This book considers how workplace democracy can broaden and deepen the democratisation process in Africa. It encompasses many countries including: Togo, Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea, Ghana, South Africa, Zambia, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. The book's main argument is that democracy can only survive if it is participatory, that participatory democracy is a necessary condition for sustainable development, and that trade unions are ideally placed to contribute to the democratisation of the economy. The book is organised in three parts. Part 1 sets the background of the research and the underlying theory. Part 2 presents the learning experiences within different countries. The concluding Part 3 considers the broad implications of the research findings for policy making on democratic participation, with a particular emphasis on the role of trade unions.

Why has there been no viable, independent labor party in the United States? Many people assert "American exceptionalist" arguments, which state a lack of class-consciousness and union tradition among American workers is to blame. While the racial, ethnic, and gender divisions within the American working class have created organizational challenges for the working class, Moody uses archival research to argue that despite their divisions, workers of all ethnic and racial groups in the Gilded Age often displayed high levels of class consciousness and political radicalism. In place of "American exceptionalism," Moody contends that high levels of internal migration during the late 1800's created instability in the union and political organizations of workers. Because of the tumultuous conditions brought on by the uneven industrialization of early American capitalism, millions of workers became migrants, moving from state to state and city to city. The organizational weakness that resulted undermined efforts by American workers to build independent labor-based parties in the 1880s and 1890s. Using detailed research and primary sources; Moody traces how it was that 'pure-and-simple' unionism would triumph by the end of the century despite the existence of a significant socialist minority in organized labor at that time. Kim Moody was a founder of Labor Notes and is the author of On New Terrain (Haymarket Books, 2017).

Despite widespread interest in the trade union movement and its history, it has never been easy to trace the development of individual unions, especially those now defunct, or where name changes or mergers have confused the trail. In this respect the standard histories and industrial studies tend to stimulate curiosity rather than satisfy it. When was a union founded? When did it merge or dissolve itself, or simply disappear? What records survive and where can further details of its history be found? These are the kinds of question the Directory sets out to answer. Each entry is arranged according to a standard plan, as follows: 1. Name of union; 2. Foundation date: Name changes (if any) and relevant dates. Any amalgamation or transfer of engagements. Cessation, winding up or disappearance, with date and reasons where appropriate and available; 3. Characteristics of: membership, leadership, policy, outstanding events, membership (numbers). 4. Sources of information: books, articles, minutes etc; location of documentation.

This book is the second of two volumes examining the place of the National Union of Mineworkers in post-war British politics. Covering the years 1969 to 1995, it charts reactions to the pit closures programme of the late 1950s and 1960s and the development of the NUM's reputation as the union that could topple governments. This reputation influenced profoundly the relationship between the NUM and successive Labour and Conservative administrations, underpinning changes in the state's approach to industrial disputes, so vividly manifested in the strike of 1984-85. Following the same intellectual path as volume one, this book concentrates on 'high' politics and the relationship between the NUM, the government and the National Coal Board. It highlights many of the same the key themes of the first volume, particularly the internal political process whereby the mineworkers' tendency to fragmentation was managed, and which was to eventually lead to the breakdown of this internal political process and the fragmentation of the NUM. formation of the 'Broad Left', the election of Joe Gormley as NUM President in 1971 and the strikes of 1972 and 1974 and relations with the Wilson and Heath governments. It then examines the election of Arthur Scargill in 1981 and the subsequent shifting of the union's political centre of gravity, together with the Conservative government's determination to use the power of the state to destroy the power of the NUM. The myths and legends surrounding the NUM and its power to bring down governments is still strong today, yet this book challenges many of the notions surrounding its strength, militancy and cohesiveness. Instead what emerges is a more complex picture as the union struggled to translate local loyalties into national solidarity. Whilst nationalisation initially helped this process, growing frustration exploded at the end of the 1960s, ushering in a period of a typical unity that allowed the miners to successfully strike in the 1970s. was in many ways much more typical of the NUM's experience throughout the twentieth century.

From its formation in 1944, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) was one of the most powerful and important players on the British political and industrial stage. Whilst the nation relied upon coal for its electricity production, domestic heating and railway transportation, the miners and their unions would always play a central role in national politics with the ability to cause massive disruption to the nation, should they decide to strike, as they did in 1972 and 1974. However, as the country began to move towards other forms of energy, such as oil and gas, the power of the mineworkers correspondingly decreased, leaving the once mighty union to come to terms with a very different world by the early eighties. The NUM and British Politics makes use of union material and party and government archives as well as oral testimony, much of it highly confidential, to present the first overall account of the evolving nature of the tripartite relationship between the miners, the NUM and the state.

