Introduction: politicizing the transnational

Abstract

Labor movements have always found it difficult to reveal and transform the social relations that constitute markets. The growing transnational movements of goods, capital, and services in themselves have therefore not triggered closer trade union cooperation across borders. Transnational collective action also requires conscious choices and a mutual understanding that solidarity across borders is warranted. For this reason, this special issue of Labor History assesses the role that politicization processes play in triggering transnational union action.

Keywords::

• trade unions
• transnationalism
• transnational collective action
• politicization
• social movements

Acknowledgements

All the contributions to this special issue were initially presented in February 2014 at the international workshop Labour and Transnational Action in Times of Crisis organized by the research group, Globalization and the Possibility of Transnational Actors, at the Centre for Advanced Study (CAS) (https://transnationallabour.wordpress.com/). We would like to thank Catherine O'Dea for the copyediting of the entire issue.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

^1.Marx, Capital, Chapter 1.4.

^2.Gumbrell-McCormick and Hyman, Trade Unions in Western Europe; Fairbrother, Lévesque, and Hennebert, Transnational Trade Unionism; Bieler and Lindberg, Global Restructuring; and Munck, Globalization.

^3.Manoïlesco, Le siècle du corporatisme.

^4.Crouch, Industrial Relations and Poulantzas, L'Etat.

^5.Harvey, Brief History, 19 and von Hayek, “Economic Conditions.”

^6.Marx and Engels, Manifesto, 16.

^7.Block, “Understanding the Diverging Trajectories.”

^8.Korpi, Democratic Class Struggle.

^9.Erne, European Unions, 31 and Foot, Vote.

^10.Engels, Introduction to Karl Marx.

^11.Supiot, Spirit of Philadelphia and Wahl, Rise and Fall.

^12.Erne, “Interest Groups.”

^13.Bieler et al., Labour and Transnational Action.

^14.Erne, European Unions, 30–33.

^15.Krastev, “Balkans,” 25.

^16.Webb and Webb, Industrial Democracy, Part II, Chapter IV.

^17.Crouch, “Privatised Keynesianism,” 398.

^18.Laffan, “Testing Times,” 283.

^19. Whereas the German SPD lost almost half of its votes during its time in government between 1998 (40.9%) and 2009 (23.0%), the share of the Greek socialist party PASOK fell from 43.9% in 2009 to a mere 4.65% in 2015.

^20.Wagner, Democratic Crisis of Capitalism, 14.

^21. See Erne, “Politicizing” and Dobrusin, “Transnational Labor Action in Latin America,” in this issue.

^22.Juravich and Bronfenbrenner, Ravenswood.

^23. Cf. The United Steelworkers of America in the Alcan, Pechiney, and Algroup merger case; Erne, European Unions, 161.

^24.Silver, Forces of Labor and Della Porta and Caiani, Social Movements and Europeanization.

^25.Kay, NAFTA; Ragin, Comparative Method; and Caramani, Introduction.

^26.George and Bennett, Case Studies, 36 and Levy, “Learning and Foreign Policy.”

^27.Schmidt, “Farewell to Europe's Working Classes;” Cotton and Croucher, Global Unions, Global Business; and Föhrer, “What Role.”

^28.Lijphart, “Comparative Politics,” 691–693.

^29.Kay, “Union Politicization” and Dobrusin, “Transnational Labor Action in Latin America.”

^30.Harvey and Turnbull, “Can Labor Arrest” and Anner, “Labor Control.”

^31.Marginson and Sisson, European Integration.

^32.Stan and Erne, “Explaining Romanian Labor Migration.”

^33.Dierckx, “European Unions and the Repoliticization of Transnational Capital.”

^34. The ECI is a direct democratic instrument that enables one million EU citizens to request the European Commission to propose a legal act in an area where the member states have conferred powers onto the EU level. The ECI was introduced into EU law by the Treaty of Lisbon in 2009 following a campaign for transnational direct democratic citizens' rights that can be traced back to 1995. Cf. Erne et al., “Transnationale Demokratie” and Papadopoulos, “Implementing (and Radicalizing) Art. I-47.4 of the Constitution.”

^35. Meanwhile, the initiators of the STOP TIPP ECI have not only started a self-organized European Works Council, they have also taken the Commission to the European Court of Justice. Cf. Efler and Others v Commission, Case T-754/14, 2015/C 034/47, Official Journal of the European Union, 2 February 2015, C 34, 39–40.

^36.Erne, “Politicizing.”

^37.Erne, European Unions, 189.

^38.Marx and Engles, Manifesto, 19.

Additional information

Funding

We thank the CAS at the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters in Oslo for the funding of both the research group and the international workshop.

Notes on contributors

Roland Erne

During the academic year 2013–2014, Roland Erne, Andreas Bieler, Darragh Golden, Idar Helle, Knut Kjeldstadli, Tiago Matos, and Sabina Stan were all members of the CAS research group, Globalization and the Possibility of Transnational Actors, at the Centre for Advanced Study in Oslo (http://www.cas.uio.no/research/1314globalization/index.php).