SWOT ANALYSIS ON American Airlines - November 26th, 2010 American Airlines, Inc.

(AA) is a major airline of the United States[9] and is the world's second-largest airline in passenger miles transported,[10] passenger fleet size, and operating revenues. American Airlines is a subsidiary of the AMR Corporation and is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, adjacent to its largest hub at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. American operates an extensive international and domestic network, with scheduled flights throughout North America, Latin and South America, Europe, Asia/Pacific and the Caribbean. American Airlines was listed at #120 on the Fortune 500 list of companies in 2010 and is a founding member of the Oneworld airline alliance. Strengths * * * * * * Leading global entertainment & content company Robust operational capabilities with strong market share Strong diversified portfolio Brand equity - MTV, BET, etc Reach - MTV reaches more than 500 million consumers worldwide Growing bottom line

Weaknesses * RealNetworks performance has lagged compared to other companies' success in the same arena * Generally lagging in online growth & innovation Opportunities * * * * * Mobile integration with music and video services Online growth Further music consolidation & future acquisitions Strategic alliances Capitalizing on growth of HDTV

Threats * Online competitors who are more fragmented but faster to react and typically very innovative * FCC regulation * US economic slowdown

American Airlines
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

American Airlines

IATA AA Founded

ICAO AAL

Callsign AMERICAN

1930 (as American Airways)

Commenced operations

1934

Hubs

Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport

John F. Kennedy International Airport (New York

Los Angeles International Airport[1]

Miami International Airport O'Hare International Airport (Chicago)

Focus cities Frequent-flyer program Airport lounge Alliance Fleet size Destinations Company slogan Parent company Headquarters Key people

LaGuardia Airport (New York) AAdvantage

Admirals Club Oneworld 620 (+571 orders)[2][3] 260+ excl. code-shares[3] We know why you fly. AMR Corporation Fort Worth, Texas Gerard Arpey
(Chairman and CEO)

Tom Horton
(President)[4]

Revenue Operating income

US$ 22.17 billion (2010)[5] US$ 308 million (2010)[5]

Net income Total assets Total equity Website

US$ -471 million (2010)[5] US$ 25.09 billion (2010)[5] US$ -3.95 billion (2010)[5] AA.com

American Airlines, Inc. (AA) is the world's third-largest airline in passenger miles transported,[6] passenger fleet size, and operating revenues. American Airlines is a subsidiary of the AMR Corporation and is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas adjacent to its largest hub at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. American operates an extensive international and domestic network, with scheduled flights throughout North America, Latin and South America, Europe, Asia/Pacific and the Caribbean. American Airlines was listed at No.120 on the Fortune 500 list of companies in 2010 and is a founding member of the Oneworld airline alliance.[7]
Contents
[hide]

1 Overview 2 History

2.1 Formation 2.2 American Airlines before World War II 2.3 Postwar developments 2.4 Expansion in the 1980s and 1990s 2.5 TWA merger and 9/11 to the present

2.5.1 MD-80 maintenance controversies 2.5.2 Potential negotiations with Japan Airlines

2.6 Recent developments

2.6.1 Antitrust immunity 2.6.2 Expanded New York City service 2.6.3 Expanded Los Angeles service 2.6.4 New routes

2.7 Dispute with Expedia and Orbitz

3 Company affairs and image

3.1 Headquarters 3.2 Personnel 3.3 Communication 3.4 Environmental record 3.5 Marketing

3.5.1 Livery 3.5.2 Slogans

3.6 American Airlines Vacations 3.7 Airline acquisitions prior to the AMR Corporation founding

4 Destinations

5 Fleet

4.1 Codeshare agreements

5.1 Current 5.2 Historical fleet

6 On-board service 7 AAdvantage 8 Admirals Club

8.1 Flagship Lounge

9 Accidents and incidents 10 In popular culture 11 See also 12 References 13 Further reading 14 External links

[edit]Overview

In May 2008, American served 260 cities (excluding codeshares with partner airlines) with 655 aircraft.
[2]

American carries more passengers between the US and Latin America (12.1 million in 2004) than any other

airline, and is also strong in the transcontinental and domestic markets. American has five hubs: Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW), Chicago (ORD), Miami (MIA), New York (JFK), and Los Angeles (LAX).[8] Dallas/Fort Worth is the airline's largest hub, with AA operating 85 percent of flights at the airport and traveling to more destinations than from its other hubs. New York-LaGuardia serves as a focus city. American currently operates maintenance bases at Tulsa (TUL) and Fort Worth Alliance (AFW). American closed its maintenance base at Kansas City (MCI) on September 24, 2010.[9] American Airlines has three regional carriers, of which two are owned by American's parent, AMR Corporation and one is owned by a third party.

American Eagle Airlines operates as "American Eagle" with hubs in Chicago O'Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth, New York LaGuardia, Los Angeles, Miami and San Juan. The airline provides regional feed for American throughout North America, flying regional jets from American's hubs. American Eagle is wholly owned by AMR Corporation, the parent company of American Airlines.[10] It plans to end ties with American Airlines and to become an independent airline.[11]

Executive Airlines operates as "American Eagle" with hubs in Miami and San Juan. Executive flies Super ATR turboprops throughout the Caribbean. Executive Airlines is a wholly owned subsidiary of American Eagle and, by extension, AMR.

Chautauqua Airlines operates as "AmericanConnection", feeding American's flights from its Chicago O'Hare Hub (transferred from St Louis April 6, 2010). Chautauqua is owned by Republic Airways Holdings, a separate company with no affiliation to AMR.[12]

[edit]History [edit]Formation
American Airways was developed from a conglomeration of 82 small airlines through acquisitions and reorganizations: initially, American Airways was a common brand by a number of independent carriers. These included Southern Air Transport in Texas, Southern Air Fast Express (SAFE) in the western US, Universal Aviation in the Midwest (which operated a transcontinental air/rail route in 1929), Thompson Aeronautical Services (which operated a Detroit-Cleveland route beginning in 1929) and Colonial Air Transport in the Northeast. On January 25, 1930, American Airways was incorporated as a single company, based in New York, with routes from Boston, New York and Chicago to Dallas, and from Dallas to Los Angeles. The airline operated wood and fabric-covered Fokker Trimotors and all-metal Ford Trimotors. In 1934 American began flying Curtiss Condor biplanes with sleeping berths.

[edit]American

Airlines before World War II

DC-3 "Flagship", American's chief aircraft type during the World War II period.

In 1934, American Airways Company was acquired by E.L. Cord, who renamed it "American Air Lines". Cord hired Texas businessman C.R. (Cyrus Rowlett) Smith to run the company. Smith worked with Donald Douglas to develop the DC-3, which American Airlines started flying in 1936. With the DC-3, American began calling its aircraft "Flagships" and establishing the Admirals Club for valued passengers. The DC-3s had a four-star "admiral's pennant" outside the cockpit window while the aircraft was parked, one of the most well-known images of the airline at the time. American Airlines was first to cooperate with Fiorello LaGuardia to build an airport in New York City, and partly as a result became owner of the world's firstairline lounge at the new LaGuardia Airport (LGA), which became known as the Admirals Club. Membership was initially by invitation only, but a discrimination suit decades later changed the club into a paid club, creating the model for other airline lounges.

[edit]Postwar

developments

Boeing 707 freighter at EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg in France (nearBasel) in 1976

After World War II, American acquired American Export Airlines, renaming it as American Overseas Airlines, to serve Europe; AOA was sold to Pan Am in 1950. AA launched another subsidiary, Lneas Areas Americanas de Mexico S.A., to fly to Mexico and built several airports there. American Airlines provided advertising and free

usage of its aircraft in the 1951 film Three Guys Named Mike.[13] Until Capital merged into United in 1961, AA was the largest American airline, which meant second largest in the world, after Aeroflot. American Airlines introduced the first transcontinental jet service using Boeing 707s on January 25, 1959. With its 707s American shifted to nonstop coast-to-coast flights, although it maintained feeder connections to cities along its old route using smaller Convair 990s and Lockheed Electras. American invested $440 million in jet aircraft up to 1962, launched the first electronic booking system (Sabre) with IBM, and built an upgraded terminal at Idlewild (now JFK) Airport in New York City which became the airline's largest base.[14] In the 1960s, Mattel released a series of American Airlines stewardess Barbie dolls, signifying their growing commercial success.[citation needed] Vignelli Associates designed the AA eagle logo in 1967. Vignelli attributes the introduction of his firm to American Airlines to Henry Dreyfuss, the legendary AA design consultant. The logo is still in use today. By September 1970, American Airlines was offering its first long haul international flights from St. Louis, Chicago, and New York to Honolulu and on to Sydney and Auckland via American Samoa and Nadi.[15] A fictitious "American Airlines Space Freighter", the Valley Forge, was the setting for the 1971 science fiction movie Silent Running, starring Bruce Dern and directed by Douglas Trumbull. The freighter featured the thennew "AA" logo on the hull, along with the crew uniforms and several set pieces. On March 30, 1973, AA became the first major airline to employ a female pilot when Bonnie Tiburzi was hired to fly Boeing 727s. American Airlines has been innovative in other aspects initiating several of the industry's major competitive developments including computer reservations systems, frequent flyer loyalty programs and two-tier wage scales.[16]

Revenue Passenger-Miles (Millions)

American Trans Caribbean

1951

2554

1955

4358

1960

6371

208

1965

9195

433

1970

16623

819

1975

20871

(merged 1971)

[edit]Expansion

in the 1980s and 1990s

Airbus A300-600

Boeing 777-200ER landing at London Heathrow Airport

After moving headquarters to Fort Worth in 1979, American changed its routing to a hub-and-spoke system in 1981, opening its first hubs at DFW and Chicago O'Hare. Led by its new chairman and CEO, Robert Crandall, American began flights from these hubs to Europe and Japan in the mid-1980s. In the late 1980s, American opened three hubs for north-south traffic. San Jose International Airport was added after American purchased AirCal. American also built a terminal and runway at Raleigh-Durham International Airport for the growing Research Triangle Park nearby and compete with USAir's hub inCharlotte. Nashville was also a hub. In 1988, American Airlines received its first Airbus A300B4-605R aircraft. In 1990, American Airlines bought the assets of TWA's operations at London Heathrow for $445 million, giving American a hub there. The US/UK Bermuda IItreaty, in effect until open skies came into effect in April 2008, barred U.S. airlines from Heathrow with the sole exceptions of American and United Airlines.

Lower fuel prices and a favorable business climate led to higher than average profits in the 1990s. The industry's expansion was not lost on pilots who on February 17, 1997 went on strike for higher wages. President Bill Clinton invoked the Railway Labor Act citing economic impact to the United States, quashing the strike.[17] Pilots settled for wages lower than their demands. The three new hubs were abandoned in the 1990s: some San Jose facilities were sold to Reno Air, and at Raleigh/Durham to Midway Airlines. Midway went out of business in 2001. American purchased Reno Air in February 1999 and integrated its operations on August 31, 1999, but did not resume hub operations in San Jose. American discontinued most of Reno Air's routes, and sold most of the Reno Air aircraft, as they had with Air California 12 years earlier. The only remaining route from the Air California and Reno Air purchases is San Francisco to Los Angeles.

Boeing 777-200ER in Oneworld livery

During this time, concern over airline bankruptcies and falling stock prices brought a warning from American's CEO Robert Crandall. "I've never invested in any airline", Crandall said. "I'm an airline manager. I don't invest in airlines. And I always said to the employees of American, 'This is not an appropriate investment. It's a great place to work and it's a great company that does important work. But airlines are not an investment.'" Crandall noted that since airline deregulation of the 1970s, 150 airlines had gone out of business. "A lot of people came into the airline business. Most of them promptly exited, minus their money", he said.[citation needed] Miami became a hub after American bought Central and South American routes from Eastern Air Lines in 1990 (inherited from Braniff International Airways but originated by Panagra). Through the 1990s, American expanded its network in Latin America to become the dominant U.S. carrier in the region. On October 15, 1998 American Airlines became the first airline to offer electronic ticketing in the 44 countries it serves. In 1999 American Airlines, together with British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Canadian Airlines and Qantas, founded the global airline alliance Oneworld.

[edit]TWA

merger and 9/11 to the present

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2009)

American Airlines Center

Robert Crandall left in 1998 and was replaced by Donald J. Carty, who negotiated the purchase of the near bankrupt Trans World Airlines (it would file for its 3rd bankruptcy as part of the purchase agreement)[18] and its hub in St. Louis in April 2001. The merger of seniority lists remains contentious for pilots; the groups were represented by different unions. In the merger, 60 percent of former TWA pilots moved to the bottom of the seniority list at AA. Many were furloughed, and most remain on furlough. The senior TWA captains were integrated at the same seniority level as AA captains hired years later.[citation needed] All TWA captains and first officers hired in March 1989 and later were appended to the seniority list junior to American Airlines first officers hired in June 2001. The senior TWA pilots were able to stay in captain's seats at a higher pay rate with American and were working for a solvent company. The junior TWA pilots were mostly furloughed. On the AA side the captains were mostly unaffected except that AMR inherited TWA debt which decreased the solvency of their parent company. The AA first officers saw hundreds of TWA captains maintain their captain seats even as the company downsized after the 9/11 attacks and subsequent financial crises. The extensive furloughs of former TWA pilots in the wake of the 9/11 attacks disproportionately affected St. Louis and resulted in a significant influx of American Airlines pilots into this base. For cabin crews, all former TWA flight attendants (approximately 4,200) were furloughed by mid-2003 due to the AA flight attendants' union putting TWA flight attendants at the bottom of their seniority list. American Airlines began losing money in the wake of the TWA merger and the September 11, 2001, attacks (in which two of its planes were destroyed). Carty negotiated wage and benefit agreements with the unions but resigned after union leaders discovered he was planning to award executive compensation packages at the same time. This undermined AA's attempts to increase trust with its workforce and to increase its productivity.
[16]

The St. Louis hub was also downsized.

