winkler: Mit dem Rollstuhl in die Tatra-Bahn. Menschen mit Behinderungen in DDR: Lebensbedingungen und materielle Barrieren, Halle 2023; Mit Blick auf Westdeutschland siehe beispielsweise: Sebastian Schlund: »Behinderung« überwinden? Organisierter Behindertensport in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (1950–1990), Frankfurt a.M. 2017; oder etwa für die Sowjetunion: Claire Shaw: Deaf in the USSR. Marginality, Community, and Soviet Identity, 1917–1991, Ithaca 2017.

Kontakt

Dr. Jenny Baumann – Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur (j.baumann@bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de)

Dr. Christine Schoenmakers – Bundestiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur (c.schoenmakers@bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de)

Dr. Katharina Schwinde – Stiftung Ettersberg (schwinde@stiftung-ettersberg.de)

Trauma, Hope, and Illusion. Cities at the End of World War II and in Post-War Transformation

1 month ago

Prague, 5-6 May 2025

International Conference held on the occasion of the 80th Anniversary of the End of World War II

This international conference aims at the issue of post-war transformation in a wider European context. The focus here is on cities not only as places, but also as actors of social, cultural, economic and political processes.

Main conference organiser: Prague City Museum

Cooperating institutions: Institute of Contemporary History, Czech Academy of Sciences; The Twentieth Century Memorial Museum; Faculty of Education of Charles University, National Theatre, National Film Archive & Czech Association of Museums and Galleries

Date: May 5–6, 2025

Venue: The Prague City Museum's Main Building (Na Poříčí 1554/52, Praha 8, Czechia)

E-mail: conference1945@muzeumprahy.cz

Argument

The conference focuses on contemporary research on issues related to the end of World War II and and post-war transformations in the Czech, Czechoslovak, and broader European contexts. The primary attention aims on cities and towns, which are viewed not only as important sites of historical events but also as the key actors in social, cultural, political, and economic processes.

This meeting offers an opportunity for interdisciplinary discussions and the confrontation of various thematic areas and approaches, as well as the presentation of current scientific research projects. The conference also aims to contribute to cross-border dialogue and deepen international cooperation between academic and memory institutions.

Considering different points of view, methods, and perspectives, it would be great to present the papers from the multiple academic disciplines, including history, political science, sociology, urban anthropology, cultural studies, art history, museum pedagogy and economics.

Topics of interest

(not necessarily exactly according to these points)

Cities on the way to the end of conflict
  • The end of World War II in broader geopolitical contexts
  • Forms of anti-Nazi resistance and combat operations in the Czech and European contexts – sabotage, diversionary actions, and resistance movements
  • Uprisings and anti-occupation demonstrations – their actors, sites, and course; comparisons across European regions (e.g. Warsaw, Paris, Milan, Genoa), the situation in the Czech lands and Slovakia
  • The politics of occupation administration at the end of the war, the circumstances of German capitulation
  • Allied forces and their prolonged presence in occupied areas
  • Retribution
  • The liberation and the end of World War II as a subject of post-war propaganda
  • Reflection of war experiences
Cities on the Threshold of Post-War Transformation
  • Development of post-war local governments in 1945–1948; the role of national committees
  • The post-war economy, the process of nationalization
  • Specifics of the rationing system in the wartime and beyond
  • Post-war healthcare (state policy, organization of medical care and health services in cities, the role of humanitarian organizations)
  • Wartime and post-war education
Social Aspects of Post-War Development
  • Demographic developments from regional and micro-regional perspectives after 1945
  • Everyday life in post-war cities (housing, holidays, festivities, sports…)
  • The position of women during the war and beyond
  • Ethnic homogenization and the status of the German population in Czechoslovakia
  • Forced migration and regional specifics of the expulsion process
  • Reflection of post-war realities from the perspective of expelled and non-expelled German populations
  • The process of re-emigration of civilians
  • The phenomenon of violence and its forms in the post-war period
  • The activities and role of humanitarian organizations
  • The decline of the legal concept of domicile and its impact on life in towns
The Nylon Age (1945–1948) in Culture
  • Cultural and memory institutions at the end of the war and on the threshold of the post-war era
  • Inter Arma Silent Musae? – Wartime and post-war film, theatre, and music production
  • The image of the end of World War II in the arts
  • The trajectory and restoration of objects and historical artifacts after 1945
  • Post-war commemoration in art (memorials, statues, monuments)
  • Television and radio broadcasting
  • Changes in education and memory policies
The End of World War II and the Post-War Period as an Educational Theme
  • Educational approaches and methods
  • The use of film in teaching history and social science subjects
  • Education and memory sites
  • School and museum collaborations in the sphere of educational programmes
Organizational Guidelines

