Ideology, Social Ties, and Organizing: Allies in the Kansas City Women’s Trade Union League, 1910-1919

• In Event: 3451 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 1. Biography, Identity, and Social Bonds

Abstract

There is general agreement that frames and framing processes are analytically distinct from ideology, and that the relationship between ideology and framing in mobilization deserves theoretical elaboration. This paper, instead, takes up the analytical distinction between mobilizing and organizing work to empirically evaluate the role ideology played in the organizing work of the Kansas City Women’s Trade Union League (KCWTUL) allies. These allies kept the organization alive through a period of low membership, sustained the organization’s focus on working class militancy and self activity, and kept the organization’s politics independent from the male-dominated labor movement. The KCWTUL helped build an infrastructure that connected social movements and the local labor movement, which provided resources once mobilization (militancy) of workers crescendoed during World War I. Consequently, the KCWTUL played a central role in building momentum toward gender and race solidarity, and establishing cross-class coalitions benefitting women strikers. I argue that people who are not members of a clear potential constituency can be won over to ideologies in such a way as to shift their strong ties and organizational memberships. Further, strong ties with an ideological component can maintain and shape social movement organizations and coalitions, thereby affecting movement outcomes when mobilization occurs. Thus, it may be more fruitful to investigate the relationship of ideology to organizing and infrastructure, rather than mobilization.

Author

• Jeff Stilley, University of Missouri Columbia