Portal:Organized Labour
Introduction
- In trade unions, workers campaign for higher wages, better working conditions and fair treatment from their employers, and through the implementation of labour laws, from their governments. They do this through collective bargaining, sectoral bargaining, and when needed, strike action. In some countries, co-determination gives representatives of workers seats on the board of directors of their employers.
- Political parties representing the interests of workers campaign for labour rights, social security and the welfare state. They are usually called a labour party (in English-speaking countries), a social democratic party (in Germanic and Slavic countries), a socialist party (in Romance countries), or sometimes a workers' party.
- Though historically less prominent, the cooperative movement campaigns to replace capitalist ownership of the economy with worker cooperatives, consumer cooperatives, and other types of cooperative ownership. This is related to the concept of economic democracy.
The labour movement developed as a response to capitalism and the Industrial Revolution of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, at about the same time as socialism. The early goals of the movement were the right to unionise, the right to vote, democracy and the 40-hour week. As these were achieved in many of the advanced economies of western Europe and north America in the early decades of the 20th century, the labour movement expanded to issues of welfare and social insurance, wealth distribution and income distribution, public services like health care and education, social housing and common ownership. (Full article...)
Selected article
The Spartacist uprising (German: Spartakusaufstand), also known as the January uprising (Januaraufstand) or, more rarely, Bloody Week, was an armed uprising that took place in Berlin from 5 to 12 January 1919. It occurred in connection with the German revolution that broke out just before the end of World War I. The uprising was primarily a power struggle between the supporters of the provisional government led by Friedrich Ebert of the Majority Social Democratic Party of Germany (MSPD), which favored a social democracy, and those who backed the position of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) led by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, which wanted to set up a council republic similar to the one established by the Bolsheviks in Russia. The government's forces were victorious in the fighting.
The uprising began with mass demonstrations and strikes called by the parties of the radical left to protest the dismissal of Berlin's chief of police. Taken by surprise at the size of the turnout and the protestors' spontaneous occupation of newspaper buildings and printing companies, the leaders of the left were unable to agree on how to proceed. As a result, the uprising remained largely without direction. The government responded with military force, including several paramilitary Freikorps units, retook the buildings that had been occupied and violently suppressed the uprising.
The death toll was roughly 150–200, mostly among the insurgents. The most prominent deaths were those of Liebknecht and Luxemburg, who were executed extrajudicially on 15 January, almost certainly with the at least tacit approval of the MSPD-led government. The party's involvement hampered its position throughout the life of the Weimar Republic, although quashing the uprising allowed elections for the National Assembly to take place as scheduled on 19 January 1919. The Assembly went on to write the Weimar Constitution that created the first national German democracy. (Full article...)July in Labor History
Significant dates in labour history.
- July 01 - The Great Railroad Strike of 1922 began in the U.S.; the Regina Riot occurred during the On-to-Ottawa Trek in Canada in 1935; Lee Pressman was born; P. H. McCarthy died; the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia was founded; the Westmoreland County coal strike of 1910–11 ended in the U.S.
- July 02 - William J. McCarthy was born; Edward Ikem Okeke died; the U.S. Supreme Court decided Brown v. Hotel and Restaurant Employees
- July 03 - The United States Army began suppression of the American Railway Union during the Pullman Strike in 1894
- July 04 - The Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention came into force
- July 05 - "Bloody Thursday" occurred during the 1934 West Coast waterfront strike in the U.S.
- July 06 - Peter J. McGuire was born; the Homestead Strike culminated with a battle between Pinkerton agents and striking workers
- July 07 - Eugene V. Debs was arrested during the Pullman Strike in 1894; the 1998 Puerto Rican general strike began
- July 08 - Jesse Simons died
- July 09 - Jackie Presser died; the Transport Workers Union of America won the "Squeegee Strike" at the IRT in 1935
- July 10 - Sidney Hillman died; George W. Taylor was born; Donald Richberg was born
- July 11 - Frank Duffy died; Sigurd Lucassen was born
- July 12 - The British Columbia Teachers' Federation was founded; Arnold Miller died; Clara Lemlich died; Edgar Nixon was born; the Bisbee Deportation occurred in the U.S. in 1917
- July 13 - The U.S. Steel recognition strike of 1901 began
- July 14 - The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 began in the U.S.
- July 15 - The Steel strike of 1959 began in the U.S.; Set Persson died; Michael Costa was born; the Vancouver Police Union was founded
- July 16 - Frank Rudolph Crosswaith was born
- July 17 - The Cape Breton coal strike of 1981 began in Canada
- July 18 - William J. McCarthy defeated Weldon Mathis as Teamsters president in 1988; Robert Georgine was born; the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949, one of the two primary labour conventions of the ILO, came into force
- July 19 - The Hatch Act of 1939 was extended to cover state and local government workers in the U.S.; Benjamin Gitlow died; Rhoda Williams died
- July 20 - The Newsboys' strike of 1899 began
- July 22 - Patrick J. Campbell was born; the 2004–05 NHL lockout ended in the U.S. and Canada
- July 23 - Emma Tenayuca died
- July 24 - The 1952 steel strike ended in the U.S.; Ben Gold died; the Alliance for Labor Action is formed
- July 25 - Farrell Dobbs was born; the Service Employees International Union and the Teamsters announced their intention to leave the AFL–CIO; labor attorney Arthur Goldberg resigned as Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court
- July 26 - Elias Motsoaledi was born; William Trenwith died; the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, banning workplace discrimination based on disability, became law
- July 27 - The Polish film Man of Iron was released in 1981
- July 28 - Harry Bridges was born; the 1913 Paterson silk strike ended in the U.S.; Florence Cohen was born
- July 29 - The Sailors' Union of the Pacific was formed; the United Food and Commercial Workers disaffiliated from the AFL–CIO
- July 30 - Jimmy Hoffa disappeared in 1975; the Arizona copper mine strike of 1983 began in the U.S.
- July 31 - Edward T. Hanley resigned as president of HERE after a corruption scandal
More Did you know (auto-generated)
- ... that during the 1913 El Paso smelters' strike the Industrial Workers of the World and the Western Federation of Miners competed to organize the strikers with their respective labor unions?
- ... that John Sterling, Anthony Harrison and Chuck Compton were all signed by the Green Bay Packers as replacement players because of a players' strike during the 1987 NFL season?
- ... that M. Farooqui, who had been expelled from his studies for having organized a strike in 1940, received his Delhi University degree in a special convocation in 1989?
- ... that the British Tychon missile was developed from a Barnes Wallis concept to keep strike aircraft safe while dropping nuclear bombs?
- ... that during the Venezuelan general strike of 2002–2003, all but one of Venezuelan chocolatier María Fernanda Di Giacobbe's ten businesses went bankrupt?
- ... that the Russian airstrike on Kyiv TV Tower (video featured) killed Yevhenii Sakun, one of at least 14 civilian journalists killed in the line of duty during the Russo-Ukrainian War?
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Selected Quote
- "Had the employers of past generations all of them dealt fairly with their men there would have been no unions."
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— Stanley Baldwin |
Did you know
- ...that although he contributed to an anti-militarist resolution at a congress of the Second International in 1891, Christiaan Cornelissen was one of a few syndicalists to support the Allied effort in World War I in 1914?
- ...that noted labor historian Selig Perlman is the uncle of author Judith Martin, better known as "Miss Manners"?
- ... that through the Trade Union Propaganda League Swedish leftwing socialists sought to win the Swedish Trade Union Confederation over to a revolutionary line?
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