Please send the abstracts of your papers (200–300 words) along with a brief biography and institutional affiliation, via email address conference1945@muzeumprahy.cz

by December 31, 2024.
  • The conference papers should not be longer than 20 minutes.
  • The working languages of the conference and all submissions: Czech, English.
  • You will be informed about the acceptance or rejection of your submission by January 15, 2025. The organizers reserve the right to choose the proposals.
  • The articles will be published after a double-blind peer-review process in the conference volume. Some papers may also be submitted for peer-review in journals such as Studia Musei Pragensis (formerly Historica Pragensia), Soudobé dějiny /Czech Journal of Contemporary History, or Marginalia Historica.
  • Deadline of registration of participants without papers: April 30, 2025.
  • A cultural program accompanying the conference is being prepared, and participants will be informed of the details in due course.
  • If you have any questions, please contact us via e-mail conference1945@muzeumprahy.cz.
Conference fee

500,- CZK / 20,- EUR (covers coffee breaks and organizational expenses during the two- or three-day programme)

Conference Organizing Committee
  • Mgr. Bohuslav Rejzl, Ph.D. (Prague City Museum)
  • Mgr. Magdaléna Šustová (Prague City Museum) 
  • Mgr. et Mgr. Zdenko Maršálek, Ph.D. (Institute of Contemporary History, Czech Academy of Sciences)
  • PhDr. Ing. Jana Kasíková, Ph.D. (Institute of Contemporary History, Czech Academy of Sciences)
  • PhDr. Stanislav Kokoška, Ph.D. (Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes)
  • Mgr. Karolína Stegurová, Ph.D. (National Theatre in Prague)
  • Prof. PhDr. Jiří Pokorný, CSc. (Faculty of Education, Charles University)
  • PhDr. Petr Blažek, Ph.D. (The Twentieth Century Memorial Museum)
  • Mgr. Petr Chlebec (Commission of History, Czech Association of Museums and Galleries)

19. Kolloquium Geschichte der Arbeitswelten und der Gewerkschaften (German)

1 month ago

Das Kolloquium findet im Wintersemester 2024/25 an drei Terminen online statt.

19. Kolloquium Geschichte der Arbeitswelten und der Gewerkschaften

Das Kolloquium bringt Historiker:innen zusammen, die in der ganzen methodischen und theoretischen Vielfalt des Faches zur Geschichte der Arbeitswelten und der Gewerkschaften forschen. Das bundesweit einladende Kolloquium bietet die Gelegenheit, historische, aber auch interdisziplinär angelegte Forschungen vom Dissertationskonzept bis zur Postdoc-Arbeit zur Diskussion zu stellen; es dient dem Austausch und der Vernetzung in diesem Teilgebiet der Sozialgeschichte.

Das Kolloquium findet semesterweise wechselnd digital oder als Tagesveranstaltung am Institut für soziale Bewegungen der Ruhr-Universität Bochum (Stefan Berger), am Lehrstuhl für Neuere und Neueste Geschichte der Universität Augsburg (Dietmar Süß), dem Arbeitsbereich Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte der Universität Bamberg (Nina Kleinöder), an der Forschungsstelle für Zeitgeschichte in Hamburg (Knud Andresen) oder dem Historischen Seminar der Universität Leipzig (Detlev Brunner) statt. Getragen und finanziert wird das Kolloquium von der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung und der Hans-Böckler-Stiftung.
Die beteiligten Lehrstühle, Institute und Stiftungen möchten mit dieser Kooperation Forschungen zur Geschichte der Arbeitswelten anregen und fördern

Die Teilnahme am Kolloquium ist kostenlos. Wir bitten um Anmeldung bis zwei Tage vor dem jeweiligen Kolloquiumstermin bei Alexandra Jaeger: alexandra.jaeger@fes.de.

Programm

5. November 2024, 14.00-15.30 Uhr
Till Goßmann
Vom Plan zum Markt. Der Wandel der Arbeitswelt im ostdeutschen „Konsum“ in den 1990er Jahren

12. Dezember 2024, 14.00-15.30 Uhr
Lars Kravagna
Neoliberalismus in der Offensive? Die Neoliberalisierung des deutschen Arbeitsmarktes am Beispiel der Entsendung von „Billigarbeitskräften“ in der deutschen Bauwirtschaft

22. Januar 2025, 15.00-16.30 Uhr
Amanda Witkowski
Eingeschlossen oder ausgeschlossen? Die Wahrnehmung der Interessenvertretung koreanischer Krankenschwestern in Mit-bestimmungsgremien und Gewerkschaft in der BRD

"Dissent in World History" | World History Bulletin | Fall/Winter 2024

1 month ago

World History Bulletin is seeking quality research essays, experiential learning case studies, and classroom activities for inclusion in its upcoming Fall/Winter 2024 issue, “Dissent in World History.”

"Dissent in World History" | World History Bulletin | Fall/Winter 2024

Guest-edited by Barbara J. Falk, Professor in the Department of Defence Studies at the Royal Military College of Canada and Director of Academics at the Canadian Forces College, the issue will explore the question of national and transnational dissent in its broadest sense and across all historical time periods. Falk has written, published and taught about resistance, dissent and dissidence for more than 30 years.

