Peasants - Poles - Ethnics: Polish Immigrant Workers in the USA 1880-1925
Professor Adam Walaszek
E-mail: walaszek@if.uj.edu.pl
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Polish Americans responded creatively to living conditions in industrial America by combining many elements brought from the old country with new behaviours developed in America. These included labour protests and attempts to create workers' organisations or labour unions. This paper discusses some aspects of Polish immigrants' active response to the social and political realities of industrial America, particularly cases where ethnicity coincided with class, and where Polish immigrants used elements of national or folk culture in their struggle to advance their social position. It explores the use of some elements of ethnic culture that enabled the Polish immigrant working class to appeal to the wider ethnic community, including the ethnic middle class, for support during strikes and other forms of protest. Finally, the paper deals with the ethnic leadership's reactions to labour struggles.
The article follows the relation between immigrant worker industrial protest and ethnic identity in a largely chronological sequence: First, the use of European peasant cultural forms in workplace protests; Second the response to the struggles of ethnic organisations and the creation of exclusively ethnic labour organisations as a form of worker self-defence; and third, the emergence of a new "American" workers' identity among working class Polish-Americans. These developments, however, did not always follow a simple linear model, and even after a sense of American-ness appeared at the end of World War I, Polish-American workers were also concerned with raising the prestige of their own ethnic group in the American milieu.
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Professor Adam Walaszek
E-mail: walaszek@if.uj.edu.pl
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Polish Americans responded creatively to living conditions in industrial America by combining many elements brought from the old country with new behaviours developed in America. These included labour protests and attempts to create workers' organisations or labour unions. This paper discusses some aspects of Polish immigrants' active response to the social and political realities of industrial America, particularly cases where ethnicity coincided with class, and where Polish immigrants used elements of national or folk culture in their struggle to advance their social position. It explores the use of some elements of ethnic culture that enabled the Polish immigrant working class to appeal to the wider ethnic community, including the ethnic middle class, for support during strikes and other forms of protest. Finally, the paper deals with the ethnic leadership's reactions to labour struggles.
The article follows the relation between immigrant worker industrial protest and ethnic identity in a largely chronological sequence: First, the use of European peasant cultural forms in workplace protests; Second the response to the struggles of ethnic organisations and the creation of exclusively ethnic labour organisations as a form of worker self-defence; and third, the emergence of a new "American" workers' identity among working class Polish-Americans. These developments, however, did not always follow a simple linear model, and even after a sense of American-ness appeared at the end of World War I, Polish-American workers were also concerned with raising the prestige of their own ethnic group in the American milieu.
Download full text: MS-Word version, RTF version
© 2000 Adam Walaszek - all rights reserved by the author.
The above text has been posted on the internet by the Centre for European Studies for on-line use only. It may not be reproduced in any form (including electronic or projection technologies) without including this notice. For print rights, please contact the author directly.
The above text has been posted on the internet by the Centre for European Studies for on-line use only. It may not be reproduced in any form (including electronic or projection technologies) without including this notice. For print rights, please contact the author directly.
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31-131 Kraków, Poland
tel. +48 (12) 429 6207 tel/fax: +48 (12) 429 6195
maoffice@ces.uj.edu.pl