UNIVERSITY OF THESSALY
2nd International Conference on Economic and Social History
"Markets" and Politics
Private interests and public authority (18th-20th centuries)
Volos, 10-12 February 2012
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Abstracts
- Angeliki Nikolaou The issue of the dockworkers in the port of Volos as a terrain of confrontation and negotiation between the agents of political power and private enterprise in the 1930s
During the first period of the worldwide economic crisis in the early 1930s, at the busy port of the new town of Volos, the large, heterogeneous society of dockworkers, who suffer from physical stress, exploitation and unemployment, are struggling to earn a living. The relations among agents of political power, businessmen and dockworkers are examined and analyzed in this announcement, based on certain documents of the archive of Volos Chamber of Commerce and Industry as well as the local press. Aspects of all means – legal or illegal, clear or concealed - of conviction, pressure, violence or construction of ‘consensus’, are lightened. In conclusion, the documents reveal the constant, more often backstage mobility and the deceitfulness on the part of the agents involved, especially on the part of mediators, with the aim of preserving their private enterprise and property and reinforcing their political power.