Recent protests on college campuses across the United States over the Israel-Hamas conflict call to mind various examples of dissent throughout modern world history, from independence movements in Africa and the response to suppressive regimes in parts of South America, to revolutions in Cuba and China, dissent against communist and authoritarian governments in Central and Eastern Europe, and civil rights movements in apartheid South Africa and the Southern United States. Yet the genealogy of dissent is deeply embedded as a motive force in world history—from Plato’s critiques of Athenian democracy and the work of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove to the fight against racist carceral systems in the West and the Arab Spring—and is ingrained in and inscribed on the human experience.

The origins of and responses to theories and practices of dissent raise myriad questions about its nature, the forms dissent can and has taken, who determines/decides what is/is not appropriate in terms of defining or expressing dissent, the motives of actors involved, and the responsibilities of officials to enable or foreclose opportunities for dissent and under what legal or ethical lines of reasoning.

The Bulletin is interested in submissions covering a range of topics related to the theme of dissent in world history, including:
- Origins of Dissent Movements. The social, cultural, political, and/or economic factors which have motivated movements in the past.
- Dissent Case Studies. The exploration of instances of dissent and their ramifications for local or global history and practice.
- Globalized Dissent. Examining global responses to regional/local conflicts/conditions.
- Freedom, Dissent, and Suppression. Studying the tensions between a society with institutionalized freedom of expression and state actors/officials who intervene to suppress dissent.
- Authoritarian Learning and Dissent. How contemporary authoritarian states are repurposing techniques of suppression and adopting and adapting new forms of surveillance and control to persecute, prosecute and eliminate dissent.
- Future Dissent. How innovation disrupted the landscape of dissent in the past, and how this might serve as a guide to future dissent movements.
- Techniques used in the classroom to introduce and explore dissent as part of wider political and sociocultural phenomena.
- Historiographies of theories and practice concerned with dissent in World History.

World History Bulletin therefore invites contributions to a thematic issue on dissent in world history. We are especially interested in articles that share novel research or historiographical perspectives which explore the origins of dissent movements as part of wider sociocultural and political circumstances and examine discursive elements between dissent and reform (political, social, cultural, and economic); present innovative teaching at all levels that employs techniques related to dissent, revolution, and counterrevolution in world history; or explore the connection between student engagement and world history as a result of coursework related to the theme “dissent in world history.” We also welcome short interviews with designers, artists, writers, and scholars and small roundtables on a book, film, or other work.

Submission Guidelines: Research and pedagogical articles should range between 1,500 and 6,000 words in length, including endnote text. The Bulletin accepts submissions which adhere to the style, format, and documentation requirements as outlined in the most recent edition of the Chicago Manual of Style. The Bulletin uses endnote citations, rather than footnote citations. Text of submissions should be spelled according to American English standard usage (e.g., favorite, rather than favourite). Submissions should be written in past tense, rather than the literary present, and passive voice should be avoided.

Submission Deadline: November 1, 2024

Essays and questions should be directed to Joseph M. Snyder, Editor-in-Chief of World History Bulletin, at bulletin@thewha.org.

Contact (announcement)

bulletin@thewha.org

https://www.thewha.org/publications/whb-publication/

Albert Thomas (1878-1932). Une histoire du réformisme social (French)

1 month 1 week ago

by Adeline Blaszkiewicz

Homme politique majeur de la IIIe République, Albert Thomas (1878-1932) est resté dans l’ombre de personnalités comme Jean Jaurès ou Léon Blum. Il faut dire que l’homme a des positions qui le placent en marge du mouvement socialiste, dont il se revendique pourtant jusqu’à son dernier souffle. Ouvertement réformiste quand le marxisme révolutionnaire s’impose dans la gauche française, ministre de l’Armement pendant la Première Guerre mondiale au moment où la gauche européenne renoue avec le pacifisme, il devient aux yeux des socialistes et des communistes le « ministre des obus » et le fossoyeur de l’idéal de paix. Opposé à la Révolution russe de 1917, il défend un socialisme républicain, convaincu de l’importance de la voie législative et du dialogue social pour changer le monde. Premier directeur du Bureau international du travail, il est un ardent défenseur de la régulation du capitalisme par l’instauration d’un code du travail mondial. Appuyé sur des archives inédites et variées, cet ouvrage retrace le parcours de ce précurseur de la social-démocratie à la française, et offre une plongée passionnante dans l’histoire de la IIIe République et dans celle des internationalismes du début du XXe siècle.

https://www.puf.com/albert-thomas-une-histoire-du-reformisme-social

Doctoral Schools specialist course Labour, Mobilization, and the Politics of Work

1 month 1 week ago

⚒️ Doctoral Schools specialist course Labour, Mobilization, and the Politics of Work ✏️
📅 Date & Time:  December 10-12, 09:00-18:00
📍 Location: Ghent University

✍ Registration: https://event.ugent.be/registration/labourmobilisationpoliticswork2425 

This doctoral course invites PhD students to critically engage with the interdisciplinary analysis of work. We will look into identities and struggles of workers, emphasizing the importance of participatory research approaches. It challenges conventional views that marginalize workers and position researchers as neutral observers, arguing instead for active participation in knowledge production. The course will examine the interconnectedness between labour mobilisation and the rise of precarious jobs, informal contracts, and flexible working conditions. It aims to provide PhD candidates with the necessary tools to research and analyse the world of paid and unpaid work. In a world dominated by neoliberal ideologies that exacerbate inequalities and erode workers' rights, this course seeks to refocus attention on workers' experiences and agency. More than just an academic pursuit, this course is committed to fostering research that is both academically rigorous and socially impactful, inspiring early career researchers to contribute to a more equal and democratic society.