In 2002, the airline received a 100% rating on the first Corporate Equality Index released by the Human Rights Campaign in 2002 and has maintained their rating in respect to policies on employees.[citation needed] AA has undergone additional cost-cutting, including rolling back its "More Room Throughout Coach" program (which eliminated several rows of seats on certain aircraft), ending three-class service on many international flights, and standardizing its fleet at each hub (see below). However, the airline also expanded into new markets, including Ireland, India and mainland China. On July 20, 2005, American announced a quarterly profit for the first time in 17 quarters; the airline earned $58 million in the second quarter of 2005. AA was a strong backer of the Wright Amendment, which regulated commercial airline operations at Love Field in Dallas. On June 15, 2006, American agreed with Southwest Airlines and the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth to seek repeal of the Wright Amendment on condition that Love Field remained a domestic airport and its gate capacity be limited.[19] In May 2008, a month after mass grounding of aircraft, American announced capacity cuts and fees to increase revenue and help cover high fuel prices. The airline increased fees such as a $15 charge for the first checked bag and $25 for the second, as well as a $150 change fee for domestic reservations. American's regional airline, American Eagle Airlines, will retire 35 to 40 regional jets as well as its Saab turboprop fleet. On July 2, 2008, American announced furloughs of up to 950 flight attendants, via Texas' Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act system.[20] This furlough is in addition to the furlough of 20 MD-80 aircraft.
[21]

American's hub at San Juan, Puerto Rico's Luiz Muoz Marin International Airport, will be truncated from 38

to 18 daily inbound flights, but the carrier will retain service in adiminished capacity.[22]

Boeing 767300ER taking off

On August 13, 2008, The Kansas City Star reported that American would move some overhaul work from its Kansas City, Missouri, base. Repairs on Boeing 757s will be made in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and some 767 maintenance will move there as well; one, possibly two, Boeing 767 repair lines will be retained atKansas City International Airport. The narrow-body repair hangar will be shut. The city's aviation department offered to upgrade repair facilities on condition that the airline maintain at least 700 jobs.[23]

On June 26, 2009, rumors of a merger with US Airways resurfaced to much speculation within the online aviation community. In August 2009, American was placed under credit watch, along with United Airlines and US Airways.[citation
needed]

All Airbus A300 jets were retired by the end of August and are currently stored in Roswell, New Mexico.[24]

On October 28, 2009, American notified its employees that it would close its Kansas City maintenance base in September 2010, and would also close or make cutbacks at five smaller maintenance stations, resulting in the loss of up to 700 jobs.[25] In early July 2010, it was reported that American Airlines was trying to find buyers for its regional airline American Eagle. The move followed Delta Air Lines and its spin off of its wholly owned regional airlines Compass Airlines and Mesaba Airlines.[26][27]

[edit]MD-80 maintenance controversies

McDonnell Douglas MD-82 at Raleigh-Durham International Airport

American Airlines has had repeated run-ins with the FAA regarding maintenance of its MD-80 fleet; the costs associated with operating these jets has affected American's bottom line. American Airlines canceled 1,000 flights to inspect wire bundles over three days in April 2008 to make sure they complied with government safety regulations.[28] This caused significant inconvenience to passengers and financial problems for the airline. American has begun the process of replacing its older MD-80 jets with Boeing 737s. The newer MD-80s will continue to serve until the next generation Boeing narrowbody aircraft (Boeing Y1) is available. In September 2009, the Associated Press and The Wall Street Journal reported that American was accused of hiding repeated maintenance lapses on at least 16 MD-80s from the FAA. Repair issues included such items as faulty emergency slides, improper engine coatings, incorrectly drilled holes and other examples of shoddy workmanship. The most serious alleged lapse is a failure to repair cracks to pressure bulkheads; the rupture of a bulkhead could lead to cabin depressurization. It is also alleged that the airline retired one airplane in order to hide it from FAA inspectors; the airline countered that FAA inspectors always have full access to any airplane, retired or not.[29][30]

[edit]Potential negotiations with Japan Airlines

On September 12, 2009, American Airlines' parent company, AMR Corporation announced that they were looking into buying some of the financially struggling Japan Airlines.[31] AMR is not the only company planning to buy a stake in the airline: rival Delta Air Lines is also looking into investing in the troubled airline, along with Delta's partner Air France-KLM. Both Delta and AF-KLM are part ofSkyTeam, Oneworld's alliance rival.
[32]

Japan Airlines called off negotiations of the possible deal with all airlines on October 5, 2009.

On October 21, 2009, Gerard Arpey, the CEO of American Airlines, said the airline and its Oneworld Alliance of global airlines remains committed to a partnership with Japan Airlines, as long as the carrier remains a major international carrier[citation needed]. On November 18, 2009, Delta Air Lines, with help from TPG, made a bid of $1 billion for JAL to partner with them. Two days later, reports came from Japan that AA and TPG had teamed up and made a $1.5 billion cash offer to JAL, which they might consider doing.[33] On February 9, 2010, Japan Airlines officially announced that it will strengthen its relationship with American Airlines and Oneworld.[34] On January 11, 2011, both JAL and American Airlines announced that they will start their joint-venture operation starting April 1, 2011.[35]

[edit]Recent

developments

[edit]Antitrust immunity
In February 2010, the USDOT granted AA preliminary antitrust immunity to allow the airline to work with British Airways, Iberia Airlines, Finnair and Royal Jordanian Airlines on transatlantic routes.[36]The partnership was officially approved by the USDOT on July 20, 2010.[37] On October 1, American, British Airways, and Iberia launched their joint venture, enabling, among other things, frequent flyers to earn and redeem miles on each other's flights.[38] Less than a week after American's transatlantic joint venture was launched, the DOT gave preliminary approval to American's new transpacific joint venture with Japan Airlines on October 7,[39] Japan gave final approval to the venture later that month.[40] and the immunity grant was finalized in early November 2010[41]

[edit]Expanded New York City service

On March 31, 2010, American announced an expansion of its New York City service, both at JFK and LaGuardia Airports, in addition to a partnership with JetBlue.[42] LaGuardia American added several routes from LaGuardia, including service to Atlanta, Charlotte, and Minneapolis/St.Paul. All of these routes are flown with CRJ-700 aircraft outfitted with First Class seating. Also,

American is looking to refurbish the Admirals Club at LaGuardia and find a way to connect Concourse C and D so that passengers connecting between the two concourses do not have to reclear security, and so that passengers whose flights depart from Concourse C can use the Admiral's Club, located in Concourse D. Concourse D is also going to be renovated.[43] JFK At JFK Airport, American added new routes to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Madrid, Spain, and San Jose, Costa Rica. American is going to add 3,000 square feet (280 m2) to its 11,000-square-foot (1,000 m2) existing Admirals Club in the C Concourse of Terminal 8. Also, American and British Airways are looking into building onto the existing Terminal 8, allowing the two carriers to co-locate and make for easier connections.[42] Partnership with JetBlue On March 31, 2010, American and JetBlue announced a partnership regarding the interlining of routes between the airlines.[42][44] 27 of JetBlue's destinations that are not served by American and 13 of American's international destinations from New York and Boston are included in the agreement. Also, American is giving JetBlue 8 slot pairs (a slot pair is one arrival slot and one departure slot) atRonald Reagan Washington National Airport and 1 slot pair at Westchester County Airport. In return, JetBlue is giving American 12 slot pairs at JFK Airport. On July 19, 2010, AA announced that, by the end of 2010, flyers will be able to receive either AAdvantage miles or TrueBlue points on their interline itineraries connecting in JFK or Boston.[45] Effective November 18, 2010, the two airlines will give the traveler miles in either program when flying on a qualifying route, regardless of whether the travels include an international connection.[46] It has also been confirmed that the two airlines have been negotiating a codeshare arrangement between themselves, though no agreement has been signed yet.[47]

[edit]Expanded Los Angeles service

On October 20, 2010, American announced new and upgraded domestic service from LAX Airport in Los Angeles. New routes include service to Houston, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, and Shanghai (see below), all on American Eagle with the exception of Shanghai. The four-times-daily service between LAX and Denver is also being upgraded to the CRJ-700, which includes a first class cabin. Furthermore, American is increasing frequencies between LAX and Chicago, Dallas, Miami, Las Vegas, and Orlando.[48]

[edit]New routes
Haneda Airport, Tokyo On February 16, 2010, American applied to the US Department of Transportation to begin nonstop service to Tokyo's Haneda Airport. American planned to begin service beginning October 1, 2010 fromNew York-

JFK and Los Angeles with Boeing 777-200ER aircraft.[49] On May 7, 2010, the US Department of Transportation tentatively awarded American Airlines the right to begin nonstop service from JFK Airport to Tokyo-Haneda, but denied American's bid to serve Haneda from LAX.[50] American planned to begin service to Tokyo-Haneda from JFK on January 20, 2011; however, the airline decided to postpone the service until February 18, 2011 citing low booking demand.[51] American commenced service in 2011 from Chicago O'Hare International Airport to Helsinki's Vantaa Airport in Finland, as well as service between New York JFK and Budapest, Hungary. Shanghai and further China expansion On October 1, 2010, American announced that it will file an application to the US Department of Transportation to operate daily nonstop flights between Los Angeles and Shanghai, China. The airline was granted approval from the US DOT to begin the Los Angeles-Shanghai route on April 5, 2011.[52] The airline is also considering on flying to Hong Kong and Guangzhou.[53]

[edit]Dispute

with Expedia and Orbitz

Since late 2010, American Airlines has been involved in a dispute with two online ticketing agencies, Expedia and Orbitz.[54] This relates to American's "Direct Connect" fare booking system for large travel agents, which Expedia claimed might raise costs and was less transparent for passengers.[55] The Direct Connect allows American to exert more control over their distribution, save costs and better sell ancillary services to their customers.[56] In December 2010 American pulled their price listings from Orbitz, and on January 1, 2011, Expedia removed American Airline's fares from their site.[57][58]

[edit]Company

affairs and image

[edit]Headquarters

Headquarters of AMR Corporation and American Airlines

American Airlines is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, adjacent to the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.[59] Before it was headquartered in Texas, American Airlines was headquartered at 633 Third Avenue in the Murray Hill area of Midtown Manhattan, New York City.[60][61] In 1978 American announced that it would move its headquarters to a site at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport in 1979. The move affected up to 1,300

jobs. Mayor of New York City Ed Koch described this move as a "betrayal" of New York City.[62] American moved to two leased office buildings inGrand Prairie, Texas.[63] The airline finished moving into a $150 million (1983 dollars), 550,000-square-foot (51,000 m2) facility in Fort Worth on January 17, 1983; $147 million in Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport bonds financed the headquarters. The airline began leasing the facility from the airport, which owns the facility.[63]

[edit]Personnel
The Allied Pilots Association is the in-house union which represents the 12 thousand American Airlines pilots. The union was created in 1963 after the pilots disposed of the ALPA union.[64]

[edit]Communication
In 1967, Massimo Vignelli designed the famous AA logo.[65][66] Thirty years later, in 1997, American Airlines was able to make its logo internet-compatible by buying the domain AA.com.[67] AA also corresponds to the Airlines IATA number. The original AA logo is still in use today, being "one of the few logos that simply needs no change".[citation needed] In March 2000, American received the CIO Magazine's 2000 Web Business 50/50 Award for its AA.com web site.

[edit]Environmental

record

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has awarded American Airlines its 2005 Governor's Award for its outstanding efforts in environmental protection and pollution prevention. American Airline's wastewater treatment plant recycles water used at the base of the wash aircraft, process rinse water tanks, and irrigates landscape. That alone has saved almost $1 million since 2002. In addition to that, American Airlines has also won the award for the reduction of hazardous waste that saved them $229,000 after a $2,000 investment. A bar code system is used to track hazardous waste. It has led to reduction of waste by 50 percent since 2000.[68] Violations occurring over a 4 year period from October 1993 to July 1998 targeted American Airlines for using high-sulfur fuel in motor vehicles at 10 major airports around the country. Under the federal Clean Air Act high sulfur fuel cannot be used in motor vehicles. American Airlines promptly identified and corrected these violations of the Clean Air Act.[69]

[edit]Marketing [edit]Livery
American's early liveries varied widely, but a common livery was adopted in the 1930s, featuring an eagle painted on the fuselage. The eagle became a symbol of the company and inspired the name ofAmerican Eagle Airlines. Propeller aircraft featured an international orange lightning bolt running down the length of the fuselage, which was replaced by a simpler orange stripe with the introduction of jets.

A Boeing 737 in the Astrojet livery

A Boeing 767-300ER in the current livery takes off from Manchester Airport

In the late 1960s, American commissioned an industrial designer to develop a new livery. The original design called for a red, white, and blue stripe on the fuselage, and a simple "AA" logo, without an eagle, on the tail. However, American's employees revolted when the livery was made public, and launched a "Save the Eagle" campaign similar to the "Save the Flying Red Horse" campaign at Mobil.[citation needed] Eventually, the designer caved in and created a highly stylized eagle, which remains the company's logo to this day. In 1999, American painted a newBoeing 757 (N679AN) in its 1959 international orange livery. There is a Boeing 737800 painted in the retro AstroJet livery. One Boeing 777 and one Boeing 757 are painted in standard livery with a pink ribbon on the sides and on the tail, in support for the Susan G. Komen for the Cure. American is the only major U.S. airline that leaves the majority of its aircraft surfaces unpainted. This was because C. R. Smith hated painted aircraft, and refused to use any liveries that involved painting the entire plane. Robert "Bob" Crandall later justified the distinctive natural metal finish by noting that less paint reduced the aircraft's weight, thus saving on fuel costs.[70] Eastern Air Lines, US Airways, Flying Tigers, Dominicana, Cathay Pacific Cargo and Northwest Airlines have also maintained unpainted airplanes.

SCA N905NA in 1978, with American pinstriping

NASA's Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, with the registry N905NA, originally belonged to American Airlines, and in its early years still bore the distinct American pinstriping. By the early 1980s, however, NASA decided to discontinue using the American livery and replaced it with its own livery, consisting of a white fuselage and blue pinstriping.

[edit]Slogans
Current "We know why you fly." (Spanish: "Sabemos por qu vuelas") AA/TWA merger "Two great airlines, one great future." 2001 (post-9/11) "We are an airline that is proud to bear the name American." Early mid 1990s "We Mean Business In Chicago." (Used for marketing in the Chicago market.) 1988 mid 1990s "Based Here. Best Here." (Used for marketing in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.) Late 1980s "No other Airline gives you more of America, than American." 19842000 "Something special in the air." (Variant used for website: "Something special online.", Spanish variant: "Todo es especial, t eres especial.") 1982 late 1980s "En American, tenemos lo que t buscas." (Spanish slogan, translated to "At American, we've got what you're looking for"). 1980s 1988 "The On-Time Machine." 19761984 "We're American Airlines. Doing what we do best." 1971 mid 1970s "Our passengers get the best of everything." 19691971 "It's good to know you're on American Airlines." 19671969 "Fly the American Way." 19641967 "American built an airline for professional travelers."

