No Italian Stalingrads. The C.G.I.L. and the working class in the northern industrial heartlands, 1945-1955

ABSTRACT

This article challenges conventional wisdom on the northern Italian industrial heartlands during the first decade after the Second World War. For there still exists a certain mythology about the post-war proletarian north as a region that was both intensely political and united in purpose. What this article demonstrates is that the ‘industrial triangle’ of Genoa, Milan and Turin was far more divided than historians have assumed. By revisiting the manifold (wildcat) strikes, trade union demonstrations, and factory occupations of the early post-war years, it shows the industrial north to be divided along both social and geographical lines. In doing so, it sheds fresh light on the series of defeats that the main Italian trade union confederation (C.G.I.L.) suffered in the late 1940s and early 1950s. It argues that these defeats were due as much to the explicit politicization of labour struggles and their exclusive focus on the interests of skilled workers as to the hostile socio-political climate in which the C.G.I.L. had to operate.     

Preferences for Housing, Jobs, and Commuting: A Mixed Logit Analysis

This paper reports stated preferences of Dutch workers for combinations of housing, employment, and commuting. The analysis uses standard logit models as well as mixed logit models. Estimation results offer insights into the relative importance of various aspects of housing, employment, and commuting. Households dislike commuting and the value of commuting time implied by the model is high in comparison to the wage rate. Nevertheless, preferences for some housing attributes are strong enough to make substantially longer commuting acceptable to most workers. Of special interest is the strong preference for living in small-or medium-size cities, especially among two income households. Using a mixed logit model instead of a standard logit model results in a substantial improvement of the loglikelihood, reflecting the importance of heterogeneity among respondents. If no individual characteristics are incorporated into the model, the mixed logit implies substantially lower average monetary evaluations of most attributes. These differences are much smaller if some individual characteristics are incorporated into the model.     

Book reviews

John C. Garnett, Commonsense and the Theory of International Politics. Macmillan, London, 1984, pp. x + 153. $14.95

Moshe M. Czudnowski, Political Elites and Social Change. Northern Illinois University Press, Dekalb, 1983, pp. xi + 255. $US 12.50.

J. Breuilly, Nationalism and the State. Manchester University Press. Manchester, 1982, pp. 421. £25.00.

Dudley Seers, The Political Economy of Nationalism. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1983, pp. xii + 218. $37.50 (cloth), $17.40 (paper).

Otto van den Muijzenberg, Pieter Streefland and Willem Wolters (eds.), Focus on the Region in Asia. Comparative Asian Studies Program, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, 1982, pp. 349. No price given.

Frank Moulaert and Patricia W. Salinas (eds.), Regional Analysis and the New International Division of Labour. Kluwer‐Nijhoff, Boston, 1983, pp. 171. $29.30.

T. Duncan and J. Fogarty, Australia and Argentina: On Parallel Paths. Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1984, pp. xiv + 172. $22.50

A. Curthoys and J. Merritt (eds), Australia's First Cold War 1945–1953 vol.1 Society, Communism and Culture. George Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1984, pp. xiv + 243. $24.95 (cloth), $12.95 (paper).

C. O'Faircheallaigh, Mining and Development. Groom Helm, London and Sydney, 1984, pp. 302. $33.95.

C. O'Faircheallaigh, Host Countries and Multinationals. Canberra Studies in World Affairs No.7. Department of International Relations, Australian National University, Canberra, 1982. pp. 106. $6.00

Anthony Verrier, Through the Looking Glass: British Foreign Policy in the Age of Illusions. Jonathan Cape, London, 1983, pp. x +385. £12.50

Ritchie Ovendale (ed.), The Foreign Policy of the British Labour Governments 1945–1951. Leicester University Press, Leichester, 1984, pp. 198. £15.00.

Bernard Porter, Britain, Europe, the World 1850–1982: Delusions of Grandeur. Allen & Unwin, London, 1983, pp. xv + 178. $27.00

Elim Papadakis, The Green Movement in West Germany. Croom Helm, London and Canberra, 1984, pp. 230. $31.95.

Yoo See‐Hee (ed.), Political Leadership and Economic Development: Korea and China. The Institute for Sino‐Soviet Studies, Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea, 1983, pp. vii + 240. No price given.

Kalyani Bandyopadhyaya, Burma and Indonesia: Comparative Political Economy & Foreign Policy. South Asian Publishers, New Delhi and Madras, 1983, pp. vii + 250. No price given.

Narongchai Akrsanee (ed.), ASEAN‐Japan Relations: Trade and Development. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, 1983, pp. viii + 191. $US15.00.

Sueo Sekiguchi (ed.), ASEAN‐Japan Relations: Investment, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, 1983, pp. viii + 274. $US 16.00.

K.K. Nair, ASEAN — Indochina Relations Since 1975: the Politics of Accommodation. The Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University, Canberra, 1984, pp. 239. $10.00

John Drysdale, Singapore: Struggle For Success. George Allen & Unwin Australia, Sydney, 1984. pp. xxiv + 506. No price given.

David Bourchier, Dynamics of Dissent in Indonesia: Sawito and the Phantom Coup. Cornell Modern Indonesia Project, Ithaca, New York, pp. 128. $US9.00.

Tariq Ali, Can Pakistan Survive? Penguin Books, Harmonds‐worth, 1983, pp. 237. $7.95.

Robert C. Marshall, Collective Decision Making in Rural Japan. Michigan Papers in Japanese Studies No. 11, Centre for Japanese Studies, Ann Arbor, 1984, pp. xiii + 178. $US7.00.

Deon Geldenhuys, The Diplomacy of Isolation: South African Foreign Policy Making. Macmillan, Johannesburg, 1984, pp. 295. R 19.95.