1. Lama, pula ja työttömyys, Tamperelaisperheiden toimeentulo 1928-1938, 1930-luvun lama teollisuuskaupungissa II
- Author
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Peltola, Jarmo, Historiatieteen laitos - Department of History, Humanistinen tiedekunta - Faculty of Humanities, and University of Tampere
- Subjects
Livelihood ,Lama ,Unemployment ,pula ,Economic depression ,The Depression of the 1930s ,työttömyys ,1930-luvun lama ,Shortage ,toimeentulo ,Suomen historia - Finnish History - Abstract
Jarmo Peltolan mukaan 1930-luvun lama merkitsi ennen kaikkea työttömyyttä, työajan lyhennyksiä ja palkan alennuksia. Lama oli vaikutuksiltaan ja seurauksiltaan merkittävämpi ja pitkäaikaisempi kuin aikaisemmin on ymmärretty. 1920-luvun lopulla alkanut lama ulottui monessa perheessä pitkälle 1930-luvun jälkimmäiselle puoliskolle. Kokemuksena se asettuu työläissuvuissa vuosien 1917 1918 ja vuosien 1939 1944 rinnalle ja väliin. Maailmalla 1930-luvun lamana tunnettua ilmiötä kutsuttiin Suomessa yleisesti pula-ajaksi. Toisin kuin pula-aikoina yleensä nyt kaupoissa oli kyllä tavaroita, mutta kaikilla ei ollut niihin varaa. Tamperelaisperheiden toimeentuloon laman aikana keskittyvä tutkimus perustuu laajoihin ihmisten elämää ja kulutusta makrotasolla kuvanneisiin tilastoaineistoihin. Tutkimusta varten on tamperelaisten työssäkäynnistä, työttömyydestä, tuloista, avioitumisesta ja lapsien hankkimisesta rakennettu tietokantoja, joiden pohjalta on rakennettu pieniä mikrohistoriallisia kertomuksia tamperelaisten perheiden elämästä laman aikana. Työväestöön kohdistuneen laman suhteuttamiseksi on työläisperheiden rinnalle otettu muihin yhteiskuntaluokkiin kuuluneita perheitä. Vaikka tilastot ja tietokannat ovat perhetarinoiden myötä muuttaneet muotoaan määrällisestä laadulliseksi, on lamakuvaa lisäksi täydellistetty ja monipuolistettu kirjallisuuden, muistelmien ja sanomalehtiaineiston avulla. Laman aikana työn puutteesta kärsineet perheet olivat epävakaiden työmarkkinoiden armoilla. Sosiaaliturva oli vähäistä. Välillä työttömät pääsivät työttömyys- eli varatöihin, välillä he joutuivat turvautumaan köyhäinhoitoon, joka piti maksaa takaisin parempien aikojen koittaessa. Ajoittain työttömät söivät soppaa työväentalolla. Monet perheet selvisivät pahimman yli tehtaissa työskennelleiden nuorten tuloilla. Avioliittojen solmimista ja lasten hankkimista lykättiin laman aikana. Jos joissakin perheissä lama liitti lapset ja toimeentulovaikeuksista kärsineet vanhemmat tiukemmin yhteen, niin oli myös perheitä, joissa lama osaltaan johti perheiden hajoamiseen. Vaikka naiset säilyttivät miehiä todennäköisemmin työpaikkansa, putosivat naisten lähtökohtaisesti heikot palkat tekstiilitehtaissa niin alas, että heidän asemansa vertautui työttömiin sekatyömiehiin. Heikon taloudellisen tilanteen vuoksi jotkut toimeentulovaikeuksissa olleet joutuivat turvautumaan laittomiin keinoihin, kuten prostituutioon ja varasteluun. The enduring and fragmented economic depression Tampere was the most significant industrial city in Finland during the interwar era. In Tampere there were, including the suburb of Pispala, over 60 000 residents. Over 75 % of the population were working class, and over 60% got their livelihood from industrial and construction work. Women in Tampere often worked for weaving, clothing, shoemaking, and leather industries. As a centre of metal industry with mostly male employees Tampere was also quite prominent within the country. Some 2 000 male and less than 100 female construction workers were listed in the late1920s. The depression of the 1930s had more consequences than was previously thought. Previously, little attention has been paid to the hardships faced by the Finnish domestic industry. The number of people employed fell by 25%, and many of those who had kept their jobs, only worked for part of the week. The industries in Tampere served predominantly the domestic market. The recession almost totally paralyzed private building. Around 2 000 builder jobs had been lost during the worst period. The employment in the metal industry fell by 30% (500 persons) and 20 % (1 500) in the textile industry during the years 1928-32. Additionally, in other sectors, employment rate fell so much that Tampere had at the worst time over 5 000 jobs less than during the peak economic boom in autumn 1928. The livelihood during the recession is being investigated from four different directions. The direction are characterized by the following statements: i) the different livelihoods of the groups of people and individuals during the economic depression is indicative of the depth and duration of the recession in relative terms. ii) The endurance of the recession and the workers becoming more affected by it forced them to look for alternative means of income. iii) The experiencing of a long-standing unemployment and various shortages had a negative influence on the internal structure of the families. iv) The experience families were exposed to by the recession negatively influenced the respective hopes on the future of the members of the family. These statements are tested both on the macro and micro levels. In the study I am aiming at evaluating the courses of life of several Tampere families by reconstructing the respective