1950s early 1960s "America's Leading Airline."

[edit]American

Airlines Vacations

The division was initially founded over 25 years ago under the name FlyAAway Vacations. The name was eventually changed to AAV Tours. Today it operates as American Airlines Vacations, offering vacations in the Caribbean, Mexico, Hawaii, Europe, Canada, the United States, Latin America and Asia. American Airlines Vacations is the only travel company that allows payment with AAdvantage miles (or oneworld miles). The current president of American Airlines Vacations is Suzanne Rubin.

[edit]Airline

acquisitions prior to the AMR Corporation founding

Trans Caribbean Airways

[edit]Destinations
Further information: American Airlines destinations

American Airlines destinations. USA American Airlines destinations

AA aircraft at Concourse D, Miami International Airport

AA Boeing 777 at Galeo International Airport, Rio de Janeiro

American Airlines serves four continents, trailing Continental Airlines that serves five, and Delta Air Lines andUnited Airlines that both serve six. Hubs at Dallas/Fort Worth and Miami serve as gateways to the Americas, while American's Chicago hub has become the airline's primary gateway to Europe and Asia. New York Kennedy (JFK) is a primary gateway for both the Americas and Europe, while the Los Angeles hub (LAX) is the primary gateway to the Asia/Pacific. Lambert-St. Louis International Airport has served as a regional as well for several years. However, the airline's 2009 restructuring led to the airport being removed as a focus city on April 5, 2010.[71]American serves the third largest number of international destinations, after Continental Airlines and Delta Air Lines. American is the only U.S. airline with scheduled flights to Anguilla, Bolivia, Dominica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Uruguay.[citation needed] American has begun to expand in Asia, with mixed success. In 2005, American re-introduced a non-stop flight from Dallas/Fort Worth to Osaka-Kansai, which has since been discontinued. American also launched non-stop service from Chicago to Nagoya-Centrair, but that too ended within a year. Also in 2005, American launched service from Chicago to Delhi.[72] In April 2006, American began service from Chicago to Shanghai. However, in October 2006, American ceased its San Jose, California to Tokyo-Narita service, leaving LAX as American's sole international gateway on the West Coast. American planned flights between Dallas/Fort Worth and Beijing via Chicago-O'Hare (on Westbound only) in 2007 but lost its bid to United Airlines' Dulles to Beijing route. AA was granted permission in September 2007 to start a Chicago-Beijing route in a new set of China routes in 2009,[73] that was originally planned to begin service on April 4, 2010.[74] American Airlines then delayed the launched for the Beijing flight to May 1, 2010 due to rising fuel prices and the weak economy.[75] After numerous delays, the airline finally announced that it will launch flights to the Chinese capital on April 26, 2010.
[76]

Because of a lack of proper landing clearance from the Chinese government, the airline was forced to

cancel its inaugural flight from Chicago to Beijing tentatively until at least May 4, 2010[citation needed]. The airline launched service to Beijing on May 25, 2010[citation needed]. As stated above, AA has also applied for and won service between New York and Tokyo Haneda Airport, and between Los Angeles and Shanghai Pudong Airport-that which began on February 18, 2011 and April 5, 2011, respectively.

[edit]Codeshare

agreements

In addition to its Oneworld alliance codeshares, American has signed agreements to codeshare with certain other airlines.[77]

Air Berlin Alaska Airlines

Gulf Air Horizon Air

Cape Air El Al Etihad Airways EVA Air Gol Airlines[citation

needed]

Hawaiian Airlines

Jet Airways Jetstar Airways Kingfisher Airways

[edit]Fleet

WestJet

Boeing 767-200ER

[edit]Current
American Airlines had an average fleet age of 14.5 years in August 2010.[78] Currently, American Airlines operates an all-Boeing fleet (including aircraft produced by McDonnell Douglas before it merged with Boeing in 1997), one of only two legacy carriers which have such a fleet. [79] This situation will soon change however as American has ordered a total of 260 Airbus aircraft to replace it's aging MD80, 757 and 767-200 jets. Below is the current fleet of operating aircraft:[80]
American Airlines fleet F Airbus A320 Family Airbus A320neo Family Boeing 737800 Boeing J Y T ot al TBA Replacing MD-80, 757-200 and 767-200ER

130[81]

130[81] 1 6

TBA
Old: 132 New: 14 8 Old: 148 New: 16 0

Replacing MD-80, 757-200 and 767-200ER All aircraft will be receiving the new cabin configuration. Replacing MD-80. Intends to order 100. Launch Customer for 737RE. Replacing

156 0

151[82] 100

TBA

737RE Boeing 757200 Domestic Boeing 757200 International Boeing 767200ER Boeing 767300ER Boeing 777200ER Boeing 777300ER Boeing 7879 McDonnell Douglas MD-82 McDonnell Douglas MD-83 Total 106 18 1 0 0 1 6 0 1 6 7[83] 8[84] 128 195 194 TBA 2 2 166 182 188

MD-80, 757-200 and 767-200ER.

15 58 47

3 0 3 7

168 225 247

To be phased out.

42

TBA

Although it has not yet placed a firm order, the Airline has purchase rights for 42 aircraft and options for 58 more.[85] Being replaced by: Boeing 737800, 737RE, A320 & A320neo

132

0 1 6 124 140

88 620

568

Largest operator of the MD-83 Being replaced by: Boeing 737800, 737RE, A320 & A320neo

*Aircell Internet Broadband access is available on all Boeing 767200 aircraft and on select McDonnell Douglas MD-80 and Boeing 737800 aircraft.[86] Note that on two-class domestic flights (including flights to Hawaii), the highest premium class is branded as First Class, while on flights to the Caribbean, Canada, Mexico, and Central America, it is referred to as Business Class.

Fleet Notes As of December 2010, the American Airlines fleet consists of 621 aircraft.[87] The company is currently in talks with aircraft manufacturers Airbus and Boeing Co. to purchase at least 250 aircraft in a deal valued at about $15 billion.[88] On July 20, 2011, American Airlines ordered 460 and took options for 465 aircraft from Boeing and Airbus, with the intention of replacing MD-80, 757-200 and 767-200 aircraft.[89][90]
American Airlines July 20, 2011 order Aircraft Boeing 737-800 Boeing 737NG family1 Boeing 737RE family1, 3 Total Boeing Airbus A320 family2 Existing New First Options orders orders delivery 54 0 0 54 0 0 100 100 200 130 0 40 60 100 85 2013 2011 2013 TBD

Airbus A320neo family2 Total Airbus Grand Total

0 0 54

130 260 460

280 365 465

2017

Notes:

For both the 737NG and 737RE family, American Airlines has the option to determine closer to delivery

date what version to take delivery of. For the 737NG, American can choose the 737-700, -800 and -900ER.

For both the A320 and A320neo family, American Airlines has the option to determine closer to delivery

date whether to take delivery of A319, A320 or A321 models.

737RE refers to a re-engined version of the 737 family, with CFM LEAP-X engines. This version is

expected to be approved by Boeing's board of director's later in 2011. In August 2007 the airline announced it would offer Wi-Fi internet services on Boeing 767-200ER American Flagship Service (AFS) routes across the United States.[91] On August 20, 2008, American Airlines became the first to offer full inflight internet service.[92] In October 2008, American announced plans to order the Boeing 7879 Dreamliner.[93] American is the largest operator of the McDonnell Douglas MD-80, with some 225 of the type in service, with leases running until as late as 2024. In August 2009, American officially retired its fleet of Airbus A300 aircraft, after 21 years of service. American has not made plans to replace this fleet. On January 19, 2011, American Airlines announced that it would order two Boeing 777-300ERs, and will become the first American carrier to operate Boeing 777-300ER. The Boeing customer code for American Airlines is 7x7-x23. (i.e. 737823, 777223)

Boeing 727-200 atChicago O'Hare Airport

Boeing 737 taking off fromLos Angeles International Airport

Boeing 757 landing atVancouver International Airport

Boeing 757200approaching Princess Juliana International Airport, St. Maarten

Boeing 767-300ER atLondon Gatwick Airport

McDonnell Douglas MD-82

McDonnell Douglas MD-82 taking off from Dallas-Fort Worth Airport

McDonnell Douglas MD-83

[edit]Historical
1930s

fleet
1940s 1950s 1960s

197

Ford 5-AT 19301935

DC-3 19361949

BAC 111 19651972

Curtiss Condor 19341950

Lockheed L-188 Electra 19581970

Convair 240 19481964

DC-6 19471966

DC-4 19461953

DC-7 19531963

Boeing 707 19591981

Fairchild 100 19311952

CV-990 19621969

Boeing 377

19491950

Lockheed Constellation 19461950

Former AA 747-100 carrying the Space Shuttle Enterprise

Notes:

Eight Boeing 377s and seven Lockheed L-049 Constellations served in American Overseas Airways' transatlantic service and were acquired by Pan American World Airways.

In early 1970 before AA took delivery of its own Boeing 747, the company leased 2 Pan Am 747-121s (N740PA & N743PA). These aircraft were painted in full AA livery, and were operated until early 1971, then returned to Pan Am after AA received its own new 747-123s.

After American acquired Trans Caribbean in 1971, the company briefly owned TC's fleet of five DC-8s (3 -50s & 2 -61s). These aircraft were never operated by AA and were sold to other carriers.

Most Boeing 747100s were retired from passenger service in the late 1970s and served as freighters until their final retirement in 1985. Several were retired earlier; NASA acquired one of the early retired aircraft, N905NA, in 1974 and has since used it as a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. Early in its NASA career, the aircraft continued to carry the American Airlines tricolor cheatline. One Boeing 747100 was used in the

film Airport 1975, registration number N9675, which was delivered to the carrier in 1971. The aircraft was redressed in the "Columbia Airlines" livery for this film. American flew the aircraft both as a passenger jet and later as a freighter only, under the "American Freighter" titles. The aircraft has been in storage at Roswell, New Mexico, since 2005 under registration number N675UP, in UPS colors, its last operator.

American briefly operated one Boeing 747-273C freighter N749WA (serial nunber 20653/line number 237) in 1984.[94]

American Airlines retired their Airbus A300s in August 2009 after 21 years of service and they are now stored in Roswell. One American A300 was scrapped at Victorville Airport in March 2009, its tail number was N7055A.[95]

Twenty-one Boeing 737-100/200/300s and eight BAe 146 aircraft operated between 1987 and 1992 were acquired with the assets of Air California and primarily operated from AA's hub at San Jose International Airport. Eight 737-3A4s that were once operated by American Airlines were purchased by Southwest Airlines and as of 2010, N679AA is the only remaining former Air Cal/AA 737-3A4 in service by Southwest.

In addition to original-run MD-80 series aircraft, American also operated 28 Boeing 717 aircraft acquired from Trans World Airlines between 2001 and 2003.[96] American also briefly owned five MD-87s and five MD-90s acquired from Reno Air.[97]

[edit]On-board

service

On domestic flights and flights to Canada, Central America, and areas in the Caribbean (including the Dominican Republic), American Airlines offers a buy on board program offering sandwiches and snacks for purchase. Flights two hours or longer have snacks, and flights three hours or longer have sandwiches. Transcontinental flights and Hawaii flights have the "Premium Sandwich and Chip Combo" for purchase. Buy on board service to Central America (From Miami) and the Dominican Republic began on March 1, 2009. American will continue to offer free coach meals on flights to Europe, Haiti, Japan, Venezuela, and other destinations.[98][99] In First and Business classes, on all domestic flights of two hours or more that operate within a traditional meal time, full meal service is included. Flights with a duration longer than two and one half hours that do not fall within a meal time have snack service for those classes.[98] First Class and Business Class passengers receive alcoholic beverages for free. Non-alcoholic beverages are free for all classes. Alcoholic drinks are available for purchase, even during international flights on New Year's Eve. [100] Headsets are two dollars on domestic flights and free on flights to/from Europe, Asia, India and South America. Headsets are also free to passengers in First and Business Classes.[101] At one time, blankets and pillows were provided free of charge. However, in February 2010 American Airlines announced that it would eliminate free blankets in coach and sell an $8 packet that includes a pillow and blanket starting May 1.[102]

[edit]AAdvantage

AAdvantage is the frequent flyer program of American Airlines.

[edit]Admirals

Club

The Admirals Club was conceived by AA president C.R. Smith as a marketing promotion shortly after he was made an honorary Texas Ranger. Inspired by the Kentucky colonels and other honorary organizations, Smith decided to make particularly valued passengers "admirals" of the "Flagship fleet" (AA called its aircraft "Flagships" at the time). The list of Admirals included many celebrities, politicians and other VIPs, as well as more "ordinary" customers who had been particularly loyal to the airline. There was no physical Admirals Club until shortly after the opening of LaGuardia Airport. During the airport's construction, New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia had an upper-level lounge set aside for press conferences and business meetings. At one such press conference, he noted that the entire terminal was being offered for lease to airline tenants; after a reporter asked whether the lounge would be leased as well, LaGuardia replied that it would, and a vice president of AA immediately offered to lease the premises. The airline then procured a liquor license and began operating the lounge as the "Admirals Club" in 1939. The second Admirals Club opened at Washington National Airport. Because it was illegal to sell alcohol in Virginia at the time, the Club contained refrigerators for the use of its members, so they could store their own liquor at the airport. For many years, membership in the Admirals Club (and most other airline lounges) was by the airline's invitation. After a passenger sued for discrimination,[103] the Club (and most other airline lounges) switched to a paid membership program. Membership now costs $300 to $450 a year, depending on AAdvantage frequent flyer program level (and annual renewal membership costs $250$400); membership can also be purchased with AAdvantage miles. As of December 2010, passengers can buy a 24-hour pass for $59.

