Academic literature on the topic 'Labor unions – Germany – Political activity'

Activity of business associations is of great importance in market environment. Academic literature divides these associations into representative and employer. For the first time employers associations appeared in Germany in the late nineteenth century. They were the reaction of the German business for growing working class movement. History has shown that the process of business self-organization increases in terms of aggravation of social, political and economic contradictions. Employers associations had a significant impact on the development of the so-called monarchical socialism in Germany. Having taken on the tasks of regulating labor and distribution relations and protection of the rights of entrepreneurs they facilitated the creation of a new system of entrepreneurs - employees relations. Nowadays employers associations are members of the tri-party relations (business, state, trade unions), in a number of European countries. The article covers the origin, organizational and legal forms and main areas of activity of Russian labor unions in the early twentieth century. The analysis shows that they widely used the European experience in their practical work, developed their own mechanisms of cooperation with wage labor and the authorities. In the context the of modern market economy and emerging civil society, the study of such problems is of actual scientific and practical importance.

The events of 2020 had a significant impact on all aspects of political and economic cooperation between Germany and Russia. The year began with a constructive political dialogue on a number of different international issues. However, in the second half of the year, when the FRG was the chairman of the Council of the European Union, it found itself in a deep crisis. The main reason is the so-called «The Navalny factor». At the same time, Berlin proposed to build relations with Russia in the field of security from a position of strength. The coronavirus pandemic has prompted Berlin and Moscow to restrict capital and labor mobility. In the spring, there was a sharp drop in world oil prices. This negatively affected the mutual trade flows. The volume of foreign trade has dropped significantly. Against this background, the investment activity of German companies in the Russian regions has been continued. A new area of cooperation has emerged – hydrogen energy. In September 2020, the Year of Germany began in Russia, and in December – the cross Year of Economy and Sustainable Development. In the first part, the author analyzes the political results of 2020 and the beginning of 2021 and assesses the medium-term prospects of German-Russian cooperation in the field of politics. The second part deals with the economic aspects of cooperation

On the basis of published documents on the activities of the terrorist organization “Red Army Fraction” (RAF) in West Germany during the 70s-80s, the authors highlight the causes that led to the radicalization of the student movement and the transition of activists to the armed confrontation with the police in the name of “City guerrilla” concept. Among the documents mentioned, texts of the RAF members, their manifestos, etc. are avaliable, as well as the articles by one of the leaders of the organization, Ulrike Meinhof, which she wrote for the left-radical magazine “Concrete”. Also there authors used the materials of the German media. In addition, the authors have analyzed foreign and domestic historiography focusing on German-language studies. The conclusions, to which the authors of the article have come, can be summarized as follows. There were three main reasons for the radicalization of the German student movement in the late 1960s. Firstly, the protest spirit and antipathy towards the “conformist” older generation, caused not least by the fact that the governments of the Chancellors Adenauer and Kiesinger were associated with the rehabilitation of former Nazis, so left-radicals saw in their politics the returning of authoritarianism and the militarization of FRG. Secondly, the views of the leftist scholars (such as Herbert Marcuse, Theodor Adorno, Jurgen Habermas, and others) that were popular among young people and reflected, albeit exaggeratedly, the social problems of Germany at that time related to labor migration, property inequality etc. Thirdly, speaking of the internal political context, the authors have underlined the important role of the events that led to a creation of radical groups. Among these events the most important were the protest actions against so called “Extraordinary laws,” the beating of a peaceful demonstration by the police on the 2th of June and the killing of Benno Onezorge, the assassination of the leader of the student movement Rudi Dutschke, the occupations of universities in 1968 etc. Characterizing the foreign policy context, the authors figure out that in the conditions of the bipolar world and the unfolding of the Cold War, the German youth was inspired by the revolutionary movements of the Third World and also by the American youth movement against the war in Vietnam. At the same time, the future German “city guerrillas” were inspired by the images of Che Guevara, Mao Tse-tung, Ho Chi Minh, etc. There is no doubt that they were rather skeptic about the USSR, not considering it as a socialist state, while they were preferring Cuba or Maoist China, because at that time almost nobody was aware of an essence of the “cultural revolution” and Mao’s repressive policy. However, activity of left-radicals in West Germany was still profitable for the GDR government, controlled by Soviet Union, as far as they were trying to use every possibility to destabilize the situation in FRG.

