The Cultural Foundation of Resources, The Resource Foundation of Political Cultures: An Explanation for the Outcomes of Two General Strikes

The Cultural Foundation of Resources, The Resource Foundation of Political Cultures: An Explanation for the Outcomes of Two General Strikes

academia, politics, work, labor, employment, history, urban, equality, discrimination

The American general strikes have produced divergent outcomes. The Seattle general strike failed to win concession in 1919. Shipyard contracts were cancelled and the post-war economic depression hit Seattle earlier than other ports. Yet, in San Francisco the general strike contributed to winning concessions in 1934, including the first coast wide contract in America history. In this paper I identify two processes integral to the explanation of these differing outcomes-- the way in which a specific type of political culture, which I call workplace collectivism, was both determining of and determined by resources. First, workplace collectivism served as a foundation for the creation of economic resources. Interacting with favorable state actions, it was crucial to successful in the San Francisco case, and to the institutionalization of this political culture. Second, the viability and transmission of workplace collectivism was determined by economic resources, increasing strategic options in San Francisco but limiting them in the Seattle case. Interacting with unfavorable political climate and state actions, concessions were not won in Seattle, resulting in the demise of this political culture.

Johnson, Victoria

Working Paper No. 11 in Labor Studies

Center for Labor Studies at the University of Washington

1999

booklet; 28 pages; black and white; text

English

BCRW archive, U box 11, folder "University of Washington"