[edit]Flagship

Lounge

Though affiliated with the Admirals Club and staffed by many of the same employees, the AA Flagship Lounge is a separate lounge specifically designed for customers flying on premium flights both within the United States and internationally. This means that only First Class passengers on 3-class aircraft, both Internationally and Transcontinentally, are granted entrance to these clubs. A 3-class aircraft operating a non-transcon AFS flight and not sold as 3-class is not considered Premium, and entrance is not granted to passengers on this type of service. Lounge access is granted to passengers on non-AA operated flights flown by select airline partners as well, again, as long as the flight has a true International First Class cabin and the passenger is booked in that class as a paying customer or on a premium cabin frequent flyer award ticket (not as an upgrade). The only exception to this rule is for OneWorld Emerald elite FF members (including AA Executive Platinum) on international flights (excluding Canada, the Caribbean, and Mexico except Mexico City), and non-AAdvantage OneWorld Emerald elite FF members on 'domestic' flights, who are granted access to the lounges travelling in any class.[104] The added amenities of the Flagship Lounges compared to the normal Admirals Club include free alcoholic beverages including premium brands not found in the Admirals Club, free premium buffet snacks including breakfast items, salads, sandwiches, fruits, chocolates, cheeses and other light fare (options change based on time of day), as well as a less crowded, more comfortable lounge space. Additionally, complimentary Lenovo computer terminals with free internet access, complimentary T-Mobile hotspot access, and complimentary printing is available at most locations, as are shower facilities. The first Flagship Lounge was opened at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport as a courtesy to First Class customers preparing for long flights to London and Tokyo. While the Dallas lounge is no longer open, Flagship Lounges are now available at four airports: Chicago-O'Hare, London-Heathrow, Los Angeles and New YorkJFK.

[edit]Accidents

and incidents

Main article: American Airlines accidents and incidents

[edit]In

popular culture
This article is in a list format that may be better presented using prose. You can help by converting this article to prose, if appropriate.Editing help is available. (April 2008)

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (March 2009)

AA lobbied heavily to be assigned the IATA airline code US when the U.S. military released it for nonmilitary use. However, USAir ultimately won the bid for the US airliner code.[when?]

AA is the only Big Five legacy carrier in the United States which has not filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

AA has its name on two major U.S. venues, American Airlines Center in Dallas, home to the Mavericks basketball team and Dallas Stars ice hockey team, and American Airlines Arena in Miami, home to the Miami Heat basketball team.

American Airlines has a Broadway Theatre called the "American Airlines Theatre" on 42nd Street in New York City.

AA plays a key role in the first two films of the Home Alone series. American Airlines is also featured in the movie L.A. Story at the point in which Harris K. Telemacher's love interest, Sara, a journalist from London, tries to fly home.

AA appears in the movie Up in the Air, starring George Clooney, in which it and Hilton Hotels received free publicity;[105] the movie juxtaposes human bonds with corporate loyalty, such as bonus programs for frequent travelers.

An AA rebranding effort is a brief subplot in Mad Men. An American Airlines DC-2 is the setting for Shirley Temple to sing, "On the Good Ship Lollipop" in the film Bright Eyes while James Dunn is taxiing the plane around the airport. Contrary to popular belief, the "good ship Lollipop" refers to an airplane, not a seagoing ship. The film contains some fine aeronautical footage of the DC-2 and the contemporary Curtiss Condor airliner.

The nose section of an American Airlines DC-7 is displayed at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum In the film Silent Running the "Valley Forge" is labeled as an American Airlines Space Freighter.

[edit]See

also

Dallas-Fort Worth portal New York City portal Companies portal

Aviation portal

Air transportation in the United States List of airlines of the United States

List of airports in the United States Wilmer A. Reedholm Transportation in the United States

[edit]References

1. ^ Am
1. Unitary Perspective: In unitarism, the organization is perceived as an integrated and harmonious system, viewed as one happy family. A core assumption of unitary approach is that management and staff, and all members of the organization share the same objectives, interests and purposes; thus working together, hand-in-hand, towards the shared mutual goals. Furthermore, unitarism has a paternalistic approach where it demands loyalty of all employees. Trade unions are deemed as unnecessary and conflict is perceived as disruptive. From employee point of view, unitary approach means that: Working practices should be flexible. Individuals should be business process improvement oriented, multi-skilled and ready to tackle with efficiency whatever tasks are required. If a union is recognized, its role is that of a further means of communication between groups of staff and the company. The emphasis is on good relationships and sound terms and conditions of employment. Employee participation in workplace decisions is enabled. This helps in empowering individuals in their roles and emphasizes team work, innovation, creativity, discretion in problem-solving, quality and improvement groups etc. Employees should feel that the skills and expertise of managers supports their endeavors. From employer point of view, unitary approach means that: Staffing policies should try to unify effort, inspire and motivate employees. The organizations wider objectives should be properly communicated and discussed with staff. Reward systems should be so designed as to foster to secure loyalty and commitment. Line managers should take ownership of their team/staffing responsibilities. Staff-management conflicts from the perspective of the unitary framework are seen as arising from lack of information, inadequate presentation of managements policies. The personal objectives of every individual employed in the business should be discussed with them and integrated with the organizations needs 2. Pluralistic-Perspective : In pluralism the organization is perceived as being made up of powerful and divergent sub-groups management and trade unions. This approach sees conflicts of interest and disagreements between managers and workers over the distribution of profits as normal and inescapable. Consequently, the role of management would lean less towards enforcing and controlling and more toward persuasion and coordination. Trade unions are deemed as legitimate representatives of employees. Conflict is dealt by

collective bargaining and is viewed not necessarily as a bad thing and if managed could in fact be channeled towards evolution and positive change. Realistic managers should accept conflict to occur. There is a greater propensity for conflict rather than harmony. They should anticipate and resolve this by securing agreed procedures for settling disputes. The implications of this approach include: The firm should have industrial relations and personnel specialists who advise managers and provide specialist services in respect of staffing and matters relating to union consultation and negotiation. Independent external arbitrators should be used to assist in the resolution of disputes. Union recognition should be encouraged and union representatives given scope to carry out their representative duties Comprehensive collective agreements should be negotiated with unions 3. Marxist Perspective: This view of industrial relations is a by product of a theory of capitalist society and social change. Marx argued that: Weakness and contradiction inherent in the capitalist system would result in revolution and the ascendancy of socialism over capitalism. Capitalism would foster monopolies. Wages (costs to the capitalist) would be minimized to a subsistence level. Capitalists and workers would compete/be in contention to win ground and establish their constant winlose struggles would be evident. This perspective focuses on the fundamental division of interest between capital and labor, and sees workplace relations against this background. It is concerned with the structure and nature of society and assumes that the conflict in employment relationship is reflective of the structure of the society. Conflict is therefore seen as inevitable and trade unions are a natural response of workers to their exploitation by capital.

Marxism
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Marxism is an economic and socio-political worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialecticalview of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th century by two German philosophers, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Marxism encompasses Marxian economic theory, a sociological theory and a revolutionary view of social change that has influenced socialist political movements worldwide. The Marxian analysis begins with an analysis of material conditions, taking at its starting point the necessary economic activities required by human society to provide for its material needs. The form of economic

organization, or mode of production, is understood to be the basis from which the majority of other social phenomena including social relations, political and legal systems, morality and ideology arise (or at the least by which they are greatly influenced). These social relations form the superstructure, of which the economic system forms the base. As the forces of production, most notably technology, improve, existing forms of social organization become inefficient and stifle further progress. These inefficiencies manifest themselves as social contradictions in society in the form of class struggle. Under the capitalist mode of production, this struggle materializes between the minority who own the means of production; the bourgeoisie, and the vast majority of the population who produce goods and services; theproletariat. Taking the idea that social change occurs because of the struggle between different classes within society who are under contradiction against each other, the Marxist analysis leads to the conclusion that capitalism oppresses the proletariat, the inevitable result being a proletarian revolution. Marxism views the emergence of a socialist system as a historical inevitability that arises from the obsolescence of capitalism and the corresponding social revolution, where private property in the means of production would be superseded by co-operative ownership. The hypothetical system of socialism would succeed capitalism as the dominant mode of production when the accumulation of capital can no longer sustain itself due to falling rates of profit in real production relative to increasing productivity. A socialist economy would not base production on the accumulation of capital, but would instead base production and economic activity on the criteria of satisfying human needs - that is, production would be carried out directly for use. Eventually, socialism would give way to a communist stage of history: a classless, stateless system based on common ownership and free-access, superabundance and maximum freedom for individuals to develop their own capacities and talents. As a political movement, Marxism advocates for the creation of such a society. A Marxist understanding of history and of society has been adopted by academics studying in a wide range of disciplines, including archaeology, anthropology,[1] media studies,[2] political science,theater, history, sociological theory, art history and theory, cultural studies, education, economics, geography, literary criticism, aesthetics, critical psychology, and philosophy.[3]
Contents
[hide]

1 Classical Marxism

1.1 Marx and Engels 1.2 Early intellectual influences

2 Concepts

2.1 Historical Materialism

2.2 Criticism of capitalism 2.3 Revolution, socialism and communism

3 Marxism in academia 4 Political Marxism

4.1 History 4.2 Social Democracy 4.3 Socialism 4.4 Communism

4.4.1 MarxismLeninism 4.4.2 Trotskyism 4.4.3 Maoism 4.4.4 Left communism

4.5 Dispute that the Soviet Union was Marxist

5 Variants

5.1 Marxism-Leninism 5.2 Marxism-Leninism after Stalin 5.3 Post-Stalin Moscow-aligned communism

5.3.1 Eurocommunism

5.4 Anti-revisionism

5.4.1 Maoism 5.4.2 Hoxhaism

5.5 Trotskyism 5.6 Left Communism 5.7 Western Marxism 5.8 Structural Marxism

5.9 Autonomist Marxism 5.10 Marxist humanism 5.11 Marxism-Deleonism 5.12 Marxist feminism

6 Criticism 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

9.1 General resources 9.2 Introductory articles 9.3 Marxist websites 9.4 Specific topics

[edit]Classical

Marxism

Main article: Classical Marxism The term Classical Marxism denotes the theory propounded by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.[citation needed] As such, Classical Marxism distinguishes between Marxism as broadly perceived, and what Marx believed; thus, in 1883, Marx wrote to the French labour leader Jules Guesde and to Paul Lafargue (Marxs son-inlaw) both of whom claimed to represent Marxist principles accusing them of revolutionary phrasemongering and of denying the value of reformist struggle; from which derives the paraphrase: If that is Marxism, then I am not a Marxist.[4] To which, the US Marx scholarHal Draper remarked, there are few thinkers in modern history whose thought has been so badly misrepresented, by Marxists and anti-Marxists alike.[5]

[edit]Marx

and Engels

Main articles: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

Karl Heinrich Marx (5 May 181814 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political economist, and socialist revolutionary, who addressed the matters ofalienation and exploitation of the working class, the capitalist mode of production, and historical materialism. He is famous for analysing history in terms ofclass struggle, summarised in the initial line introducing the Communist Manifesto (1848): The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. His ideas were influential in his time, and it was greatly expanded by the successful Bolshevik October Revolution of 1917 in Imperial Russia. Friedrich Engels (28 November 18205 August 1895) was a German political philosopher and Karl Marxs codeveloper of communist theory. Marx and Engels met in September 1844; discovering that they shared like views of philosophy and socialism, they collaborated and wrote works such as Die heilige Familie (The Holy Family). After the French deported Marx from France in January 1845, Engels and Marx moved to Belgium, which then permitted greaterfreedom of expression than other European countries; later, in January 1846, they returned to Brussels to establish the Communist Correspondence Committee. In 1847, they began writing The Communist Manifesto (1848), based upon Engels The Principles of Communism; six weeks later, they published the 12,000-word pamphlet in February 1848. In March, Belgium expelled them, and they moved to Cologne, where they published the Neue Rheinische Zeitung, a politically radical newspaper. Again, by 1849, they had to leave Cologne for London. The Prussian authorities pressured the British government to expel Marx and Engels, but Prime Minister Lord John Russell refused. After Karl Marxs death in 1883, Friedrich Engels became the editor and translator of Marxs writings. With his Origins of the Family, Private Property, and the State (1884) analysing monogamousmarriage as guaranteeing male social domination of women, a concept analogous, in communist theory, to the capitalist classs economic domination of the working class Engels made intellectuallysignificant contributions to feminist theory and Marxist feminism.

[edit]Early

intellectual influences

Main article: Influences on Karl Marx Different types of thinkers influenced the development of Classical Marxism; the primary influences derive from:

German philosophers: Immanuel Kant, G. W. F. Hegel, Ludwig Feuerbach et al. British political economists: Adam Smith & David Ricardo et al. French social theorists: Jean-Jacques Rousseau; Charles Fourier; Henri de Saint-Simon; Pierre-Joseph Proudhon; Flora Tristan; Louis Blanc et al.

and secondary influences derive from:

Ancient materialism, e.g. Epicurus, Lucretius et al. Aristotle Giambattista Vico Lewis Morgan Charles Darwin

[edit]Concepts [edit]Historical

Materialism

"The discovery of the materialist conception of history, or rather, the consistent continuation and extension of materialism into the domain of social phenomenon, removed two chief defects of earlier historical theories. In the first place, they at best examined only the ideological motives of the historical activity of human beings, without grasping the objective laws governing the development of the system of social relations... in the second place, the earlier theories did not cover the activities of the masses of the population, whereas historical materialism made it possible for the first time to study with the accuracy of thenatural sciences the social conditions of the life of the masses and the changes in these conditions." Russian Marxist theoretician and revolutionaryVladimir Lenin, 1913.[6]

"Society does not consist of individuals, but expresses the sum of interrelations, the relations within which these individuals stand." Karl Marx, Grundrisse, 1858[7] The historical materialist theory of history, also synonymous to the economic interpretation of history (a coinage by Eduard Bernstein),[8] looks for the causes of societal development and change in the collective ways humans use to make the means for living. The social features of a society (social classes, political structures, ideologies) derive from economic activity; base and superstructure is the metaphoric common term describing this historic condition.

The base and superstructure metaphor explains that the totality of social relations regarding the social production of their existence i.e. civil societyforms a societys economic base, from which rises a superstructure of political and legal institutions i.e. political society. The base corresponds to the social consciousness (politics, religion, philosophy, etc.), and it conditions the superstructure and the social consciousness. A conflict between the development of material productive forces and the relations of production provokes social revolutions, thus, the resultant changes to the economic base will lead to the transformation of the superstructure.[9] This relationship is reflexive; the base determines the superstructure, in the first instance, and remains the foundation of a form of social organization which then can act again upon both parts of the base and superstructure, whose relationship isdialectical, not literal.[citation needed][clarification needed] Marx considered that these socio-economic conflicts have historically manifested themselves as distinct stages (one transitional) of development in Western Europe.[10]

1. Primitive Communism: as in co-operative tribal societies. 2. Slave Society: a development of tribal progression to city-state; Aristocracy is born. 3. Feudalism: aristocrats are the ruling class; merchants evolve into capitalists. 4. Capitalism: capitalists are the ruling class, who create and employ the proletariat. 5. Socialism: workers gain class consciousness, and via proletarian revolution depose the capitalist
dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, replacing it in turn with dictatorship of the proletariat through which the socialization of the means of production can be realized.

