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A New Target for International Social Reform: The International Labour Organization and Working and Living Conditions in Agriculture in the Inter-War Years

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 July 2011

AMALIA RIBI FORCLAZ
AMALIA RIBI FORCLAZ*
Affiliation:
Cluster Asia and Europe, Universität Heidelberg, Karl Jaspers Centre, Voßstraße 2, Building 4400, 69115 Heidelberg, Germany; a.ribi.forclaz@gmail.com
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Abstract

The economic, political and social imperative of reforming working conditions in agriculture, improving rural living standards and promoting rural development emerged as an international issue in the inter-war years. Despite a growing interest in the history of international organisations, historical research has hitherto made little reference to co-operative efforts and standard-setting in agriculture before the Second World War. This article seeks to fill the gap by examining the process whereby the International Labour Organization (ILO) learned about the specificities of the agricultural sector. It illustrates the ILO's early interest in rural workers and agricultural issues, which it addressed through special committees. Hampered by the challenging diversity of agricultural work and the perceived lack of national organisations and legislation, it was not until the late 1930s that the ILO carried out proper surveys on social issues in agriculture. Set up in the late 1930s, the history of the ILO's Permanent Agricultural Committees illustrates the results of a learning process which eventually positioned the ILO as a focal point of technical expertise, and enabled it to embrace an ever widening and interdisciplinary vision of agricultural labour and labour relations.

Une nouvelle cible pour la réforme sociale internationale: l'organisation internationale du travail et les conditions de travail et de vie dans le domaine agricole pendant l'entre-deux-guerres

C'est pendant l'entre-deux-guerres que se dessine très clairement la nécessité économique, politique et sociale d'une réforme dans le domaine de l'agriculture pour améliorer les milieux de vie et de travail et promouvoir le développement rural. Malgré l'intérêt toujours croissant des historiens à l'égard de l'histoire des organisations internationales, cet intérêt s'est rarement porté sur la co-opération internationale et l'établissement de normes internationales dans ce domaine avant la Deuxième Guerre Mondiale. Cet article s'efforce de combler la lacune en examinant les moyens utilisés par l'Organisation Internationale du Travail (OIT) pour s'informer sur les spécificités du secteur agricole, en commençant par les employés ruraux et les questions agricoles qui tombent sous la compétence de comités spécialistes. Entravée cependant par la diversification rapide des travaux agricoles et l'absence apparente de règlements nationaux, ce n'est qu'à la fin des années 1930 que l'OIT s'engage réellement dans des recherches et des enquêtes sérieuses à travers un Comité permanent pour l'agriculture, fondé vers la fin de la décennie. L'histoire de ce comité retrace les chemins de la découverte suivis par l'OIT dans ce domaine et en révèle aussi les résultats. Le Comité s'impose enfin comme un centre d'expertise scientifique et élargit progressivement son analyse interdisciplinaire des milieux de travail agricole.

Ein neues ziel für die internationale sozialreform: die internationale arbeitsorganisation und die arbeits- und lebensbedingungen in der landwirtschaft der zwischenkriegszeit

Die wirtschaftliche, politische und gesellschaftliche Notwendigkeit, die Arbeitsbedingungen in der Landwirtschaft, die Lebensbedingungen im ländlichen Raum und die ländliche Entwicklung zu verbessern, zeigte sich schon deutlich in der Zwischenkriegszeit. Trotz eines deutlich gewachsenen Interesse an der Geschichte internationaler Organisationen hat sich die historische Forschung allerdings bisher nur selten mit internationalen Kooperationen und dem Setzen internationaler Standards in diesem Bereich und zu dieser Zeit beschäftigt. Dieser Artikel möchte diese Lücke füllen, indem er die Vorgänge zeigt, wie die Internationale Arbeitsorganisation (IAO) über die speziellen Erfordernisse des landwirtschaftlichen Sektors lernte. Der Artikel zeigt das frühe Interesse der IAO an Landarbeitern und landwirtschaftlichen Fragen innerhalb von Sonderkomitees auf. Allerdings kam es, aufgrund der schnellen Diversifizierung von Arbeit in der Landwirtschaft und aufgrund des scheinbaren Mangels an nationaler Regulierung, widmete sich die IAO erst Ende der 1930er Jahre entsprechende Forschungen und Umfragen auf den Weg zu bringen. In den späten dreissiger Jahren gegründet, zeigt die Geschichte des Ständigen Landwirtschaftskomitees der IAO die Ergebnisse eines Lernprozesses innerhalb der Organisation. Im Zuge dieses Prozesses wurde das Komitee zunehmend zu einem Schnittpunkt transnationaler wissenschaftlicher Expertise und widmete sich zusehends einer breiteren und interdisziplinären Analyse von landwirtschaftlicher Arbeit und von landwirtschaftlichen Arbeitsbeziehungen.