📌Programme

Day 1: Intersectional analysis of work: class, gender and race in and beyond the global workplace (10th of December)

• Social reproduction and globalisation of production (Dr Alessandra Mezzadri, SOAS, UK)

• In and Against the Ecological Crisis: Working-Class Environmentalism between Workplace and Community (Dr Lorenzo Feltrin, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice – Geneva Graduate Institute, IT/CH)

Day 2: Participatory and movement-relevant research methods (11th of December)

• Decolonial and Participatory Research Approaches: Beyond Methods (Dr Adriana Moreno-Cely, VUB, BE)

• Movement-relevant research methods (Dr Levi Gahman, Liverpool University, UK)

• Counter-mapping conventional geographies of work, production and value (Dr Katharina Grueneisl, University of Nottingham & Institut de Recherche sur le Maghreb Contemporain, UK/TU)

Day 3: Workers' research, activism and organising (12th of December)

• Workers' inquiry and class composition (Dr Jamie Woodcock, Notes From Below/KCL, UK)

• Reproductive labour and union organising in Belgium and Georgia (Dr Sigrid Vertommen, UGent & University of Amsterdam, BE/NL)

• Participant-led research workshops (UGent PhD students)

Who?

PhD students, postdocs, organisers, activists, labour unionists and anyone else interested in the course. This course is organized for social science, humanities and non-social science disciplines, but we particularly invite business students who wish to engage with critical approaches to work/labour. We also welcome international and exchange students. Everyone is welcome. No registration fee is required!

Further information https://www.ugent.be/doctoralschool/en/doctoraltraining/courses/specialistcourses/labour-mobilisation-politics-work2425 and poster attached. 📎

Registration deadline is 25 November 2024.

Organised by PhD students and postdocs of the Department of Conflict and Development Studies; contact for questions and queries: fayrouz.yousfi@ugent.be; allan.souzaqueiroz@ugent.be

Mouvements protestataires, contestations politiques et luttes sociales en Grande-Bretagne (1811- 1914) - Protest movements, political dissent and social struggles in Britain, 1811-1914

1 month 2 weeks ago

l'OAB (CREA, Paris Nanterre) et CREW (Sorbonne Nouvelle) organisent conjointement une journée d'étude autour de la question d'agrégation “Mouvements protestataires, contestations politiques et luttes sociales en Grande-Bretagne (1811- 1914)” le 31 janvier 2025.

La journée se tiendra sur le site de l'université Paris Nanterre, Bâtiment Max Weber (W), Salle des conférences (RER A, arrêt Nanterre Université)

 

Le programme est le suivant :

 

9-9:15 Introduction : Laurence Dubois & Charlotte Gould (OAB, Université Paris Nanterre)

Chair : Myriam-Isabelle Ducrocq (Université Paris Nanterre)

9:15-9:45 Robert Poole (University of Central Lancashire) : “Peterloo and the Radical Movement” 

9:45-10:15 Michel Prum (Université Paris Cité) : “Chartism revisited - a pre-Marxist view”

10:15-10:45 Ophélie Siméon (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle) : “Women, workers and citizens. Rethinking the political role of the Owenite movement, 1820-1845”

10:45-11:15 Q&A

11-15-11:30 Coffee Break

11:30-12 Ryan Hanley (University of Exeter) : “Popular Politics and the Abolition Movement in Britain, 1787-1833”

12-12:15 Q&A

12:15-1:30 LUNCH BREAK

Chair : Thierry Labica (Université Paris Nanterre)

1:30-2 Muriel Pécastaing-Boissière (Sorbonne Université) : “The relationship between the British Socialist and Suffrage Movements, 1884 -1914”

2-2:30 Yann Béliard (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle) : “The Daily Herald, product and mirror of the Great Labour Unrest, 1912-1914”

2:30-2:50 Q&A

2:50-3.10 Coffee break

3:10-3:40  Steven Parfitt (independent scholar) : “The Knights of Labour in Britain”

3:40-4:10 Daniel Renshaw (University of Reading) : “The British Left and Migrant Socialism, 1889-1914”

4:10-4:30 Q&A

Une captation est prévue pour diffusion ultérieure

Comité d'organisation :

Yann Béliard (Sorbonne Nouvelle) 

Laurence Dubois (Nanterre) 

Charlotte Gould (Nanterre)

