Documents van der Linden, Marcel 7 results

"Traditional labour movements are in trouble almost everywhere. They have been severely enfeebled by the political and economic changes of the last forty years. Their core consists of three forms of social movement organisations: cooperatives, trade unions and workers' parties. All three organisational types are in decline, though this is an uneven development with vast differences between countries and regions. We are living through a transitional stage in which old organisational structures no longer seem to work well, while new structures are still in their early stages."

"There is growing recognition amongst scholars that labour historians need to look beyond national borders in order to place the history of the working classes into a much broader context than has hitherto been the case. Whilst studies focused on individual countries are essential, it is only by comparing and contrasting the experiences across time and space that a true understanding of the subject can be attempted. One of the leading figures of this trend towards transnational history is Professor Marcel van der Linden, who has contributed much to the debate on cross-border processes and comparisons. This volume makes available in English a collection of 12 of his most important essays on the theme of transnational labour history. Previously published in a range of journals and volumes, this book brings them together in a single convenient collection, together with a new introduction and bibliography."

"The 43rd ITH conference put a focus on the movements of 1968 from a global perspective, emphasizing processes of transfer and exchange beyond borders. These social movements, which in some – in particular, non-European – countries took on the character of social revolts, were an international phenomenon. They were linked by networks, or followed the example of similar movements or sometimes were just contemporaneous, coincident, but united by a related spirit. Studies of five different cases – China, Latin America, Eastern Central Europe, Italy and Pakistan – reveal both shared characteristics and differences. Other contributions show how shared mental horizons, shaped by texts read all over the world, linked the movements of 1968 globally, as did practical networks such as those that developed from the movement to end the Vietnam war. What were the results, the long-term consequences and legacies of the worldwide revolts of the 1960s? This volume also tries to propose answers to these questions."

"The studies offered in this volume contribute to a Global Labor History freed from Eurocentrism and methodological nationalism. Using literature from diverse regions, epochs and disciplines, the book provides arguments and conceptual tools for a different interpretation of history – a labor history which integrates the history of slavery and indentured labor, and which pays serious attention to diverging yet interconnected developments in different parts of the world. The following questions are central:
? What is the nature of the world working class, on which Global Labor History focuses? How can we define and demarcate that class, and which factors determine its composition?
? Which forms of collective action did this working class develop in the course of time, and what is the logic in that development?
? What can we learn from adjacent disciplines? Which insights from anthropologists, sociologists and other social scientists are useful in the development of Global Labor History? "

"Global Labour History has rapidly gained ground as a field of study in the 21st century, attracting interest in the Global South and North alike. Scholars derive inspiration from the broad perspective and the effort to perceive connections between global trends over time in work and labour relations, incorporating slaves, indentured labourers and sharecroppers, housewives and domestic servants.

Casting this sweeping analytical gaze, The World Wide Web of Work discusses the core concepts ‘capitalism' and ‘workers', and refines notions such as ‘coerced labour', ‘household strategies' and ‘labour markets'. It explores in new ways the connections between labourers in different parts of the world, arguing that both ‘globalisation' and modern labour management originated in agriculture in the Global South and were only later introduced in Northern industrial settings. It reveals that 19th-century chattel slavery was frequently replaced by other forms of coerced labour, and it reconstructs the laborious 20th-century attempts of the International Labour Organisation to regulate labour standards supra-nationally. The book also pays attention to the relational inequality through which workers in wealthy countries benefit from the exploitation of those in poor countries. The final part addresses workers' resistance and acquiescence: why collective actions often have unanticipated consequences; why and how workers sometimes organise massive flights from exploitation and oppression; and why ‘proletarian revolutions' took place in pre-industrial or industrialising countries and never in fully developed capitalist societies."