Labor History
LABOR HISTORY SYMPOSIUM
‘Labour and New Social Movements
in a Globalising World System’:
The Future of the Past
Peter Waterman
Labor History
Vol. 46, No. 2, May 2005, pp. 195–207
modernity as a failed project of the labour movement - labour as a failed project of modernity
new social movements see modernity in a globalised form as a problem? social justice movement ddecentres role of labour movement as liberation is a multifaceted task
"between a political-economic approach
to labour, as a creature of industrialisation and the nation-state (system), and
a multi-determined and even multi-directional approach, both focused on and
drawing from the ‘newest social movements.’" p197
formalised and existent organisation of classes and the novel and imminent organisation of social movements
labour studies as fixated on the national
"The ICFTU was here appealing to, and revealing dependence on, states and inter-state
organisations (elsewhere including the WTO), in the hope that they might reform
themselves. The ICFTU speaks here as a body present within or on the periphery of the
WTO. The mode of expression is diplomatic, since the ICFTU/Global Unions are
apparently still trying to ‘get a table at the WTO restaurant,’16 or at least to fill a
‘social vacuum.’ What the ICFTU has to say on this website could also have been said
by any liberal academic, at least of the pre-neo kind. While a finer or comparative
analysis might indicate movement within the international trade union movement,
in directions suggested by the GJ&SM, the apparent absence of unions from the
protest activities at Cancu´ n suggests a greater distance from the new movements
than might have been suggested by increasing union presence at the World Social
Forums.
Now for the Zapatistas:
Throughout the world, two projects of globalisation are in dispute: The one from above
that globalises conformity, cynicism, stupidity, war, destruction, death, and amnesia.
And the one from below, that globalises rebellion, hope, creativity, intelligence,
imagination, life, memory, building a world where many worlds fit. A world of
Democracy! Liberty! Justice!17
Here Sub-Comandante Marcos is addressing and appealing to the protest movement
taking place in Cancu´ n (neither ‘protest’ nor ‘demonstration’ finds mention on the
dozens of ICFTU/Global Unions webpages). The mode of expression is obviously
rhetorical. But this rhetoric does not simply remind us of the earlier, emancipatory,
phase of the international labour movement. It includes radically modern values and
aspirations. Although his is a polarising language, which would implicitly condemn,
or at least criticise, the ICFTU for its dependence on ‘globalisation from above,’ the
values and aspirations expressed actually cut across any such binary opposition,
appealing to traditional modernist/labourist values as well as to hypothetically
post-capitalist ones." p199
"We have to surpass the narrow understanding of ‘working class,’ either
by expanding it to all the kinds of ‘atypical’ labourers, or by using some such
term as ‘working people.’ In either case we have to surpass the privileging of the
traditional wage worker." p202
SHOULD I END WITH SEVERAL CONCLUSIONS ECHOING THE ONES THIS DUDE EXPRESSES??
‘Labour and New Social Movements
in a Globalising World System’:
The Future of the Past
Peter Waterman
Labor History
Vol. 46, No. 2, May 2005, pp. 195–207
modernity as a failed project of the labour movement - labour as a failed project of modernity
new social movements see modernity in a globalised form as a problem? social justice movement ddecentres role of labour movement as liberation is a multifaceted task
"between a political-economic approach
to labour, as a creature of industrialisation and the nation-state (system), and
a multi-determined and even multi-directional approach, both focused on and
drawing from the ‘newest social movements.’" p197
formalised and existent organisation of classes and the novel and imminent organisation of social movements
labour studies as fixated on the national
"The ICFTU was here appealing to, and revealing dependence on, states and inter-state
organisations (elsewhere including the WTO), in the hope that they might reform
themselves. The ICFTU speaks here as a body present within or on the periphery of the
WTO. The mode of expression is diplomatic, since the ICFTU/Global Unions are
apparently still trying to ‘get a table at the WTO restaurant,’16 or at least to fill a
‘social vacuum.’ What the ICFTU has to say on this website could also have been said
by any liberal academic, at least of the pre-neo kind. While a finer or comparative
analysis might indicate movement within the international trade union movement,
in directions suggested by the GJ&SM, the apparent absence of unions from the
protest activities at Cancu´ n suggests a greater distance from the new movements
than might have been suggested by increasing union presence at the World Social
Forums.
Now for the Zapatistas:
Throughout the world, two projects of globalisation are in dispute: The one from above
that globalises conformity, cynicism, stupidity, war, destruction, death, and amnesia.
And the one from below, that globalises rebellion, hope, creativity, intelligence,
imagination, life, memory, building a world where many worlds fit. A world of
Democracy! Liberty! Justice!17
Here Sub-Comandante Marcos is addressing and appealing to the protest movement
taking place in Cancu´ n (neither ‘protest’ nor ‘demonstration’ finds mention on the
dozens of ICFTU/Global Unions webpages). The mode of expression is obviously
rhetorical. But this rhetoric does not simply remind us of the earlier, emancipatory,
phase of the international labour movement. It includes radically modern values and
aspirations. Although his is a polarising language, which would implicitly condemn,
or at least criticise, the ICFTU for its dependence on ‘globalisation from above,’ the
values and aspirations expressed actually cut across any such binary opposition,
appealing to traditional modernist/labourist values as well as to hypothetically
post-capitalist ones." p199
"We have to surpass the narrow understanding of ‘working class,’ either
by expanding it to all the kinds of ‘atypical’ labourers, or by using some such
term as ‘working people.’ In either case we have to surpass the privileging of the
traditional wage worker." p202
SHOULD I END WITH SEVERAL CONCLUSIONS ECHOING THE ONES THIS DUDE EXPRESSES??
posted by antrophe at 5:51 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home