The multi-faceted tensions created in developing countries between a burgeoning popular desire for democracy and the harsh imperatives of modernisation and industrialisation are nowhere more evident than in the so-called 'Asian tiger' nations. Of all those nascent economies, South Korea in the 1960s and 1970s stands pre-eminent for the magnitude and speed of its development and the extraordinarily oppressive and inhumane conditions that its labour force, mainly women and young girls, were compelled to endure. The author of this book was one of those young girls who suffered in the warren of sweat-shop garment factories in the slums of central Seoul. With little or no support from male co-workers, and despite their political naivety and the traditionally subordinate status of Korean females, the women textile and garment workers confronted the ruling authority at all levels. The author's mother was one of their leaders, and her eldest brother sacrificed his life for their cause. Despite appalling state-directed violence, betrayal by erstwhile colleagues, the chicanery and mendacity of employers' cooperatives and countless other setbacks, these uneducated and overworked women finally succeeded in forming the first fully democratic trade union in the history of Korea. Based on compelling personal accounts this is the first published account of the women's struggle, and it throws much light on the process of modernisation and industrialisation in Korea and beyond.

This new study looks at the ways in which the years surrounding the First World War shaped the lives of the rural workforce in Britain and how the patriotism unleashed by the war was used by those in power to blur class divisions and build conservative attitudes in rural communities. Using the area of Shropshire and the Marches as a focus, the book looks at farmworkers and their trade unions, the structures of agrarian economy, class divisions, local loyalties, cultural institutions and political organisations. From 1917 the growing power of the farmworkers' unions and the rural labour movement mounted a challenge to the landed elites and sought a radical change from rural poverty. The author shows how the elites met this threat dynamically by creating a range of new village institutions, such as ploughing matches, Women's Institutes, village halls, war memorials and the British Legion. The extraordinary growth of rural radicalism at the end of the war was diffused by popular conservatism and local patriotism. Influenced by wartime experiences, the period 1900-1930 saw a change in rural society from parochial concerns to a new sense of loyalty to county and to the English nation.

This volume recounts the political formation and positions of Russian trade unionist and 'old Bolshevik' Alexander Shlyapnikov. Famous for his role in the Workers' Opposition, and his calls for trade unions to realize workers' mastery over the economy, this biography - the first in any language - offers a little seen 'on the shop floor' view of life within the Russian revolutionary movement.

Poor Workers' Unions Illuminates key connections between the social justice movements of the last fifty years and today's most innovative labour organising. A classic account of low-wage workers' organization that the US Department of Labor calls one of the '100 books that has shaped work in America.' As low-wage organising campaigns have been reignited by the Fight for 15 movement and other workplace struggles Poor Workers' Unions is as prescient as ever.

Richard Muller, a leading figure of the German Revolution in 1918, is unknown today. As the operator and unionist who represented Berlin's metalworkers, he was main organiser of the 'Revolutionary Stewards', a clandestine network that organised a series of mass strikes between 1916 and 1918. With strong support in the factories, the Revolutionary Stewards were the driving force of the Revolution. By telling Muller's story, this study gives a very different account of the revolutionary birth of the Weimar Republic.

What do unions do and why do they do it? Do they seek to maximise profit for their members, or to obtain better working conditions that benefit society as a whole? Derek H. Aldcroft and Michael J. Oliver here provide one of the first sustained studies of the effects of union activities in terms of economic performance and the impact on the business world. From the rise of the British mass trade union movement in the 1870s to the present day, the book examines the main trends in union development and structure, and the core strategies unions have used to achieve their objectives: the use of strikes, work rules and restrictive practices; workers' attitudes to innovation; the wage bargaining process. Important assessments are made of the influence of these strategies on investment, innovation, economic growth, and the cost of structure and competitiveness of the UK economy.

