Workers and Revolutionaries at the Twilight of Fordism: The Breakdown of Industrial Relations in the Automobile Plants of Detroit and Turin, 1967–1973

Abstract

In their respective countries, and worldwide, Detroit and Turin are known as thè Motor City' and la citta Á dell'autoÐtwo metropolises that have grown around the manufactured product that best symbolized modernity: the automobile. Because an extraordinary proportion of car production during most of the twentieth century was centred in these two cities, they have retained this reputation well after the bulk of the automotive industry had actually abandoned them. As I write, Detroit is struggling to entice automobile manufacturers back into town after they moved operations away in the 1970s (as part of a process that started much earlier). Likewise in Turin, most automobile plants have shut down or undergone conversion for the service economy. The¯agship of FIAT, Mira®ori, is now undergoing a process of rapid downsizing.In both cities, the automobile industry informed the economic, social, and spatial dimensions of the urban space. It was each city's largest single employer, and the fortunes of a subcontracting network of small and medium supplying companies were strongly intertwined with the city's prosperity. The extent of the hegemony of automobile manufactures over Detroit and Turin was unparalleled in the US or Europe. However, the concentration of manufacturing employment led to dependence, and the destiny of these metropolises became bound to the fortunes and whims of a handful of corporations.For a few years now the cliche  that the decline of metropolises in the American industrial heartland initiated only in the 1970s with increased international Correspondence to: Dipartimento Studi Storici,

Language nuances, trust and economic growth

“…This resulted in distinct Italian accents clearly identifiable, depending on the city and region of origin of the individual (Scherer 2005). In fact, southerners were widely discriminated against because of how they spoke Italian, accent being the critical element, far beyond race, gender, income, or any physical attribute, as it called up a series of stereotypes (Tillery and Bailey 2005;Cavanaugh 2005;Pizzolato 2004). The fact that, on average, southerners were not able to adapt their accents to that of the people in the north and thus, had to endure hardship due to discrimination, simply stresses the issue that once acquired, accents are extremely difficult to change, as demonstrated in the linguistics literature (Chambers 2003).…”

Does it Matter How People Speak?

“…In fact, southerners were widely discriminated against because of how they spoke Italian. Because it generated a series of stereotypes, accent was the critical element, far beyond race, gender, income, or any physical attribute (Bailey, 2005;Cavanaugh, 2005;Pizzolato, 2004). 30 The fact that, on average, southerners were not able to adapt their accents to that of the people in the north and thus, had to endure hardship due to discrimination, simply reinforces the fact that once acquired, accents are extremely difficult to change, as demonstrated in the linguistics literature (Chambers, 2003).…”

Conflictos laborales y clase trabajadora platense en torno a los años '60

“…Desde las primeras huelgas generales quedó demostrado que las relaciones entre sucesos nacionales y su manifestación local no fueron tan lineales como a veces podría inferirse de la bibliografía más usual sobre el tema. En este sentido, articular el caso platense a intentos para repensar periodizaciones que no caigan en etapas gubernamentales y prioricen en cambio etapas puestas en las huelgas generales nacionales (Iñigo Carrera, 2001;2004), agregaría complejidad a tales esfuerzos, en el sentido de poner en cuestión el poder explicativo de una matriz centrada en la acción de las altas esferas sindicales.…”