DOCSLIB.ORG

Women's Struggle Under the Practice of Patriarchy in Alice Nannup's When

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Women's Struggle Under the Practice of Patriarchy in Alice Nannup's When PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI WOMEN’S STRUGGLE UNDER THE PRACTICE OF PATRIARCHY IN ALICE NANNUP’S WHEN THE PELICAN LAUGHED AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters By Gavin Anditya Putra Student Number: 114214079 ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2016 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI WOMEN’S STRUGGLE UNDER THE PRACTICE OF PATRIARCHY IN ALICE NANNUP’S WHEN THE PELICAN LAUGHED AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters By Gavin Anditya Putra Student Number: 114214079 ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2016 ii PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis WOMEN’S STRUGGLE UNDER THE PRACTICE OF PATRIARCHY IN ALICE NANNUP’S WHEN THE PELICAN LAUGHED By Gavin Anditya Putra Student Number: 114214079 Approved by Sri Mulyani Ph.D 15 September 2016 Advisor Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka M.Hum 15 September 2016 Co. Advisor iii PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis WOMEN’S STRUGGLE UNDER THE PRACTICE OF PATRIARCHY IN ALICE NANNUP’S WHEN THE PELICAN LAUGHED By GAVIN ANDITYA PUTRA Student Number: 114214079 Defended before the Board of Examiners on September 26, 2016 and Declared Acceptable BOARD OF EXAMINERS Name Signature Chairperson : Dr. Fx. Siswadi M.A Secretary : Sri Mulyani, Ph.D. Member 1 : Maria Ananta Tri S., S.S, M.Ed. Member 2 : Sri Mulyani, Ph.D. Member 3 : Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka M.Hum Yogyakarta, September 30, 2016 Faculty of Letters Sanata Dharma University Dean Dr. P. Ari Subagyo, M. Hum. iv PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS Yand bertanda tangan dibawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma Nama : Gavin Anditya Putra Nomor Mahasiswa : 114214079 Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul WOMEN’S STRUGGLE UNDER THE PRACTICE OF PATRIARCHY IN ALICE NANNUP’S WHEN THE PELICAN LAUGHED Beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin kepada saya maupun memberikan royalty kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis. Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya. Dibuat di Yogyakarta Pada tanggal 10 September 2016 Yang menyatakan, Gavin Anditya Putra v PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY I certify that this undergraduate thesis contains no material which has been previously submitted for the award of any other degree at any university, and that, to the best of my knowledge, this undergraduate thesis contains no material previously written by any other person except where due reference is made in the text of the undergraduate thesis. Yogyakarta, September 10, 2016 Gavin Anditya Putra vi PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI This undergraduate thesis is dedicated to My Mother My Father My Brother vii PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to my thesis advisor, Sri Mulyani Ph.D, who has helped me in writing this thesis. I thank her for the advice, the encouragement and the guidance that she gave to me. I also express my gratitude to Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka M.Hum as co. advisor of my thesis. I thank him for his advice and guidance to complete my thesis. I would also like to thank all the lecturers of English Letters and the staff for the guidance and knowledge that they gave to me since I entered English Letters Department. My special gratitude goes to God, my beloved parents, and my brother, who always give their love and support me in every way, my comrades in arms: Bobob, Ceribo, Hagil, Melan, Nindi, Panji, Patrick, Piwi, Rian, Siman, Tata, Tyok, and Willy, I thank you all for the kindness. I also thank to ‘Eleven’: Afel, Ariya, Ceha, Deas, Dicky, Echo, Ipul, Ismid, Kunthi, and Lulung. viii PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI TABLE OF CONTENTS TITLE PAGE ................................................................................................... ii APPROVAL PAGE ......................................................................................... iii ACCEPTANCE PAGE .................................................................................... iv LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI ............................ v STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY ............................................................... vi DEDICATION PAGE ...................................................................................... vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................. ix ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................... x ABSTRAK ........................................................................................................ xi CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ...................................................................... 1 A. Background of the Study ...................................................................... 1 B. Problem Formulation ............................................................................ 4 C. Objectives of the Study ........................................................................ 