Labour and Rights in Post-War East Central Europe: Rewriting History from Below

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

Since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, state-socialist countries have become pioneers in promoting social rights. Going beyond equality of individual status to reach equality of social condition was, as Samuel Moyn commented, part of negotiations of a “right to equality”. Although political leaders formulated these concepts and political promises, the ideas of equality, rights, and justice had their own form in the minds of those who were not necessarily engaged in power. Zooming in on histories from below and using analytical categories such as class, gender, and ethnicity, this panel will raise questions asking how social rights and citizenship under state socialism were constructed. How did the new political regimes promote and exercise various democracy-oriented practices? How were they experienced and executed on a daily level?

Sub Unit

• History: 1945-1990

Chair

• Veronika Pehe, Institute of Contemporary History CAS (Czech Republic)

Papers

• Historicizing Social Justice: Labour, Rights, and Power in Post-War Czechoslovakia and Austria - Radka Sustrova, U of Vienna (Austria)

• The Socialist Citizenship: Social Rights, Working Classes, and a New Political Community in Postwar Poland - Agata Zysiak, U of Vienna (Austria)

• Workers’ Democracy in the Face of Crisis in Late Socialist Romania - Adela Hincu, Institute of Contemporary History (Slovenia)

Discussant

• Zsófia Lóránd, U of Vienna (Austria)