Heroic Defeats Research Articles

We are the League

Unlike the joyous celebrations that accompany Independence Day in the USA, the Chinese New Year or Australia Day, Europe Day is unlikely to be marked by exuberant street parades, sumptuous picnics or spectacular fireworks displays. In fact, few Europeans will even be aware that 9 May celebrates the anniversary of Robert Schumann's proposal for a unified Europe. Within the EU's member states, national celebrations such as Bastille Day still attract far more solemnity, military bombast and public gaiety, for it is undeniable that the European project is miserably unloved by the vast majority of its citizens. As scientists we are accustomed to the concept that our colleagues in other countries—even on other continents—are esteemed and valued partners in the quest for knowledge. Nevertheless, most of us tend to regard the inducements to collaboration offered by Brussels with something between scorn and bitter indignation. We simply do not like being marshalled into doing the things that we love doing anyway; and we rightly value a principled argument more highly than a concerted action. The risible reputation of EU science funding among most …

War Memorials and Memories: Comparing the Philippines and South Korea

This paper draws from international relations, comparative politics, and Asian Studies in an effort to compare war memorials and memories in the Philippines and South Korea. The analysis begins with a description of how memorials in both countries pursue a conventional narrative of glorious victories, heroic defeats, and sacred ground. The focus then shifts to counter‐narratives that have challenged the USA and American General Douglas MacArthur. The comparisons reveal a desire for sovereignty in both the Philippines and South Korea, but also differences in heritage and geopolitical circumstances that shape relations with the USA. South Korea possesses an older and more warlike birthright than the Philippines and has developed a national identity increasingly separate from North Korea. Filipino memories, conversely, are steeped in Catholic spirituality.

A Heroic Defeat: The Caterpillar Labor Dispute and the UAW, 1991-1998

In "The Caterpillar Labor Dispute and the UAW, 1991-1998," Isaac Cohen contests the popular notion that the UAW's dispute with Caterpillar resulted in a major defeat for the union. He states that the struggle's outcome did not end in an unconditional union surrender because the UAW obtained a contract that was considerably better than the company's imposed terms and conditions during the dispute. Cohen argues that had the UAW International adopted a different strategy during this dispute the union would have experienced a more favorable outcome. I challenge Cohen's views and argue that, although the UAW membership launched heroic and militant strikes against Caterpillar, the dispute ultimately ended in a decisive union defeat.

A Heroic Defeat: The Caterpillar Labor Dispute and the UAW, 1991-1998

In "The Caterpillar Labor Dispute and the UAW, 1991-1998," Isaac Cohen contests the popular notion that the UAW's dispute with Caterpillar resulted in a major defeat for the union. He states that the struggle's outcome did not end in an unconditional union surrender because the UAW obtained a contract that was considerably better than the company's imposed terms and conditions during the dispute. Cohen argues that had the UAW International adopted a different strategy during this dispute the union would have experienced a more favorable outcome. I challenge Cohen's views and argue that, although the UAW membership launched heroic and militant strikes against Caterpillar, the dispute ultimately ended in a decisive union defeat.

Heroic Defeats: The Politics of Job Loss. By Miriam A. Golden. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. 194p. $59.95 cloth, $21.95 paper.

Heroic Defeats: The Politics of Job Loss. By Miriam A. Golden. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. 194p. $59.95 cloth, $21.95 paper.

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:Jared Bernstein Contingent Work: American Employment Relations in TransitionMichael Rose Workers in a Lean World: Unions in the International EconomyJonathan Winterton Heroic Defeats: The Politics of Job LossJohn Saville A Life on the LeftCatherine Hakim Part‐Time Prospects: An International Comparison of Part‐Time Work in Europe, North America and the Pacific RimAndreas Wittel The Corrosion of Character: The Personal Consequences of Work in the New CapitalismJohn Benson HRM, Technical Workers and the Multinational CorporationMarco C. de Witte New Forms of Work Organisation: Can Europe Realise its Potential?

Heroic Defeats. The Politics of Job Loss

Heroic Defeats. The Politics of Job Loss

Book Review: Labor-Management Relations: Heroic Defeats: The Politics of Job Loss

Book Review: Labor-Management Relations: Heroic Defeats: The Politics of Job Loss

Heroic Defeats: The Politics of Job Loss.