Type
Articles
Information
Contemporary European History , Volume 20 , Issue 3: Transnational Cooperation in Food, Agriculture, Environment and Health in Historical Perspective , August 2011 , pp. 307 - 329
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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27 For the English version of these conventions, see the electronic database www.ilo.org/ilolex/english/ under C10 (Convention on Minimum Age), C11 (Right of Association), and C12 (Compensation).

28 See Convention on Minimum Age (Agriculture), 1921.

29 Ernest Laur, ‘International Agricultural Problems’, Journal of Farm Economics, 6, 2 (1924), 196–211. The issue was to resurface in the 1930s when economic arguments and the problem of rising unemployment were used to reinforce the plea for restricted working hours, which had initially been based on social considerations.

30 On Laur see Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz (http://www.hls-dhs-dss.ch/textes/d/D29856.php).

31 International Labour Conference, Third Session, Record of Proceedings (Geneva, 1921), vol. I, 18–76.

32 For the official documents concerning this decision, see International Labour Office, Official Bulletin, Vol. VI, No. 10, Sept. 1922.

33 These were the conventions on Sickness Insurance in Agriculture in 1927 and Old Age, Invalidity and Survivor's Insurance in 1933. For an account of Albert Thomas's role in securing the court's favourable verdict, see Phelan, Edward J., Yes and Albert Thomas (London: Cresset Press, 1936)Google Scholar.

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35 Ibid., 329.

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37 Howard, Labour in Agriculture, 63. For a discussion of labour relations in agriculture, see Landsteiner and Langenthaler, ‘Agrosystems and Labour Relations’, 13–30.

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41 See file on ‘Green International', ILO AG 901/1/0.

42 ‘L'agriculture est très en retard sur l'industrie au point de vue de son organisation intérieure et internationale. Je crois que nous rendrons service à la civilisation même en créant un peu d'organisation et en rétablissant l'équilibre entre les deux principales branches de l'activité humaine’, Ibid.

43 International Labour Office, Representation and Organisation of Agricultural Workers (Geneva: International Labour Office, 1928).

44 The purpose of the Commission internationale d'agriculture was to examine problems of agricultural production and rural economy on a worldwide scale and facilitate the collection and circulation of relevant information. It held Congresses in The Hague (1891), Brussels (1895), Budapest (1896), Lausanne (1898), Paris (1900), Rome (1903), Vienna (1907), Madrid (1911) and Ghent (1913). See Marcel Rieul Paisant, La commission internationale d'agriculture (Union internationale des associations agricoles) et son rôle dans l'économie européenne (Amiens, 1936), 10. For a detailed history of the commission and its relations with other agricultural bodies, see Graevenitz, ‘Internationalismus in der Zwischenkriegszeit’, 89–134.

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47 Albert Thomas to the Secretary of the Economic Committee of the League of Nations, 15 May 1923, ILO AG 800/0/2/.

48 See note by L. E. Howard, 17 March 1933, ILO P 6/6/1.

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52 International Labour Conference, Third Session, Record of Proceedings (Geneva, 1921), 185.

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54 Tosi, Alle orgini della FAO, 26–7.

55 For a detailed study of the relations between the IIA and the League of Nations, see Tosi, Alle origni della FAO, 99–178.