4 D. Definition of Terms .............................................................................. 4 CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE .................................................. 6 A. Review of Related Studies ................................................................... 6 B. Review of Related Theories ................................................................. 7 C. Theoretical Framework ....................................................................... 12 CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY .................................................................. 14 A. Object of the Study ............................................................................... 14 B. Approach of the Study .......................................................................... 15 C. Method of the Study ............................................................................. 16 CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS ............................................................................... 18 A. Women and the Practice of Patriarchy in When The Pelican Laughed 18 B. Women’s Response to the “Unfair” Practice of Patriarchy.................. 33 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION .......................................................................... 38 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................... 41 ix PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI ABSTRACT Gavin Anditya Putra. Women’s Struggle Under The Practice of Patriarchy in Alice Nannup’s When The Pelican Laughed. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2016. This study centers on the novel When The Pelican Laughed, written by Alice Nannup with Lauren Marsh and Stephen Kinnane. The novel tells us about the struggle of two main characters, Ngulyi and Alice under the practice of patriarchy in their society. They were described as brave, smart, and tough women who will fight for their rights. There are two objectives in this study: First, to find out the practice of patriarchy that occurs in the novel When The Pelican Laughed; Second, to find out the responses of the two main women characters in facing the practice of patriarchy. The writer applies library research method to gather the data and references for this study and uses feminism approach when analyzing the novel to have a better understanding in reveals the two main women characters in When The Pelican Laughed. From the analysis, the writer reveals some practices of patriarchy that had been experienced by Ngulyi and Alice which oppressed them like a ceremonies that only allowed men to join, a law that allowed men for choosing their mother-in-law and her daughter without permission from them, and bad treatments from the man. The writer also finds the responses toward the practice of patriarchy from the two main characters who are struggling for their rights; they fight over the law and also the men that limit their rights. x PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI ABSTRAK Gavin Anditya Putra. Women’s Struggle Under The Practice of Patriarchy in Alice Nannup’s When The Pelican Laughed. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2016. Penelitian ini berpusat pada novel berjudul When The Pelican Laughed, yang di tulis oleh Alice Nannup beserta Lauren Marsh dan Stephen Kinnane. Novel ini menceritakan tentang perjuangan dua tokoh utamanya, Ngulyi dan Alice di bawah tekanan praktik patriarki yang berada di lingkungan mereka. Ngulyi and alice di gambarkan sebagai wanita pemberani, cerdas, dan kuat yang akan selalu berjuang demi hak nya. Penelitian
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Working-Class Experience in Contemporary Australian Poetry
    The Working-Class Experience in Contemporary Australian Poetry A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Sarah Attfield BCA (Hons) University of Technology, Sydney August 2007 i Acknowledgements Before the conventional thanking of individuals who have assisted in the writing of this thesis, I want to acknowledge my class background. Completing a PhD is not the usual path for someone who has grown up in public housing and experienced childhood as a welfare dependent. The majority of my cohort from Chingford Hall Estate did not complete school beyond Year 10. As far as I am aware, I am the only one among my Estate peers to have a degree and definitely the only one to have attempted a PhD. Having a tertiary education has set me apart from my peers in many ways, and I no longer live on the Estate (although my mother and old neighbours are still there). But when I go back to visit, my old friends and neighbours are interested in my education and they congratulate me on my achievements. When I explain that I’m writing about people like them – about stories they can relate to, they are pleased. The fact that I can discuss my research with my family, old school friends and neighbours is really important. If they couldn’t understand my work there would be little reason for me to continue. My life has been shaped by my class. It has affected my education, my opportunities and my outlook on life. I don’t look back at the hardship with a fuzzy sense of nostalgia, and I will be forever angry at the class system that held so many of us back, but I am proud of my working-class family, friends and neighbourhood.
