Takový socialismus nechceme! - Kultura protestu průmyslového dělnictva v českých zemích v letech 1945-1968 – Šlouf Jakub (2024)

Were there strikes during the period of state socialism in Czechoslovakia? Did the industrial workers of that time agree with government policies? Were the workers successful in asserting their wage and social demands? And how did their pressure influence the overall social and political reality? The answers will surprise many readers. Throughout the observed period, a significant number of strikes occurred. Industrial workers, although they belonged to the privileged and loyal segments of society within the dictatorship, were paradoxically the most frequently protesting social group. Unlike others, they could afford to assert their interests forcefully. The strikes of that time were not acts of resistance, but an extreme form of collective bargaining that compensated for the lack of independent representative bodies. They often stemmed from wage and social issues, frequently utilized lower levels of trade union and party organizations to achieve their goals, and often legitimized themselves to superior institutions by employing socialist ideology. The most comprehensive treatment of this issue is based on extensive archival research.