The historical development of employers' associations and the role these organisations played in strikebreaking has been considerably neglected in industrial-relations history. With a few notable recent exceptions, research has tended to concentrate on the development and struggles of the organisations of men, rather than the masters. This is partly the result of the secrecy and anonymity of employers' associations and their reluctance to allow access to their records or to attract media interest, and partly because the defensive and conservative attitudes and policies of employers' organisations have proved less attractive to historians than the more militant political and social theories that lie at the foundation of trade-union policy. In particular, the strikebreaking activities of employers and their organisations were not widely publicised. As a result, this whole emotive area is shrouded in exaggeration, sensationalism, distortion and the propagation of myths by both workers and employers. The object of this paper is to analyse the parameters of employers' coercive strikebreaking tactics from the 1880's to 1914 and to shed some light on the role employers' associations played during industrial stoppages. The first section briefly outlines the main developments in employers' organisation, solidarity and labour-relations policy before 1914. Following this is a discussion of the various strikebreaking tactics utilised by employers in this period, broken down into sections on labour replacement, victimisation and legal action, strike compensation and internal solidarity, and, finally, the lock-out.

One of the memorable days in the French revolution of 1848 occurred on May 15. Several extraordinary events happened on that date. The first was the overrunning of the legislative chamber by an unruly crowd. Next, and most important, a person named Aloysius Huber, after several hours had elapsed, unilaterally declared the National Assembly dissolved. In the resultant confusion, the legislators and the crowd dispersed. Third, shortly afterwards, an attempt took place at the City Hall to set up a new revolutionary government. It failed completely. As the result of these happenings, a number of people thought to be, or actually, implicated in them were imprisoned on charges of sedition.

Anzuzeigen ist ein umfangreicher Quellenbestand der Manuscript Division der New York Public Library über Wilhelm Weitling (1808–71). Dessen Nachlaß galt in der deutschsprachigen Literatur bisher als verschollen; Hinweisen auf die Existenz dieses Nachlasses, die in der Biographie von Carl Wittke seit 1950 vorlagen, ist die Forschung bisher nicht nachgegangen. Die Bedeutung dieser neuen Dokumente für die Sozialismusforschung, die Historiographie zur Geschichte der Arbeiterbewegung, für die politische Theorie und Wissenschaftsgeschichte ergibt sich aus Weitlings historischer Stellung als Arbeiterkommunist und erster Theoretiker und Organisator der deutschen Arbeiterbewegung. Als Zeitgenosse von Karl Marx markiert Weitling einen Schnittpunkt in den Entwicklungslinien von „utopischem” und „wissenschaftlichem” Sozialismus.