Cortona Colloquium: Strikes, Social Conflict, and World War I

Abstract

An international colloquium, Strikes, Social Conflict and World War I: Ita ly, France, Germany, Russia, Great Britain, was held at Cortona, Italy, from June 9 through June 13, 1986. The primary sponsor of the colloquium was the Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli. Leopold Haimson of both the Harriman Institute of Columbia University and the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, and Giulio Sapelli of the Fondazione Feltrinelli, opened the scholarly delibera tions. Fifty people were in attendance, thirty of whom gave papers. Each par ticipant spoke in his or her native language; simultaneous translation was pro vided. Because the papers had been submitted beforehand, each participant presented a fifteen-minute summary at the appropriate session. The summa ries were followed by discussion. Originally, sessions on the following topics had been planned: Compara tive Studies; Strikes; Politics and Revolution; State Policy and Social Conflict; Territory and Industrial Sectors. However, once the colloquium was con vened, it seemed more appropriate to organize the sessions around the five countries involved. The papers, nevertheless, reflected a concern with various aspects of the original topics. Several major themes were examined by the colloquium. One issue about which the body could not agree was whether or not all strikes are political in character. Some maintained that all strikes are political, whereas others main tained that some are purely economic. It was concluded that strikes are one of an arsenal of weapons that the claimants have available to them. The conse quences of the claims can vary considerably from one circumstance to another. In many European countries, strikes have served as a warning, as a way of demonstrating that thousands support a particular cause. Addressing the question of how strike statistics are to be assessed in terms of measuring unrest and protest, it was concluded that they are a product of interaction: in the long run, they represent the residue of what has not been agreed to through the bargaining process between capitalists, workers, and the managers of the state. Most strikes that could have happened did not happen because demands were dealt with in other ways. It was agreed that it is not pos sible to isolate strikes from the rest of the continuum of the other activities of