2025-03-18
https://www.nytimes.com, 3/17/2025
“This article examines links between labor unrest and ethnic/racial conflict in urban America around the turn of the 20th century. It explores the hypothesis that the two kinds of collective action—strikes and ethnic/racial conflict—were linked by their joint dependence on two processes.”
“In the first process, a rise in immigration led to an increase in ethnic/racial competition in labor markets that, in turn, raised rates of ethnic conflict. In the second, immigration also led to the proliferation of national labor unions.”
“Did strikes affect the extent of ethnic and racial conflicts in late 19th- and early 20th-century America? If so, How?”
“How did the level of labor unrest influence the nature and frequency of ethnic/racial conflict?”
“This period witnessed peaks in the rates of formation of national unions, an enormous increase in immigration, and waves of strikes and ethnic/racial confrontations.”
“Many documentary reports of racial confrontations suggest that strikes and ethnic/racial conflict were causally connected.”
“More than 100 negro women were at work in the white goods factory of Mitchell Brothers on the ninth floor of 543 Broadway yesterday when three men entered, drew revolvers, and fired at the ceiling…. The members of the firm said that the garment workers’ union was responsible for the outrage. When their operators walked out in a recent strike they employed negro women as strikebreakers, and, when the strike ended, retained them.”
“In a fight to-day between white and black dock laborers employed on the Western Transit Company’s wharfs, growing out of antagonism which had developed since the Springfield riots, five men were injured and the police restored order only after a free use of clubs and threats to shoot.”
“Competition for jobs intensified when the supply of low-wage labor from immigration or black migration increased. Under such conditions of increased ethnic/racial competition, there was an eruption of attacks on the least powerful minorities.”
“Ethnic antagonism peaks under conditions of a split labor market… where there are two or more ethnic or racial populations ‘whose price of labor differs for the same work, or would differ if they did the same work.’”
“Immigration provided a reserve army of low-wage workers whose presence undercut the power of unions and the effectiveness of strikes.”
“Immigrants and black migrants diminished the power of unions directly when they served as strikebreakers. More subtle pressure on the labor movement came because migrant blacks and immigrants were willing to work for lower wages or for longer hours than native-born whites.”
“The division between skilled and unskilled workers also coincided approximately with ethnic/racial distinctions. Because the alternative sources of labor were members of other ethnic or racial populations, economic self-interest often led to antiblack and antiforeigner hostilities.”
“Native-born whites and earlier immigrant groups (such as Germans and Irish) were more likely to be part of the trade union movement than blacks and southern, central, and eastern Europeans.”
“Increases in immigration also encouraged the founding of national labor unions during this period. While national labor unions recruited and received strong support from various ethnic populations, most unions participated vigorously in lobbying and campaigns designed to restrict further immigration.”
“The number and scope of national organizations associated with a social movement increase the movement’s ability to mobilize members, extend its longevity, resist failure, and influence national policy.”
“Adding number of unions and foundings does reduce the effect of strikes considerably. In fact, all seven estimates of the effect of strike frequency are insignificant once indicators of the organizational strength of the union movement have been included in the models.”
“The growth of unions affects attacks on blacks whether they are violent or not, and nonviolent conflicts, no matter which ethnic group is the target.”
“Growth in the number of national unions from the minimum of 31 to a maximum of 183 produced a 20-fold increase in the rate of attacks on blacks.”
“Union organization raised rates of attacks on blacks while it depressed the rate of conflict involving other groups. This difference agrees with the common claim that attacks on blacks and attacks on immigrants had different sources.”
“Change in immigration (of mostly white southern, central, and eastern Europeans) increased the rate of antiblack events.”
“Sharp increases in immigration have a stronger effect on rates of antiblack violence than on rates of violence against other groups or on rates of nonviolent events.”
“The central claim—that models that included measures of the organizational dynamics of the labor movement would temper any effects found for strike activity—was supported in the case of antiblack activity whether violent or not.”
“These findings suggest that, during this period, antiblack activity coincided with the growth of American unions, which provided the organizational bases for other kinds of collective actions.”
“Although surges in immigration provided an initial shift in competition for jobs, the targets of ethnic hostilities were not inevitably the white immigrants who were the source of much of that competition. The groups that tip the threshold of ethnic competition are not necessarily the victims of the hostility it generates.”
Let’s hear from: Qing, Nadia, Kierstyn, Ava
Harff & Gurr’s Distinction:
“The difference between genocide and politicide is in the characteristics by which members of the group are identified by the state. In genocides the victimized groups are defined primarily in terms of their communal characteristics, i.e., ethnicity, religion, or nationality. In politicides the victim groups are defined primarily in terms of their hierarchical position or political opposition to the regime and dominant groups.”
Olzak’s Distinction:
“Strikes supposedly reflect economic interests, while ethnic conflicts reflect ‘primordial,’ that is, ethnic or national, loyalties.”
Let’s hear from: Tucker, Dillon, Danielle, Ariana
Olzak on Ethnic Competition:
“Ethnic competition raises rates of ethnic conflict. In particular, during this period, competition for jobs intensified when the supply of low-wage labor from immigration or black migration increased.”
Harff & Gurr on Xenophobic Genocide:
“Mass murders of ethnically, religiously, or nationally distinct groups in the service of doctrines of national protection or social purification which define the victims as alien and threatening.”
Harff & Gurr’s Framework:
“By our definition, genocides and politicides are the promotion and execution of policies by a state or its agents which result in the deaths of a substantial portion of a group.”
Olzak’s Framework:
“Bonacich (1972) suggests that a surge in ethnic/racial conflict occurs where there are two or more ethnic or racial populations ‘whose price of labor differs for the same work, or would differ if they did the same work.’”
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Let’s hear from: Andrew, Derya, Patrick, Victoria
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How do economic conditions shape labor unrest, ethnic conflict and genocides/politicides?
What role do organizational resources play in enabling collective violence?
How does state involvement differ across different forms of collective violence? What other kinds of organizations matter?
What are the connections between “lesser” forms of ethnic conflict and more extreme manifestations like genocide?