Documents Taylor, Graham 5 results

"This article engages critically with Richard Hyman's work on union identity and European integration. It includes a sympathetic review of Hyman's contribution to the debate on these topics over the past two decades, alongside a critique of Hyman's approach that highlights certain weaknesses and contradictions resulting from his uncritical use of a range of categories and concepts taken from regulation theory. The authors question Hyman's argument that developments in European unionism can be conceptualised adequately through an analysis of the development and crisis of ‘political economism': a dominant union identity that Hyman aligns with the development and crisis of Fordism. An alternative model for understanding the reorientation of European unions is presented based on a critical and dialectical conceptualisation of the relationship between unions and capitalist development. This is used to construct a model of contemporary union reorientation along the dimensions of ‘accommodation' and ‘opposition' to neoliberalism and to ‘national' and ‘international' modes of organisation and mobilisation."

"There are growing indications that the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) is undergoing a shift in strategic orientation from an exclusive focus on institutional ‘social partnership' within the European Union towards a more campaigning ‘social movement' model. This article explores two recent campaigns, on the European Charter of Fundamental Rights and the Convention on the Future of Europe, and considers how far these developments mark the emergence of a distinctive trade union identity at European level. The article concludes with examples of other areas where the ETUC could encourage ‘internal dialogue' within European trade unionism and develop further a ‘hybrid' transnational identity."

"There is a developing crisis of social democratic trade unionism in Western Europe; this volume outlines the crisis and examines the emerging alternatives. The authors define 'social democratic trade unionism' and its associated party-union nexus and explain how this traditional model has been threatened by social democracy's accommodation to neo-liberal restructuring and public service reform. Examining the experience of Sweden, Germany, Britain and France, the volume explores the historical rise and fall of social democratic trade unionism in each of these countries and probes the policy and practice of the European Trade Union Confederation. The authors critically examine the possibilities for a revival of social democratic unionism in terms of strategic policy and identity, offering suggestions for an alternative, radicalized political unionism. The research value of the book is highlighted by its focus on contemporary developments and its authors' intimate knowledge of the chosen countries."

"This paper explores the logical and historical determinants of European integration and reflects on the potential and dangers this presents for labour movement renewal. Through the principle of ‘subsidiarity' a regulatory gap has been established between political mobilisation at the national level and neo-liberal regulation at the European level. The historical determination of this form is traced through an exploration of the social struggles against neo-liberalism that have developed within member states and transnational mobilizations that bridge this regulatory gap by linking resistance across national boundaries."

"This paper outlines recent examples of labor movement renewal in Europe in the context of European integration and globalization. It highlights an increasing tension between the strategy of social partnership pursued by official labor organizations and grassroots "social movement unionism." The paper demonstrates that the prospects for successful renewal involves linking workplace mobi lization and organization with wider popular struggles to form a movement against the new regionalized forms of corporate and state power. This has direct relevance to current debates in the US concerning the tension between "service" and "organizing" models and demonstrates the need for vibrant autonomous work place unionism as well as a political dimension to labor movement renewal."