<div dir="ltr"><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">peter waterman</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:peterwaterman1936@gmail.com">peterwaterman1936@gmail.com</a>></span><br>Date: Sat, Jun 6, 2015 at 9:09 PM<br>Subject: [NetworkedLabour] Marcel vd Linden: The Crisis of World Labour<br>To: Debate is a listserve that attempts to promote information and analyses of interest to the independent left in South and Southern Africa <<a href="mailto:debate-list@fahamu.org">debate-list@fahamu.org</a>>, WSFDiscuss List <<a href="mailto:WorldSocialForum-Discuss@openspaceforum.net">WorldSocialForum-Discuss@openspaceforum.net</a>>, "<a href="mailto:CRITICAL-LABOUR-STUDIES@jiscmail.ac.uk">CRITICAL-LABOUR-STUDIES@jiscmail.ac.uk</a>" <<a href="mailto:CRITICAL-LABOUR-STUDIES@jiscmail.ac.uk">CRITICAL-LABOUR-STUDIES@jiscmail.ac.uk</a>>, "<<a href="mailto:networkedlabour@lists.contrast.org">networkedlabour@lists.contrast.org</a>>" <<a href="mailto:networkedlabour@lists.contrast.org">networkedlabour@lists.contrast.org</a>>, Asbjørn Wahl <<a href="mailto:Asbjorn.Wahl@velferdsstaten.no">Asbjorn.Wahl@velferdsstaten.no</a>>, Dan Gallin <<a href="mailto:gli@iprolink.ch">gli@iprolink.ch</a>>, Kim Scipes <<a href="mailto:kimscipes@earthlink.net">kimscipes@earthlink.net</a>>, Dave Hollis <<a href="mailto:david.hollis@netzwerkit.de">david.hollis@netzwerkit.de</a>>, Marsha Niemeijer <<a href="mailto:marshapn@gmail.com">marshapn@gmail.com</a>><br><br><br><div dir="ltr"><div style="font-size:small"><b>Peter sez...<br><br></b></div><div style="font-size:small"><b>There is so much I appreciate and agree with, and so little that I do not, that I will have to take detailed issue with this important essay elsewhere. For my own recent take on the international union organisations and labour internationalism, however, see <br><br><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/home?preview=IronCage4IFace221114.rtf" target="_blank">https://www.dropbox.com/home?preview=IronCage4IFace221114.rtf</a>.<br><br></b></div><div style="font-size:small"><b>Now read on...<br></b></div><div style="font-size:small"><br>
<div><img alt="Solidarity" title=""></div>
<div>Published on <i>Solidarity</i> (<a href="https://solidarity-us.org/site" target="_blank">https://solidarity-us.org/site</a>)</div>
<p>
</p><div><a href="https://solidarity-us.org/site/epublish/1" target="_blank">Against the Current</a> > <a href="https://solidarity-us.org/site/epublish/1/132" target="_blank">May/June 2015, No. 176</a> > <a href="https://solidarity-us.org/site/node/4424" target="_blank">The Crisis of World Labor</a> > The Crisis of World Labor</div>
<hr>
<h1>The Crisis of World Labor</h1>
<div><div>
<h3>
— Marcel van der Linden </h3>
<div>
<p>BOTH THE SIZE and composition of the world working class have
changed dramatically over the past four decades. But these massive
shifts are not reflected in the strength of workers’ organizations.</p>
<p>In what was traditionally called the global South, capital
accumulation has resulted in the fast growth of the number of
wage-earners in industry, building, services, and transport. A recent
International Labor Organization (ILO) study revealed that in the period
1980-2005, the labor force in the Middle East and North Africa region
had grown by 149%. In Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the
Caribbean it had roughly doubled, in South Asia it had increased by 73%,
and in East and South East Asia by 60%. (Kapsos 2007)</p>
<p>Simultaneously, enormous shifts are taking place within separate
regions. An historic migration from the countryside to swelling
megacities is under way. In 2000, the Chinese Ministry of Human
Resources and Social Security estimated that there were 113 million
migrant workers in the country. Ten years later that number had more
than doubled to 240 million, including 150 million working outside their
home areas. Of those 150 million about 72% were employed in
manufacturing, construction, food and beverage, wholesale and retail
industries, and hospitality. (CLB 2012: 4)</p>
<p>In India, internal labor migration has exploded since the 1990s, the
temporary and seasonal migration rate being highest in poor regions like
Nagaland and Madya Pradesh. (Bhagat/Mohanty 2009)</p>
<p>Such shifts are often accompanied by an intensification of social
struggles. In Indonesia, the Konfederasi Serikat Pekerja Indonesia
(Indonesian Trade Union Confederation) organized a national strike on 3
October 2012, and a second one — demanding a 50% increase of the minimum
wage — on October 31 and November 1, 2013. These were not truly general
strikes, but they nevertheless were joined by many hundreds of
thousands of workers, especially in the Jakarta region. (International
Viewpoint, 4 November 2013)</p>
<p>In India, on 20 and 21 February 2013, over 100 million workers across
the country struck for a list of demands including a living wage
