Paul Taillon and I are pulling together a new session for the 2013 meeting of the Social Science History Association in Chicago, 21-24 November. In line with the conference's theme of "Organizing Powers" we have in mind a panel would look at the theme of workers, insurgency, and the ways in which the state can at times open up conditions for insurgency but also contain and control it. We are particularly interested in work that highlights the role of militant unionism and/or radical political movements.
I plan to present a paper that explores the Minneapolis Teamsters and Trotskyists' 1948 campaign for a presidential pardon (for their conviction under the Smith Act in 1941) and for the repeal of the Smith Act. Paul plans to talk about a 1920 railroad wildcat strike that drew down upon it the combined forces of the state, the railroad companies, and the conservative railroad brotherhoods. We have a third panelist tentatively committed to our panel who proposes to explore the marine transport workers of the IWW and their resistance to nationalist discourses in the 1920s and 1930s. We are looking for a fourth panelist (in the practice of the SSHA). If you are interested in joining us, please send your responses to me at: dhaverty [at] hunter.cuny.edu
Thanks!
Donna T. Haverty-Stacke
Associate Professor
Department of History
Hunter College, CUNY
695 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10065
dhaverty [at] hunter.cuny.edu
[Cross-posted, with thanks, from H-Labor]