History 301
Spring 2000
Prof. Koenker

European Labor in the 1920s: Germany and Britain

April 7, 2000



I. The Problem of post-war labor: reform or revolution?

A. National trajectories
B. Communist Internationalism (Comintern)

II. Postwar Germany

A. Weimar settlement
B. Revolutionary moment of 1923

1. Political crisis
2. Decline in labor militancy
3. Failed insurrection of 1923
4. Comintern policy of "united front from below"

III. Revolutionary Great Britain

A. Militant moments in British history: 1921, 1924
B. General strike of 1926

1. Role of labor
2. Role of capital
3. Outcome and lessons




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