indexed to inflation, universal food security, and equal pay for equal
work. (International Viewpoint, 2 March 2013) In China, the labor
shortages that began to emerge from 2004, led to a rapid growth of
workers’ protests, which have “not only increased in number but have
shifted focus from a reactive response to labour rights violations
towards more proactive demands for higher wages and improved working
conditions.” (CLB 2012: 5)</p>
<p>The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences reported that there were more
than 60,000 so-called ‘mass incidents’ (popular protests) in 2006 and
over 80,000 in 2007. Since then, official figures have no longer been
published but experts believe that in recent years the number has
further increased. (CLB 2012: 9)</p>
<p>Following the beginning of the economic crisis more than thirty
national strikes occurred in Greece, while Spain and Portugal saw
several general strikes, including bi- and multi-national ones. The
dramatic overthrow of the Mubarak dictatorship in Egypt in 2011 could
not have happened without the labor movement’s strong support.(Beinin
2011) And in South Africa massive and often violent strikes follow one
another rapidly.</p>
<p>There is, however, a fundamental problem. The militancy of the
workers has not yet been consolidated in strong organizations. In fact,
“old-style” labor is in decline, and fundamental changes will be
necessary before a vibrant transnational union movement can be built.</p>
<h3>The State of the Unions</h3>
<p>The surest sign of organized working-class formation is the
development of trade unions and similar interest groups. Independent
mass trade unions had their origin in the 19th century, and exist today
in large parts of the world — although there are also major regions
where they have almost no influence.</p>
<p>The most striking example of a fast-growing capitalist economy
without independent trade unions is the People’s Republic of China. It
hosts the world’s largest workers’ organization, the All-China
Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) with 230 million members. This is not
an independent union, but rather a transmission belt for the Chinese
Communist Party. Most of the numerous labour conflicts in the People’s
Republic take place not with the support of, but despite the ACFTU. (Bai
2012)</p>
<p>The China Labour Bulletin calls the ACFTU “something of a lost cause
at present. In general, it lacks the tools and the strategies needed for
a timely and effective response to workers’ initiatives and is out of
touch with the realities of labour relations in China today.” (CLB 2014:
38)</p>
<p>In countries with independent workers’ organizations union density
(union members as percentage of the total labor force) generally has
been declining. Table 1 reconstructs the trends in 13 countries for the
period 1920-2010. In 11 cases the high point lies in the past (between
<a href="tel:1950" value="+661950" target="_blank">1950</a> and <a href="tel:1990" value="+661990" target="_blank">1990</a>), although the situation is relatively stable in Canada
and Norway. In nine cases we can observe a clear downward trend.</p><div style="width:380px;margin:5px;float:right"><img style="border:1px solid rgb(0,0,0)" width="380px"></div>
<p>The table might give the impression that the situation is more
promising in India or Indonesia. But remembering that union density is
calculated for the formal economy, which in the case of India for
example covers about 8% of the labor force, a union density of 41% thus
boils down to 3.2% of the total work force.</p>
<p>On a global scale union density is almost insignificant. Independent
trade unions organize only a small percentage of their target group
worldwide, and the majority of them live in the relatively wealthy North
Atlantic region.</p>
<p>By far the most important global umbrella organization is the
International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), founded in 2006 as a
merger of two older organizations, the secular reform-oriented
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and the
Christian World Confederation of Labor (WCL).</p>
<p>In 2014 the ITUC estimated that about 200 million workers worldwide
belong to trade unions, and that 176 million of these are organized in
the ITUC,<a name="14dc93421035947b_14dc925d6487ea06_R1" href="https://solidarity-us.org/site/print/4424#N1" target="_blank">(1)</a>
while the total number of workers is roughly 2.9 billion (1.2 billion
of them in the informal economy). Therefore, global union density
currently amounts to no more than 7%! (ITUC 2014: 8)</p>
<p>Quite a few factors contribute to this weakness. First, the
composition of the working class is changing. Unions find it difficult
to organize employees in the service or financial sector. The rapidly
growing informal economy is complicating things further, since workers
change jobs frequently, and have to earn their income under often very
