Trade Unions and the Politics of Crisis

Who will advance a popular democratic agenda in opposition to the prevailing neoliberal global order and, specifically, in response to the current global crisis? I argue in this chapter that unions in the North need to ally themselves with the rising workers’ rights movement in the South if ‘the race to the bottom’ is to be avoided. A strong global labour movement is needed to make workers’ rights, including the rights of organization and representation, a precondition for the continued internationalization of capital. These rights, however, are unlikely to be promoted as part of a neoliberal world order. The advancement of rights, therefore, has to go hand in hand with a more fundamental change in macroeconomic policies. Trade unions, it is suggested in this chapter, are best placed to make it happen, but they cannot do it on their own. The wage-earners are growing globally and their struggles for more decent work and organizational rights provide the backbone for a popular democratic movement. Northern unions have to realize that the centre of global unionism has shifted and that their own capacity to respond effectively to the crisis of the neoliberal turn depends on the success of the organizing efforts of the unions in the periphery. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.