Miscarea muncitorească din portul Galați (de la mijlocul secolului al XIX-lea și până în 1945)

Abstract

Labor history it`s a concept which initially belonged to social history (or the new social history as it was called). This research thread is specialized on organizing working class in trade union and history of labor movement. Regard to labor movement it is revealed industrial relations, organizing protest action (strikes, lock-outs, collective labor conflicts), defining a political trend (especially, socialism) or approaching particular issues related to gender, race, religion etc. Methodological speaking, labor history concept, especially after `90, impose respecting the good relation between macro space and micro space. Thus, this paper represents an approach of labor history both at national level, but above all at a local level, having as a case study the port of Galati. The strict approach of the Galatian workers movement would not have respected the design imposed by concept. Without a minimal knowledge of national context could not have been a solid local analysis. Therefore, a first objective of research is representing by identification of the constitutive moment of socialism in Old Kingdom, stages of political development, changes made over time and the effects on the labor movement. Behind the observation and presentation of chronological evolution of socialist movement (and later of communism movement), the work is approaching an interpretative style of political actions. It`s not a secret (or at least it shouldn`t be from now on) that labor movement from Romania was based on political development, as first step. This fact cannot be surprising, but rather explainable by the low level of industrial progress from the second half of 19th century and by the small number of professional workers. Another objective of this work represents the analysis of Romanian labor movement development and the main workers organizing forms. At the end of 19th century, the workers have set up friendly societies, worker`s clubs and associations. Importance of this thing consists in formation and potentiation of the working class that will end up in organizing in trade unions. As such, another objective is revealed: presentation of political and syndical issues, in the conditions of two scissions of the mentioned environments, on the debut of interwar period and transit of the two world wars.