Where Are the Unions?: Workers and Social Movements in Latin America, the Middle East and Europe

ISBN-13: 9781783609901 / Angielski / Twarda / 2017 / 296 str.

Sian Lazar

Opis

The start of this century has been marked by global demands for economic justice. From the wave that swept through Latin America to the Arab revolutions and the Occupy and anti-austerity movements in Europe and North America, the past twenty years have witnessed the birth of a new type of mass mobilization. Looking closely at this worldwide push for change, Where are the Unions? is the first book to compare the challenges faced by movements in Latin America with those in the Arab world and Europe.
As the contributors to this volume show, workers' strikes and protests played a critical role in these mass movements, yet their role has been significantly understated in many narratives of these events. Where are the Unions? corrects this oversight by focusing on the complex interactions among organized workers, the unemployed, the self-employed, youth, students, and the state, while critically assessing the concept of the precariat--the social class made up of people without job security. With contributions from four continents, this is the most comprehensive look at the global context of mass mobilization within the last two decades.

Spis treści

Introduction - Sian Lazar Part I: Labour movements, society and the state 1. The Egyptian workers' movement: problems of organisation and politics - Anne Alexander and Mostafa Bassiouny 2. From the grassroots to the presidential palace: Evo Morales and the coca growers’ union in Bolivia - Thomas Grisaffi 3. The labour union movement and ‘alternative’ culture in Tunisia: the long view of a close relationship - Mohamed-Salah Omri Part II: Identity and precarity 4. Migrants' struggles? Rethinking citizenship, anti-racism and labour precarity through migration politics in Italy - Irene Peano 5. The Spanish crisis: from complacency to unrest, from unrest to mobilisation - Salvador Martí i Puig and Marco Aparicio Wilhelmi 6. What are the possible strategies for the emergence of a democratic and revolutionary labour movement in Lebanon? - Walid Daou 7. 'To struggle is also to teach': how can teachers and teaching unions further the global fight for another world? - Mary Compton Part III: Rank and file challenges to traditional unionism 8. ‘Ungrievable’ labour and ‘unruly’ politics: NGOS, workers’ rights, and the 2013–2014 protests in Brazil - Lucy McMahon 9. The experience of grassroots syndicalism in Greece: workplace restructuring and the role of traditional trade unions in the tertiary sector - Aris Anagnostopoulos and Angelos Evangelinidis 10. Dilemmas of trade unionism and the movement of the unemployed under neoliberal and progressive regimes in Argentina - Virginia Manzano 11. From invisible to invincible: the story of the 3 Cosas Campaign - Jason Moyer-Lee and Henry Chango Lopez Afterword: bringing manifestos back in? - Peter Waterman