6. Communism: a classless and stateless society.

[edit]Criticism

of capitalism

"We are, in Marx's terms, 'an ensemble of social relations' and we live our lives at the core of the intersection of a number of unequal social relations based on hierarchically interrelated structures which, together, define the historical specificity of the capitalist modes of production and reproduction and underlay their observable manifestations." Martha E. Gimenez, Marxism and Class, Gender and Race: Rethinking the Trilogy[11] According to the Marxist theoretician and revolutionary Vladimir Lenin, "the principal content of Marxism" was "Marx's economic doctrine".[12] Marx believed that the capitalist bourgeois and their economists were promoting what he saw as the lie that "The interests of the capitalist and those of the worker are... one and the same"; he believed that they did this by purporting the concept that "the fastest possible growth of productive capital" was best not only for the wealthy capitalists but also for the workers because it provided them with employment.[13] A person is exploited if he or she performs more labour than necessary to produce the goods that he consumes; likewise, a person is an exploiter if he or she performs less labour than is necessary to produce the goods that he consumes.[14] Exploitation is a matter of surplus labour the amount of labour one performs

beyond what one receives in goods. Exploitation has been a socio-economic feature of every class society, and is one of the principal features distinguishing the social classes. The power of one social class to control the means of production enables its exploitation of the other classes. In capitalism, the labour theory of value is the operative concern; the value of a commodity equals the socially necessary labour time required to produce it. Under that condition, surplus value (the difference between the value produced and the value received by a labourer) is synonymous with the term surplus labour; thus, capitalist exploitation is realised as deriving surplus value from the worker. In pre-capitalist economies, exploitation of the worker was achieved via physical coercion. In the capitalist mode of production, that result is more subtly achieved; because the worker does not own the means of production, he or she must voluntarily enter into an exploitive work relationship with a capitalist in order to earn the necessities of life. The worker's entry into such employment is voluntary in that he or she chooses which capitalist to work for. However, the worker must work or starve. Thus, exploitation is inevitable, and the "voluntary" nature of a worker participating in a capitalist society is illusory. Alienation denotes the estrangement of people from their humanity (German: Gattungswesen, speciesessence, species-being), which is a systematic result of capitalism. Under capitalism, the fruits of production belong to the employers, who expropriate the surplus created by others, and so generate alienated labourers.
[15]

Alienation objectively describes the workers situation in capitalism his or her self-awareness of this

condition is not prerequisite. The identity of a social class derives from its relationship to the means of production; Marx describes the social classes in capitalist societies:

Proletariat: those individuals who sell their labour power, and who, in the capitalist mode of production, do not own the means of production.[citation needed] The capitalist mode of production establishes the conditions enabling the bourgeoisie to exploit the proletariat because the workers labour generates a surplus value greater than the workers wages.

Bourgeoisie: those who own the means of production and buy labour power from the proletariat, thus exploiting the proletariat; they subdivide as bourgeoisie and the petit bourgeoisie.

Petit bourgeoisie are those who employ labourers, but who also work, i.e. small business owners, peasant landlords, trade workers et al. Marxism predicts that the continual reinvention of the means of production eventually would destroy the petit bourgeoisie, degrading them from the middle class to the proletariat.

Lumpenproletariat: criminals, vagabonds, beggars, et al., who have no stake in the economy, and so sell their labour to the highest bidder.

Landlords: an historically important social class who retain some wealth and power.

Peasantry and farmers: a disorganised class incapable of effecting socio-economic change, most of whom would enter the proletariat, and some become landlords.

Class consciousness denotes the awareness of itself and the social world that a social class possesses, and its capacity to rationally act in their best interests; hence, class consciousness is required before they can effect a successful revolution. Without defining ideology,[16] Marx used the term to denote the production of images of social reality; according to Engels, ideology is a process accomplished by the so-called thinker consciously, it is true, but with a false consciousness. The real motive forces impelling him remain unknown to him; otherwise it simply would not be an ideological process. Hence he imagines false or seeming motive forces.[17] Because the ruling class controls the societys means of production, the superstructure of society, the ruling social ideas are determined by the best interests of said ruling class. InThe German Ideology, the ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling material force of society, is, at the same time, its ruling intellectual force.[18] The term political economy originally denoted the study of the conditions under which economic production was organised in the capitalist system. In Marxism, political economy studies the means of production, specifically of capital, and how that manifests as economic activity.

[edit]Revolution,

socialism and communism

Marxists believe that the transition from capitalism to socialism is an inevitable part of the development of human society; as Lenin stated, "it is evident that Marx deduces the inevitability of the transformation of capitalist society [into a socialist society] wholly and exclusively from the economic law of motion of contemporary society."[19] Marxists believe that a socialist society will be far better for the majority of the populace than its capitalist counterpart, for instance, prior to the Russian revolution of 1917, Lenin wrote that "The socialization of production is bound to lead to the conversion of the means of production into the property of society... This conversion will directly result in an immense increase in productivity of labour, a reduction of working hours, and the replacement of the remnants, the ruins of small-scale, primitive, disunited production by collective and improved labour."[20]

[edit]Marxism

in academia

Some Marxists have criticised the academic institutionalisation of Marxism for being too detached from political action. For instance, Zimbabwean Trotskyist Alex Callinicos, himself a professional academic, stated that "Its practitioners remind one of Narcissus, who in the Greek legend fell in love with his own reflection... Sometimes it is necessary to devote time to clarifying and developing the concepts that we use, but for Western Marxists

this has become an end in itself. The result is a body of writings incomprehensible to all but a tiny minority of highly qualified scholars."[21]

[edit]Political

Marxism

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2010)
Since Marx's death in 1883, various groups around the world have appealed to Marxism as the theoretical basis for their politics and policies, which have often proved to be dramatically different and conflicting[citation
needed]

. One of the first major political splits occurred between the advocates of 'reformism', who argued that the

transition to socialism could occur within existing bourgeoisparliamentarian frameworks, and communists, who argued that the transition to a socialist society required a revolution and the dissolution of the capitalist state. The 'reformist' tendency, later known as social democracy, came to be dominant in most of the parties affiliated to the Second International and these parties supported their own governments in the First World War[citation
needed]

. This issue caused the communists to break away, forming their own parties which became members of

the Third International[citation needed]. The following countries had governments at some point in the 20th century who at least nominally adhered to Marxism:[22] Albania, Afghanistan, Angola, Benin, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Republic of Congo, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Ethiopia, Grenada, Hungary, Laos, Moldova, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nepal, Nicaragua, North Korea, Poland, Romania, Russia, the USSR and its republics, South Yemen, Yugoslavia, Venezuela, Vietnam. In addition, the Indian states of Kerala, Tripura and West Bengal have had Marxist governments, but change takes place in the government due to electoral process. Some of these governments such as in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Chile, Moldova and parts of India have been democratic in nature and maintained regular multiparty elections.

[edit]History
The 1917 October Revolution, led by Vladimir Lenin, was the first large scale attempt to put Marxist ideas about a workers' state into practice. The new government faced counter-revolution, civil war and foreign intervention.
[23]

Lenin consistently explained "this elementary truth of Marxism, that the victory of socialism requires the joint

efforts of workers in a number of advanced countries" (Lenin, Sochineniya (Works), 5th ed Vol XLIV p418.) It could not be developed in Russia in isolation, he argued, but needed to be spread internationally. The 1917 October Revolution did help inspire a revolutionary wave over the years that followed,[24][25][26][27] with the development of Communist Parties worldwide, but without success in the vital advanced capitalist countries of Western Europe. Socialist revolution in Germany and other western countries failed, leaving the Soviet Union on its own. An intense period of debate and stopgap solutions ensued, war communism and the New

Economic Policy (NEP). Lenin died and Joseph Stalin gradually assumed control, eliminating rivals and consolidating power as the Soviet Union faced the events of the 1930s and its global crisis-tendencies. Amidst the geopolitical threats which defined the period and included the probability of invasion, he instituted a ruthless program ofindustrialization which, while successful,[28] was executed at great cost in human suffering, along with long-term environmental devastation.[28] Modern followers of Leon Trotsky maintain that as predicted by Lenin, Trotsky, and others already in the 1920s, Stalin's "socialism in one country" was unable to maintain itself, and according to some Marxist critics, the USSR ceased to show the characteristics of a socialist state long before its formal dissolution. In the 1920s the economic calculation debate between Austrian Economists and Marxist economists took place. The Austrians claimed that Marxism is flawed because prices could not be set to recognize opportunity costs of factors of production, and so socialism could not make rational decisions. The Kuomintang party, a Chinese nationalist revolutionary party, had Marxist members who opposed the Chinese Communist Party. They viewed the Chinese revolution in different terms than the Communists, claiming that China already went past its feudal stage and in a stagnation period rather than in another mode of production. These Marxists in the Kuomintang opposed the Chinese communist party ideology.[29] Following World War II, Marxist ideology, often with Soviet military backing, spawned a rise in revolutionary communist parties all over the world. Some of these parties were eventually able to gain power, and establish their own version of a Marxist state. Such nations included the People's Republic of China, Vietnam, Romania, East Germany, Albania, Cambodia, Ethiopia, South Yemen,Yugoslavia, Cuba, and others. In some cases, these nations did not get along. Rifts occurred between the Soviet Union and China,
[30]

as well as Soviet Union and Yugoslavia (in 1948), whose leaders disagreed on certain elements of Marxism

and how it should be implemented into society.[31] Many of these self-proclaimed Marxist nations (often styled People's Republics) eventually became authoritarian states, with stagnating economies. This caused some debate about whether Marxism was doomed in practise or these nations were in fact not led by "true Marxists". Critics of Marxism speculated that perhaps Marxist ideology itself was to blame for the nations' various problems. Followers of the currents within Marxism which opposed Stalin, principally cohered around Leon Trotsky, tended to locate the failure at the level of the failure of world revolution: for communism to have succeeded, they argue, it needed to encompass all the international trading relationships that capitalism had previously developed. The Chinese experience seems to be unique. Rather than falling under a single family's self-serving and dynastic interpretation of Marxism as happened in North Korea and before 1989 in Eastern Europe, the Chinese government after the end of the struggles over the Mao legacy in 1980 and the ascent of Deng Xiaoping seems to have solved the succession crises[citation needed] that have plagued self-proclaimed Leninist governments since the death of Lenin himself. Key to this success is another Leninism which is a NEP (New

Economic Policy) writ very large; Lenin's own NEP of the 1920s was the "permission" given to markets including speculation to operate by the Party which retained final control. The Russian experience in Perestroika was that markets under socialism were so opaque as to be both inefficient and corrupt but especially after China's application to join the WTO this does not seem to apply universally. The death of "Marxism" in China has been prematurely announced but since the Hong Kong handover in 1997, the Beijing leadership has clearly retained final say over both commercial and political affairs[citation needed]. In 1991 the Soviet Union was dismantled and the new Russian state, alongside the other emerging republics, ceased to identify themselves with Marxism. Other nations around the world followed suit. Since then, radical Marxism or Communism has generally ceased to be a prominent political force in global politics, and has largely been replaced by more moderate versions of democratic socialismor, more commonly, by neoliberal capitalism. Marxism has also had to engage with the rise in the Environmental movement. Theorists including Joel Kovel and Michael Lwy have synthesized Marxism, socialism, ecology and environmentalism into an ideology known as Eco-socialism.[32]

[edit]Social

Democracy
Social democracy

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Social democracy is a political ideology that emerged in the late 19th and early 20th century. Many parties in the second half of the 19th century described themselves as social democratic, such as the British Social Democratic Federation, and the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. In most cases these were revolutionary socialist or Marxist groups, who were not only seeking to introduce socialism, but also democracy

in un-democratic countries. Many social democrats reject the idea that socialism can be accomplished only through class conflict, revolution and dictatorship of the proletariat. The modern social democratic current came into being through a break within the socialist movement in the early 20th century, between two groups holding different views on the ideas of Karl Marx. Many related movements, including pacifism, anarchism, and syndicalism, arose at the same time (often by splitting from the main socialist movement, but also through the emergence of new theories) and had various, quite different objections to Marxism. The social democrats argued that socialism should be achieved through evolution rather than revolution. Such views were strongly opposed by the revolutionary socialists,[33][34] who argued that any attempt to reform capitalism was doomed to fail, because the reformists would be gradually corrupted and eventually turn into capitalists themselves. Despite their differences, the reformist and revolutionary branches of socialism remained united until the outbreak of World War I. The war proved to be the final straw that pushed the tensions between them to breaking point[citation needed]. The reformist socialists supported their respective national governments in the war, a fact that was seen by the revolutionary socialists as outright treason against the working class (Since it betrayed the principle that the workers "have no nation", and the fact that usually the lowest classes are the ones sent into the war to fight, and die, putting the cause at the side)[citation needed]. Bitter arguments ensued within socialist parties, as for example between Eduard Bernstein (reformist socialist) and Rosa Luxemburg (revolutionary socialist) within the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). Eventually, after the Russian Revolution of 1917, most of the world's socialist parties fractured. The reformist socialists kept the name "Social democrats", while the revolutionary socialists began calling themselves "Communists", and soon formed the modern Communist movement, the Comintern. Since the 1920s, doctrinal differences have been constantly growing between social democrats and Communists (who themselves are not unified on the way to achieve socialism), and Social Democracy is mostly used as a specifically Central European label for Labour Parties since then, especially in Germany and the Netherlands and especially since the 1959 Godesberg Program of the German SPD that rejected the praxis of class struggle altogether.

[edit]Socialism
Main articles: Socialism and Socialism (Marxism)

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The term "socialism" could be used to describe two fundamentally different ideologies - democratic socialism and Marxist-Leninist socialism. While Marxist-Leninists (Trotskyists, Stalinists, and Maoists) are often described as communists in the contemporary media, they are not recognized as such academically or by themselves.[35] The Marxist-Leninists sought to work towards the workers' utopia in Marxist ideology by first creating a socialist state, which historically had almost always been a single-party dictatorship. On the other hand, democratic socialists attempt to work towards an ideal state by social reform and are often little different from social democrats, with the democratic socialists having a more leftist stance. The Marxist-Leninist form of government has been in decline since the dissolution of the Soviet Union and its satellite states. Very few countries have governments which describe themselves as socialist. As of 2011, Laos, Vietnam, Nepal, Cuba, and the People's Republic of China had governments in power which describe themselves as socialist in the Marxist sense[citation needed].