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57 Thomas to the Secretary of the Economic Committee of the League of Nations, 15 May 1923. ILO AG 800/0/2/.

58 Cayet et al., ‘How International Organisations Compete’, 173–94.

59 See meeting of the Advisory Agricultural Committee, 22 Aug. 1923, ILO AG 801/4.

60 On the problem of appointing suitable experts, see minutes of the first session of the Advisory Agricultural Committee, Aug. 1923, ILO AG 801/9.

61 Hobson, The International Institute of Agriculture, 213.

62 Tosi, Alle orgini della FAO, 88.

63 See letter from Georg Schmitt, president of the International Landworkers’ Union, to the Agricultural Service, 29 Sept. 1927. ILO AG 1000/01/1.

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65 See final report of the World Economic Conference, Geneva 1927, 43–8.

66 Ibid., 44.

67 Ibid., 43.

68 Ibid., 48.

69 Tosi, Alle orgini della FAO, 103. For a more general perspective on Fascist undermining of international networks, see Herren, Madeleine and Zala, Sacha, Netzwerk Aussenpolitik: Internationale Kongresse und Organisationen als Instrumente der schweizerischen Aussenpolitik (Zurich: Chronos Verlag, 2002), 151–91Google Scholar.

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73 Confidential letter from Thomas to the ILO's Hungarian correspondent D. Pap, 3 Feb. 1926, ILO AG 901/1/0.

74 This is not the place to cover the ongoing debate about the causes and effects of the agricultural depression. For two recent and differing views see Federico, Giovanni, ‘Not Guilty? Agriculture in the 1920s and the Great Depression’, Journal of Economic History, 65, 4 (2005), 949–76CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Madsen, Jakob B., ‘Agricultural Crises and the International Transmission of the Great Depression’, Journal of Economic History, 61 (June 2001), 328CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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79 See circular letter from Thomas, 20 Nov. 1930, ILO AG 805/0.

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84 See letter from the National Federation of German Agricultural and Forestry Employers’ Association to the International Labour Office, Berlin 22 Aug. 1932, ILO AG 800/4.

85 Ibid.

86 See Commission du travail agricole, note introductive, Geneva, 19 Oct. 1933, ILO AG 800/4/4.

87 See 7th meeting of the Mixed Advisory Agricultural Committee, May 1935. ILO AG 807.

88 International Labour Office and International Institute of Agriculture, The Rural Exodus in Czechoslovakia, Studies on Movements of Agricultural Populations II, Geneva, 1935.

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92 The IIA continued to be represented by its new director, the Baron Giacomo Acerbo: ILO AG 808.

93 The composition of the Permanent Agricultural Committee included forty-two regular members: six members of the Governing Body, six representatives of agricultural employers’ organisations, six representatives of agricultural workers’ organisations, and fourteen experts in social agricultural questions who (in principle) belonged to nationalities other than those already represented. In addition, the committee reserved ten seats for representatives of international institutions and organisations dealing with social agricultural questions, including six for the International Institute of Agriculture and one each for the International Commission of Agriculture, the International Organisation of Industrial Employers, the International Landworkers’ Federation, and the International Federation of Agricultural Technicians.

94 Permanent Agricultural Committee, General Correspondence with Regular Members of the Committee and their Substitutes, ILO AG 1003/0/1.

95 See minutes of the first session of the Permanent Agricultural Committee, Geneva, 7 Feb. 1938, ILO AG 1003.

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98 These experts had stepped in as substitutes for the Chinese delegate P. W. Tsou and the Indian expert S. R. Zamari. ILO AG 1003/ 1.

99 Ibid., 44.

100 Permanent Agricultural Committee, First Session, 7 Feb. 1938, ILO AG 1003.

101 Amalia Ribi, ‘Humanitarian Imperialism: The Politics of Anti-Slavery Activism in the Inter-war Years’ (D.Phil thesis, University of Oxford, 2008).

102 International Labour Office, Social Problems in Agriculture, Studies and Reports Series (Geneva, 1938), 18.

103 Ibid.

104 Van Daele, ‘International Labour Organization’, 494.

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