Documents communism 88 results

"It may be said that the media in Serbia are the Archimedean point of reliance for any political change. Without the liberation of the media, any attempt at political change seems like an attempt to lift oneself or to leap over one's own shadow. The regime in Serbia has built its position on the iron control primarily of the state electronic media which are the only ones that cover the entire territory of Serbia and have the decisive impact on the formation of public opinion. For years now, Milosevic has been combining the politics of crisis building and ethnic conflicts with a media campaign which has created a psychosis of general national threat; in such a situation, so has been the explicit message of the media, Serbia can only survive if we all give up any and all political bickering and unite under the leadership of the legally elected president, i.e. Milosevic.
The first part of this paper gives a brief history of the Serbian media in the post- communist period, while the second part describes how the media have been used to create support for the regime. "

"Die Historiker György Dalos, Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk und Jean-Yves Potel haben untersucht, welche Auswirkungen die vier großen revolutionären Momente der Arbeiterbewegung in Mittel- und Osteuropa auf die Entwicklung der Demokratie in ganz Europa hatten: 1953 DDR, 1956 Ungarn, 1968 ČSSR und 1980 Polen. Sie sind bis heute Wegweiser für den schwierigen Prozess der Demokratisierung, der von erheblichen Rückschlägen geprägt ist – auch in Ländern, die mittlerweile der EU angehören.

Die Arbeiter- und Volksaufstände zeigten trotz der sowjetischen Panzer, die sie beendeten, Wirkung: In Ungarn wurden Arbeiterräte gegründet, in der ČSSR hieß die Hoffnung »Sozialismus mit menschlichem Antlitz«. Die Bevölkerung stand mehrheitlich an der Seite der Reformer und Aufständischen. Solidarność ist ein bemerkenswerter Sonderfall – er wirkt wie ein Vorzeichen für das Ende der sowjetischen Vorherrschaft und den Beginn eines neuen Europas. Heute ist Polen wieder mit nationalistischen Ideologien, Illiberalität und der Schwächung der Rechtsstaatlichkeit konfrontiert. Um dem zu begegnen, hilft ein Blick auf die Menschen, die sich dem Totalitarismus in Berlin, Budapest, Prag und Danzig widersetzt haben."

"This paper presupposes the existence of two types of ‘immaturity', which stem from different types of communism. It compares Hungary and Slovenia, two relatively successful transformation societies, which have certainly arisen from two different types of communism. It tries to show that the ‘immature' organisational form in Slovenia represents a specific sub-type of ‘immaturity', strongly connected to the experience of the specific type of communism in former Yugoslavia. It is expected that the comparison will enable the formation of a clearer picture of the actual stance of industrial relations in both countries. In spite of the comparative approach, the paper is focused on the Slovenian case."

"Dr. Alice Hamilton (1869–1970) was a legendary figure in occupational medicine in the United States (US), author of many articles and texts, and the first woman on the Harvard faculty (1919). Her friend from the days with social reformer Jane Addams at Hull House in Chicago (1897), Gerard Swope, became President of General Electric (GE) (1922), whereupon he hired Dr. Hamilton to investigate and report to him over the next 12 years on numerous health and safety hazards in GE plants.
One of the hazards discussed in this correspondence was asbestos.1 The letters and reports were found in the Alice Hamilton archives at Harvard and the General Electric archives. GE has been sued over the past 25 years for failing to better warn and protect workers from asbestos hazards in power plants and ships where GE steam turbines were installed and maintained in the preceding decades.
GE disclosed Dr. Hamilton's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) file in legal discovery calling for all materials reviewed by GE expert witnesses. Perhaps, defense counsel suspected something in the FBI file might be of use to discredit Dr. Hamilton. ..."

"Peter Frase argues that increasing automation and a growing scarcity of resources, thanks to climate change, will bring it all tumbling down. In Four Futures, Frase imagines how this post-capitalist world might look, deploying the tools of both social science and speculative fiction to explore what communism, rentism, socialism and exterminism might actually entail.
Could the current rise of real-life robocops usher in a world that resembles Ender's Game? And sure, communism will bring an end to material scarcities and inequalities of wealth -but there's no guarantee that social hierarchies, governed by an economy of “likes,” wouldn't rise to take their place. A whirlwind tour through science fiction, social theory and the new technologies already shaping our lives, Four Futures is a balance sheet of the socialisms we may reach if a resurgent Left is successful, and the barbarisms we may be consigned to if those movements fail."