Today, Ukrainian society needs professionals with innovative thinking and a keen desire to implement their ideas in social life, driven by information, economic, social, political, cultural and religious processes of the third millennium. The modern world requires young people to be able to respond efficiently and promptly to innovative changes that are taking place in society, to be self-sufficient, proactive, responsible citizens, successful people, that is, professionally competent. That is why the problem of effective professional training of future specialists is an urgent one, which will be able to easily adapt to the changing conditions of today and be competitive in the labor market.The urgency of the problem with the professional training of future masters of elementary education to innovative activities is substantiated in the article. The general education system tendencies of the leading countries in the European Union, in particular, France, Denmark, Germany, England, that in recent years have collected positive experience in reforming important parts ofthe future teacher's education system, have been clarified. It is worth noting that Ukrainian educators are actively studying and using foreign experience in training teachers in European countries, the United States and Finland. The progressive ideas and features of future teachers’ training in different countries, which can be introduced for domestic education, are established.In the publication it is emphasized that the study provides for the feasibility of studying the foreign countries experience in the training of future masters of elementary education to innovative activity.

One counterintuitive variation in wage-setting regulation is that countries with the highest labor standards and strongest labor movements are among the least likely to set a statutory minimum wage. This, the author argues, is due largely to trade union opposition. Trade unions oppose the minimum wage when they face minimal low-wage competition, which is affected by the political institutions regulating industrial action, collective agreements, and employment, as well as by the skill and wage levels of their members. When political institutions effectively regulate low-wage competition, unions oppose the minimum wage. When political institutions are less favorable toward unions, there may be a cleavage between high- and low-wage unions in their minimum wage preferences. The argument is illustrated with case studies of the UK, Germany, and Sweden. The author demonstrates how the regulation of low-wage competition affects unions’ minimum wage preferences by exploiting the following labor market institutional shocks: the Conservatives’ labor law reforms in the UK, the Hartz labor market reforms in Germany, and the European Court of Justice's Laval ruling in Sweden. The importance of union preferences for minimum wage adoption is also shown by how trade union confederation preferences influenced the position of the Labour Party in the UK and the Social Democratic Party in Germany.

The NLRB, in a significant ruling for organized labor, recently ruled that employees who are forced to pay union dues are entitled to know how their money is being spent. The NLRB ruled in January 1997 that unions must supply financial information to workers who pay dues but who have elected not to join the union. The use of union dues for political activity continues to be a controversial issue for both public and private unions. This paper will provide a brief overview of the legal history of unions in America and the current issues they are encountering. Legal issues relating to the use of union dues for political activities for both public and private unions will also be discussed.

This article considers emergent cultures of activism among young people in the labor movement. The authors question whether unions should reconsider creating different forms of organization to make themselves relevant to new generations of workers. Our comparative case study research from the United States, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom—where young people are engaged in “alter-activism” and unions have successfully recruited and included young workers—shows that there is potential for building alliances between trade unions and other social movements. The authors suggest that emerging cultures of activism provide unions with a way of appealing to wider and more diverse constituencies.

The aim of this research note is to begin to develop the idea that trade unions are historically constructed as much through considerations of social identity as they are through calculations of economic self-interest, market power, or functional adaptation in the face of changes in the division of labor. By social identity, I mean the desire for group distinction, dignity, and place within historically specific discourses (or frames of understanding) about the character, structure, and boundaries of the polity and the economy. Institutions such as trade unions, in other words, are constituted through and by particular understandings of the structure of the social and political worlds of which they are part. In making this argument, it should be immediately said that I in no way intend to claim that trade unions are only to be understood through the lens of identity or that they do not engage in strategic calculation either in labor markets or in the broader political economy. The point is that action along the latter lines presupposes some kind of commitment on, and even resolution of, issues concerning the former. The discussion below focuses on the emergence of trade union movements in the United States and Germany during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It Attempts first to develope the two cases as constituting a paradox and then, second, explains the paradox with an argument about identity.