Once the heartland of British labour history, trade unionism has been marginalised in much recent scholarship. In a critical survey from the earliest times to the nineteenth century, this book argues for its reinstatement. Trade unionism is shown to be both intrinsically important and to provide a window onto the broader historical landscape; the evolution of trade union principles and practices is traced from the seventeenth century to mid-Victorian times. Underpinning this survey is an explanation of labour organisation that reaches back to the fourteenth century. Throughout, the emphasis is on trade union mentality and ideology, rather than on institutional history. There is a critical focus on the politics of gender, on the demarcation of skill and on the role of the state in labour issues. New insight is provided on the long-debated question of trade unions' contribution to social and political unrest from the era of the French Revolution through to Chartism.

This study focuses on women in cleaning and catering jobs with the National Health Service to investigate working class women and the ways in which their interests are developed, articulated, and represented by trade unions. Munro (sociology, University College, Northampton, UK) argues that unions maintain a bias that excludes women by not placing importance on issues specific to women workers, such as child care. She also inquires into the development of racialized gender roles, specifically how the types of work result in interests which are differentiated by race and gender.

The aggressive exploitation of labor on both sides of the US-Mexico border has become a prominent feature of capitalism in North America. Kids in cages, violent ICE raids, and anti-immigrant racist rhetoric characterize our political reality and are everyday shaping how people intersect at the US-Mexico border. As activist-scholar Justin Akers Chacon carefully demonstrates, however, this vicious model of capitalist transnationalization has also created its own grave-diggers. Contemporary North American capitalism relies heavily on an inter-connected working class which extends across the border. Cross-border production and supply chains, logistics networks, and retail and service firms have aligned and fused a growing number of workers into one common class, whether they live in the US or Mexico. While money moves without restriction, the movement of displaced migrant workers across borders is restricted and punished. Transborder people face walls, armed agents, detention camps, and a growing regime of repressive laws that criminalize them. Despite the growth and violence of the police state dedicated to the repression of transborder populations-the migra-state-migrant workers have been at the forefront of class struggle in the United States. This timely book persuasively argues that labor and migrant solidarity movements are already showing how and why, in order to fight for justice and re-build the international union movement, we must open the border.

This moving biography presents the definitive story of the life of and legacy of the most eloquent spokesperson and leader of the US labour and socialist movements. Eugene Debs was a railway organiser and socialist. He ran for president five times, once from prison. With a new introduction by Mike Davis.

Labor at the turn of the Century; Open-shop drive; National Civic Federation; The church and labor; business unionism; Craft vs industrial unions; Women, Black and immigrant workers; AFL political policies; the Socialists; Western Federation of Miners; the American Labor Union, more.

The near destruction of the coal industry and the NUM offers a timely vantage point from which to appraise their history. This book presents a collection of specially commissioned essays by leading authorities on miners' history, which challenge the stereotypical imagery of miners' solidarity and loyalty to the Labour Party. This book examines the politics of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain, the unique influences of syndicalism and communism within some of its constituent areas, and the uneven pace of the Labour Party's 'forward march' within the coalfields. Such national developments are then studied within their diverse regional contexts through a series of case studies which permits comparison between the major British coalfields. Finally, the book considers the attempts to overcome these regional diversities with the formation of the National Union of Mineworkers and the nationalisation of the mining industry.

Militant Minority tells the compelling story of British Columbia workers who sustained a left tradition during the bleakest days of the Cold War. Through their continuing activism on issues from the politics of timber licenses to global questions of war and peace, these workers bridged the transition from an Old to a New Left.

In the late 1950s, half of B.C.'s workers belonged to unions, but the promise of postwar collective bargaining spawned disillusionment tied to inflation and automation. A new working class that was educated, white collar, and increasingly rebellious shifted the locus of activism from the Communist Party and Co-operative Commonwealth Federation to the newly formed New Democratic Party, which was elected in 1972. Grounded in archival research and oral history, Militant Minority provides a valuable case study of one of the most organized and independent working classes in North America, during a period of ideological tension and unprecedented material advance.

Despite widespread interest in the trade union movement and its history, it has never been easy to trace the development of individual unions, especially those now defunct, or where name changes or mergers have confused the trail. In this respect the standard histories and industrial studies tend to stimulate curiosity rather than satisfy it. When was a union founded? When did it merge or dissolve itself, or simply disappear? What records survive and where can further details of its history be found? These are the kinds of question the Directory sets out to answer. Each entry is arranged according to a standard plan, as follows: 1. Name of union; 2. Foundation date: Name changes (if any) and relevant dates. Any amalgamation or transfer of engagements. Cessation, winding up or disappearance, with date and reasons where appropriate and available; 3. Characteristics of: membership, leadership, policy, outstanding events, membership (numbers). 4. Sources of information: books, articles, minutes etc; location of documentation.