    [Show full text]
  • Chicago's Torture Machine and Reparations Palestine
    Burma: War vs. the People w Behind Detroit’s Labor History #213 • JULY/AUGUST 2021 • $5 Chicago’s Torture Machine and Reparations w AISLINN PULLEY w MARK CLEMENTS w JOEY MOGUL w LINDA LOEW Palestine — Then and Now w MALIK MIAH w MOSHE MACHOVER w DAVID FINKEL w MERRY MAISEL w DON B. GREENSPON A Letter from the Editors: Infrastructure: Who Needs It? “INFRASTRUCTURE” IS ALL the rage, and not only just now. Trump talked about it, president Obama promised it, and so have administrations going back to the 1980s. Amidst the talk, the United States’ roads and bridges are crumbling, water and sanitation systems faltering, public health services left in a condition that’s only been fully exposed in the coronavirus pandemic, and rapid transit and high-speed internet access in much of the country inferior to what’s available in the rural interior of China. A combination of circumstances have changed the discussion. The objective realities include the pandemic; its devastating economic impacts most heavily on Black, brown and women’s employment; the necessity of rapid conversion to renewable energy, now clear even to much of capital — and yes, the pressures of deepening competition and rivalry with China. The obvious immediate political factors are the defeat of Trump and the ascendance of the Democrats to narrow Congressional and Senate majorities. It became clear, however, that there would be no serious results, they might well be electorally dead in 2022 Republican support for anything resembling Biden’s and beyond. That pressure, along with the party’s left wing, infrastructure program — even after he’d stripped several put some backbone into the administration’s posture hundred billion dollars and scrapped raising the corporate although the “progressive” forces certainly don’t control tax rate to pay for it.
    [Show full text]
  • Keynotes, Abstracts and Biographies
    Beyond the Culture Wars LGBTIQ History Now Keynotes Jagose, Annamarie, ‘Our Bodies, Our Archives Given that the term “culture wars” is a distinctively American import, when we come to thinking about how it might resonate in our Australian contexts, it is worth keeping in mind the materiality of place. After some consideration of my own embroilment in cultural contestation regarding my queer research program, I return to this notion of the materiality of place to suggest that the archive offers us capacious opportunities for engagement that move beyond the agonistic stand-offs associated with what Janice Irvine describes as the “recursive, unyielding civic arguments popularly known as culture wars.” Bio: Annamarie Jagose is internationally known as a scholar in feminist studies, lesbian/gay studies and queer theory. She is the author of four monographs, most recently Orgasmology, which takes orgasm as its scholarly object in order to think queerly about questions of politics and pleasure; practice and subjectivity; agency and ethics. She is also an award-winning novelist and short story writer. Wilcox, Melissa, ‘Apocrypha and Sacred Stories: Queer Worldmaking, Historical “Truth,” and the Ethics of Research in Living Communities’ While historical research may always have contemporary consequences, in that the tales one tells of the past are rarely inert or disinterested in the present day, the epistemological and ethical challenges of historical research within living communities are particularly marked. The field of religious studies offers one framework for thinking through such challenges in its long-standing attention to the potency of sacred story, whether specifically religious or not, for the enterprise of worldmaking.
    [Show full text]
  • A Current Listing of Contents Volume 3, Number 3, 1983
    a current listing of contents Volume 3, Number 3, 1983 Published by Susan Searing, Women's Studies Librarian-at-Large, University of Wisconsin System 112A Memorial Library 728 State Street Madison, Wisconsin 53706 (608) 263- 5754 a current list in^ of contents Volume 3, Number 3, 1983 Periodical 1i terature is the cutting edge of women Is scholarship, feminist theory, and much of women's culture. Feminist Periodicals: A Current Listing of Contents is published by the Office of the Women's Studies Librarian-at-Large on a quarterly basis with the intent of increasing public awareness of feminist periodicals. It is our hope that Feminist Periodicals will serve several purposes: to keep the reader abreast of current topics in feminist literature; to increase readers' familiarity with a wide spectrum of feminist periodicals; and to pro- vide the requisite bibliographic information should a reader wish to subscribe to a journal or to obtain a particular article at her library or through interlibrary loan. (Users will need to be aware of the limitations of the new copyright law with regard to photocopying of .copyrighted materials.) Table of contents pages from current issues of major feminist journals - are reproduced in each issue of Feminist Periodicals, preceded by a comprehensive annotated 1isting of a1 1 journals we have selected. As publ ication schedules vary enormously, not every periodical wi11 have table of contents pages reproduced in each issue of FP. The annotated 1isting provides the following information on each journal : Year of first publ ication. Frequency of publication. a U.S. subscription price(s) .