AbstractThe Schuman Plan to “pool” the coal and steel industries of Western Europe has been widely celebrated as the founding document of today’s European Union. An expansive historiography has developed around the plan but labor and workers are largely absent from existing accounts, even though the sectors targeted for integration, coal and steel, are traditionally understood as centers of working-class militancy and union activity in Europe. Existing literature generally considers the role coal and steel industries played as objects of the Schuman Plan negotiations but this article reverses this approach. It examines instead how labor politics in the French Nord and Pas-de-Calais and the German Ruhr, core industrial regions, influenced the positions adopted by two prominent political parties, the French Socialist and German Social Democratic parties, on the integration of European heavy industry. The empirical material combines archival research in party and national archives with findings from regional histories of the Nord/Pas-de-Calais, the Ruhr, and their local socialist party chapters, as well as from historical and sociological research on miners and industrial workers. The article analyses how intense battles between socialists and communists for the allegiance of coal and steel workers shaped the political culture of these regions after the war and culminated during a mass wave of strikes in 1947–1948. The divergent political outcomes of these battles in the Nord/Pas-de-Calais and the Ruhr, this article contends, strongly contributed to the decisions of the French Socialist Party to support and the German Social Democratic Party to oppose the Schuman Plan in 1950.

In this article, the authors consider the findings of a multi-year, case study-based research project on young workers and the labor movement in four countries: France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The authors examine the conditions under which young workers actively engage in contemporary labor movements. Although the industrial relations context matters, the authors find the most persuasive explanations to be agency-based. Especially important are the relative openness and active encouragement of unions to the leadership development of young workers, and the persistence and creativity of groups of young workers in promoting their own engagement. Embodying labor’s potential for movement building and resistance to authoritarianism and right-wing populism, young workers offer hope for the future if unions can bring them aboard.

Political opportunity theory suggests that social movement organizations will increase political action efforts during times of opportunity, such as economic crises. On the other hand, business cycle theory predicts that economic crisis will be detrimental to unions, reducing membership and subsequently dues and power. This dissertation involves historical case studies of innovative and conservative labor unions, comparing organizational behavior during the Great Depression and the economic crisis of 2008. The dissertation also includes a QCA analysis of ten labor unions' political, organizing, and bargaining activity during the crisis of 2008. How do labor unions adjust their organizing strategies during an economic crisis? What tactics do unions use to redefine their role in the economy through social policy? What organizational characteristics define unions' varied responses to the crisis? This research found that characteristics consistent with organizational flexibility were consistent with the ability to identify and respond to the political opportunity present in economic crisis. While some unions decreased bargaining and organizing activity to shift resources towards political activity, this was not always the case. It also contributes a systematic description and analysis of typical labor union political activity. The data suggest that leader-based political action is a primary locus of activity, demanding further investigation into the varied campaigns and strategies unions take. More research is necessary to understand the interaction between the organizational political activity of labor unions and the political beliefs of union members.

Labor unions have played an important role in Latin American society. This is particularly true in Argentine, where the labor union movement gained strength in 1946 under the populist government of Juan Domingo Peron. When Carlos Menem, from the Peronist party, assumed presidency in 1989, the CGT, Argentina's labor confederation, expected traditional populism to return. Instead, Menem abandoned populism and aligned with the Conservative right to implement a neoliberal agenda. This thesis explores the processes by which Argentine labor unions lost strength during the dual processes of democratization and market reforms. By analyzing the CGT since Menem become president, this study attempts to explain the role of labor unions under democracy, and the relationship between organized labor and government in the context of economic reforms and political transformation. Furthermore, this thesis argues that the decline of the CGT resulted form the implementation of neoliberal reforms.

In the early twentieth century industrial, political, and social conflicts occurred throughout the United States during a period of rapid industrialization and modernization. Examples of these disputes, such as labor strikes and political struggles, have frequently been the subjects of scholarly investigations. Yet certain aspects of these conflicts remain relatively unknown, particularly on the community and local levels. The purpose of the present study was to explore and provide the context for a better understanding of the motives behind the responses of antiradicals to left-wing radicalism. What were some of the social, cultural, and economic motivations of local antiradicals in the city of Portland from 1917 to 1941?