precarious conditions.</p>
<p>Another important factor is what labor economist Richard Freeman has
called the “labor supply shock” that has manifested itself since the
early 1990s. Through the entry of Chinese, Indian, Russian and other
workers into the global economy, there has been an effective doubling of
the number of workers producing for international markets over the past
two decades.</p>
<p>A decline in the global capital/labor ratio shifts the balance of
power in markets away from wages paid to workers and toward capital, as
more workers compete for working with that capital. [...] Even
considering the high savings rate in the new entrants — the World Bank
estimates that China has a savings rate of 40% of GDP — it will take 30
or so years for the world to re-attain the capital/labor ratio among the
countries that had previously made up the global economy. Having twice
as many workers and nearly the same amount of capital places great
pressure on labor markets throughout the world. This pressure will
affect workers in the developing countries who had traditionally
participated in the global economy, as well as workers in advanced
countries. (Freeman 2010)</p>
<p>Secondly, significant economic shifts have taken place. The growth of
foreign direct investment in the core countries and the semi-periphery
of the world economy has been impressive, and transnational corporations
and multi-state trading blocs (EU, NAFTA, Mercosur, etc.) have
multiplied. Brazil, India and especially China are important new players
who change the rules of the game. This is accompanied by new
supranational institutions, such as the World Trade Organization,
established in <a href="tel:1995" value="+661995" target="_blank">1995</a>.</p>
<p>Thirdly, the old-style unions have to face more and more competition
from alternative structures. In Brazil, South Africa, the Philippines or
South Korea new, often militant, workers’ movements (social movement
unions) have emerged. (Scipes 2014) New forms of rank-and-file trade
unionism outside the established channels appeared since the 1970s, with
international connections at the shop-floor level “bypassing altogether
the secretariats, which they see as too often beholden to the
bureaucracies of their various national affiliates.” (Herod <a href="tel:1997" value="+661997" target="_blank">1997</a>: 184)</p>
<p>A well-known example is the Transnational Information Exchange (TIE),
a center in which a substantial number of research and activist labor
groups exchange information on TNCs. Another example is the “counter
foreign policy” existing since the early 1980s in the AFL-CIO. (Spalding
<a href="tel:1992" value="+661992" target="_blank">1992</a>) I should also mention the increasing number of activities carried
out by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that should in theory be
the responsibility of the international trade union movement, such as
the struggle to regulate and abolish child labor.</p>
<p>The ineffectiveness of old-style unions is underlined by the growing
tendency on the part of Global Unions (formerly called international
trade secretariats) to engage in the direct recruitment of members in
the periphery. Think, for example, of the activities of the Union
Network International (the Global Union for the service sector) relating
to IT specialists in India. (Süddeutsche Zeitung, 8-9 September 2001)</p>
<h3>The Fate of Workers’ Parties</h3>
<p>Another expression of class formation is political in nature. Labor,
Social Democratic, and Communist parties are generally considered to be
political representatives of the working class.</p>
<p>The oldest parties, the Social Democratic and Labor parties,
electorally are not doing very well. Most reached their apex between
<a href="tel:1940" value="+661940" target="_blank">1940</a> and <a href="tel:1989" value="+661989" target="_blank">1989</a>; Switzerland was earlier (1930s), while Portugal was later
(early 21st century). The only exception (until recently) is the
Brazilian Partido dos Trabalhadores.<a name="14dc93421035947b_14dc925d6487ea06_R2" href="https://solidarity-us.org/site/print/4424#N2" target="_blank">(2)</a></p>
<p>More important is though, that this family of parties is struggling
with a fundamental identity problem. Social Democratic and Labor
policies have since the 1930s-40s been based on two pillars: social
Keynesianism and a specific “red” party subculture with its own sports
associations, women’s clubs, organizations for nature lovers, consumer
cooperatives, newspapers, theatre groups, and the like.</p>
<p>The sociocultural and economic reversal since the 1960s-70s toppled
both “pillars.” The parties’ subcultural networks fell to pieces and
social Keynesianism became less feasible. A great many challenges had to
be met more or less simultaneously. Traditional centralism had to be
reconciled with basic democratic movements and feminism with the