Ophélie Siméon (Sorbonne Nouvelle)

 

En ligne : https://crea.parisnanterre.fr/colloques-et-journees-detude/agenda/journee-detudes-question-dagregation-mouvements-protestataires-contestations-politiques-et-luttes-sociales-en-grande-bretagne-1811-1914

Vacancies at IISH: Postdoc Slavery and Junior Resarcher HTR

1 month 2 weeks ago

For the project Voices of Resistance in collaboration with the project The Global Business of Slave Trade (by Filipa Ribeiro da Silva) we are looking for

  • a Postdoc researcher who will work with us on research on enslavement, slavery and racialization in the early modern world. We are especially looking for a researcher who fits with our collaborative approach of academic research, and will add to the team by bringing in expertise on archives and literature of (parts of) the Atlantic or wider Indian Ocean world, and with the command of Portuguese, French or Spanish languages.
    More info: https://iisg.amsterdam/nl/blog/postdoc-global-history-slavery
     
  • a Junior researcher who is eager to learn to develop text-recognition (htr) for digitized early modern colonial archives on a large scale with existing (GLOBALISE) methods.
    More info: Junior Researcher HTR for Colonial Archives and Slavery Studies - IISG Job Details | KNAW

The IISH offers a lively research environment with several projects on the history of slavery, slave trade and colonialism.

The deadline is 13 October 2024. We will tremendously value it if you could help to bring these vacancies under attention with relevant circles and candidates!

Contemporary Hungarian Society: Social Changes in Hungary from Late State Socialism, by Tibor Valuch

1 month 2 weeks ago

This book examines social change in Hungary, commencing with the period of late-stage socialism, the country’s immediate post-communist transition, its subsequent consolidation, and the emergence of authoritarian leadership since 2010. The volume seeks to employ a longitudinal and comparative perspective and provides comparison to other central and East European states that emerged from state socialism.

The Hungarian regime change of 1989–1990 led to previously unimaginable social and economic transition. In recent decades, regime change and socioeconomic transition in Central and Eastern Europe have produced a library of literature, and transition studies has periodically become a discipline in its own right. The author uses an interdisciplinary approach – drawing from social history, sociology, statistics, and contemporary history – in order to understand and analyse social change in all its complexity.

The book will be of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students, social scientists, historians, experts, and those interested in Hungarian and Central and Eastern European history and social change.

Published by Routledge

Remembering the Strike: the miners’ strike of 1984-5 in popular memory

1 month 3 weeks ago

Dr Natalie Thomlinson is to deliver the Society’s third annual John L. Halstead Memorial Lecture at the University of Huddersfield on Saturday 9 November 2024. Titled Remembering the Strike: the miners’ strike of 1984-5 in popular memory, the lecture will draw on Dr Thomlinson’s research on women’s stories of the strike.

Registration is now open. Although the event is free of charge, the Society asks that you register in advance so that we can plan for the numbers likely to attend. Register now.

Abstract
This lecture is less an exploration of the miners’ strike itself, and more a study in how it has been remembered, both popularly and privately. Both during and after the strike, a large number of books, films, plays and newspaper articles about the dispute were created; this lecture examines how the stories these cultural productions tell have come to tell about the strike as variously a heroic failure, a moment of emancipation for working-class women, or as the last gasp of the trade union movement, have come to frame how individual experiences of the strike were remembered and narrated. In particular, this lecture explores how the many women interviewed for Women and the Miners’ Strike 1984-5 recounted their stories using these larger cultural frameworks. Finally, this lecture turns to examine how these women thought about coalfield communities today, and how their nostalgia for the past could be used as a form of political critique of the present.

Speaker
Dr Natalie Thomlinson is Associate Professor of Modern British Cultural History at the University of Reading, and co-author of Women and the Miners’ Strike (2023). She has written widely on women, gender, and feminism in late twentieth century Britain.

Practical details
Date: Saturday 9 November 2024
Time: 2pm
Duration: 1 hour
Venue: Heritage Quay, 9 Queensgate, #Level 3, Huddersfield, HD1 3DH
Register online.

About the John L. Halstead Memorial Lecture
This series of annual lectures is named in memory of the late John L. Halstead, who served the Society through six decades in numerous capacities and has been much missed since his death in 2021.

Previous John L. Halstead Memorial Lectures
The Rising Sun of Socialism and the Labour Movement in West Yorkshire 1884-1914, delivered by Professor Keith Laybourn, 2023

Big Jim Larkin: reflections on the identity, politics and legacy of a socialist and trade union leader, delivered by Dr Emmet O’Connor, 2022

 

https://sslh.org.uk/2024/09/24/remembering-the-strike-the-miners-strike…

Colonising and decolonising: Europe-Africa relations in the 19th and 20th centuries

1 month 3 weeks ago

This issue of Cadernos do Arquivo Municipal aims to reflect on European colonialism in Africa in the 19th and 20th centuries, trying to explain, through current historical knowledge, the colonial fact —one, similar, transversal in its ideas and practices— structured in different territorial and national strands, and highlighting the deconstruction of myths, ideas and theories that have succeeded each other and metamorphosed to legitimise and justify colonial violence. It is also about giving a voice to Africans, so silenced by the colonial system, by listening to their interpretations of a reality from the near past that left significant marks on their daily lives.