Like its counterparts in other provinces, the Alberta New Democratic Party has a formal relationship with organized labour. This thesis will examine the logic of the underlying relationship that persists between the two parties despite the difficult political and economic environment in Alberta. This thesis will discuss the complex and changing relationship between labour and the NDP in Alberta, making use of data from a variety of sources, but will rely heavily on data gathered from a series of interviews conducted with union and party officials in 2008. The thesis will deal particularly with the increasing fragmentation of the union movement in Alberta and the increasing independence of labour union campaigns during elections as challenges for the Alberta NDP in the future.
vi, 176 leaves ; 29 cm

This thesis examines the reaction of organized labour to Quebec separatist nationalism for the period between 1960, the year of the creation of the Rassemblement pour l'independance nationale and the beginning of the Quiet Revolution in Quebec, and 1980, the year of the first referendum on Quebec's constitutional status. The thesis investigates four labour organizations: the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), the Federation des travailleurs et travailleuses du Quebec (FTQ), the Confederation des syndicats nationaux (CSN), and the Centrale de l'enseignement du Quebec (CEQ). It shows in which ways the positions of the four centrals have been informed by their members' national identifications and the emotional and cognitive mechanisms that resulted from these identifications.

During most of the 1960s, the CSN was both an advocate of provincial autonomy and a defender of federalism. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, however, a majority of its leaders and militants came to favour separatism. Many of them saw independence as a precondition for the creation of a socialist Quebec. In 1972, the CSN rejected capitalism, endorsed socialism, and envisaged an internal referendum on the independence issue. The internal debate, however, took place only after the Parti quebecois was elected to power in 1976. Fearing internal divisions and disaffiliations, the CSN did not endorse separatism. Being disappointed with the Parti quebecois' governmental record, the CSN was content to give a critical support to a yes vote in the referendum in 1980.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2001.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: During the course of the 20th century the press played an absolutely crucial role as a source of information, a medium of communication and propaganda, educator, critic, public watchdog and in forming and influencing opinion. In this respect the press may also be regarded as a reflection of South African society. This study investigates the role that the press played and the influence that it exercised in the political and economic mobilisation of the organised labour movement during the period 1908 to 1924. In view of the racial divisions that have prevailed in South Africa, the focus here is specifically on the white labour movement, because it was this manifestation of the organised labour force that virtually dominated the first few decades of the twentieth century. During this time the black labour movement was still to a large extent under-developed and began to emerge only around the 1920s. Organised labour flourished during the period under review. This period is characterised as one of political turbulence, as well as of large scale and serious industrial unrest, as part of the cathartic process in which the relationship between the state and its subjects in the field of labour took shape. The study adopts as its point of departure the year 1908, when the National Convention began its deliberations on the unification of South Africa, which in turn led to the official founding of the South African Labour Party in October 1909. The Labour Party operated independently until 1924, when the alliance between the National Party and the Labour Party won the election held in that year and formed the Pact coalition government. From an economic point of view there were two clear positions. On the one hand, there were the so-called establishment press organizations. These included Afrikaans-language newspapers, although - because of their ethnic commitments - they were strongly in favour of the protection of the economic position of the Afrikaner workers. On the other hand, there were anti-capitalist press organisations that wished to promote proactive steps in favour of the workers, which in tum often resulted in industrial conflict in the form of strikes. These tensions in the economic terrain spilled over into the political sphere elections, and here too the press played a central role in the often tense relationship between state and subject. In order to understand a meaningful analysis of the social role of the press, the following press organs and study materials were selected: The Star was the mouthpiece of the powerful Witwatersrand gold-mining industry. Die Burger and Ons Vaderland played a great role in the political and economic mobilisation of the Afrikaner working class whose sympathies lay with the National Party. The following labour-orientated and socialist papers reflected and interpreted the political and economic points of view of the labour movement in the period 1908 - 1924: Voice of Labour, The Worker, The Eastern Record, The Evening Chronicle, The War on War Gazette, The International, The Labour World, The Bolshevik and The Guardian. In addition, the role of a number of extremist strike newspapers In mobilising workers during the strikes of 1913, 1914 and 1922, is also investigated. The press played an important role in exposing a number of cardinal issues that dominated the discourse within the labour movement to