On the contrary, electoral parties which describe themselves as socialist or democratic socialist are on the rise, joined together by international organizations such as the Socialist International and the Fourth International. Parties described as socialist are currently dominant in the democracies of the developing world and serve as the ruling party or the main opposition party in most European democracies. Eco-socialism, and Green politics with a strong leftist tinge, are on the rise in European democracies. The characterization of a party or government often has little to do with its actual economical and social platform. The government of mainland China, which describes itself as socialist, allows a large private sector to flourish and is socially conservative compared to most Western democracies. A more specific example is universal health-care, which is a trademark issue of many European socialist parties but does not exist in mainland China. Therefore, the historical and cultural aspects of a movement must be taken into context in order for one to arrive at an accurate conclusion of its political ideology from its nominal characterization.

[edit]Communism
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Main article: Communist state

A number of states declared an allegiance to the principles of Marxism and have been ruled by self-described Communist Parties, either as a single-party state or a single list, which includes formally several parties, as was the case in the German Democratic Republic. Due to the dominance of the Communist Party in their governments, these states are often called "communist states" by Western political scientists. However, they have described themselves as "socialist", reserving the term "communism" for a future classless society,[36] in which the state would no longer be necessary (on this understanding of communism, "communist state" would be an oxymoron) for instance, the USSR was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Communist governments have historically been characterized by state ownership of productive resources in a planned economy and sweeping campaigns of economic restructuring such as nationalization of industry and land reform (often focusing on collective farming or state farms.) While they promote collectiveownership of the means of production, Communist governments have been characterized by a strong state apparatus in which decisions are made by the ruling Communist Party. Dissident 'authentic' communists have characterized the Soviet model as state socialism or state capitalism.

[edit]MarxismLeninism
Main articles: MarxismLeninism and Leninism Marxism-Leninism, strictly speaking, refers to the version of Marxism developed by Vladimir Lenin known as Leninism. However, in various contexts, different (and sometimes opposing) political groups have used the term "MarxismLeninism" to describe the ideologies that they claimed to be upholding. The core ideological features of Marxism-Leninism are those of Marxism and Leninism, that is to say, belief in the necessity of a violent overthrow of capitalism through communist revolution, to be followed by a dictatorship of the proletariat as the first stage of moving towards communism, and the need for a vanguard party to lead the proletariat in this effort. Those who view themselves as Marxist-Leninists, however, vary with regards to the leaders and thinkers that they choose to uphold as progressive (and to what extent)[citation needed]. Leninism holds that capitalism can only be overthrown by revolutionary means; that is, any attempts to reform capitalism from within, such as Fabianism and non-revolutionary forms of democratic socialism, are doomed to fail.[36] The first goal of a Leninist party is to educate the proletariat, so as to remove the various modes of false consciousness the bourgeois have instilled in them, instilled in order to make them more docile and easier to exploit economically, such as religion and nationalism[citation needed]. Once the proletariat has gained class consciousness the party will coordinate the proletariat's total might to overthrow the existing government, thus the proletariat will seize all political and economic power. Lastly the proletariat (thanks to their education by the party) will implement adictatorship of the proletariat which would bring upon them socialism, the lower phase of communism. After this, the party would essentially dissolve as the entire proletariat is elevated to the level of revolutionaries.

The dictatorship of the proletariat refers to the absolute power of the working class. It is governed by a system of proletarian direct democracy, in which workers hold political power through local councils known as soviets.

[edit]Trotskyism
Main article: Trotskyism Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself a BolshevikLeninist, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party. He considered himself an advocate of orthodox Marxism. His politics differed sharply from those of Stalin or Mao, most importantly in declaring the need for an international "permanent revolution". Numerous groups around the world continue to describe themselves as Trotskyist and see themselves as standing in this tradition, although they have diverse interpretations of the conclusions to be drawn from this. Trotsky advocated proletarian revolution as set out in his theory of "permanent revolution", and he argued that in countries where the bourgeois-democratic revolution had not triumphed already (in other words, in places that had not yet implemented a capitalist democracy, such as Russia before 1917), it was necessary that the proletariat make it permanent by carrying out the tasks of the social revolution (the "socialist" or "communist" revolution) at the same time, in an uninterrupted process. Trotsky believed that a new socialist state would not be able to hold out against the pressures of a hostile capitalist world unless socialist revolutions quickly took hold in other countries as well, especially in the industrial powers with a developed proletariat. On the political spectrum of Marxism, Trotskyists are considered to be on the left. They fervently support democracy, oppose political deals with the imperialist powers, and advocate a spreading of the revolution until it becomes global. Trotsky developed the theory that the Russian workers' state had become a "bureaucratically degenerated workers' state". Capitalist rule had not been restored, and nationalized industry and economic planning, instituted under Lenin, were still in effect[citation needed]. However, the state was controlled by a bureaucratic caste with interests hostile to those of the working class. Trotsky defended the Soviet Union against attack from imperialist powers and against internal counter-revolution, but called for a political revolution within the USSR to restore socialist democracy. He argued that if the working class did not take power away from the Stalinist bureaucracy, the bureaucracy would restore capitalism in order to enrich itself[citation needed]. In the view of many Trotskyists, this is exactly what has happened since the beginning of Glasnost and Perestroika in the USSR. Some[who?] argue that the adoption of market socialism by the People's Republic of China has also led to capitalist counter-revolution[citation needed]. Most modern Trotskyist organisations are organised internationally, such as the International Marxist Tendency, International Socialist Tendency and the Committee for a Worker's International. They are mostly rather small groupings.

[edit]Maoism

Main article: Maoism

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Maoism or Mao Zedong Thought (simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Mo Zdng Sxing), is a variant of Marxism-Leninismderived from the teachings of the Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong (Wade-Giles transliteration: "Mao Tse-tung").

The term "Mao Zedong Thought" has always been the preferred term by the Communist Party of China, and the word "Maoism" has never been used in its English-language publications except pejoratively. Likewise, Maoist groups[which?] outside China have usually called themselves Marxist-Leninist rather than Maoist, a reflection of Mao's view that he did not change, but only developed, Marxism-Leninism. However, some[who?] Maoist groups believing Mao's theories to have been sufficiently substantial additions to the basics of the Marxist canon, call themselves "Marxist-Leninist-Maoist" (MLM) or simply "Maoist". In the People's Republic of China, Mao Zedong Thought is part of the official doctrine of the Communist Party of China, but since the 1978 beginning of Deng Xiaoping's market economy-oriented reforms, the concept of "socialism with Chinese characteristics" has come to the forefront of Chinese politics, Chinese economic reform has taken hold, and the official definition and role of Mao's original ideology in the PRC has been radically altered and reduced (see History of China). Unlike the earlier forms of Marxism-Leninism in which the urban proletariat was seen as the main source of revolution, and the countryside was largely ignored, Mao believed that peasantry could be the main force behind a revolution, led by the proletariat and a vanguard Communist party. The model for this was of course the Chinese communist rural Protracted People's War of the 1920s and 1930s, which eventually brought the Communist Party of China to power[citation needed]. Furthermore, unlike other forms of Marxism-Leninism in which large-scale industrial development was seen as a positive force, Maoism made all-round rural development the priority[citation needed]. Mao felt that this strategy made sense during the early stages of socialism in a country in which most of the people were peasants. Unlike most other political ideologies, including other socialist and Marxist ones, Maoism contains an integral military doctrine and explicitly connects its political ideology with military strategy. In Maoist thought, "political power grows from the barrel of the gun" (a famous quote by Mao), and the peasantry can be mobilized to undertake a "people's war" of armed struggle involving guerrilla warfare in three stages.

[edit]Left communism
Main article: Left communism
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This section has been nominated to be checked for its neutrality.

Discussion of this nomination can be found on the talk page. (May 2011)

Left communism is the range of communist viewpoints held by the Communist Left, which criticizes the political ideas of the Bolsheviks from a position that is asserted to be more authentically Marxist and proletarian than the views of Leninism held by the Communist International after its first two Congresses. Two major traditions can be observed within Left communism: the Dutch-German tradition; and the Italian tradition. The political positions those traditions have in common are a shared opposition to what is termed frontism, nationalism, all kinds of national liberation movements and parliamentarianism and there is an underlying commonality at a level of abstract theory. Crucially, Left Communist groups from both traditions tend to identify elements of commonality in each other[vague]. The historical origins of Left Communism can be traced to the period before the First World War, but it only came into focus after 1918 . All[according to whom?] Left Communists were supportive of the October Revolution in Russia[citation needed], but retained a critical view of its development. Some[which?], however, would in later years come to reject the idea that the revolution had a proletarian or socialist nature, asserting that it had simply carried out the tasks of the bourgeois revolution by creating a state capitalist system[citation needed]. Left Communism first came into being as a clear movement in or around 1918[citation needed]. Its essential features were: a stress on the need to build a Communist Party entirely separate from the reformist and centrist elements who were seen as having betrayed socialism in 1914, opposition to all but the most restricted participation in elections, and an emphasis on the need for revolutionaries to move on the offensive[citation needed]. Apart from that, there was little in common between the various wings. Only the Italians[original research?] accepted the need for electoral work at all for a very short period of time, and the GermanDutch, Italian and Russian wings opposed the "right of nations to self-determination", which they denounced as a form of bourgeois nationalism.

[edit]Dispute

that the Soviet Union was Marxist

Marx defined "communism" as a classless, egalitarian and stateless society. To Marx, the notion of a communist state would have seemed an oxymoron,[37][38][39]as he defined communism as the phase reached when class society and the state had already been abolished. Once the lower stage towards communism, commonly referred to as socialism, had been established, society would develop new social relations over the course of several generations, reaching what Marx called the higher phase of communism when not only bourgeois relations but every class social relations had been abandoned. Such a development has yet to occur in any historical self-claimed socialist state.[37][38][39] Even within the Stalinist state at its height, there were repressed[37] expressions of Marxist orthodoxy, revealed after the fall of the USSR, arguing that it had developed new class structures: those who are in government and therefore have power (sometimes referred to as the political class), and those who are not in government and do not have power, the working class. This is taken to be a different form of capitalism, in which the government, as owner of the means of production, takes on the role formerly played by the capitalist class; this arrangement is referred to as "state capitalism."[37] These statist regimes have generally followed a planned economy model without making a transition to this hypothetical final stage.[40] Some academics such as Noam Chomsky disputed the claim that the political movements in the former Soviet Union were Marxist.[40] Communist governments have historically been characterized by state ownership of productive resources in a planned economy and sweeping campaigns of economic restructuring such asnationalization of industry and land reform (often focusing on collective farming or state farms). While they promote collective ownership of the means of production, Communist governments have been characterized by a strong state apparatus in which decisions are made by the ruling Communist Party. Dissident communists have characterized the Soviet model as state socialism or state capitalism.

[edit]Variants
Marxists can interpret the Manifesto differently, and therefore all variants cannot be covered in this article.

[edit]Marxism-Leninism
Main article: Marxism-Leninism At least in terms of adherents and the impact on the world stage, Marxism-Leninism, also known colloquially as Bolshevism or simply communism is the biggest trend within Marxism, easily dwarfing all of the other schools of thought combined.[41] Marxism-Leninism is a term originally coined by the CPSU in order to denote the ideology that Vladimir Lenin had built upon the thought of Karl Marx. There are two broad areas that have set apart Marxism-Leninism as a school of thought.

First, Lenin's followers generally view his additions to the body of Marxism as the practical corollary to Marx's original theoretical contributions of the 19th century; insofar as they apply under the conditions of advanced capitalism that they found themselves working in. Lenin called this time-frame the era of Imperialism. For example, Joseph Stalin wrote that

The most important consequence of a Leninist-style theory of Imperialism is the strategic need for workers in the industrialized countries to bloc or ally with the oppressed nations contained within their respective countries' colonies abroad in order to overthrow capitalism. This is the source of the slogan, which shows the Leninist conception that not only the proletariat, as is traditional to Marxism, are the sole revolutionary force, but all oppressed people:

Second, the other distinguishing characteristic of Marxism-Leninism is how it approaches the question of organization. Lenin believed that the traditional model of the Social Democratic parties of the time, which was a loose, multitendency organization was inadequate for overthrowing the Tsarist regime in Russia. He proposed a cadre of professional revolutionaries that disciplined itself under the model of Democratic Centralism.

[edit]Marxism-Leninism

after Stalin

For better or worse, Marxism-Leninism as a body of thought and practice was closely identified with the figure of Joseph Stalin after the death of Lenin. After the death of Stalin, the leader of the USSR,Nikita Khrushchev made several ideological and practical ruptures with his predecessor which lead to the eventual split of Marxism-Leninism into two main branches, post-Stalin "Moscow-aligned" communism and antirevisionism. In turn, these branches evolved into multiple schools of thought over time.

[edit]Post-Stalin

Moscow-aligned communism

At the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Khrushchev made several ideological ruptures with his predecessor, Joseph Stalin. First, Khrushchev denounced the so-called Cult of Personality that had developed around Stalin, which ironically enough Khrushchev had had a pivotal role in fostering decades earlier. More importantly, however, Khrushchev rejected the heretofore orthodox MarxistLeninist tenet that class struggle continues even under socialism. Rather, the State ought to rule in the name of all classes. A related principle that flowed from the former was the notion of peaceful co-existence, or that the newly emergent socialist bloc could peacefully compete with the capitalist world, solely by developing the productive forces of society.

[edit]Eurocommunism

Beginning around the 1970s, various communist parties in Western Europe, such as the Partito Comunista Italiano in Italy and the Partido Comunista de Espaa under Santiago Carillo tried to hew to a more independent line from Moscow. Particularly in Italy, they leaned on the theories of Antonio Gramsci, despite the fact that by 1921 Gramsci believed that a Communist Party in the Leninist sense was needed. This trend went by the name Eurocommunism.

[edit]Anti-revisionism
There are many proponents of Marxist-Leninism who rejected the theses of Khrushchev. They believed that Khrushchev was unacceptably altering or "revising" the fundamental tenets of Marxism-Leninism, a stance from which the label "anti-revisionist" is derived. Usually, they are referred to externally by the following epithets, although anti-revisionists typically refer to themselves simply as Marxist-Leninists.

