Labour and Globalisation Results and Prospects

by Munck, Ronaldo

• ISBN13: 9780853238171
• ISBN10: 0853238170
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-01-04
• Publisher: Liverpool University Press

Summary

Globalization is transforming the world in ways that we are only just beginning to understand. It is often assumed that social movements, such as that of labor, will simply be overwhelmed by these changes. This book carries out a wide-ranging examination of theoretical and practical dimensions of globalization and the responses of the labor movement to the challenges it poses. Contributors explore the trend towards the globalization of labor, the influences of globalization at the sub-global spatial level, and the effects of globalization in a social dimension. In different ways, from different angles and taking up different positions, all the chapters in Labour and Globalisation can be seen as contributions to the development of a labor-based challenge to the ravages of globalization. They are, on the whole, neither optimistic nor pessimistic but seek out possibilities as well as establishing limits to labor transnationalism in the era of globalization.

Author Biography

Ronaldo Munck is Professor of Political Sociology at the University of Liverpool. Born and educated in Argentina, Ronaldo went on to do a PhD at the Unversity of Essex on the Brazilian Military Coup in 1964. Since then he has published widely on Latin America, from the best-selling Politics and Dependency in the Third World: The Case of Latin America (1984) to Contemporary Latin America (forthcoming). He is currently Senior Editor of the Bulletin of Latin American Research as well as an editor of the US journal Latin American Perspectives, and has been engaged to edit a book series on globalization for the Kumarian Press in the USA.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	vii
Foreword	viii
Denis MacShane
Notes on the Contributors	xii
List of Abbreviations	xv
Introduction: Globalisation and Labour Transnationalism	1	(18)
Ronaldo Munck
Part I: Global Dimensions
An Emerging Agenda for Trade Unions?	19	(15)
Richard Hyman
The ICFTU and the World Economy: A Historical Perspective	34	(18)
Rebecca Gumbrell-McCormick
Globalisation, Imperialism and the Labour Standards Debate	52	(19)
Robert O'Brien
Towards Global Networked Unions	71	(14)
Eric Lee
Part II: Spatial Dimensions
Re-Scaling Trade Union Organisation: Lessons from the European Front Line	85	(20)
Jane Wills
Australia and Beyond: Targeting Rio Tinto	105	(23)
James Goodman
International Solidarity and Labour in South Africa	128	(21)
Roger Southall
Andries Bezuidenhout
Labour and NAFTA: Nationalist Reflexes and Transnational Imperatives in North America, 1991--1995	149	(20)
John D. French
Part III: Social Dimensions
Beyond Unions: Labour and Codes of Conduct	169	(12)
Linda Shaw
Globalisation and Child Labour: Protection, Liberation or Anti-Capitalism?	181	(25)
Michael Lavalette
Steve Cunningham
Globalisation, Trade Unionism and Solidarity: Further Reflections on the Liverpool Dock Lockout	206	(21)
Jane Kennedy
Michael Lavalette
Globalisation and Trade Union Strategy: Evidence from the International Civil Aviation Industry	227	(18)
Paul Blyton
Miguel Martinez Lucio
John McGurk
Peter Turnbull
Index	245