Relations between Europe and the African continent, marked since the 15th century by the commercial dimension, centred on the slave commodity - the enslaved African being bought and exported preferably to the Americas -, changed progressively in the 19th century, acquiring a new relational organisation from the end of the 19th century. The effective occupation of African territories by Europeans and the establishment of a complex system of exploitation of African men, land and wealth marked the colonial relations that were organised, leading to the loss of African autonomy and European domination. The European colonial system lasted for decades, fuelled by myths and ideological justifications, and marked by violent practices of exploitation and control of populations. It came to an end in the 1960s in a large part of the continent, thanks to the resistance of Africans and the ideas of freedom that were blowing through the Western world, but remained in the Portuguese case until 1974, after 13 years of war and destruction, which violently marked African territories and peoples until their national independence.

This Dossier aims to reflect on European colonialism in Africa in the 19th and 20th centuries, trying to explain, through current historical knowledge, the colonial fact - one, similar, transversal in its ideas and practices - structured in different territorial and national strands, and highlighting the deconstruction of myths, ideas and theories that have succeeded each other and metamorphosed to legitimise and justify colonial violence. It is also about giving a voice to Africans, so silenced by the colonial system, by listening to their interpretations of a reality from the near past that left significant marks on their daily lives. The end of colonialism, marked by conflicts of different kinds, the ambiguities of decolonisation and the independence of African countries, but also Africans' current interpretation of this recent historical reality, constitute the other dimension of the historiographical journey of this collective work.

1. The European Occupation of an Autonomous Africa: Exploration, Conquest, Domination (c. 1880-1930)

2. The Construction of a Mythology Legitimising Colonial Violence: Ideas and Facts (c. 1880-1930)

3. The Work of Civilisation: Religion, Instruction, Discrimination, and the Destruction of African Cultures (c. 1930-1960)

4. Colonial Exploitation: The Reorganisation of Territories, the Creation of the ‘Indigenous’ and the Violence of Labour, Taxation and Compulsory Cultures (c. 1930-1960)

5. The Voice of the Africans: Strategies, Resistances, Struggles (c. 1930-1974)

6. Late Portuguese Colonialism and the Legitimisation of Development. New Theories and Myths: Luso-Tropicalism. The ‘Make-up’ of the Colonial System and the Renewed Defence of the Empire (c. 1960-1974)

7. The Propaganda of Colonised Africa through the Image: Advertising, Cinema, Drawing, Press, Exhibitions and Literature.

8. Decolonisation and Independence: concepts, perspectives, interpretations of the processes of organising the new African states in the 1960s.  The late end of the Portuguese colonies: 1974-1975

Submission guidelines

Submission of articles and book reviews to Cadernos do Arquivo Municipal are made through the journal's e-mail: am.cadernos@cm-lisboa.pt

The call for articles for the thematic dossier “Colonising and decolonising: Europe-Africa relations in the 19th and 20th centuries” is open until

December 31, 2024.
  • Original and unpublished works are accepted, based on research supported by a strong theoretical-methodological component, within the scope of the journal and relevant to a national and international audience.
  • The journal accepts submissions in Portuguese, English, French and Spanish.
  • All proposals for articles should be sent to am.cadernos@cm-lisboa.pt
  • Cadernos do Arquivo Municipal does not charge any fees for the submission process, peer review, publication and availability of texts.
Conditions for submission

As part of the process, authors are required to check that the submission complies with all the items listed below. Submissions that do not comply with these standards will be returned to the authors.

  • The paper is original, unpublished and the parts that come from other works are duly referenced. It is not under review or for publication in another journal. Otherwise, the author(s) should inform the journal editors.
  • Authorship is subject to a grace period of four issues.
  • Only one proposal per author and/or co-author will be accepted for a single issue and must be submitted using the submission template.
  • The section for which the text is intended must be indicated: Thematic Dossier, Articles or Book Reviews.
  • Authors' names, ORCIDs, affiliations (R&D centres, faculties and universities) and email addresses.
  • Language of the text: Portuguese (according to the new spelling agreement), Spanish, French or English. Title, abstract and keywords in the language of the text, in English and in Portuguese.
  • Limit of 10,000 words for articles and 2,000 for book reviews, including footnotes and bibliographical references.

Follow the Publication Guidelines.

