No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
The Westernization of the Political Thought of the West German Labor Movement
Abstract
During the 1950s, a transformation of the West German labor movement took place that indicated an approximation to Western political thought. The central argument here is that this transformation of West German labor, which became manifest in the new programs of the Social Democratic Party and the German Trade Union Federation, in the Godesberg program of 1959 and the Düsseldorf program of 1963 respectively, and which also had a profound impact on the whole of West German society, was not just evolving by itself in an entirely internal process, but rather was very strongly influenced by external factors. To put it more provocatively still, it was the result of a cultural transfer from the Anglo-Saxon Western world, involving German laborites as well as American trade unionists. There were two main contributory factors to this cultural transfer: on the one hand the experience of German socialists and unionists during their years in exile, especially of those who spent the war years in Great Britain or the United States; and, on the other, the active role played by the American trade union federations in Western Europe between 1945 and the mid-1960s.
... 5 Elisabeth Röhrlich stellte ihre Monographie zur Archäologie der Außenpolitik Kreiskys in den Kontext des Westernisierungskonzeptes, das in der deutschen Remigrationsforschung entwickelt wurde und die These vertritt, dass Remigranten 'atlantisch-westliche Wertvorstellungen' in die politische Kultur Westdeutschlands transferiert haben, nachdem sie selbst während ihrer politischen Praxis im Exil, durch Kontakte, Kooperationen und Erfahrungen mit westlichen politischen Institutionen einen entsprechenden Wertewandel und eine Transformation ihrer politischen Orientierung vollzogen hatten. 6 Julia Angster formulierte in ihrer personell breiter angelegten Untersuchung zur Akkulturation deutscher linker Exilanten in Großbritannien und den USA, deren Rückkehr und Rolle in der Sozialdemokratischen Partei Deutschlands (SPD) und im Deutschen Gewerkschaftsbund (DGB) sowie der Kooperation der Remigranten mit den beiden US-Gewerkschaften American Federation of Labor (AFL) und Congress for Industrial Organization (CIO) die politische Intention des dabei entstandenen Netzwerkes so: 'Labor was to become a stabilizing factor in the Federal Republic's parliamentary democracy and was to play a crucial role in the workings of a Keynesian liberal economic order.' 7 Angster zufolge hinterließ das transnationale Labor-Netzwerk sowohl in der politischen Programmatik der SPD als auch des DGB nachhaltige Spuren. Bei Bruno Kreisky stellte Elisabeth Röhrlich eine 'Entdogmatisierung' während der Exiljahre fest, die durch den Blick auf Österreich 'von außen', die ersten Erfahrungen mit internationaler Politik und vor allem den Austausch mit Sozialdemokraten und Diplomaten anderer Länder -nicht zuletzt aus Großbritannien und den USA -bedingt gewesen sei. ...
Without denying the existence of a state ethos among the French socialist elites, Fulla shows that when we view French socialism through the culture and economic practices of its main leaders and experts, the thesis of exceptionalism does not hold true. On the contrary, there are profound similarities in the way different West European socialists conceive and utilise the democratic state within the capitalist system from 1918 through to the present day. If French socialists accord the centralised state a more important place in their doctrine and their rhetoric—though not in their governmental practice—this is best explained through the heritage of a national statist culture transcending party affiliations rather than as a unique and independently invented approach.
During the Great Depression in the 1930s, American unions used the crisis of capitalism to recover power. Following the argument of British economist J.M.Keynes that capitalism could only be saved by raising aggregate demand, high wages and controlled inflation also became acceptable. Thus, during the Second World War government co-opted labour into running the war economy, and in the postwar years management co- opted unions into disciplining the workforce. This book examines the part unions played in creating the resulting consensus, and explains why both unions and consensus have recently declined.
These extended essays by one of the preeminent scholars in U.S. labor history discuss central questions in the field, from the colonial period to the present: What do the first demands for a fixed workday tell us about how early American workers experienced the beginnings of the industrial revolution? Why did American labor politics never manage to break the grip of the two-party system? What was the impact of ideology, career leadership, and ethnicity on the American labor movement? How did American trade unionism cope with the market-drive forces of American capitalism? Why did so great a national crisis as World War II have so modest an impact on labor-capital-state relations in America? And finally, how did the struggle for industrial unionism produce the highly formalized "adversarial" system of workplace representation that many observers today see as one of the prime obstacles to American competitiveness in the new global economy? The book's essay structure permits detailed exploration of significant issues, while its wide chronological range and emphasis on causation broaden its scope to embrace major themes and trends. Like Brody's Workers in Industrial America (Second Edition, Oxford, 1993), In Labor's Cause makes an important contribution toward a comprehensive interpretation of the history of workers in America, and will be a fundamental component of any U.S. survey course, as well as courses in American labor or economic history.