greater public criticism and discussion. The effect of this was to raise the struggle between labour and capital for hegemony in the political and economic life of South Africa - as happened every time during election campaigns - to the level of the national political debate. Furthermore, the press, and specifically the right-wing labour and left-wing socialist press organs, also reflected the deep ideological divisions in the labour movement. In this respect, it was particularly the views of these press organs on race and the place of black people in the industrial dispensation that determined and influenced their political creeds. The mobilising power of the press was vividly illustrated by the strike papers. By propounding militant extremism these papers often succeeded in sweeping up industrial unrest among workers to the level of violence, which meant that the authorities were compelled to suppress these publications by means of martial law proclamations. It is probable that the SALP, and especially the socialist organisations, on the periphery of the political spectrum, would not have survived for long in South African politics without the communicative support of their mouthpieces.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Gedurende die 20ste eeu het die pers, as bron van inligting, kommunikasie- en propagandamedium, opvoeder, kritikus, openbare waghond en meningsvormer en -beihvloeder, 'n uiters belangrike samelewingsrol vertolk. In hierdie opsig kan die pers ook as 'n weerspieeling van die Suid-Afrikaanse samelewing beskou word. Hierdie studie ondersoek die rol wat die pers gespeel het en die invloed wat dit as openbare memngsvormer met betrekking tot die politieke en ekonomiese mobilisasie van die georganiseerde arbeiderbeweging gedurende die tydperk 1908 tot 1924 uitgeoefen het. Gegewe die historiese rasseverdeeldheid in Suid-Afrika, is daar spesifiek op die blanke arbeiderbeweging gekonsentreer, aangesien dit die arbeidsterrein gedurende die eerste paar dekades van die twintigste eeu feitlik oorheers het. Die swart arbeiderbeweging was in daardie stadium nog grootliks onderontwikkeld en het eers om en by die twintigerjare begin ontwaak. Die betrokke tydperk was 'n tydperk van hoogbloei VIr die georganiseerde blanke arbeiderbeweging. Dit word veral gekenmerk as 'n tydperk van politieke onstuirnigheid, asook van groot en ernstige endemiese nywerheidsonrus en konflik, as dee 1van 'n katarsis waardeur die verhouding tussen staat en onderdaan op die arbeidsterrein uitgekristalliseer het. Die vertrekpunt van die studie is 1908, toe die sittings van die Nasionale Konvensie met die oog op die unifikasie van Suid-Afrika 'n aanvang geneem het en ook aanleiding gegee het tot die amptelike stigting van die Suid-Afrikaanse Arbeidersparty in Oktober 1909. Dit strek tot 1924, toe die verkiesingsalliansie van die Nasionale Party en die Arbeidersparty die oorwinning by die stembus behaal en die Pakt-koalisieregering gevorm het. Vanuit 'n ekonomiese oogpunt gesien, was daar twee duidelike stellingnamens. Enersyds was daar die sogenaamde establishment-persorgane. Hieronder ressorteer ook Afrikaanstalige koerante, alhoewel hulle as gevolg van 'n etniese verbondenheid sterk ten gunste van die beskerming van die ekonomiese posisie van die Afrikanerwerkers was. Andersyds was daar anti-kapitalistiese persorgane wat 'n pro-aktiewe optrede ten behoewe van die werkers, wat dikwels op nywerheidskonflik in die vorm van stakings uitgeloop het wou bevorder. Hierdie gespannenheid op ekonomiese terrein het oorgespoel na die politieke sfeer van verkiesings en ook daarin het die pers, in die dikwels gespanne verhouding tussen owerheid en onderdaan, 'n sentrale rol gespeel. Ten einde 'n sinvolle ontleding van die samelewingsrol van die pers te kon doen, is die volgende persorgane as studiemateriaal geselekteer: The Star was die mondstuk van die magtige kapitalistiese, Witwatersrandse goudmynindustrie. Die Burger en Ons Vaderland het 'n groot rol in die politieke en ekonomiese mobilisasie van die Nasionaalgesinde Afrikanerwerkersklas vervul. Die volgende arbeider- en sosialistiese blaaie het die politieke en ekonomiese uitgangspunte van die arbeiderbeweging in die tydperk 1908 tot 1924 weerspieel en vertolk: Voice of Labour, The Worker, The Eastern Record, The Evening Chronicle, The War on War Gazette, The International, The Labour World, The Bolshevik en The Guardian. Daarby is ook die mobiliseringsrol wat 'n aantal ekstremistiese stakersblaaie in die stakings van 1913, 1914 en 1922 gespeel het, ondersoek. Die pers het 'n belangrike rol gespeel om 'n aantal kardinale kwessies, wat die diskoers binne die arbeidergeledere oorheers het, ook aan groter openbare kritiek en bespreking bloot te stel. Sodoende is die stryd tussen arbeid en kapitaal om die hegemonie van die Suid-Afrikaanse politieke en ekonomiese lewe byvoorbeeld telkens tydens verkiesingsveldtogte tot die nasionale debat verhef. Daarbenewens het die pers, spesifiek by monde van die regse arbeider- en linkse sosialistiese persorgane, ook die diepe ideologiese verdeeldheid in arbeidergeledere weerspieel. In hierdie opsig was dit veral hulle rassebeskouings en die posisie van die swart man in die nywerheidsbestel wat die politieke credo van hierdie persorgane bepaal en befuvloed het. Die mobiliseringsmag van die pers is treffend dem stakerblaaie gemustreer. Dem militante ekstremisme te verkondig, kon sodanige blaaie dikwels daarin slaag om nywerheidsonrus onder werkers tot die vlak van geweld op te sweep sodat die owerheid dan genoop was om hierdie publikasies dem middel van Krygswetproklamasies te onderdruk. Synde op die periferie van die politieke spektrum, sou die SAAP, en veral die sosia1istiese organisasies, sonder kommunikatiewe ondersteuning van hulle spreekbuise waarskynlik slegs 'n kortstondige politieke bestaan in die Suid-Afrikaanse politiek gevoer het.

