Research Catalog

Title

Railroad radicals in Cold War Mexico : gender, class, and memory / Robert F. Alegre ; foreword by Elena Poniatowska.

Author

Alegre, Robert F.

Publication

Lincoln, Nebraska : University of Nebraska Press, [2013]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xviii, 275 pages : illustrations; 23 cm.

Summary

• "Despite the Mexican government's projected image of prosperity and modernity in the years following World War II, workers who felt that Mexico's progress had come at their expense became increasingly discontented. From 1948 to 1958, unelected and often corrupt officials of STFRM, the railroad workers' union, collaborated with the ruling Institutionalized Revolutionary Party (PRI) to freeze wages for the rank and file. In response, members of STFRM staged a series of labor strikes in 1958 and 1959 that inspired a nationwide working-class movement. The Mexican army crushed the last strike on March 26, 1959, and union members discovered that in the context of the Cold War, exercising their constitutional right to organize and strike appeared radical, even subversive. Railroad Radicals in Cold War Mexico examines a pivotal moment in post-World War II Mexican history. This study of railroad labor activism argues that the railway strikes of the 1950s constituted the first and boldest challenge to PRI rule and marked the beginning of mass dissatisfaction with the ruling party. In addition, Robert F. Alegre gives the wives of the railroad workers a narrative place in this history by incorporating issues of gender identity in his analysis"--
• "An in-depth study of railroad labor activism in the context of Mexico's Cold War experience"--

Series Statement

The Mexican experience

Uniform Title

Mexican experience

Subject

• 1900-1999
• Railroads > Employees > Labor unions > History > Mexico > 20th century
• HISTORY > Latin America > Mexico
• HISTORY > Modern > 20th Century
• POLITICAL SCIENCE > Labor & Industrial Relations
• Railroads > Employees > Labor unions
• Arbetarklassen > Mexiko > 1900-talet > efterkrigstiden
• Fackföreningar
• Facklig kamp > strejker
• Politisk verksamhet
• Working class > Mexico > 20th century > post-war period
• Trade unions
• Trade-union struggles > strikes
• Political activities
• Järnvägar
• Fackliga organisationer > historia
• Mexico > History > 20th century
• Mexico

Genre/Form

History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 255-266) and index.

Contents

List of Illustrations (starting p. viii) -- Foreword (starting p. ix) / Elena Poniatowska -- Acknowledgments (starting p. xiii) -- List of Abbreviations (starting p. xix) -- Map of Mexico (starting p. xx) -- Introduction: The Working Class in Cold War Mexico (starting p. 1) -- 1. "The Mexican Revolution Was Made on the Rails": Revolutionary Nationalism, Class Formation, and the Early Impact of the Cold War (starting p. 23) -- 2. "Born into the Railway": Patriarchy, Community, and Underground Activism in the 1950s (starting p. 65) -- 3. "Who Is Mr. Nobody?": The Rise of Democratic Unionism (starting p. 102) -- 4. The "War of Position": The Making of a Strike (starting p. 141) -- 5. Railroaded: The Cold War Idiom in Practice (starting p. 176) -- Conclusion: Rethinking Postwar Working-Class History (starting p. 215) -- Notes (starting p. 225) -- Bibliography (starting p. 255) -- Index (starting p. 267)

ISBN

• 9780803244849
• 0803244843

LCCN

2013024939

OCLC

• ocn839395914
• 839395914
• SCSB-1769959

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library