Save Our Unions: Dispatches From A Movement in Distress brings together recent essays and reporting by labor journalist Steve Early. The author illuminates the challenges facing U.S. workers, whether they're trying to democratize their union, win a strike, defend past contract gains, or bargain with management for the first time. Drawing on forty years of personal experience, Early writes about cross-border union campaigning, labor strategies for organizing and health care reform, and political initiatives that might lessen worker dependence on the Democratic Party. Save Our Unions contains vivid portraits of rank-and-file heroes and heroines, both well-known and unsung. It takes readers to union conventions and funerals, strikes and picket-lines, celebrations of labor's past and struggles to insure that unions still have a future in the 21st century. The book's insight, analysis and advocacy make this an important contribution to the project of labor revitalization and reform.

The world of work has changed and so have trade unions with mergers, rebrandings and new unions being formed. The question is, how positioned are the unions to organize the unorganized? With more than three quarters of UK workers unrepresented and the growth of precarious employment and the gig economy this topical new book by Bob Smale reports up-to-date research on union identities and what he terms 'niche unionism', while raising critical questions for the future.

In this long-out-of-print oral history classic, Alice and Staughton Lynd chronicle the stories of more than two dozen working-class organizers who occupied factories, held sit-down strikes, walked out, picketed, and found other bold and innovative ways to fight for workers' rights.
"Rank and File" brings the militancy of these firebrand organizers to life--whether it was in founding unions, challenging sexism and racism, safety violations, and management intimidation, or working for broader social changes.

This book examines a basic assumption behind most of the critical, progressive thinking of our times: that trade unions are necessarily tools for solidarity and are integral to a more equal and just society. Shaul A. Duke assesses the trade union's potential to promote equality in ethnically and racially diverse societies by offering an in-depth look into how unions operate; how power flows between union levels; where inequality originates; and the role of union members in union dynamics. By analyzing the trade union's effects on working-class inequality in Palestine during 1920-1948, this book shifts the conventional emphasis on worker-employer relations to that of worker-worker relations. It offers a conceptualization of how strong union members directed union policy from below in order to eliminate competition, often by excluding marginalized groups. The comparison of the union experiences of Palestinian-Arabs, Jewish-Yemeni immigrants, and Jewish women offers a fresh look into the labor history of Palestine and its social stratification.

Located on the shore of Lake Superior near the Iron Range of Minnesota and, for much of its history, the site of vast steel, lumber, and shipping industries, Duluth has been home to people who worked tirelessly in the rail yards, grain elevators, and harbor. Here, for the first time, "By the Ore Docks" presents a compelling, full-length history of the people who built this port city and struggled for both the growth of the city and the rights of their fellow workers.
In "By the Ore Docks, "Richard Hudelson and Carl Ross trace seventy years in the lives of Duluth's multi-ethnic working class--Scandinavians, Finns, Italians, Poles, Irish, Jews, and African Americans--and chronicle, along with the events of the times, the city's vibrant neighborhoods, religious traditions, and communities. But they also tell the dramatic story of how a populist worker's coalition challenged the "legitimate American" business interests of the city, including the major corporation U.S. Steel.
From the Knights of Labor in the 1880s to the Industrial Workers of the World, the AFL and CIO, and the Democratic Farmer-Labor party, radical organizations and their immigrant visionaries put Duluth on the national map as a center in the fight for worker's rights--a struggle inflamed by major strikes in the copper and iron mines.
"By the Ore Docks "is at once an important history of Duluth and a story of its working people, common laborers as well as union activists like Ernie Pearson, journalist Irene Paull, and Communist party gubernatorial candidate Sam Davis. Hudelson and Ross reveal tension between Duluth's ethnic groups, while also highlighting the ability of the people to overcome thosedifferences and shape the legacy of the city's unsettled and remarkable past.
Richard Hudelson is professor of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin, Superior. He is the author of, among other works, "Marxism and Philosophy in the Twentieth Century "and" The Rise and Fall of Communism,"
Carl Ross (1913-2004) was a labor activist and the author of "The Finn Factor in American Labor, Culture, and Society," He was director of the Twentieth-Century Radicalism in Minnesota Project of the Minnesota Historical Society.