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THE SOCIAL STRUCTURE OF THE WORKING CLASS IN CROATIA IN THE PERIOD BETWEEN THE TWO WARS
Mira Kolar-Dimitrijević
Sažetak
This article deals with the make-up of the social structure of the working class in Croatia in the period between the two World Wars. On the basis of rough and summary research the most fundamental characteristics of the working class of Croatia have been shown (its number and development, the distribution of workers according to kind of work, the structure of the workers according to qualifications, sex and age, and the history of the working class in Croatia). Some characteristics are missing because they have not yet been fully investigated (a review of syndicate organisations, cultural and educational work, etc.).
The main conclusions reached can be described in several sentences.
In the period considered in this article Croatia had an underdeveloped industry and industrial working class in comparison to the developed industrial States of the West. She still had a very strong handicraft tradition. The reason for the lack of homogeneity and the constant shifts among the workers lie in the fact that there was a small number of industrial workers — the proletariat — and a large number of peasant-workers.
The working class of Croatia proper (manual workers) took up a small proportion of the total working population in Croatia, in which peasants were in the majority both at the beginning and at the end of the period between the two World Wars. The growth of the -working class that did take place in that period vas neutralized by a much larger growth of the free work force which was a consequence of overpopulation in the Croatian village. It is true that in the early post war years, due to a rapid economic development and to the urbanization of the larger economic centres (Zagreb, Karlovac, Osijek and Varaždin in particular), the working class of Croatia grew significantly. Unfortunately this period ended in 1924. A deflatory government policy and the monetary crisis made the whole economic development quieter and until the Second World War the growth of the number of workers slowed up considerably. During the economic crises (1924, 1931—1934, 1938) both a decrease and a stagnation of the number of workers and significant and measurable structural changes in their midst took place. These changes were reflected in two ways. The qualified city workers were pushed aside by unqualified village workers, and these were in their turn pushed aside by the still cheaper labour of women and minors. As a consequence of this process, which was made possible by the simplicity of the work in factories, unemployment among the real qualified industrial workers was high.
Because of these processes, and a growing migration from villages into cities and vice versa, class consciousness started developing at all levels among the workers, and city workers started contacting the poor of the villages. Everyone was equally in danger of unemployment which grew more acute and threatening due to the large reserves of unemployed labour. The real industrial workers who lived only from their earnings in the factories. Peasant-workers who still worked their miniature patches of land too small to feed them. Unqualified women who sought any employment and who sometimes became the only provider in the family in which the husband was unemployed. And finally young children who were also harnessed to the yoke of capitalistic exploitation. Crises, very slightly modified by government policy, hit the industrial city workers most strongly. They became aware of the need for radical action to change the social system and to carry out a social revolution. Thanks to the gradual maturing of the whole working class, a base for the accomplishment of a social revolution was formed. The working class of Croatia, the most progressive section of the working population, became the leader of this action, and so the publication of data on the numerical strength and the structure of this whole class, to which this article is only a small contribution, is very important.
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
165364
URI
Datum izdavanja:
1.10.1970.
Posjeta: 1.210 *