A true state of crisis: Coal workers, the state, and the politics of energy in Chile, 1902--1938

Tracing the origins of both organized coal labor and government concern with the coal industry, I argue that persistent coal worker militancy caused the Chilean government to begin to develop a national energy policy in 1923. In addition to elaborating the main thesis, this dissertation engages three central themes of labor history. The first theme is worker identity, and how workers' consciousness of themselves influenced collective behavior. I attempt to present a multidimensional characterization of coal worker identity placed in the specific context of life at the coal mines and in the coal communities. The nature of labor movements is a second theme. An analysis of organized labor's history in the southern coal mines reveals that the coal zone was more autonomous from other centers of labor activism than historians have supposed. A third theme is the relationship between labor and the state. Although the Chilean state set limits on the behavior of organized labor, coal workers sought to utilize the labor bureaucracy to their advantage. Coal worker initiatives, forged by the combination of effective labor organization with the desire to improve their lives at work and in their communities, served as the catalyst that compelled the Chilean state to grapple with the politics of energy.