The chapter reconstructs the parallel emergence of Germany’s corporatist industrial relations and of the Bismarckian welfare state. It traces the influence that the parity representation of organized labor and organized capital on the self-government boards of the various social insurance schemes had (1) on union organization and organizational development, and (2) on the system of corporatist regulation of work and welfare that started to emerge in Germany in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The chapter argues that the principle of self-administration of the various social insurance schemes was decisive for the development of German unions into industrial unions, and that it provided both capital and labor with extremely important organizational resources which helped in the creation and then stabilization of corporatist coordination between both. It also provided the responsible ministry with a blueprint for regulating industrial conflict.

The first chapter motivates the book’s central research question: how did the German variant of capitalism emerge, and what today is its central functioning logic? The chapter argues that past and recent accounts of Germany’s economic performance and economic policy have failed to fully explain how long-term stable economic coordination could have evolved in as large a country as Germany, and that this has also translated into an often biased view of Germany’s current economic policies. The chapter sketches the basic argument of the book—namely that the German welfare state was the prime means of economic coordination for unions and employers, labor and capital—and situates it in two relevant literatures: the Varieties of Capitalism literature on the one hand and the Comparative Welfare State literature on the other. The chapter also presents an overview of the book.

Chapter 3 argues that the cooperation in the interwar period between, economically, unions and employers and, politically, between Social and Christian Democracy, estranged the liberal Protestant camp from its former pet project, social reform. An important consequence of this estrangement was the birth of ordoliberalism. Ordoliberalism, however, was much less influential in the postwar period than usually claimed. It legitimized a politics of non-intervention, which rather left a void for the corporate actors to fill, so it involuntarily furthered corporatism, not liberalism. Otherwise it provided the inability of the central state to actively manage the economy with a post hoc ideological justification. Thus, Germany’s postwar compromise was “bipolar,” combining corporatist cooperation between capital and labor, heavily reliant on the organizational and material resources of the welfare state, with a central government with limited capacity for macroeconomic steering and without the means of credibly issuing promises of full employment (as the main difference in comparison to the Scandinavian cases).

