Shop stewards, or other forms of workshop representation, are a common feature of British industry. It is not known for certain how many such shop floor representatives are active; estimates vary between 90,000 and 200.000, “the truth is probably somewhere between these two figures”. What is certain, however, is that the great majority of industrial workers, particularly in large-scale industry, have recourse to lay trade union representation for the settlement of shop floor grievances. Often such representatives are “the union” for the ordinary workman who does not come into contact with full-time union officers. “For the great majority of British trade unionists the workplace representative is their only direct personal link with their union.” He also provides a front-line defence against the arbitrary use of authority by management. If no shop steward existed, managerial authority, unchecked by the countervailing power of shop floor representatives, would be open to abuse. If such managerial authority was also supported by a system of legal powers which further strengthened its position, it would make possible “the use of penal sanctions to compel acceptance of working conditions which free agents would not endure”. Such was the case in the British Merchant Navy until less than five years ago.

Since the 1930's the French Communist party has faithfully endorsed the policy decisions of the Soviet Union, oftentimes despite disagreement with major Soviet pronouncements. In the 1920's, however, the French Communist leadership was divided over the appropriateness of Soviet instructions on matters that appeared to many French Communists clearly within the exclusive domain of the French party. The intrusion of the Comintern, the Soviet-dominated international Communist organization, into the pre-campaign discussion of the tactics for the 1928 elections to the French national assembly forced French Communists to re-examine their goals, their position in French politics, and their relationship with the Soviet Union. The decisions of the French party leaders, made amid what was perhaps the last animated and freewheeling public party debate, determined the party's relationship with the USSR for a full forty years.

Of the numerous front organizations spawned by the Communist International, none became more widely known or more active than International Red Aid (IRA). Created in 1922, IRA served the Comintern for over twenty years until it was dissolved with its parent in 1943. At its peak (1932–1933) this front attained a membership of over fourteen million, scattered over seventy-three national sections. It claimed to have provided relief and aid for thousands of Communist and non-partisan revolutionaries who were subjected to the persecutions of “bourgeois class justice” and “white terror”. From its presses poured a steady stream of propaganda in a dozen languages – handbills, leaflets, pamphlets, books, and periodicals. The Red Aid leadership initiated and conducted protest demonstrations and campaigns on behalf of the most celebrated causes of the 1920's and 1930's: Sacco and Vanzetti, the Scottsboro Boys, Tom Mooney, the Reichstag Fire Trial, Ernst Thälmann, Antonio Gramsci, and the Spanish Civil War.

The need to study the historical roots of the household is gradually becoming accepted, although as yet methods of approach are still being developed and debated. For the student of the mid-nineteenth century, the census enumerators' books provide basic data for such an enquiry. They give the occupation, marital status, age and birth place for every member of each household in all registration districts throughout the country. In order to exploit this information effectively, a sophisticated methodology is required. One has been suggested by Dr W. A. Armstrong. It involves selecting a sample of households from a district, and translating the information thus gained into numerical form, which can then be placed onto punched cards. By sorting them mechanically it becomes possible to make a whole series of quantitative statements about the households, such as their mean sizes, the numbers headed by widows, etc. This method has attracted some support, but it has not been without its critics. Some have voiced general scepticism about “quantitative” history; others have questioned specific points. In rejoinders Armstrong has backed up his arguments with illustrations from his researches into York as well as with some of my own Nottinghamshire results. However, these discussions have been conducted in something of a vacuum. This is an indication that there is now room

Das Thema “Schulbildung und Industrialisierung” gehört nicht zum klassischen Kanon der von den Historikern der Industrialisierung untersuchten Aspekte. Demgegenüber haben die empirischen Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften, im Zusammenhang mit der Faktor-analyse des wirtschaftlichen Wachstums und mit Blickrichtung auf die Zukunft entwickelter und unterentwickelter Volkswirtschaften, das Thema von verschiedenen Seiten in Angriff genommen. So spricht die Nationalökonomie vom “human factor” oder Dritten Faktor neben Arbeit und Kapital und meint damit “die natürlichen Fähigkeiten der Menschen eines Landes und die Erfolge und Anstrengungen der Bil-dungspolitik und den Ausbau der Forschung in vorausgegangenen De-zennien oder gar Jahrhunderten”. Die neue Disziplin der Bildungs-ökonomie versucht u.a. Vorausschätzungen der Größe und Struktur des Bedarfs an qualifizierten Fachkräften und entwickelt “Strategies of Human Resource Development”.