Scientific coordination

Isabel Castro Henriques (Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal)

Soziale Folgen des Wandels der Arbeitswelt in der zweiten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhundert (German)

1 month 3 weeks ago

Abschlusstagung des HBS-Graduiertenkollegs „Soziale Folgen des
Wandels der Arbeitswelt in der zweiten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts“
2. Förderphase

Abschlusstagung des HBS-Graduiertenkollegs „Soziale Folgen des Wandels der Arbeitswelt in der zweiten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts“

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Programm

17.10.2024
Bis 13.45 Uhr
Ankunft/Kaffee

13.45-14 Uhr
Begrüßung/Einführung (Stefan Berger)

14-15.30 Uhr
Panel I
- „Die Unorganisierbaren“. Weibliche Gewerkschaftsarbeit in der Bekleidungsindustrie, im Bergbau und der Metallindustrie (Alicia Gorny/ISB)
- Der Welt auf den Fersen. Eine internationale Geschichte der bundesdeutschen Schuhindustrie von 1970 bis 2000 (Christina Häberle/ZZF)
Moderation: Winfried Süß
Kommentar: Nina Kleinöder (Bamberg)

Kaffepause
16-17.30 Uhr

Panel II
- Konsumgenossenschaften in der Konsumgesellschaft. Von der Selbsthilfe der Verbraucher zur Gemeinwirtschaft (Philipp Urban/ISB)
- „Flexibel“ und „prekär“. Arbeits- und Zeitverhältnisse in der bundesdeutschen Zeitarbeit (Lukas Doil/ZZF)
Moderation: Andreas Wirsching
Kommentar: Sibylle Marti (Bern)

Pause

17.45-19.00 Uhr
Abendvortrag
"Über alte und neue Anerkennungskämpfe. Probleme und Perspektiven einer Zeitgeschichte der Arbeit"(Dietmar Süß, Augsburg)

Ab 19.30 Uhr gemeinsames Abendessen (Café Tucholsky)

18.10.2024

9-11 Uhr
Panel III
- Eine deutsch-deutsche Sozialgeschichte von Eisenbahner*innen im Zeichen von Wiedervereinigung und Privatisierung (Jessica Hall/ZZF)
- Die sozialen Folgen des Wandels im Einzelhandel in Ostdeutschland in den 1990er Jahren (Till Goßmann/ZZF)
- Von der Lampenstadt zur Oberbaumcity – Die sozioökonomische Entwicklung des Rudolfkiezes (Jonas Jung/IfZ)
Moderation: Jessica Lindner-Elsner
Kommentar: Benno Nietzel (Frankfurt/Oder)

Kaffepause
11.30-13 Uhr

Panel IV
- Arbeitsmigration nach München (Patricia Zeitz/IfZ)
- Migrantisches Engagement in deutschen und britischen Prostituiertenbewegungen - Sexuelle Arbeit, Arbeitsmigrantinnen und Kämpfe um politische Teilhabe, 1975-2002 Alisha Edwards/ISB)
Moderation: Frank Bösch
Kommentar: Olga Sparschuh (Wien)

13-14 Uhr
Abschlusskommentar mit Diskussion (Peter Birke, SOFI Göttingen)

Ab 14 Uhr Mittagsimbiss/Tagungsende

Kontakt

Sebastian Voigt
voigt@ifz-muenchen.de

CfP International Congress “Families and Historical Change. Relational Dynamics and Social Transformations. A global perspective, 13th-20th centuries”

1 month 3 weeks ago

International Conference

Families and Historical Change
Relational Dynamics and Social Transformations. A global perspective, 13th-20th centuries

Albacete (Spain) on 7, 8 and 9 May 2025.

All the information on the event is available at the following link:

https://eventos.uclm.es/118494/detail/congreso-internacional-familias-y…

The general thematic axes of the congress are the following:

  1. Sources, methods and proposals for methodological renewal. Between interdisciplinarity and artificial intelligence.
  2. Households, homes and reproduction. Economy, labour, estates and inheritances.
  3. Marriages, unions: family relations, alliances and kinship.
  4. Individual and collective trajectories: life course, generational changes and social mobility.
  5. Family, gender, age and inequalities.
  6. Emotions, culture, values. Solidarity and everyday life.
  7. Conflicts, transgressions, disobedience.
  8. Displacements: migrations, absences and communities.
  9. The family in education and dissemination. Transfer and didactics

We believe that now is the time to move forward into the future in this field of research. The conference aims to overcome the chronological, disciplinary and national barriers that have limited its great scientific potential. Precisely, the aim is to encourage meetings and communication, favouring participation from different specialities, perspectives and geographical origins. In this sense, papers may be presented in Spanish, English, French, Portuguese and Italian.

Program of the 59th ITH conference "Worlds of Digital Labour"

1 month 4 weeks ago

Linz/Austria, 26-28 September 2024

The 59th ITH Conference is organized by the International Conference of Labour and Social History (ITH) and kindly supported by the Chamber of Labour of Upper Austria, the Chamber of Labour of Vienna, the Austrian Society for Political Education, the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, and the City of Linz.