conventional androcentric culture.</p>
<p>Moreover, the environmental movement needed to be taken seriously
without abandoning the pursuit of economic growth (the condition for
social redistribution in a capitalist context). Generalized confusion
resulted in a tremendous increase of floating voters; ageing and
decreasing membership numbers; and the virtual disappearance of active
proletarian members.</p>
<p>Paradoxically, this loss of identity explains the explosive growth of
the umbrella organization, the Socialist International. Since the 1970s
the number of countries with SI members has more than doubled. This is
especially remarkable since the membership of the SI was rather stable
during the preceding decades. In the years 1951-1976 the number of
affiliated parties had always fluctuated between 34 (at the foundation
in Frankfurt) and 39. (van der Linden 2006)</p>
<p>Most of the parties which joined the SI after <a href="tel:1976" value="+661976" target="_blank">1976</a> did not fit the
organization´s old profile. Before the mid-1970s nobody would have
considered ex-guerilla movements like the Popular Movement for the
Liberation of Angola (MPLA), the Sandinista National Liberation Front
(FSLN), or the autocratic Democratic Action in Venezuela as Social
Democratic parties. Such organisations could find a home within the SI
because its profile was fading.</p>
<p>This dilution became official when the SI adopted a new “Declaration
of Principles” at the 18th Congress in Stockholm in <a href="tel:1989" value="+661989" target="_blank">1989</a>, which
acknowledges the existence of “differences” in members´ “cultures and
ideologies” but emphasizes at the same time that the SI´s core values
(peace, freedom, justice and solidarity) “originate in the labour
movement, popular liberation movements, cultural traditions of mutual
assistance, and communal solidarity in many parts of the world.”
(<a href="http://www.socialistinternational.org/4Principles" target="_blank">www.socialistinternational.org/4Principles</a>)</p>
<p>In short, the Socialist International could grow so dramatically only
because the classical Social Democratic parties were in a deep identity
crisis.</p>
<p>Communist parties are the second major political form. The large
majority of them were born or grew significantly in three waves: during
the five years from mid-<a href="tel:1918" value="+661918" target="_blank">1918</a> to <a href="tel:1923" value="+661923" target="_blank">1923</a>, in the aftermath of the October
Revolution; in the 1930s, as a response to the economic depression; and
immediately after the Second World War.</p>
<p>Some parties still have a rather solid, be it often small, base, such
as the ones in Portugal, Spain, and Greece. These parties all developed
under right-wing dictatorships and are characterized by their
intransigence . Similarly, the influential South African Communist Party
still has a significant influence on the politics of the African
National Congress.</p>
<p>But for most parties the high point was in the 1940s. Now, in quite a
few countries the parties have been dissolved after electoral decline,
splits or financial bankruptcy. This has for example been the case in
Britain (dissolved <a href="tel:1991" value="+661991" target="_blank">1991</a>), Italy (disbanded 1991), Finland (bankrupt
1992), Brazil (internal coup and split, 1992). Other parties have gone
through mergers, e.g. in Mexico (founding of the Unified Socialist
Party, 1981), Denmark (formation of the Red-Green Alliance in 1989) and
in the Netherlands (founding of the Green Left Party in 1989).</p>
<p>Even the CPI-M (the Communist Party of India Marxist) in West-Bengal,
which got a majority of the votes in a whole series of elections <a href="tel:%281971" value="+661971" target="_blank">(1971</a>,
1980, 1989-2004) has now been reduced to a minor player (two out of 42
seats!) because of its violent neoliberal policies.</p>
<h3>Causes of Trade Unionism’s Weakness</h3>
<p>My hypothesis is that both old-style trade-unionism and old-style
workers’ parties as described above can no longer cope with the
challenges offered by the contemporary world. Globalization and
neoliberal challenges require new policies and practices that they
apparently cannot offer. Hence their crisis. Here, I will only try to
substantiate this critique for the unions, not for the parties (this
I’ve partly done in van der Linden 2003: 95-116).<a name="14dc93421035947b_14dc925d6487ea06_R3" href="https://solidarity-us.org/site/print/4424#N3" target="_blank">(3)</a></p>
<p>I see at least two major difficulties. For a start, the historical
trajectory of trade unions is, like that of other organizations, to a
significant extent shaped by their founding moment. As Arthur
Stinchcombe observed half a century ago:</p>
<p>“The organizational inventions that can be made at a particular time
in history depend on the social technology available at the time.