Programmatische Erklärungen vom 5
- Kurt See
- Schumacher
Zur marxistischen StaatstheorieAuf der gemeinsamen Suche nach einer ‘modernen Demokratietheorie
- Franz L See
- Neumann
The CIO); see also Nelson Lichtenstein, The Most Dangerous Man in Detroit: Walter Reuther and the Fate of American Labor
- H Robert
- Zieger
For labor contacts, see Werner Link, Deutsche und amerikanische Gewerkschafien und Geschäftsleute Die Wurzeln der westdeutschen Nachkriegsdemokratie: Der amerikanische BeitragWest German Reconstruction and American Industrial Culture
- Hermann-Josef Rupieper Volker
- R Berghahn
From Corporatism to Collective Bargaining The Rise and Fall of the New Deal OrderWas the Great Society a Lost Opportunity
- N J See For Example Nelson Lichtensteinprinceton
Kongreß zür Kulturelk Freiheit” und die Deutschen America’s Mission: The United States and the Worldwide Struggle for Democracy in the Twentieth Century The Diplomary of Ideas: U.S. Foreign Policy and Cultural Relations); for pragmatism, see Cornel West
- A Frank
- S Ninkovich Emily
- Rosenberg
1–7: Germany Henry Rutz
- For Instance
- Gmma
The Labour Party’s Political Thought: A History See also Ross I. McKibbin, The Evolution of the Labour PartyWhy was there no Marxism in Great Britain?” in Ross I. McKibbin, The Ideologies of Class: Social Relations in Britain
- Geoffrey Foote
- Ross I Mckibbin
Labor and the New Deal,” in Milton Derber and Edwin Young, Labor and the New Deal
- Selig Perlman
Liberalism or Social Democracy? Britain and Germany
- John Breuilly
Samuel Gompers and Organized Labor in America
- C Harold
- Livesay
Tony Smith, America’s Mission: The United States and the Worldwide Struggle for Democracy in the Twentieth Century The Diplomary of Ideas: U.S. Foreign Policy and Cultural Relations); for pragmatism, see Cornel West
- Michael Hochgeschwender
- A Frank
- S Ninkovich Emily
- Rosenberg
Stefan Osousky (Czech diplomat and visiting professor at Colgate University) addressing the Trade Union Advisory Committee
- Dr
American Exceptionalism: U.S. Working Class Formation in International Context (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997); Robert J. Fitrakis, The Idea of Democratic Socialism in America and the Decline of the Socialist Party
- American Seymour Martin Lipset
- Exceptionalism
Reuther to Mike Ross, memorandum GMMA, RG 18–002, 016/02
- G Victor
Sozialdemokratie und Keynesianismus: Von der Weltwirtschaftskrise bis zum Godesberger Programm (Frankfurt
- Michael Held
Programmatik, praktische Politik und Organisation der deutschen Sozialdemokratie Einheit oder Freiheit: Die Wiedergründung der SPD
- Kurt Klotzbach
- Der Weg
- Staatspartei
Gewerkschaften und Außenpolitik: Die Stellung der westdeutschen Gewerkschaften zur wirtschaftlichen und militärischen Integration der Bundesrepublik in die Europäische Gemeinschaft und in die NATO (Frankfurt
- Hans Böckler
Samuel Gompers and the Rise of American Business Unionism
- H M John
- Laslett
Roy Godson, American Labor and European Politics: The AFL as a Transnational Force
- Ronald Radosh
Stationen gewerkschaftlicher Programmatik Zu den Grundsatzprogrammen des DGB und ihrer Vorgeschichte
- Otto Hans Hemmer
AFL representative in Europe: speech at the American Club
- Irving Brown
Zwischen den Fronten: Zur Politik, Organisation und Funktion linker politischer Kleinorganisationen im Widerstand Rosenberg had been a member of the liberal trade union organization
- Jan Foitzik
Why was there no Marxism in Great Britain?” in Ross I. McKibbin, The Ideologies of Class: Social Relations in Britain
- Geoffrey See
- Foote
Der Zehnerkreis. Remigranten in der westdeutschen Arbeiterbewegung der 1950er Jahre
- Dgb Spd
- Julia Angster
Der Weg zum Godesberger Grundsatzprogramm
- Susanne Miller
Auf der gemeinsamen Suche nach einer ‘modernen Demokratietheorie
- Franz L See
- Neumann
Programmatik der deutschen Parteien
- Kurt See
- Schumacher
Ihre Ausprägung in Frankreich und Deutschland
- German Dumont
- Ideology
America’s Mission: The United States and the Worldwide Struggle for Democracy in the Twentieth Century
- Emily S Rosenberg
West German Reconstruction and American Industrial Culture
- R Volker
- Berghahn
1-7: Germany; 056/12-19: Henry Rutz; 059/23-30 and 060/1-11: SPD; also Archiv der Sozialen Demokratie: Nachlaß Kuno Brandel; Nachlaß Willi Eichler; Nachlaß Werner Hansen (Willi Heidorn); Nachlaß Siegmund (Siggi) Neumann; Nachlaß Ludwig Rosenberg
- See
- For Instance
- Gmma