    [Show full text]
  • Rebel Women in Australian Working Class History
    5(%(/#:20(1 LQ#$XVWUDOLDQ#ZRUNLQJ#FODVV#KLVWRU\ 5(%(/#:20(1 LQ#$XVWUDOLDQ#ZRUNLQJ#FODVV#KLVWRU\ (GLWHG#E\#6DQGUD#%ORRGZRUWK#)#7RP#2·/LQFROQ ,QWHUYHQWLRQV/#0HOERXUQH REBEL WOMEN IN AUSTRALIAN WORKING CLASS HISTORY LQWHUYHQWLRQV publishers 1998 First published in 1998 LQWHUYHQWLRQV PO Box 4202, Richmond East, Vic 3121 [email protected] ISBN 0-646-35974-6 Rebel Women in Australian Working Class History Printed by Consensus Books For our comrade Jeff Goldhar 1947-1997 This book is part of the Jeff Goldhar Project, funded by his bequest to support socialist endeavours List of Contributors Sandra Bloodworth, currently completing a Ph.D. at Melbourne University on the causes of late sixties radicalism, has been active in campaigns ranging from the 1970s Civil Liberties struggle against the Bjelke-Petersen government in Queensland to the sensational Kortex strike chronicled in this book. She is a member of Socialist Alternative. Diane Fieldes began her political career in the campaign against the Vietnam War. She continued it as a student activist, and has since been a union delegate in the public service and more recently in the education union at the University of New South Wales, where she is completing a Ph.D. on equal pay campaigns. She is a member of Socialist Alternative. Tom O’Lincoln has been active since 1967 as a socialist organiser, unionist and journalist. He is the author of Into the Mainstream: The Decline of Australian Communism and Years of Rage: Social Conflicts in the Fraser Era, as well as co-editor of Class & Class Conflict in Australia. He is member of the International Socialist Organisation.
    [Show full text]
  • COVID-19 Social and Political Analyses
    COVID-19 Social and Political Analyses New Politics lists on this page a number of what we consider to be important social and political analyses as well as political statements concerning COVID-19, the coronavirus pandemic. Those who seek guidance for dealing with the health issues should see the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) website and get in contact with their local government’s public health department or office of emergency management. We update this list on a regular basis, but all articles are posted in chronological order. If you re looking for articles on a particular issue we recommend that you search our list by word, such as “agriculture,” “worker,” “women,” “Brazil,” and so on. Martha Mendoza and Juliet Linderman, U.S.“ Bets On Small, Untested Company to Deliver COVID Vaccine,” Frontline, July 10, 2020. “As part of its strategy to administer the [COVID-19] vaccine as quickly as possible, the Trump administration has agreed to invest more than half a billion in tax dollars in ApiJect Systems America, a young company whose injector is not approved by federal health authorities and that hasn’t yet set up a factory to manufacture the devices.” Amy Goodman interviews Brazilian epidemiologist Cesar Victora, who coordinates the International Center for Equity in Health at the Federal University of Pelotas. “Brazilian Epidemiologist Slams Bolsonaro’s COVID Response as Far-Right President Tests Positive,” Democracy Now, July 10, 2020. “Bad political leadership is a major risk factor for the spread of the pandemic, not only in Brazil, but also in your own country.” Julie Hollar, “Corporate Media Team With Trump to Disparage Public Health Experts,” FAIR, July 10, 2020.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction
    Introduction “There is a soft sighing murmur in the room and one could easily imagine the spare forms to be automatic figures,” wrote a journalist in 1887 after observing the workers operating the Melbourne telephone exchange.1 Some 114 years later retired telephone exchange worker and union official, Joyce Williams, sounded a quite different note on the world and worldview of telephonists: “I just learnt that you’re never going to get change if you’re going to be tolerant. You’ve got to be totally intolerant about things to get change…”2 It is difficult to imagine two more discordant observations about the same subject. One, an outsider’s perspective recorded near the beginning of telephony’s existence, depicts a workforce somehow less than human, bereft of independent thought and action. The other, a view from the inside during manual telephony’s dying days, signifies a mood of belligerence common amongst telephonists of that time. Chronologically and thematically they would appear to represent the two magnetic poles of the telephonists’ history. Taken at face value they invite an understanding of this history as a movement from unconsciousness to consciousness, a slow class awakening, perhaps even a germination, to use Zola’s allegorical naturalism.3 Such a conception is not altogether flawed. There is no disputing that the telephonists of the 1980s were an altogether more organised and combative group than their counterparts from a century earlier. And certainly some of the militant operators of the latter period saw themselves as torch bearers of a new, higher stage in the union’s history.