Organizations which have purposes that can be efficiently reached with
the socially possible organizational forms tend to be founded during the
period in which they become possible. Then, both because they can
function effectively with these organizational forms, and because these
forms tend to become institutionalized, the basic structure of the
organization tends to remain relatively stable.” (Stinchcombe <a href="tel:1965" value="+661965" target="_blank">1965</a>: 153;
also Scoville 1973: 74)</p>
<p>Early trade unions in Europe and North America were mostly the
creations of highly skilled male white workers, who had only one boss at
the same time, were relatively powerful on the shop floor, and
attempted to establish collective bargaining. This proved to be an
exceptionally successful model that later on also inspired other
sections of the working classes (women, Blacks, low-skilled).</p>
<p>It became the norm for trade unions across the globe. But the
specific historic context in which this model had been constructed was
forgotten, so that “a naïve belief in the universal applicability of
some form of collective bargaining’”(Sturmthal <a href="tel:1973" value="+661973" target="_blank">1973</a>: 5) became more or
less universal. Adolf Sturmthal (1973: 9) listed a series of conditions
for “a genuine collective bargaining system,” including “a legal and
political system permitting the existence and functioning of reasonably
free labor organizations” and the requirement that “unions be more or
less stable, reasonably well organized, and fairly evenly matched with
the employers in bargaining strength.” However:</p>
<p>“Effective unions have rarely if ever been organized by
‘non-committed’ workers, i.e. casual workers who change jobs frequently,
return periodically to their native village, and have no specific
industrial skill, even of a very simple kind. Yet even fully committed
industrial workers with little or no skill are capable of engaging in
effective collective bargaining only under certain conditions which are
rarely found. In most (though by no means all) newly industrializing
countries, large excess supplies of common labor are available for
nonagricultural work. Not only are unskilled workers rarely capable of
forming unions of their own under such conditions; if they succeed in
doing so, their unions have little or no bargaining power.” (Sturmthal
<a href="tel:1973" value="+661973" target="_blank">1973</a>: 10)</p>
<p>This is probably the crux of the matter. In the advanced capitalist
countries, standard employment relations that had become dominant in the
1940s-70s are gradually broken down, while casual and informal labor
was always the norm in Africa, Asia and Latin America. (van der Linden
2014; Breman/van der Linden 2014)</p>
<p>Another difficulty is that old-style trade unions, having also become
more or less ingrained with the nation-states where they originated,
find it very difficult to cope with the transnationalization of capital.
Globalization has stimulated new forms of cross-border organizing that
challenge traditional organizational models.</p>
<p>Already in the mid-1960s the growing influence of TNCs stimulated the
setting up of World Corporation Councils, notably in the chemical and
automobile industries. Although many trade union militants had high
expectations of these new bodies, their effectiveness has been rather
less than anticipated, owing to the conflicting interests of employees
in different countries. (Tudyka <a href="tel:1986" value="+661986" target="_blank">1986</a>; Bendiner 1987; Olle/Schoeller
1987)</p>
<p>The formation of trading blocs implied a certain equalization of
legal and political parameters, so that the building of transnational
trade union structures within each bloc was an obvious step. This
collaboration is usually not evolving primarily at the top level of
national trade-union confederations, but at the sub-national or branch
level. In many cases, institutions other than trade unions (such as
religious and human rights organizations) are also partners in projects
of this kind. Examples include the 1980s Coalition for Justice in the
Maquiladores, the Comité Frontizero de Obreras, and La Mujer Obrera.
(Armbruster <a href="tel:1995" value="+661995" target="_blank">1995</a>: 80-2; Borgers 1996: 81-5; Carr 1999)</p>
<p>Equally worthy of note in this context is the Council of Ford
Workers, founded by the United Auto Workers (Bina/Davis <a href="tel:1993" value="+661993" target="_blank">1993</a>: 165-6).
Joint actions against TNCs by trade unions representing particular
occupations in different countries (e.g. coal miners, electrical
workers) have become much more frequent over the past two decades as
well. (Herod 1995: 342; Armbruster 1995)</p>
<p>When the French car-maker Renault announced the closure of its
Belgian factory in February <a href="tel:1997" value="+661997" target="_blank">1997</a>, solidarity strikes and demonstrations
were organized in France, Spain, Portugal and Slovenia, giving birth to
the new term “Euro-strike.” (Imig/Tarrow 2001) While trade unions
support such actions, they frequently do not play a leading role in
them.</p>
<p>According to Stinchcombe <a href="tel:%281965" value="+661965" target="_blank">(1965</a>: 154), “an examination of the history
of almost any type of organization shows that there are great spurts of
foundation of organizations of the type, followed by periods of
relatively slower growth, perhaps to be followed by new spurts,
generally of a fundamentally different kind of organization in the same
field.” It might well be, that the great spurt of old-style unions has
by now almost exhausted itself and that a next spurt with a new type of
unionism is “in the air.”<a name="14dc93421035947b_14dc925d6487ea06_R4" href="https://solidarity-us.org/site/print/4424#N4" target="_blank">(4)</a></p>
<h3>Prospects for Revitalized Transnational Unionism</h3>
<p>What are the challenges that a renewed trade unionism will have to
face? First, it will have to develop a clear vision of where to go.
