Apprentice Is not a Martyr Anymore: Youth Training for Working Class Occupation and the Late Socialist Stability as a Generational Problem
Abstract
The paper deals with the preparation of young people for blue-collar occupations in Czechoslovakia in the 1970s. The topic is set in the context of exploring the dynamics of the duration and the fall of the state-socialist dictatorship, which is conceived primarily as a generational problem.
Its focus of attention is on ideological tools (especially the formation of a specific collective memory) for the construction of the workers' 'class' identity and social practice associated with career choices, theoretical, vocational and 'political' training of apprentices. Through their analysis, the paper raises the question of the possibilities and limits of the process of renewal and reproduction of basic ideological formulas at the time of political and social 'normalization', and their changes in the emerging 'scientific and technological revolution' and ongoing generational renewal.
It seeks an answer to the question whether the Communist Party, traditionally resting its position of power on the workers, is able to secure this support in view of these new historical and social conditions.