"The economic and political crisis of 1931 provoked the reappearance of rank and file movements in Britain. This article examines the unofficial organisations that developed in building, engineering, passenger transport and the railways – as well as more ephemeral bodies. It critically synthesises the existing historiography and replenishes it with new material from the Russian archives. The progress of rank and filism to 1939 is surveyed and the largely forgotten project of a new Communist-led rank and file organisation, a Trade Union Militant League, which would supersede the National Minority Movement, is recuperated. The article stresses the role of Comintern policy in harnessing and moulding grass-roots rebellion. It validates that strand in the literature which argues that Moscow's subsequent turn to the popular front and aspirations to alliances with labour movement leaders predominated over, and legitimated, indigenous influences, enhanced existing adaptation to trade unionism, and encouraged subordination of oppositional movements to activity in official structures. By 1939, the Communists had abandoned the idea of a national rank and file movement they had pursued since 1923. Little survived of the revolutionary enterprise launched in 1931. Rank and filism endured only as a handful of sectional, party-sponsored, trade union ginger groups."

"While studies of the New York City Teachers Union (TU) generally attribute its eventual demise to the Red Scares of the 1940s and 1950s, this article situates the TU in the history of New York City teachers' associations more generally. It argues that the Union's fate was a consequence not simply of anticommunism, but of competition between the Union and other city teachers' associations. In particular, the Teachers Guild fought with the Union for the mantle of teacher radicalism. While the two organizations fought for some of the same issues, the liberal Guild was accommodating to the government, while the radical Union was confrontational. When it came to the Union's ideology, however, the Guild consistently sacrificed its commitment to academic freedom by collaborating with public authorities to reveal the extent of the Union's Communist commitments. Using archival data – private correspondence of teacher unionists, minutes of Union meetings, and articles from the teachers' unions' official periodicals – this article documents the Guild's efforts at subverting the Union, particularly at moments when the Union's political commitments became salient in public affairs."

"The Comintern's Third Period, 1928–1934, based on Stalin's ‘second revolution' in Russia, capitalist crisis and the claim that social democracy and fascism were twins, generated sectarian, ultra-left politics which proved inimical to Communist activity in trade unions. This article sheds new light on that issue by exploring three connected episodes: the British party's (CPGB) renewed turn to the unions, heralded in the January resolution of 1932; the roles the Comintern and CPGB leader Harry Pollitt played in this initiative; and the subsequent attempt by Pollitt to revise the politics of union work. This triptych reviews both primary sources and recent historiography. It argues that some accounts have overestimated the novelty of the January resolution, blurred its meaning and exaggerated Pollitt's part in it. The resolution did not attempt to change the line but its application. Its impact was limited. Bids to go beyond it were muddled and unsuccessful. The 1933 move towards the united front, and subsequently the popular front, was of greater significance in creating an effective Communist presence in trade unions than the events of 1931–1932."

"La Révolution russe de 1917 a changé la face du 20E siècle. Pour la première fois dans l'histoire de l'humanité, les prolétaires prennent le pouvoir - et le gardent - à l'échelle d'un pays, soulevant un espoir fou à travers toute la planète. La guerre, opposant les puissances impérialistes, fait alors rage en Europe, semant la haine et le sang. Un conflit dans lequel les peuples, ainsi à s'entretuer, ont tout à perdre.
Quels ont été les effets de 1914-1918, puis de la Révolution russe, sur le mouvement ouvrier belge ?
Le leader socialiste Emile Vandervelde participe à l'époque à un gouvernement bourgeois, d'union nationale. Il exalte le patriotisme nationaliste, au détriment des principes de solidarité internationale.
Certes, des groupes se font jour, au sein du P.O.B. et des syndicats, pour dénoncer cette boucherie et réclamer la fin des combats. Mais ils restent minoritaires dans un pays dont la quasi-totalité du territoire est occupé. Octobre 1917 va donner un coup d'accélérateur. Faut-il opter pour le chemin révolutionnaire, aux côtés de la Russie bolchévique ? Ou continuer la voie de réformes, dans un schéma parlementaire classique ? Il faut choisir ! Emmenée par le syndicaliste Joseph Jacquemotte, une aile plus à gauche quitte le P.O.B., adhère à la 3e Internationale (le Komintern) créée par Lénine, et coalise différentes factions, réunies en 1921 au sein du nouveau Parti communiste de Belgique.
Ce livre de Claude Renard a été écrit en 1967. Le voici réédité, à l'occasion du centième anniversaire de 1917, rehaussé de 50 pages de photos, pour la plupart inédites. Jean Puissant, professeur émérite de l'ULB, en signe la préface. Quant à Claude Renard, aujourd'hui âgé de 90 ans, il nous offre, avec sa postface, un nouvel éclairage, complémentaire, tenant compte de l'évolution ultérieure de l'URSS et de la chute du mur de Berlin en 1989."