Revitalization requires convincing policy proposals expressing
solidarity between different segments of the working class within and
between countries and continents.</p>
<p>Second, there is the changing composition of the world working class.
Until now workers’ organizations of OECD countries have dominated the
International Trade Union Confederation. But their share in the world
labor force is shrinking. More and more wage-earners live in Asia,
Africa, and Latin America. And an increasing proportion of these workers
is female (Table 2).
</p><div style="width:380px;margin:5px;float:right"><img style="border:1px solid rgb(0,0,0)" width="380px"></div>
More than 40% of the world working class (1.2 of 2.9 billion employees)
is active in the informal economy, and they have virtually no presence
in the old-style union movements.
<p>New forms of trade unionism will have to target this changing working
class. The first-phase demarcation of the working classes was extremely
narrow and eurocentric, and needs to be revised and expanded. (Antunes
2013: 80-95) There can be no doubt that the newly defined target group
should no longer be dominated by white male workers in the North
Atlantic region, but by women and people of color, many in forms of
hidden wage-labor, precarious jobs, or debt bondage. Trade unions in the
periphery and semi-periphery are sometimes abandoning the old
demarcations, and have begun to recruit all kinds of “non-traditional”
workers.</p>
<p>A broadened definition of the target group will necessarily lead to a
drastic change of unions’ operational systems, in order to assist these
workers to further their interests effectively. This also implies
ending the strong emphasis on collective bargaining strategies.(Hensman
2001) It’s quite possible that mutualist arrangements should be given
priority in many cases, that is organizational forms focusing on mutual
insurance against sickness, disability, and unemployment that were so
prominent in 18th- and 19th-century European and North American labor
movements. (van der Linden 2008: 109-31)</p>
<p>Much can probably be learned from the “occupational unionism” that
preceded the industrial unionism of the 20th century. (Cobble/Vosko
2000) Jeffrey Harrod sees “the beginnings of collective organisations
aimed at materially improving conditions but not based directly on work
and production factors.” He mentions, for example, “extra-economic”
networks of unemployed Japanese youths whose social activity is centered
on internet cafes; and Indian groups of casual workers pressuring the
state for greater protection. (Harrod 2014: 13-14) </p>
<p>Some old-style unions already try to open up to such developments,
albeit hesitantly. In Italy, the trade-union confederations CGIL and
CISL have created special structures for the representation of
“atypical” workers; and the Austrian employees’ union GPA now also
enrolls “dependent self-employed workers.” (Cella 2012: 180)</p>
<p>A final necessary change concerns organizational structures and
cultures. First, the dual structure of the international trade union
movement — collaboration of national confederations plus Global Unions —
is a problematic relic of the past and likely to be discarded. Probably
the best option would be a new unitary structure facilitating the
inclusion of the “new” target groups in the international trade
secretariats.</p>
<p>Second, the somewhat autocratic approach prevailing in the
present-day international trade union movement will need to be replaced
by a democratic approach, and greater participation of the rank-and-file
workers. The possibilities offered by the internet are a positive
contribution to a renewed structure of this kind. (Lee <a href="tel:1997" value="+661997" target="_blank">1997</a>)</p>
<p>Third and most importantly, new methods of collective action,
especially across borders, have to be deployed. While lobbying
governments and transnational organizations has to date been the
principal activity of the international trade union movement (with the
notable exception of the anti-apartheid campaign of the 1980s), and
efforts are made to cultivate the good will of states (Greenfield <a href="tel:1989" value="+661989" target="_blank">1989</a>),
effective action requires much greater effort in active measures such
as boycotts, strikes, and so on, which in turn demands a substantial
strengthening of the internal structures.</p>
<p>As Dimitris Stevis <a href="tel:%281998" value="+661998" target="_blank">(1998</a>: 66) has rightly observed, international
labor organizations are “not simply sleeping giants, but fundamentally
weak intersocietal federations.”</p>
<p>The question is whether the existing international trade union
movement can meet these challenges. It is likely that a new spurt in
union development will be a difficult process, interspersed with failed
experiments and moments of deep crisis. Organizational structures and
patterns of behavior that have existed for over a century are not easily
changed.</p>
<p>Moreover, it is highly unlikely that new structures and patterns will
be shaped through reforms from above, through the central leadership.