This chapter discusses the criminal responsibility of the Nazis for their violations of German domestic law, including the suppression of labor organizations and political parties. It first considers the expected plea by the Nazi Defense that the war crimes of which the prisoners are accused were in fact authorized by the laws of the Third Reich. It then shows how—and under what pretexts—the Nazis went about the organization of their system of terror. In particular, it emphasizes the role of the police as an instrument of repression and notes that the opposition parties were driven underground, the elections were rigged, and the trade unions were taken over. The chapter examines two types of agencies employed by Nazi Germany: the “legal terror,” which operated by way of the courts and the application of Nazi laws, and the police and organizational terror, which applied force directly.

As the Red Army fought its way back west, it discovered a devastated land: thousands of villages burnt to the ground; Jewish civilians, along with those accused of partisan activity or Soviet sympathies, lying dead; and millions of young people sent to Germany as slave labor. Party activists were faced with reintegrating survivors and rebuilding the economy. In western Ukraine, Belorussia, and the Baltic states, nationalist guerrillas continued to fight against Soviet power. NKVD officials carried out “filtration” to identify active collaborators, and the Party and unions reviewed all members who sought reinstatement. The newly freed inhabitants were incorporated into the ration system and subject to mobilization for labor and the army. Many resisted mobilization, especially for work on distant sites, and rebuilding was complicated by nationwide shortages. The German High Command finally surrendered on May 8, 1945. People streamed into the streets to celebrate, dance, embrace, and toast the victory. Although reconstruction would continue for years, the war at last was over.

In the twenties of the twentieth century to France arrived almost half million crowd of Polish emigration. Women largely accompanied traveling for work husbands but was there a single Polish women who decided abandon the family home and go out to another country in search of a work. Unemployed women was active on the social field. They organized a care on children, elders and care on Polish local and religious tradition. Economical crisis and arrival behind him labor strikes, threat of fascism, victory of the Popular Front and outbreak civil war in Spain meant that women themselves or through their husbands began to get involved in political and union activity. With poor education they did not read the classics leftist but political awareness gained standing under factories where strikes their husbands fighting with police and strike breakers. In period of German occupation they participated in strikes of houswifes. “Instead watch of pots” – like say one of French policeman they mingled to policy. After war they spread propaganda for a communist government in Poland. They lead agitation for a came back to country and restoration a country, believing that they built a equitable system for all. These women despite the lack of education, traditional education could motivate their neighbors to act, even if it is limited only to a closed Polish community. They went beyond the space of your own home to other women with whom co-created organizations, they take public voice, argued their political choices and to cooperate were acquiring another compatriot. It was not a feminist revolution, more faith in the power of women passed from mother to daughter, and refusal to hunger and insecurity of their offspring.

This chapter demonstrates how, over the following decade, leaders of the old judiciary and the old labor unions attempted to find resolution to the class conflict that had pitched their forces against each other during the Weimar years, ultimately laying the foundation for the constitutional consensus of a post-Nazi, Western Germany in 1948. This constitutional consensus enabled partnership between the two largest political parties in Western-occupied Germany: the rebranded Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the new Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which together received the vast majority of votes in the elections for a constitutional convention in Bonn. Despite their bitter differences on questions of economic and cultural policy, the leaders of these two parties were in near unanimous agreement that the will of the people as represented in a democratic parliament should not be sovereign, and that an unelected, elite judiciary should be able to review and strike down legislation whenever found to be unconstitutional.

This chapter explores both sides of the country's deep-seated class conflict, which revealed itself in a public debate about constitutional democracy between the highest levels of the judiciary and the leaders of Germany's powerful labor unions. Legal theorists often emphasize the importance of reaching consensus on moral principles for the stability of a constitutional system. In Germany, that consensus did not exist. The political representatives whom Germans elected after the Great War to draft a constitution could agree that the new German state should be a republic as opposed to a monarchy. However, they could not find common ground regarding as foundational a question as the authority of the three branches of government and their proper relationship to one another. Most important, minds diverged on whether the state should embrace parliamentary supremacy: the idea that the legislative branch, not the judicial or executive, should enjoy final authority in national decision making.