Industrial actions and trade unions in Germany, England and France. Comparison of strikes and strike waves from 1870 to 1913.

“Strike waves represent the conflict potential of the industrializing process and the regulatory needs not only for the industrial working relations but for the entire society. Strike waves occur periodically and are characterized by organizationally innovative, spontaneous, often euphoric protest actions that not least through their production of symbolic conflict and expression forms entered deeply in the consciousness and behavior of the working class… The present study tends to identify scope, importance and internal dynamics of European industrial actions around 1890, which formed a new international spirit of solidarity of a broad working class and induced the organizational breakthrough of trade unions in Germany and the ‘new unionism’ in England. Given the surprising parallelism of these developments on the one hand and the extraordinary divergence of political and trade union systems on the other hand the question arises how it could come to such a comparable, parallel happening strike and organization wave, and which similarities emerged from the initially-stated coexistence or which similarities were formed by political action and how the movements fall apart again through their nation-state confinement” (Boll, a. a. O., p. 62 f). The research question of this study is about the syndicalisation in terms of union integration of strikes that occurred during the strike wave and was quickened by this wave. The national, regional or branch-specific strikes should be measured according to the research question. Starting point of the deliberations of the first chapter (I. national conflict schemes and international trends, comparison of strikes and strike waves) is the different conceptualization of national working class movements, those that were responsible for the strike waves in England and France and for the continuous changes of the industrial actions in Germany. The chapter is based on statistical material that is presented in three overviews – Germany, England and France –in the appendix of the study (variables: number of strikes, participants, members of trade unions). Many tables in the first chapter complement these country overviews. The present data selection in HISTAT is only based on the tables from the appendix and from the first chapter, which provide empirical evidence for international comparison of strikes and strike waves. Data tables in HISTAT: A. Tables from the appendix A.01 Strikes, directly involved persons and union members in England (1870-1913) A.02 Strikes, directly involved persons and union members in France (1870-1913) A.03 Strikes, directly involved persons and union members in Germany (1870-1913) B. National conflict structures and international trends: Comparison of strikes and strike waves B.01 Typology of Industrial actions, annual data (1899-1975) B.02 Number of Industrial actions, of directly involved persons and days not worked per year in England, France and Germany (1888-1914) B.03a,b Sectoral breakdown of the strikers I, II: England, France and Germany (1888-1914) B.04 Participation, duration and success quotes in Germany (1871-1875) B.05 Duration and success quotes of strike waves in England, France and Germany, minima and maxima (1870-1913) B.06 Frequency and participation in strike waves in England, France and Germany (1870-1919) B.07 Proportion of economic sectors on the waves of strikes in England, France and Germany (1899-1914)