    [Show full text]
  • Activism, Analysis, Agency
    activism, analysis, agency Paper presented to the ‘Beyond activism?’ panel of the ‘Beyond the Neo-con men: alternatives after Howard’ conference UTS Social Inquiry and the Research Initiative on International Activism 18-19 April 2008, Sydney Mechanics School of Arts abstract At the core of social movements are distinctive collective behaviours— direct action such as demonstrations, meetings, strikes, marches, picket lines—that repeatedly mobilise large numbers of people in efforts to change the world. Radicals, as opposed to liberals, regard the activism of these kinds of struggles as crucial for fundamental social change, which can only come from below. The capitalist state is the main obstacle to the ultimate success of challenges to exploitation as well as racial, gender and other oppressions, all grounded in class relations. Marxists identify the working class as the only social agent with the capacity to destroy that obstacle. They seek to link social movements that challenge aspects of the capitalist order with each other and particularly with the workers’ movement. This project requires a kind of organisation distinct from movements and also from parties and associations whose focus is on conventional politics. Such a party of activists, whose purpose is to intervene in and build social struggles does not currently exist in Australia, but steps towards building it can be taken today. Diane Fieldes Rick Kuhn Organisation and Management School of Social Science Australian School of Business and Faculty of Arts University of NSW Australian National University [email protected] [email protected] U:\Documents\Publications\Other\Other worlds conf\activism, analysis, agency 080415c.doc 17/04/2008 3:31 PM activism, analysis, agency activism Social movements are responses to concrete, practical problems.
    [Show full text]
  • Women, Class and Oppression Sandra Bloodworth Women in Australia Today Face a Contradiction
    Women, class and oppression Sandra Bloodworth Women in Australia today face a contradiction. In 1969 the Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Commission granted equal pay. In 1972 it said women should receive ‘equal pay for work of equal value’, to stop employers classifying women’s work differently from virtually identical work done by men. Yet the gap between women and men’s full-time earnings is widening again. Full time women workers earn on average just over 80 per cent of men’s wages and if all workers are compared, the figure drops to 67 per cent.1 Sex discrimination legislation and Equal Employment Opportunity schemes abound, yet women’s bodies are, if anything, more openly used as sex objects in popular culture and advertising than they were fifty years ago. Women are concentrated on the lower rungs of career structures. Griffith University in 1999 was typical. Women made up 62 per cent of general staff and 35 per cent of academic staff. But they were mainly employed at the lower levels of career structures. Women were 86 per cent of the lowest level of general staff, but only 29 per cent of the top level; and academic women were 55 per cent of the lowest level and only 14 per cent of the top level.2 Since the 1970s, it has been assumed that women were on the verge of smashing through the ‘glass ceilings’ to take top jobs. But the huge obstacles to women’s career progress, beyond a certain point, still exist. In October 2001, only 162 of the 3 312 board positions in Australia’s top 500 corporations were held by women, just 4.89 per cent.