If there is one thing that history has taught us, it is that trade union
structures almost never develop smoothly by means of piecemeal
engineering. They are generally the outcome of conflicts and risky
experiments.</p>
<p>Pressure from below through competitive networks, alternative action
models, etc. will be a highly important factor in deciding that outcome.
What forms those pressures will take, and whether they will be
sufficient to bring about major changes, no one can say yet with any
certainty.</p>
<h3>Notes</h3>
<ol><li><a name="14dc93421035947b_14dc925d6487ea06_N1"></a> This calculation is probably misleading. A significant, but unknown, part of the union membership consists of pensioners.<br><a href="https://solidarity-us.org/site/print/4424#R1" target="_blank">back to text</a><br></li><li><a name="14dc93421035947b_14dc925d6487ea06_N2"></a>The PT’s success could be a statistical
artifact. Between 2000 and 2009 there have been two elections for the
Brazilian Chamber of Deputies. In 2002 the PT achieved its highest
result ever (18.4%), but the average for the decennium was lowered by
the bad result of 2006 (15.0%). While PT won 16.9% of the vote in 2010,
in the 2014 election their vote for the Chamber of Deputies fell to
14.0%.<br><a href="https://solidarity-us.org/site/print/4424#R2" target="_blank">back to text</a><br></li><li><a name="14dc93421035947b_14dc925d6487ea06_N3"></a>The chances that successful new workers’
parties will be established soon seem rather slim. Eric Hobsbawm once
famously pointed out, that workers’ parties with a mass following
emerged mainly in one specific historical period, namely between the
1880s and the 1930s. “These parties, or their lineal successors, are
still in being and often influential, but where they did not already
exist, or the influence of socialists/communists was significant in
labor movements before World War II, hardly any such parties have
emerged out of the working classes since then, notably in the so-called
`Third World.’” (Hobsbawm <a href="tel:1984" value="+661984" target="_blank">1984</a>: 60) The most important exception to this
rule was the founding of the Workers’ Party in Brazil in 1980, which
gained a significant following. It is not possible to exclude the
possibility that the Brazilian experience will be repeated in other
places, but at the moment there are no grounds for assuming that this
will happen. For now it seems that trade unions will have to rely
entirely on their own strength.<br><a href="https://solidarity-us.org/site/print/4424#R3" target="_blank">back to text</a><br></li><li><a name="14dc93421035947b_14dc925d6487ea06_N4"></a> Perhaps we could consider this whole
process as an example of “the handicap of a headstart” or of uneven and
combined development. See van der Linden 2007.<br><a href="https://solidarity-us.org/site/print/4424#R4" target="_blank">back to text</a><br></li></ol>
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<p>May-June 2015, ATC 176</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div>
</div>
<hr>
<div><b>Source URL:</b> <a href="https://solidarity-us.org/site/node/4424" target="_blank">https://solidarity-us.org/site/node/4424</a></div>
<br clear="all"></div><div><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><ol><li><a rel="nofollow" href="http://snuproject.wordpress.com/2015/01/02/1987-e-reader-ed-by-peter-waterman-on-labour-social-movements-and-internationalism-the-old-internationalism-and-the-new/" target="_blank"></font></font></span></span></span></span></font></span></span></font></span></font></font></span><font color="#ff0000"><font size="1"><span style="background-color:rgb(246,178,107)"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font color="#0000ff"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><font color="#ff0000">2014. From Coldwar Communism to the Global Justice <span>Movement: Itinerary of a Long-Distance Internationalis<span>t. <span style="color:rgb(255,0,0)"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font size="1"><font color="#0000ff"><span style="color:rgb(255,0,0)"> </a><font size="1"><font color="#0000ff"><a href="http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/from_coldwar_communism_to_the_global_emancipatory_movement/" target="_blank">http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/from_coldwar_communism _to_the_global_emancipatory_movement/</a><font color="#0000ff"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,0,0)"><span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font color="#ff0000"> <span style="color:rgb(0,0,255)">(Free). </span><br></font></span></span></span></font></font></font></li><li><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font size="1"><font color="#0000ff"><span style="color:rgb(255,0,0)"><font color="#0000ff"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,0,0)"><span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font color="#ff0000"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"><font color="#ff0000">2014. </font>Interface Journal Special (Co-Editor), December 2014.</span> <a href="http://www.interfacejournal.net/current/" target="_blank">'Social Movement Internationalisms'. (Free).