experiences emanating from the different classes of society. The everyday lives of families suffering from a long-standing unemployment are described in the life stories, in the appendix. In order to provide a point of comparison, the families that remained relatively unaffected economically by the recession are also being discussed. Although the incomes of the workers did not always fall to the level of the early 1920s, only their real income decreased markedly during the recession of the 1930s. This is important since the values in the society and the policy that reflected those values meant that the poorest segments of the society became the paying sufferers. The protracted economic recession involved that the planning ahead in life became more difficult. When the trust in the future was poor, the material shortages gradually led in giving up in the other areas of life as well. Children in working class families held over their decision to marry. Therefore in Tampere, a city with a predominantly working class population, birth rates fell more than in any other Finnish city. The low level of social policy contributed to this. The continued poor job situation led into a poor living standard. In addition to poor nourishment, the depression-stricken lacked adequate clothing and footwear. The consumption of water, electricity, and of wood for heating was cut down. The provisional works were hard manual working sites. Building waterways late in autumn and physically demanding soil shifting work in winter were liable to cause illness to poorly equipped workmen already in their 40s to 60s. These ailments would enhance the spiral and prevent employment. Death took its toll particularly in the shape of TB from the other members of poor families, children and wives. An increased use of alcohol was a solution in many a family to drown the worries. The use of alcohol might have been on a high level already in many families before the depression as well. The low basic level of social security was the essential reason for the protraction of the 1930s great depression and its long-standing ill effects. The depression cannot be interpreted merely as a temporary sagging of economy and the GNP, which soon recovered its former growth path. It is a persistent process in which the problems of the national economy became intertwined with the fortunes of the individuals and families in a way that cannot be reduced from the growth curves of the GNP. The depression can be thematized into three separate stages: the economic depression, the employment depression, and the wide-reaching social depression. A similar stage-like development was visible in the respective depressions of the 1930s and the 1990s in Finland. One could say a depression has a domino effect, the first stage disturbs the second stage and this again the third one. Despite the economic turn for the better, the unemployment remained high, as well as the number of people having had to rely on poor relief. On account of this the social costs such as poor relief and employment assistance (relief work), remained on a high level. This phenomenon has been known as the long shadow of the depression. Although in a theoretical model the three stages can be separated from one another, it is clear that neither the families nor the then decision-makers could not foresee when the job market recession would turn into a social depression. For the politicians the dragging on of the recession meant increasing costs, for the families, increasing difficulties. As the patriarchal caretaking in the society gradually diminished, the role of the municipalities and the state increased very slowly. The increase of the public share did not result in a corresponding increase in the level of social security, but a gradual shifting of the responsibilities from the employer to the public sector. The workers and the employer had some differing opinions on the scope and the political couplings of a correct level of social security. During the years 1918-39 the negotiating position of the workers was poor, especially during the recessions. A political shift to the right tightened its grip as the depression progressed. The explanation to the reaction of the socio-political system is thus found partly in the values of the groups that maintained the system , partly in the stage of the economic development of the society, and partly in the long duration of the economic downturn. All three factors were connected and interdependent and their mutual relations dictated what the reactions towards the depression were and which situations the families were to face in different times. The fact that the great depression of the 1930s in a way does not fit the so-called great story of Finnish history, is likely to explain why the depression with its exceptional duration and its targeting almost wholly on the population of manual workers has not been an issue of more study. The depression of the 1930s in Tampere tells a story about a time when social security was still literally in child s shoes . It provides an analogy of the Finnish depression of the 1990s, and one can only ponder what could have happened in the country without a decently working social care system.
- Published
- 2008