Labor Versus Globalization

Abstract

The transnationalization of markets places labor movements everywhere in newly troubling situations. In vastly different ways in different regions of the globe, union movements and supporters have long sought to control and humanize capitalism within the frameworks of nations. For a brief moment after World War II, they seemed finally to have succeeded. Recent transnationalizing tendencies have made economic borders substantially more permeable and have undercut the capacities of nations to regulate within them, however. This leaves labor in postindustrial societies with declining resources, weakened organization, and few new ideas. Labor movements in other parts of the world stand in different relationships to current market changes from those in the West, indeed sometimes in contradiction to them. This makes desperately needed transnational labor cooperation extremely difficult. Successful responses are few and far between for the moment, and capital has seized the initiative.