</a></font></span></span></span></font></span></font></font></span><b><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font size="1"><font color="#0000ff"><span style="color:rgb(255,0,0)"><font color="#0000ff"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,0,0)"><span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font color="#ff0000"><a href="http://www.interfacejournal.net/current/" target="_blank"><br></a></font></span></span></span></font></span></font></font></span></b></li><li><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font size="1"><font color="#0000ff"><span style="color:rgb(255,0,0)"><font color="#0000ff"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,0,0)"><span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font color="#ff0000">2014. <font color="#000000">'The Networked Internationalism of Labour's Others', in Jai Sen (ed), Peter Waterman (co-ed), <a href="http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/the_movements_of_movements/" target="_blank"></span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255)">The Movement of Movements: </a></font></font></span></span></span></font></span></font></font></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font size="1"><font color="#0000ff"><span style="color:rgb(255,0,0)"><font color="#0000ff"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,0,0)"><span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#000000"><a href="http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/the_movements_of_movements/" target="_blank"></font></span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255)">Struggles for Other Worlds <font color="#000000">(Part I).</a><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255)"> (10 Euros).</span></font></font></span></span></span></font></span></font></font></span><b><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font size="1"><font color="#0000ff"><span style="color:rgb(255,0,0)"><font color="#0000ff"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,0,0)"><span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#000000"><br></font></font></span></span></span></font></span></font></font></span></b></li><li><div style="text-align:left"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font size="1"><span><span><font color="#ff0000">2012. </font>EBook:</span> <a href="http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/recovering_internationalism/" target="_blank">Recovering
Internationalism</a>. <span style="color:rgb(0,0,255)"> </span></span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255)">[A compilation of papers from the new millenium. Now free in two download formats]</span></font></span><b><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font size="1"><span><span></span></span></font></span></b></div></li><li><div style="text-align:left"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font size="1"><span><span><font color="#ff0000">2013. </font>EBook (co-editor), February 2013: World Social Forum: Critical Explorations <a href="http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/world_social_forum/" target="_blank">http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/world_social_forum/</a></span></span><span><span></span></span><span></span></font></span></div></li><li><div style="text-align:left"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font size="1"><span><font color="#ff0000">2012. </font>Interface
Journal<span> Special (co-editor), November 2012:</span></span><span> </span><span style="font-weight:normal"></span></font></span><b><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font size="1"><span style="font-weight:normal"><a href="http://www.interfacejournal.net/current/" target="_blank">For the Global Emancipation of Labour </a></span><span lang="NL"></span></font></span></b></div></li><li><div style="text-align:left"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font color="#ff0000" size="1"><a href="http://interfacejournal.nuim.ie/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Interface-1-2-pp255-262-Waterman.pdf" target="_blank"></font></font><font color="#000000"><font color="#ff0000">2005-?</a></font></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font size="1"><span lang="NL"><font color="#ff0000"> Ongoing. </font>Blog:</span><span lang="NL"> <a href="http://www.unionbook.org/profile/peterwaterman." target="_blank">http://www.unionbook.org/profile/peterwaterman.</a></span></font></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"></span><span></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font color="#ff0000" size="1"><a href="http://interfacejournal.nuim.ie/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Interface-1-2-pp255-262-Waterman.pdf" target="_blank"></font></span></font></span></font><font color="#000000"><font color="#ff0000">???. Needed: a Global Labour Charter Movement<span style="color:rgb(255,0,0)"><font color="#000000"> <span style="color:rgb(0,0,255)">(2005-Now!)</a></font></span></div></li><li><div style="text-align:left"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><font color="#ff0000" size="1"><font color="#000000"><a href="http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/under-against-beyond/" target="_blank"></font><font color="red"><b>MailScanner has detected a possible fraud attempt from "www.into-ebooks.com" claiming to be</b></font> <font color="#ff0000">2011. Under, Against, Beyond: Labour and Social Movements Confront a Globalised, Informatised Capitalism </a>(2011) <span style="color:rgb(0,0,255)">(c. 1,000 pages of Working Papers, free, from the <a href="tel:1980" value="+661980" target="_blank">1980</a>'s-90's).</span></font></font></span></div></li></ol></div><div><table cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr></tr></tbody></table><font size="1">
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