Puerto Rican Labor History 1898-1934: Revolutionary Ideals and Reformist Politics

by Carlos Sanabria

Overview

Puerto Rican Labor History 1898–1934 presents a history of the organized labor movement in Puerto Rico from the United States’ colonial domination of the island in 1898 to the Great Depression in the early 1930s. Although the most prominent Puerto Rican labor leaders in the early twentieth century were strongly influenced by revolutionary European socialist and anarchist ideology, the organized labor movement as represented by the Federación Libre de los Trabajadores de Puerto Rico and the Partido Socialista became a fundamentally reformist trade unionist campaign that relied heavily on the democratic rights guaranteed by the United States government and the support of the American Federation of Labor. Rather than advocating for the overthrow of capitalism, the abolition of private property and the wage labor system, and its replacement by a socialist egalitarian cooperative society free of centralized government authority, the organized workers’ movement focused on the immediate struggle for higher wages and better working conditions by means of the organization of labor and participation in electoral politics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781498537841
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	12/22/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	162
File size:	907 KB

About the Author

Carlos Sanabria is former associate professor in Caribbean studies at The City University of New York.

Table of Contents

Contents

Introduction
List of Organizations Referred to in the Text
List of Tables
Acknowledgments & Dedication
Chapter One: The Dire Conditions of the Working Class
Chapter Two: Visions of a Better Future
Chapter Three: Dramatizing Revolutionary Ideals
Chapter Four: Reformist Politics
Chapter Five: The Influence of the American Federation of Labor
Conclusion
Bibliography
About the Author

Editorial Reviews

Carlos Sanabria’s book, Puerto Rican Labor History, 1898-1934, represents a contribution to the debates and interpretations of the history of the labor movement in Puerto Rico. This book places into perspectives and explores labor’s struggles in the broad context of social, economic, and political transformations occurring in Puerto Rico during the period under study. It should be a basic acquisition for academic and research libraries dealing with labor history in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Amílcar Tirado

By placing the island’s organized labor movement in a broad cultural, social and political context, Sanabria ultimately provides a more nuanced history of Puerto Rican labor history, its main leaders and its most important institutions. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in Puerto Rican history and labor studies.

Socialism and Democracy

Sanabria offers a fresh insight on Samuel Gompers and the American Federation of Labor’s influence in the development of the labor movement during the first three decades of American rule over Puerto Rico. His work is detailed, incisive, and nuanced, and more importantly, accessible to a broad public.

Harry Franqui-Rivera

Puerto Rican Labor History 1898-1934: Revolutionary Ideals and Reformist Politics reinvigorates the study of Puerto Rican working-class history by offering a comprehensive analysis of the labor movement’s two most important institutions at the turn of the twentieth century, the Federación Libre de Trabajadores and the Partido Socialista. By carefully tracing their histories, contradictions, and their members’ intellectual production, Carlos Sanabria offers new perspectives that will, without a doubt, inform future debates in the fields of labor and Puerto Rican studies.

Jorell Meléndez-Badillo

Puerto Rican Labor History 1898-1934: Revolutionary Ideals and Reformist Politics reinvigorates the study of Puerto Rican working-class history by offering a comprehensive analysis of the labor movement’s two most important institutions at the turn of the twentieth century, the Federación Libre de Trabajadores and the Partido Socialista. By carefully tracing their histories, contradictions, and their members’ intellectual production, Carlos Sanabria offers new perspectives that will, without a doubt, inform future debates in the fields of labor and Puerto Rican studies.

Jorell Meléndez Badillo

Puerto Rican Labor History 1898-1934: Revolutionary Ideals and Reformist Politics reinvigorates the study of Puerto Rican working-class history by offering a comprehensive analysis of the labor movement’s two most important institutions at the turn of the twentieth century, the Federación Libre de Trabajadores and the Partido Socialista. By carefully tracing their histories, contradictions, and their members’ intellectual production, Carlos Sanabria offers new perspectives that will, without a doubt, inform future debates in the fields of labor and Puerto Rican studies.

Jorell Meléndez Badillo

Carlos Sanabria’s book, Puerto Rican Labor History, 1898-1934, represents a contribution to the debates and interpretations of the history of the labor movement in Puerto Rico. This book places into perspectives and explores labor’s struggles in the broad context of social, economic, and political transformations occurring in Puerto Rico during the period under study. It should be a basic acquisition for academic and research libraries dealing with labor history in Latin America and the Caribbean.
 
 

Amílcar Tirado