"This article examines the role that labor has played and can play in transitional societies, that is, in societies moving away from endemic violent conflict and/or authoritarian rule, and toward ostensibly democratic political norms. Specifically, it looks at the position of labor in Northern Ireland, Poland, and South Africa before and after the “double transition,” that is, the transition not only toward a fuller democratic dispensation, but also toward neoliberal socioeconomic structures. The aims of the article are, first, to question the compatibility of democracy with neoliberal capitalism and, second, to describe how the stratification of labor established by international capitalism has profoundly shaped the social context in which the organized working class acts to advance its goals. The article concludes by making some suggestions relevant to strategies appropriate to the struggle to make labor a united and leading force for social progress"

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