Preparatory Group
Gleb Albert (University of Lucerne), Laurin Blecha (ITH, Vienna), Julia Gül Erdogan (TU Berlin),
Therese Garstenauer (ITH, Vienna), Michael Homberg (Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History
Potsdam), Stefan Müller (Friedrich Ebert Foundation)

Objectives
The pitfalls of platform economies, the struggles for unionisation in digital entertainment companies, outsourcing and exploitation in social media enterprises, fragile global commodity chains in hardware production: Topics of labour and digital industries are prominent in today’s news headlines. These themes, however, have a history that goes back several decades. Studying industrial relations at the dawn of computing, the struggles over automation and digitization, and the emergence of new forms of work can provide us with a better understanding of digital labour relations and struggles.

The 2024 ITH conference addresses the role of industrial relations, labour struggles and knowledge regimes in the history of computing and IT - both in computer-related industries (hardware and software) and the IT services sector shaping the “old”, established industries. Covering the time frame between the establishment of the commercial computer industry in the post-war era through the breakthrough of home and personal computing in the late 1970s until the commodification of digital communication in the 1990s, and aiming at a global perspective, we address questions that are crucial for the history and present of labour and digitization. What visions of future work were propelled by the introduction of computers, and how were these visions perceived by the workforce? Which aspects of pre-digital labour shaped the conception of digital work? What was the effect of International Conference of Labour and Social History (ITH) | www.ith.or.at | conference@ith.or.at informal DIY cultures and counter-cultural ethics on structures and practices of digital labour? How were IT workers (programmers, systems analysts or operators) perceived and how did they perceive themselves within traditional structures of labour organising? To what extent did structural inequalities, especially questions of race, class and gender, come to the fore? How did unions deal with the threats (and chances) of automation and digitization? What new forms of work relations, vocational education and labour organising sprung up in newly formed digital industries such as microchip manufacturing, software fabrication or computer games production? How did the global division of labour manifest itself in the computing and IT industries over decades? How did the various pathways into the digital age differ around the globe, especially when comparing developments in the United States and Western Europe with those in state socialist countries and the countries of the Global South? What effects did the introduction of personal computing have on work relations, the atomisation of the labour force, as well as the images and narratives of small-scale entrepreneurship? How did the introduction of mobile technologies change both the digital industries and broader work relations yet again?

You will find the programme attached.

The Sexual Politics of Liberal Internationalism, 1990s to the Present

1 month 4 weeks ago

Cambridge/United Kingdom, 8-9 May 2025

Liberal internationalism, with its emphasis on individual rights and freedoms, civil society, democracy and good governance, open markets and the rule of law, has been criticised for the complex sexual politics which underpin these universalist principles. This workshop aims to start a conversation between historians and scholars from other disciplines about the sexual politics of liberal internationalism since the 1990s in a longer historical perspective.

The Sexual Politics of Liberal Internationalism, 1990s to the Present

That the ‘universal subject’ of political liberalism is implicitly gendered male is a feminist argument as old as liberalism itself; feminist scholars of international law have made similar arguments about liberal concepts of human rights or humanitarian law. Feminist theorists of twentieth-century international relations have suggested that sexual and international orders of masculinism and militarism are mutually constitutive, whether in the boardrooms of foreign policy establishments, on military bases, or in other local sites of intervention in the name of liberal internationalism. Postcolonial, gender and queer theorists continue to challenge the western, masculine and heteronormative bias of the latest iteration of liberal internationalism, which since the Cold War places greater emphasis on the universal rights of women and minorities, while limiting their application by resurrecting discourses of cultural relativism, humanitarian suffering and moral value.

This workshop aims to start a conversation about the sexual politics of liberal internationalism after 1989 in Central Europe and beyond. Our focus on Central Europe is driven by a desire to explore the rise and fall of liberal internationalism in the late twentieth century outside the Anglo-American world. Central Europe became a laboratory for experiments in international economic or political order during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, from the collapse of multinational empires, the rise and fall of democratic, fascist and state-socialist regimes, until the political and economic transformation that followed the 1989 revolutions. The conjunction between liberal internationalism and neoliberalism adds another dimension to the question of sexual politics in post-Cold War Central Europe, opening up space for comparisons with other parts of the world.

We invite proposals that explore the sexual politics of liberal internationalism since the 1990s in international, transnational or global perspective, as well as papers that place the post-1989 moment in a longer historical trajectory. We are interested in the ideas and institutions that inform liberal internationalism, as well as the practices, performance and reception of liberal internationalism by elites, experts, practitioners, or ordinary people. Topics for discussion might include, but are not limited to: the politics of abortion regulation; sexual violence in conflict and non-conflict situations; trafficking, slavery, prostitution; immigration and asylum; military intervention and peace-making; and the gendered effects of international programmes of economic reform, democratization and good governance.

We expect to be able to cover participants’ travel and accommodation costs.

Please send an abstract of 100 words and a brief CV to Celia Donert (chd31@cam.ac.uk) by 31 October 2024.

This workshop is generously funded by the Cambridge DAAD Hub for German Studies and the KFG / Center for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences ‘Universalism and Particularism in European Contemporary History’ at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich.

Kontakt

Celia Donert, University of Cambridge - chd31@cam.ac.uk