This essay is part of a broader study of household-centered labor activities. Also see my essays “Connecting Household History and Labour History,” in The End of Labour History?, ed. Marcel van der Linden (Cambridge, 1994), 163–73, and “Mutual Workers' Insurance: A Historical Outline” International Social Security Review 46 (1993): 5–18.

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2. Karl Marx drew the following distinction between fixed and circulating capital: Fixed capital is the part of constant capital that “maintains the specific use-form in which it enters the production process. … It continues to perform the same functions over a shorter or longer period, in a series of repeated labour processes.” Examples are factory buildings and machines. Circulating capital consists of commodities that “are completely consumed in every labour process that they enter into.… They do not preserve their independent use-shape as they function.” Examples are coal for a steam engine, gas for lighting. Capital, vol.II., trans. Fernbach, David (Harmondsworth, 1978), 237–38.Google Scholar

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6. For example, see Frank, Dana, “Gender, Consumer Organizing, and the Seattle Labor Movement, 1919–1929,” in Work Engendered: Toward a New History of American Labor, ed. Baron, Ava (Ithaca, 1991), 273–95;Google Scholar and Muraskin, William, “The Harlem Boycott of 1934: Black Nationalism and the Rise of Labor-Union Consciousness,” Labor History 13 (1972): 361–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7. For example, see the cases described in von Heckel, Max, “Der Boykott,” Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik, 3rd ser., 10 (1895):481–500;Google ScholarWolman, Leo, The Boycott in American Trade Unions (Baltimore, 1916);Google ScholarWare, Norman J., The Labor Movement in the United States, 1860–1895 (New York, 1929), ch. 15;Google ScholarGordon, Michael A., “The Labor Boycott in New York City, 1880–1886,” Labor History 16 (1975):184–229;CrossRefGoogle ScholarCarvalho, Joseph III, “The Baughmann Boycott and its Effect on the Richmond, Virginia Labour Movement, 1886–1888,” Histoire Sociale 12 (1979):409–17;Google ScholarBlessing, Werner K., “Konsumentenprotest und Arbeitskampf. Vom Beirkrawall zum Bierboykott,” in Streik. Zur Geschichte des Arbeitskampfes in Deutschland während der Industrialisierung, ed. Tenfelde, Klaus and Volkmann, Heinrich (Munich, 1981), 109–23;Google ScholarRoberts, James S., “Drink and the Labour Movement: The Schnaps Boycott of 1909”, in The German Working Class 1888–1933. The Politics of Everyday Life, ed. Evans, Richard J. (London, 1982), 80–107.Google Scholar

8. Gyáni, Gábor, “Budapest”, in Housing the Workers 1850–1914. A Comparative Perspective, ed. Daunton, M.J. (London and New York, 1990), 175.Google Scholar See also Lichtblau, Albert, “Boykott-Krawall-Gewalt-Demonstration: Die Budapester Mieterbewegung 1906 bis 1912 und exkursive Vergleiche zu ähnlichen Vorgängen in Wien”, in Archiv 1992: Jahrbuch des Vereins für Geschichte der Arbeiterbewegung (Vienna, 1992), 65–82.Google Scholar

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12. The first four points reflect the analysis in Sartorius, August von Waltershausen, “Boycotten, ein neues Kampfmittel der amerikanischen Gewerkvereine”, Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik, new ser., 11 (1885):1–18, esp. 15–17. David Montgomery and I are preparing an anthology in English of Sartorius von Waltershausen's publications on the American labor movement, which will include a translation of this text.Google Scholar

13. Braun, Adolf, “Der Boykott”, Der Kampf 2 (1908–1909):411.Google Scholar

14. Ibid.

15. Bernstein, Irving, The Lean Years. A History of the American Worker, 1920–1933 (Boston, 1960), 422.Google Scholar

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21. For example, see Hinton, James, “Self-help and Socialism. The Squatters' Movement of 1946”. History Workshop Journal 25 (1988): 100–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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25. Ibid. describes the situation in Pennsylvania. A description of concurrent developments in Upper Silesia appears in Machtan, Lothar, “Die ‘Elendsschächte’ in Oberschlesien: Bergmännische Selbsthilfe-Initiativen zur Überwindung von Arbeitslosigkeit um 1930”, Jahrbuch Arbeiterbewegung–Geschichte und Theorie 1982 (Frankfurt/Main, 1982), 141–55.Google Scholar

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27. Collonges and Randal, Les autoréductions, ch. 6.

28. Although no thorough comparative long-term study on the history of consumer cooperatives exists at this time, see Il movimento cooperativa nella storia d'Europa, ed. Innocenti, Maurizio Degl' (Milan, 1988);Google Scholar and Class, Labor, and Consumption: Consumer Cooperation in the Western World, 1840–1950, ed. Ellen Furlough and Carl Strikwerda (forthcoming).

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33. On early capitalist competition, see Furlough, Ellen, Consumer Cooperation in France. The Politics of Consumption, 1834–1930 (Ithaca, 1991)Google Scholar, ch. 3. For problems that arose later, see Desroche, Henri, “Problèmes de développement des coopératives de consommateurs”, Archives de Sciences Sociales de la Coopération 75 (01–March 1986): 81–132;Google Scholar and Brazda, Johann and Schediwy, Robert, “Konsumgenossenschaften im Strukturwandel”, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft 15 (1989): 63–84.Google Scholar

34. Based on their research on British retail cooperatives, C. N. Ostergaard and A. H. Halsey have already mentioned “the possible incompatibility of business efficiency and democratic control.” See Ostergaard, and Halsey, , “Democracy in British Retail Cooperatives”, Archives Internationales de Sociologie de la Coopération 1 (01–06 1957):72.Google Scholar

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37. For more information on this topic, see the analysis in Furlough, Consumer Cooperation in France, ch. 7.

38. Best known is the British Co-operative Women's Guild. See Gaffin, Jean and Thoms, David, Caring & Sharing. The Centenary History of the Co-operative Women's Guild (Manchester, 1983).Google Scholar On international developments, see Baulier, Françoise, “Femmes et organisations féminines dans l'Alliance Coopérative Internationale”, Archives de Sciences Sociales de la Coopération 74 (10–December 1985):10–40.Google Scholar

39. Compare Hagemann, Karen, Frauenalltag und Männerpolitik. Alltagsleben und gesellschaftliches Handeln von Arbeiterfrauen in der Weimarer Republik (Bonn, 1990), 140.Google Scholar

40. Totomianz, Vahan, “Le rôle des femmes dans la coopération”, Revue des études coopératives 6 (1926–1927):413.Google Scholar

41. Pestoff, Between Markets and Politics, 35, 47.

42. Spedden, Trade Union Label, 72–73.

43. Schacherl, “Ein viermonatlicher Bierboykott,” 273.

44. Fishman, William J., East End Jewish Radicals, 1875–1914, (London, 1975), 253. I owe this reference to Karin Hofmeester.Google Scholar

45. Bauer, “Boykott”, 146.

46. Tilly, Charles, As Sociology Meets History (New York, 1981), 151.Google Scholar

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48. Ware, Labor Movement, 336–37.