Heroic Defeats: The Politics of Job Loss.

Book Reviews : Heroic Defeats: The Politics of Job Loss. By Miriam A. Golden. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997. 195 pp. $18.95 paper, $59.95 cloth

Book Reviews : Heroic Defeats: The Politics of Job Loss. By Miriam A. Golden. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997. 195 pp. $18.95 paper, $59.95 cloth

Heroic Defeats: The Politics of Job Loss. Miriam Golden

<i>Heroic Defeats: The Politics of Job Loss</i>. Miriam Golden

Heroic defeats: the politics of job loss

Heroic Defeats is a comparative investigation of how unions and firms interact when economic circumstances require substantial job loss. Using simple game theory to generate testable propositions about when these situations will result in industrial conflict, Professor Golden illustrates the theory in a range of situations between 1950 and 1985 in Japan, Italy, and Britain. Additionally, the author shows how the theory explains why strikes over job loss almost never occur in postwar unionised firms in the United States. With its blend of rational choice and comparative politics, Heroic Defeats is the first systematic attempt to account for industrial conflict or its absence in situations of mass job loss. This book should be of interest to political scientists, sociologists, economists, and students of labour and industrial relations, as well as specialists in European and Japanese history.

The Theory of Heroic Defeats: A Mixed Motivation Approach

The category of heroic action is important in both everyday life and the wider social context. This article argues that interest in the notion of heroic actions and heroic defeats also brings out an important set of sociological problems, such as disagreements on identity, norms, and rational choice explanations. Illustrations are provided from recent analyses of union militancy in Britain and Italy, and of the student movement in Beijing. Different versions of the critique of rational choice theory often take norm-guided action as a point of departure. Another version of this critique is represented by theories of new social movements and identity maintenance. The article suggests that rational choice theory is more useful than some of its opponents would have it; yet the general argument favors a mixed motivation approach. The discussion points out some of the strengths and limitations of different explanatory perspectives, and some of the links between them.

The Donbas between Ukraine and Russia: The Use of History in Political Disputes

Historical myths play a particularly important role in the mobilization of ethno-national movements. Elites or 'political entrepreneurs', that is the potential leaders of ethno-nationalist movements and their ideologues, often find that potential members of their target group are politically passive, isolated from one another, and/or more interested in private goals, and therefore difficult to mobilize politically.' Historical myths, however, are an extremely effective means of firming up a target group's collective identity, encouraging group coalescence, and stimulating political mobilization.2 The more effective historical myths help to provide an ethnic group with a sense of its own identity as a historical and political subject, to connect a given group with a sense of its own past (imparting powerful emotional appeal by linking the fate of present generations with that of both ancestors and descendants), and, by relating to the individual's own sense of identity, time and space, helping to make sense of the present. In recent times Serbs have been inspired by the myth of heroic defeat at Kosovo Field as an obvious analogy with their current state of isolation, Balts have idealized their interwar 'democracies', while Belarus'ian nationalists have sought to compensate for their lack of a tradition of statehood by propagating the notion that the Lithuanian kingdom of the Middle Ages was really a Belarus'ian state in disguise (as its court language was Belarus'ian). The power of a historical myth, however, has little to do with actual historical truth, whatever that may be; 'it is historicism, rather than ethnic history itself, which is the essential base for nationalist movements'.3 A given group's historical memory is a secondary phenomenon shaped by how the past is constantly being reinterpreted in the present, as much as by what 'actually happened' in the past.4 Moreover, the academics, politicians and poets

Blutmai 1929: Police, Parties and Proletarians in a Berlin Confrontation

In May 1929 illegal Communist demonstrations in Berlin led to several days' fighting as the Prussian police sought to restore order. Over thirty civilians were killed. Communist publications hailed events as an heroic defeat, in which lessons had been learned for the ‘final struggle’ to come; the Social Democrats hailed a decisive victory over Bolshevik aggression. Liberals expressed concern at the soverity of police action; National Socialists expressed sinister satisfaction at a significant portent of the distintegration of social and political stability. Above all, the dramatic events of Blutmai (‘Bloody May’) reinforced an element of emotional tension in Weimar and Prussian politics of great importance in understanding the final collapse of 1933.