[edit]Maoism
Maoism takes its name from Mao Zedong, the erstwhile leader of the Peoples Republic of China; it is the variety of anti-revisionism that took inspiration, and in some cases received material support, from China, especially during the Mao period. There are several key concepts that were developed by Mao. First, Mao concurred with Stalin that not only does class struggle continue under thedictatorship of the proletariat, it actually accelerates as long as gains are being made by the proletariat at the expense of the disenfranchised bourgeoisie. Second, Mao developed a strategy for revolution called Prolonged People's War in what he termed the semi-feudal countries of the Third World. Prolonged People's War relied heavily on the peasantry. Third, Mao wrote many theoretical articles on epistemology and dialectics, which he called contradictions.

[edit]Hoxhaism
Hoxhaism, so named because of the central contribution of Albanian statesman Enver Hoxha, was closely aligned with the People's Republic of China for a number of years, but grew critical of Maoismbecause of the so-called Three Worlds Theory put forth by elements within the Communist Party of China and because it viewed the actions of Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping unfavorably. Ultimately, however, Hoxhaism as a trend came to the understanding that Socialism had never existed in China at all.

[edit]Trotskyism
Main article: Trotskyism Trotskyism is the usual term for followers of the ideas of Russian Marxist Leon Trotsky, the second most prominent leader of the Russian Revolution. Trotsky was a contemporary of Lenin from the early years of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, where he led a small trend in competition with both Lenin's Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks; nevertheless Trotsky's followers claim to be the heirs of Lenin in the same way that mainstream Marxist-Leninists do. There are several distinguishing characteristics of this school of thought; foremost is the theory of Permanent Revolution. Another shared characteristic between Trotskyists

is a variety of theoretical justifications for their negative appraisal of the post-Lenin Soviet Union; that is to say, after Trotsky was expelled by a majority vote from the CPSU[44] and subsequently from the Soviet Union. Trotsky characterized the government of the USSR after his expulsion as being dominated by a "bureaucratic caste" and called for it to be overthrown.[45] Trotskists as a consequence usually advocate the overthrow of socialist governments around the world that are ruled by Marxist-Leninist parties.

[edit]Left

Communism

Main article: Left Communism Left communism is the range of communist viewpoints held by the communist left, which criticizes the political ideas of the Bolsheviks from a position that is asserted to be more authentically Marxist and proletarian than the views of Leninism held by the Communist International after its first two congresses. Although she lived before left communism became a distinct tendency, Rosa Luxemburg has been heavily influential for most left communists, both politically and theoretically. Proponents of left communism have included Herman Gorter, Anton Pannekoek, Otto Rhle, Karl Korsch, Amadeo Bordiga, and Paul Mattick. Prominent left communist groups existing today include the International Communist Current and the International Bureau for the Revolutionary Party. Also, different factions from the old Bordigist International Communist Party are considered left communist organizations.

[edit]Western

Marxism

Main article: Western Marxism Western Marxism is a term used to describe a wide variety of Marxist theoreticians based in Western and Central Europe (and more recently North America ), in contrast with philosophy in the Soviet Union, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia or the People's Republic of China.

[edit]Structural

Marxism

Main article: Structural Marxism Structural Marxism is an approach to Marxism based on structuralism, primarily associated with the work of the French theorist Louis Althusser and his students. It was influential in France during the late 1960s and 1970s, and also came to influence philosophers, political theorists and sociologists outside of France during the 1970s.

[edit]Autonomist

Marxism

Main article: Autonomism Autonomism is a term applied to a variety of social movements around the world, which emphasizes the ability to organize in autonomous and horizontal networks, as opposed to hierarchical structures such as unions or parties. Autonomist Marxists, including Harry Cleaver, broaden the definition of the working-class to include

salaried and unpaid labour, such as skilled professions and housework; it focuses on the working class in advanced capitalist states as the primary force of change in the construct of capital. Modern autonomist theorists such as Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt argue that network power constructs are the most effective methods of organization against the neoliberal regime of accumulation, and predict a massive shift in the dynamics of capital into a 21st century Empire.

[edit]Marxist

humanism

Main article: Marxist humanism Marxist humanism is a branch of Marxism that primarily focuses on Marx's earlier writings, especially the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 in which Marx develops his theory of alienation, as opposed to his later works, which are considered to be concerned more with his structural conception of capitalist society. It was opposed by Louis Althusser's "antihumanism", who qualified it as a revisionist movement. Marxist humanists contend that Marxism developed lopsidedly because Marxs early works were unknown until after the orthodox ideas were in vogue the Manuscripts of 1844 were published only in 1932 and it is necessary to understand Marxs philosophical foundations to understand his latter works properly.

[edit]Marxism-Deleonism
Marxism-Deleonism, is a form of syndicalist Marxism developed by Daniel De Leon. De Leon was an early leader of the first US socialist political party, the Socialist Labor Party. This party exists to the present day. De Leonism lies outside the Leninist tradition of communism. The highly decentralized and democratic nature of the proposed De Leonist government is in contrast to the democratic centralism of Marxism-Leninism and what they see as the dictatorial nature of the Soviet Union. The success of the De Leonist plan depends on achieving majority support among the people both in the workplaces and at the polls, in contrast to the Leninist notion that a small vanguard party should lead the working class to carry out the revolution. Daniel De Leon and other De Leonist writers have issued frequent polemics against 'democratic socialist' movements, especially the Socialist Party of America, and consider them to be "reformist" or "bourgeois socialist". De Leonists have traditionally refrained from any activity or alliances viewed by them as trying to reform capitalism, though the Socialist Labor Party in De Leon's time was active during strikes and such, such as social justice movements.[citation needed]

[edit]Marxist

feminism

Main article: Marxist feminism Marxist feminism is a sub-type of feminist theory which focuses on the dismantling of capitalism as a way to liberate women. Marxist feminism states that private property, which gives rise to economic inequality, dependence, political confusion and ultimately unhealthy social relations between men and women, is the root

of women's oppression. According to Marxist theory, in capitalist societies the individual is shaped by class relations; that is, people's capacities, needs and interests are seen to be determined by the mode of production that characterises the society they inhabit. Marxist feminists see gender inequality as determined ultimately by the capitalist mode of production. Gender oppression is class oppression and women's subordination is seen as a form of class oppression which is maintained (like racism) because it serves the interests of capital and the ruling class. Marxist feminists have extended traditional Marxist analysis by looking at domestic labour as well as wage work in order to support their position.[citation needed]

[edit]Criticism
Main article: Criticisms of Marxism Criticisms of Marxism have come from the political left, right, and libertarians. Democratic socialists and social democrats reject the idea that socialism can be accomplished only through class conflictand a proletarian revolution. Many anarchists reject the need for a transitory state phase. Other critiques come from an economic standpoint. Economists such as Friedrich Hayek have criticized Marxism for allocating resources inefficiently. Some contemporary supporters of Marxism argue that many aspects of Marxist thought are viable, but that the corpus is incomplete or somewhat outdated in regards to certain aspects of economic,

This view of industrial relations is a by product of a theory of capitalist society and social change. Marx argued that: Weakness and contradiction inherent in the capitalist system would result in revolution and the ascendancy of socialism over capitalism. Capitalism would foster monopolies. Wages (costs to the capitalist) would be minimized to a subsistence level. Capitalists and workers would compete/be in contention to win ground and establish their constant win-lose struggles would be evident. This perspective focuses on the fundamental division of interest between capital and labor, and sees workplace relations against this background. It is concerned with the structure and nature of society and assumes that the conflict in employment relationship is reflective of the structure of the society. Conflict is therefore seen as inevitable and trade unions are a natural response of workers to their exploitation by capital.

Industrial relations
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Industrial relations is a multidisciplinary field that studies the employment relationship.[1] Industrial relations is increasingly being called employment relations because of the importance of non-industrial employment relationships. Many outsiders also equate industrial relations to labour relations and believe that industrial relations only studies unionized employment situations, but this is an oversimplification.
Contents
[hide]

1 Overview 2 History 3 Theoretical perspectives

3.1 Unitary perspective

3.2 Pluralist perspective

3.3 Marxist/Radical perspective

4 Industrial Relations Today 5 Notes 6 Further reading

[edit]Overview
Industrial relations has three faces: science building, problem solving, and ethical.[2] In the science building face, industrial relations is part of the social sciences, and it seeks to understand the employment relationship and its institutions through high-quality, rigorous research. In this vein, industrial relations scholarship intersects with scholarship in labor economics, industrial sociology, labor and social history, human resource management, political science, law, and other areas. In the problem solving face, industrial relations seeks to design policies and institutions to help the employment relationship work better. In the ethical face, industrial relations contains strong normative principles about workers and the employment relationship, especially the rejection of treating labor as a commodity in favor of seeing workers as human beings in democratic communities entitled to human rights."The term human relations refers to the whole field of relationship that exists because of the necessary collaboration of men and women in the employment process of modern industry."It is that part of management which is concerned with the management of enterprise -whether machine operator,skilled worker or manager.It deals with

either the relationship between the state and employers and workers organisation or the relation between the occupational organisation themselves. Industrial relations scholarship assumes that labor markets are not perfectly competitive and thus, in contrast to mainstream economic theory, employers typically have greater bargaining power than employees. Industrial relations scholarship also assumes that there are at least some inherent conflicts of interest between employers and employees (for example, higher wages versus higher profits) and thus, in contrast to scholarship in human resource management and organizational behavior, conflict is seen as a natural part of the employment relationship. Industrial relations scholars therefore frequently study the diverse institutional arrangements that characterize and shape the employment relationshipfrom norms and power structures on the shop floor, to employee voice mechanisms in the workplace, to collective bargaining arrangements at company, regional, or national level, to various levels of public policy and labor law regimes, to "varieties of capitalism" (such as corporatism),social democracy, and neoliberalism). When labor markets are seen as imperfect, and when the employment relationship includes conflicts of interest, then one cannot rely on markets or managers to always serve workers interests, and in extreme cases to prevent worker exploitation. Industrial relations scholars and practitioners therefore support institutional interventions to improve the workings of the employment relationship and to protect workers rights. The nature of these institutional interventions, however, differ between two camps within industrial relations.[3] The pluralist camp sees the employment relationship as a mixture of shared interests and conflicts of interests that are largely limited to the employment relationship. In the workplace, pluralists therefore champion grievance procedures, employee voice mechanisms such as works councils and labor unions, collective bargaining, and labor-management partnerships. In the policy arena, pluralists advocate for minimum wage laws, occupational health and safety standards, international labor standards, and other employment and labor laws and public policies.[4] These institutional interventions are all seen as methods for balancing the employment relationship to generate not only economic efficiency, but also employee equity and voice.[5] In contrast, the Marxist-inspired critical camp sees employer-employee conflicts of interest as sharply antagonistic and deeply embedded in the socio-political-economic system. From this perspective, the pursuit of a balanced employment relationship gives too much weight to employers interests, and instead deep-seated structural reforms are needed to change the sharply antagonistic employment relationship that is inherent within capitalism. Militant trade unions are thus frequently supported.

Organized labour

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The labour movement[show]

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[edit]History
Industrial relations has its roots in the industrial revolution which created the modern employment relationship by spawning free labor markets and large-scale industrial organizations with thousands of wage workers.[6] As society wrestled with these massive economic and social changes, labor problems arose. Low wages, long working hours, monotonous and dangerous work, and abusive supervisory practices led to high employee turnover, violent strikes, and the threat of social instability. Intellectually, industrial relations was formed at the end of the 19th century as a middle ground between classical economics and Marxism, withSidney Webb and Beatrice Webbs Industrial Democracy (1897) being the key intellectual work. Industrial relations thus rejected the classical econ. Institutionally, industrial relations was founded by John R. Commons when he created the first academic industrial relations program at the University of Wisconsin in 1920. Early financial support for the field came from John D. Rockefeller, Jr. who supported progressive labor-management relations in the aftermath of the bloody strike at a Rockefeller-owned coal mine in Colorado. In Britain, another progressive industrialist, Montague Burton, endowed chairs in industrial relations at Leeds, Cardiff and Cambridge in 1930, and the discipline was formalized in the 1950s with the formation of the Oxford School by Allan Flanders and Hugh Clegg.[7] Industrial relations was formed with a strong problem-solving orientation that rejected both the classical economists laissez faire solutions to labor problems and the Marxist solution of class revolution. It is this

approach that underlies the New Deal legislation in the United States, such as the National Labor Relations Actand the Fair Labor Standards Act.

[edit]Theoretical

perspectives

Industrial relations scholars have described three major theoretical perspectives or frameworks, that contrast in their understanding and analysis of workplace relations. The three views are generally known as unitarism, pluralist and radical. Each offers a particular perception of workplace relations and will therefore interpret such events as workplace conflict, the role of unions and job regulation differently. The radical perspective is sometimes referred to as the "conflict model", although this is somewhat ambiguous, as pluralism also tends to see conflict as inherent in workplaces. Radical theories are strongly identified with Marxist theories, although they are not limited to kosala

[edit]Unitary

perspective

In unitarism, the organization is perceived as an integrated and harmonious whole with the ideal of "one happy family", where management and other members of the staff all share a common purpose, emphasizing mutual cooperation. Furthermore, unitarism has a paternalistic approach where it demands loyalty of all employees, being predominantly managerial in its emphasis and application. Consequently, trade unions are deemed as unnecessary since the loyalty between employees and organizations are considered mutually exclusive, where there can't be two sides of industry. Conflict is perceived as disruptive and the pathological result of agitators, interpersonal friction and communication breakdown.

[edit]Pluralist

perspective

In pluralism the organization is perceived as being made up of powerful and divergent sub-groups, each with its own legitimate loyalties and with their own set of objectives and leaders. In particular, the two predominant sub-groups in the pluralistic perspective are the management and trade unions. Consequently, the role of management would lean less towards enforcing and controlling and more toward persuasion and co-ordination. Trade unions are deemed as legitimate representatives of employees, conflict is dealt by collective bargaining and is viewed not necessarily as a bad thing and, if managed, could in fact be channeled towards evolution and positive change.

