Political travel across the ‘Iron Curtain’ and Communist youth identities in West Germany and Greece in the 1970s and 1980s

This article explores tours through the Iron Curtain arranged by West German and Greek pro-Soviet Communist youth groups, in an attempt to shed light on the transformation of European youth cultures beyond the ‘Americanisation’ story. It argues that the concept of the ‘black box’, employed by Rob Kroes to describe the influence of American cultural patterns on Western European youth, also applies to the reception of Eastern Bloc policies and norms by the Communists under study. Such selective reception was part of these groups’ efforts to devise a modernity alternative to the ‘capitalist’ one, an alternative modernity which tours across the Iron Curtain would help establish. Nevertheless, the organisers did not wish such travel to help eliminate American/Western influences on youth lifestyles entirely: the article analyses the excursions’ aims with regard to two core components of youth lifestyles in Western Europe since the 1960s, which have been affected by intra-Western flows, the spirit of ‘doing one’s own thing’ and transformations of sexual practices. The article also addresses the experience of the travellers in question, showing that they felt an unresolved tension: the tours neither served as a means of Sovietisation nor as an impulse to develop an openly anti-Soviet stance.PostprintPeer reviewe

Moralische Ökonomie: Bundesdeutsche Automobilunternehmen und Apartheid

Rund 50 bundesdeutsche Unternehmen hatten während der Apartheid eigene Produktionsstätten in Südafrika. Wie legitimierten diese Unternehmen ihr Engagement? Nachdem gegenüber der Situation der schwarzen Bevölkerungsmehrheit lange eine Ignoranz vorgeherrscht hatte, wurde ab den 1970er-Jahren die Verbesserung der Arbeitsbedingungen schwarzer Beschäftigter ein erklärtes Ziel – als Folge ökonomischer Probleme (wie dem Fachkräftemangel) und eines steigenden politischen Drucks durch Kirchen und Gewerkschaften in der Bundesrepublik. Seit 1977 bildete der »Code of Conduct«, den die Europäische Gemeinschaft erließ, einen institutionellen Rahmen für die Menschenrechte aller Beschäftigten. Im zerfallenden Apartheid-Staat forderten westdeutsche Unternehmen während der 1980er-Jahre politische Reformen und etablierten mit den schwarzen Gewerkschaften stabile Verhandlungsbeziehungen. Anhand des Volkswagen-Konzerns und seiner Tochtergesellschaft Volkswagen of South Africa (VWoSA) wird dieser Prozess nachgezeichnet. Der Konflikt um die Apartheid zählt zu den Ausgangspunkten für die heutige Corporate Social Responsibility multinationaler Konzerne, mit der soziale Normen und Verpflichtungen auch für Tochterunternehmen festgeschrieben werden.During apartheid some 50 West German companies ran their own manufacturing plants in South Africa. How did these companies legitimise their activities? Following a long-prevailing period of cultivated ignorance of the situation for the black majority of the population, improving working conditions for black employees became a declared objective from the 1970s onwards. This was a result of economic factors such as the shortage of skilled workers and rising political pressure from churches and trade unions within West Germany. In 1977 a ›Code of Conduct‹ issued by the European Community created an institutional framework covering the human rights of all workers. During the 1980s and the decline of the apartheid state, West German companies supported political reforms and established stable channels of negotiation with black trade unions. This process is illustrated with particular reference to the Volkswagen group and its subsidiary, Volkswagen of South Africa (VWoSA). The conflict surrounding apartheid constitutes one of the starting points for the corporate social responsibility of multinational companies today, which also stipulates social norms and responsibilities for subsidiary companies

‚Gebremste Radikalisierung‘ – Zur Entwicklung der Gewerkschaftsjugend von 1968 bis Mitte der 1970er Jahre

The notion of “1968” as an expression of civil disorder in western countries is primarily attributed to students, but also to young people in general. This article pays special attention to the group of wage earners, as the biggest population group, and especially to the youth, that was organized in trade unions. The reason for putting young trade unionists from “1968” under closer consideration lies in the significant shift to the left, by which German trade unions were captured during these times. It will be asked why this shift happened and how it was linked to the protests at this time. In addition, the contribution analyses the trade unions attitude towards the 1968-movement – and the roles that have been played by young trade unionists. It is argued, that according to a general radicalisation in “1968”, similar tendencies can also be observed in the trade union youth in general though substantial variation cannot be overlooked

Heinz Brandt – Ein streitbarer Intellektueller und die IG Metall

Heinz Brandt (1909–1986), a jewish-born socialist, worked since 1959 as editorial journalist for the “metall”, the official magazine for the members of the trade-union IG Metall. Brandts life and work is an example for a part of the labour movement, which tried to keep up the emancipatoric and even utopistic horizon of liberation from a capitalistic society. Brandt, who spent ten years in prison and concentration-camps in Nazi-Germany, fled from GDR in 1958. He was kidnapped in the GDR in 1961. An international campaign for his release had success in 1964.After the release, Brandt tried to work for a human socialism, which was strongly inspired by his grand-cousin Erich Fromms ideas of a Being-society instead of a Having-Society. In the seventies he played a prominent role in the new social movements and in undogmatical leftwing critics in the trade unions, especially against the civil use of nuclear power. This prominence brought him in conflict with the trade union. This attitude was strongly noncompatible with the institutional character of the west-german trade union, nonetheless of the emancipatoric horizon, specially the IG Metall. As prominent trade unionist and active writer, he had power of discourse