    [Show full text]
  • Women's Studies — to Interpret Or Change the World
    Women's Studies - to interpret or change the world - the Marxist question Author Copley-Bishop, Julie Irene Published 2010 Thesis Type Thesis (PhD Doctorate) School School of Humanities DOI https://doi.org/10.25904/1912/1069 Copyright Statement The author owns the copyright in this thesis, unless stated otherwise. Downloaded from http://hdl.handle.net/10072/365200 Griffith Research Online https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au Women’s Studies — to interpret or change the world - the Marxist question Julie Irene Copley-Bishop B.A Modern Asian Studies: M.A Women’s Studies Griffith Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Griffith University Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy AUGUST, 2009 Dedication I dedicate this work to my granddaughters Lauren Lesleigh and Maddison Marie Isabel for the inspiration and joy they bring to my life. II ABSTRACT Karl Marx writes in his Theses on Feuerbach (1845) ‘the philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point, however, is to change it’. This is key to the work called Women’s Studies — to interpret or change the world - the Marxist question. The thesis queries this concept of transformation through hypothesising that ‘If the academic programme of Women’s Studies is based on feminist theoretical principles, then it will empower their students to praxis’. In contrast to other streams of thought within the feminist perspectives, Marx and Engels locate women’s oppression in capitalism within the drive for profit. It is argued here that this analysis is still relevant for contemporary Australian women as the Marxist philosophical and theoretical perspective critiques capitalism as a source of exploitation, subordination, and oppression of women as mother and worker: reproducer and producer.
    [Show full text]
  • Organised Labour and the Cuban Revolution, 1952-1959 Stephen Cushion Institute for the Study of the Americas, University of London
    Organised Labour and the Cuban Revolution, 1952-1959 Stephen Cushion Institute for the Study of the Americas, University of London 1 I declare that the work presented in this thesis is my own. S. Cushion, 14th September 2012 Abstract The standard historiography sees the working class as a passive bystander in the insurrectionary phase of the Cuban revolution, assuming that the real struggle was conducted by a rural guerrilla army. However, an examination of the archival evidence contradicts this view and shows that workers played a much more active role in the defeat of the Batista regime than they are normally given credit for. At the start of the 1950s, Cuba was suffering a crisis in profitability as the world price of sugar declined. This led the employers to conduct a productivity drive backed by the full repressive force of the Cuban state. Going on strike in a dictatorship is a life or death decision and workers need to feel some confidence in their chances of survival and in the possibility of successfully gaining a result that would be in their political and economic interests. Thus, following the defeat of a wave of militantly organised strikes in 1955, significant numbers of working class militants felt of the need for armed support to enable them defend their wages and conditions. Starting from the city of Guantánamo and spreading to cover most of the island, these activists constructed an impressive, clandestine, working class organisation in alliance with the rebel army which, after several failed attempts, proved capable of calling a successful general strike in January 1959.
    [Show full text]
  • The Accord and Working-Class Consciousness: the Politics of Workers Under the Hawke and Keating Governments, 1983-1996
    ResearchOnline@JCU This file is part of the following reference: Strauss, Jonathan (2011) The Accord and working-class consciousness: the politics of workers under the Hawke and Keating governments, 1983-1996. PhD thesis, James Cook University. Access to this file is available from: http://eprints.jcu.edu.au/29816/ The author has certified to JCU that they have made a reasonable effort to gain permission and acknowledge the owner of any third party copyright material included in this document. If you believe that this is not the case, please contact [email protected] and quote http://eprints.jcu.edu.au/29816/ The Accord and Working-Class Consciousness The Politics of Workers under the Hawke and Keating Governments, 1983-1996 Thesis submitted by Jonathan STRAUSS BA(Hons) Monash in May 2011 for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the School of Arts & Social Sciences James Cook University Acknowledgements My principal supervisor in the School of Arts and Social Sciences at James Cook University, Dr Doug Hunt, has been generous in his understanding of the ambitions for, demanding what intellectual rigour might have been achieved in and guiding the production of this thesis. Dr Jan Wegner, my associate supervisor, has also made herself available to assist whenever needed. The thesis also gained greatly from its earlier supervision by Dr Steve Reglar and Dr Anthony Ashbolt, when I was first enrolled in the Arts Faculty at the University of Wollongong. Important support for the thesis’ research has been provided by librarians, in particular Bronwen Forster and others at JCU in Cairns, and archivists at the Noel Butlin Archives, the University of Melbourne Archives, the Mitchell Library and the Battye Library.
    [Show full text]