[edit]Marxist/Radical

perspective

This view of industrial relations looks at the nature of the capitalist society, where there is a fundamental division of interest between capital and labour, and sees workplace relations against this background. This perspective sees inequalities of power and economic wealth as having their roots in the nature of the capitalist economic system. Conflict is therefore seen as inevitable and trade unions are a natural

response of workers to their exploitation by capital. Whilst there may be periods of acquiescence, the Marxist view would be that institutions of joint regulation would enhance rather than limit management's position as they presume the continuation of capitalism rather than challenge it.

[edit]Industrial

Relations Today

By many accounts, industrial relations today is in crisis.[8] In academia, its traditional positions are threatened on one side by the dominance of mainstream economics and organizational behavior, and on the other by postmodernism. In policy-making circles, the industrial relations emphasis on institutional intervention is trumped by a neoliberal emphasis on the laissez faire promotion of free markets. In practice, labor unions are declining and fewer companies have industrial relations functions. The number of academic programs in industrial relations is therefore shrinking, and scholars are leaving the field for other areas, especially human resource management and organizational behavior. The importance of work, however, is stronger than ever, and the lessons of industrial relations remain vital. The challenge for industrial relations is to re-establish these connections with the broader academic, policy, and business worlds.

[edit]Notes

1. ^ Ackers, Peter (2002) Reframing Employment Relations: The Case for NeoPluralism, Industrial Relations Journal . Kaufman, Bruce E. (2004) The Global Evolution of Industrial Relations: Events, Ideas, and the IIRA , International Labour Office.

2. ^ Kaufman, The Global Evolution of Industrial Relations. 3. ^ Budd, John W. and Bhave, Devasheesh (2008) "Values, Ideologies, and Frames of
Reference in Industrial Relations," in Sage Handbook of Industrial Relations, Sage.

4. ^ Befort, Stephen F. and Budd, John W. (2009) Invisible Hands, Invisible Objectives: Bringing
Workplace Law and Public Policy Into Focus, Stanford University Press.

5. ^ Budd, John W. (2004) Employment with a Human Face: Balancing Efficiency, Equity, and
Voice, Cornell University Press.

6. ^ Kaufman, The Global Evolution of Industrial Relations. 7. ^ Ackers, Peter and Wilkinson, Adrian (2005) British Industrial Relations Paradigm: A Critical
Outline History and Prognosis, Journal of Industrial Relations.

8. ^ Ackers, Reframing Employment Relations. Kaufman, The Global Evolution of Industrial

Relations. Whalen, Charles J. (2008) New Directions in the Study of Work and Employment: Revitalizing Industrial Relations as an Academic Enterprise, Edward Elgar.

[edit]Further

reading

Ackers, Peter; Wilkinson, Adrian (2003). Understanding Work and Employment: Industrial Relations in Transition. Oxford University Press.

Blyton, Paul; Bacon, Nicolas; Fiorito, Jack; Heery, Edmund (2008). Sage Handbook of Industrial Relations. Sage.

Budd, John W. (2004). Employment with a Human Face: Balancing Efficiency, Equity, and Voice. Cornell University Press.

Commons, John R. (1919). Industrial Goodwill. McGraw Hill. Hyman, Richard (1975). Industrial Relations: A Marxist Introduction. Macmillan. Kaufman, Bruce E. (2004). Theoretical Perspectives on Work and the Employment Relationship. Industrial Relations Research Association.

Kaufman, Bruce E. (2004). The Global Evolution of Industrial Relations: Events, Ideas, and the IIRA. International Labour Office.

Kelly, John (1998). Rethinking Industrial Relations: Mobilization, Collectivism and Long Waves. Routledge.

Salamon, Michael (2000). Industrial Relations: Theory and Practice. Prentice Hall. Webb, Sidney; Webb, Beatrice (1897). Industrial Democracy. Longmans, Green, and Co. Nichols, Theo (1997). The Sociology of Industrial Injury.. London: Mansell Publishing Limited. Mullins, Laurie J (2005). Management and Organisational Behaviour. FT Prentice Hall.

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'If the essence and appearance of things directly coincided, all science would be superfluous'. Does Marx's dictum lead to novel insights? The purpose of science is to discover the nature of reality concealed under surface appearance. Based on this definition, Marx makes the above assertion - if things appeared exactly as they are, there would be no need for science to remove the veil of appearance. Social science, therefore, is the search for the real nature of society, underneath all of its visible, external faades. If the reality of society is easily observable in our everyday experience, then there is no need for scientific reflection on society, as Marx defines science. The idea that society has an 'appearance', which is not the same as social 'essence', forms the starting point for the Marxist discussion of ideology. Ideology is what allows a society to persist, even though the essence of that society may contain contradictions. It is important to note that the difference between appearance and reality is not due to some form of false belief or faulty vision on the part of the observer. The appearances are caused by the reality. There is no 'mistake' in the observance of society, because it is the nature of society that the essence projects a certain appearance. It is the nature of a mirage that it is an illusion, it is not a case of 'faulty vision'. A person with normal vision will still see a mirage, as it is the very essence of the mirage which creates the illusion.

Marx was primarily concerned with the nature of the capitalist mode of production. The cardinal tenets of Marx's theory of the essence of capitalism are: Only expenditure of labour creates economic value, in proportion to the amount of labour expended; workers do not receive the whole value of what they produce - capitalists enjoy profits due to surplus value, for which the worker is not paid; labour power is the only form of capital investment which creates profit. (1) The social appearance, on the other hand is: An object is worth what it can be exchanged for in the market, i.e. its exchange-value; workers appear to be paid for all of their labour; capital is seen to 'create' profit. There is clearly a marked difference between the appearance and essence of society. Marx uses the idea of 'commodity fetishism' to explain this difference. 'Commodity fetishism' is the vision of objective value in commodities especially money, as the commodity of exchange. Under a society with exchange, the only way people can gauge value is during the exchange process. For example, in the labour market, a worker will agree to a contract with an employer for a certain wage per time period. The worker feels that he is being paid for all of his work, and the employer feels that the value of the labour-power employed is worth the wage. The actual value of the labour is more than the wage, as the employer will eventually extract a surplus value when the product is sold. The cause of this commodity fetishism is the nature of the exchange process. The result is that some aspects of the appearance of society are the 'inverse' of its essence. The notion of 'inversion' is very important to Marx, as it sums up the idea that the capitalist mode of production contains contradictions. The contradiction is between the essence and appearance. Marx goes so far as to say that 'everything appears as reversed in competition' (2). Ideology 'conceals the contradictory essential relations...because it is based on a sphere of reality which reveals the contrary to its essential relations' (3). The role of ideology, therefore, is to hide the essence of society as it contradicts the appearance, which is beneficial to the ruling class at the time. As ideology is based on the 'phenomenological sphere', or the sphere of 'appearances', is fulfils its role by reinforcing the appearances of society, thus further burying the 'essence'.

It is useful to compare the predominant ideologies associated with feudalism and capitalism. In a feudal society, the fact that the surplus labour of the serf is obvious by the fact that he/she will spend some of his/her time producing for the lord directly. The exploitation is blatant, and in order to avoid uprising, ideology takes a religious form, where servitude is seen as a way of guaranteeing a successful after-life. In the feudal case, the ideology can not hide the contradictory and exploitative nature of society, and so its role is justification rather than concealment. Essentially, though, the role is the same as under capitalism - to help the unequal and contradictory social system survive. In comparison, ideology in a capitalist society takes the form of 'commodity fetishism', and several 'principles implicit in all exchange'. When people enter the market, they enter freely as equals, each with their own property, and concern for their own self-interest. Marx explains the existence of these 'principles' as such, 'Freedom, because both buyer and seller of a commodity...are constrained only by their own free will,...they contract as free agents. Equality because...they exchange equivalent with equivalent. Property, because each disposes only of what is his own. And Bentham (self-interest), because each looks only to himself.' (4) Each of these principles is inherently linked to the exchange process, and so each one contributes to 'commodity fetishism'. The essence of society is one of inequality and unfreedom, as there is inequality between the propertied and propertyless classes, and that workers are not free to withhold their labour-power from the market. In order to survive, a worker must sell his labour to the capitalist class. The ideology of the exchange market conceals this essence. Marx's model of ideology is not a simple conspiracy of the capitalists to make sure that the workers live by the ideology so that they do not realise the contradictory nature of capitalism. The ruling class are also subject to the illusions and appearances of the mode of production as much as the exploited class. Again, this encourages the persistence of the capitalist mode of production. If the essence of society was not hidden, not only would the workers feel resentment at being exploited, but also the exploiters would lack the composure for confident rule. It has already been stated that social science can be used to uncover the essence of society. This does not mean, however, that science ends the contradiction. Just knowing the contradiction in the essence of society does not stop there being a contradiction. Even when you understand a mirage, you still see it. This means that something more is required for an end in the contradiction of the mode of production. The essence of society must be directly changed, before the contradictions can be removed.

Up to this point in the discussion of ideology, the definition has been a very negative one - ideology conceals the contradictions between the appearance and essence of society, and therefore benefits the status quo and the ruling class. The examination of class struggle in relation to ideology brings in a more positive view. During periods of social calm, the ideology of society remains largely unchallenged. In a class struggle, however, the dominant ideas are associated with the ruling class, and are open to criticism. By criticising the existing ideology, the dominated class puts forward political views. These views will be backed up theoretically, and these form the basis of a 'class ideology'. There will then be 'ideological conflict' between the fundamental classes of society. A basis for this development of the idea of ideology can be found in Marx: 'a distinction should always be made between the material transformation of the economic conditions of production, which can be determined with the precision of natural science, and the legal, political, religious, aesthetic or philosophic - in short, ideological forms in which men become conscious of this conflict and fight it out.' (5) We now have a very different place for ideology in society. By looking at class struggle, it appears as though all classes may put forward an ideology in the form of

political views. These views challenge the existence of the social ideology which hides the contradictions of the mode of production. The links between the formation of a class consciousness and its ideology are very close. A class consciousness can be conceived as an ideology opposed to the dominant ideology of society. Georg Lukacs puts forward a thesis showing the difference between the class consciousness of the proletariat, and the ideology in which they must survive, which is that of the bourgeoisie. Clearly, the life of a member of the proletariat is highly infected with bourgeois ideology. The consciousness of the class as a whole, however, is the way in which it fights the ideological battle against the dominant class. Class struggle takes an ideological form, and there are large obstacles for the proletariat to overcome. This is due to the fact that the way in which members of society conceive that society has already been infected. This is based on the interpretation of ideology as part of the way in which people relate to society.

The ideological battle between classes is for 'hegemony'. Antonio Gramsci puts forward this concept as the 'ideological domination' of society. Hegemony is created in the domain of the superstructure, by forming alliances with other classes so that an ideologically dominant class can rule by consent. In order for the proletariat to gain hegemony, it must wage a 'war of position', where 'organic intellectuals' of the working class put forward a new ideology, and try to gain support for it from other classes and social forces. These developments of the Marxist views begin to confuse the terminology initially adopted by Marx. Ideology was initially found to be the way in which the contradiction between essence of society and its appearance is hidden. By saying that a class can 'have' or 'put forward' and ideology confuses this matter. What the class is putting forward is not an ideology in the above sense, but political, ethical or philosophical arguments against the persistence of the social contradictions. Louis Althusser makes the claim that ideology is part of the relation between the individual and society. He says, 'an ideology is a system of representations endowed with a historical existence and role within a given society' (6). This means that people 'act consciously though

ideology', but ideology itself is unconscious. This by itself agrees with Marx's views on the affect of ideology. Commodity fetishism and the acceptance of the status quo are largely unconscious. Althusser drifts away from the views of Marx when he makes the claim that there will still be ideology, even in a classless society, because there will still be the need for people to relate to society. Marx clearly has the view that in a classless society, there will be no ideology, for the reason that the appearance will be equal to the essence of a classless society. In order to allow Althusser to make these statements, we must realise that he uses a different concept of ideology. To illustrate this point, an argument from Cohen is useful. Cohen claims that Marx has a negative view of science, in that it always exposes contradictions between appearance and essence. Marx criticised the economists of his time for using simple notions of price and production which are 'obvious to the simple businessman'. Cohen claims that those economists were scientists, but that they were neutral. Although there were not revealing any contradiction between essence and appearance, they were producing useful theory on the way economies function. This type of social science will not 'wither away' under a classless society. Similarly, it is this type of ideology which Althusser claims will exist in a classless society. People will still need to relate to society. In a classless society, however, that relation will not contain a contradiction. This development of the theory of ideological theory from Marx through Lukacs, Gramsci and Althusser, provides a full view of how ideology is framed in Marxist thought. Marx starts the development by showing that ideology is what hides the contradictory essence of society. Gramsci expands on this by showing how this allows for capitalism to persist, and by suggesting new strategies for the leaders of the proletariat. Ideology functions as part of the superstructure, along with the pursuit of social science. Social science, in the negative form conceived by Marx, pulls back the cover of ideology to reveal the nature of the 'essence' society. By ruling out the economists of his time as 'unscientific', Marx left only himself and his disciples as true 'social scientists'. It is ironic that he does so. If, as he predicted, the proletarian revolution occurs, then, according to the dictum in the question, his own branch of expertise would be

'superfluous'. This would leave only those who he condemned as 'nonscientists' to take up the banner of social investigation. References: G. A. Cohen, The Withering Away of Social Science in his Karl Marx's theory of History. K. Marx, Capital vol. iii, p. 209. J. Larrain, Marxism and Ideology. K. Marx, Capital vol. i, p. 172. K. Marx, preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. L. Althusser, Marxism and Humanism in his For Marx p. 231.

In pluralism the organization is perceived as being made up of powerful and divergent sub-groups management and trade unions. This approach sees conflicts of interest and disagreements between managers and workers over the distribution of profits as normal and inescapable. Consequently, the role of management would lean less towards enforcing and controlling and more toward persuasion and co-ordination. Trade unions are deemed as legitimate representatives of

employees. Conflict is dealt by collective bargaining and is viewed not necessarily as a bad thing and if managed could in fact be channeled towards evolution and positive change.Realistic managers should accept conflict to occur. There is a greater propensity for conflict rather than harmony. They should anticipate and resolve this by securing agreed procedures for settling disputes. The implications of this approach include:

The firm should have industrial relations and personnel specialists who advise managers and provide specialist services in respect of staffing and matters relating to union consultation and negotiation.

Independent external arbitrators should be used to assist in the resolution of disputes.

Union recognition should be encouraged and union representatives given scope to carry out their representative duties

Comprehensive collective agreements should be negotiated with unions