The Struggle Sharpens: Workers, Imperialism and the State in Latin America

Third World Trade Unionism: Equity and Democratization in the Changing International Division of Labour

“…It has been argued that the internationalization of the production process implies an increasing similarity of work experiences between workers in the developed and underdeveloped world (Harding and Spalding, 1976). This may also be taken to imply that, in certain areas, industrial labour-particularly the more skilled layers-is a 'privileged category' in relation to other workers (not to mention the 'surplus population'), although generally, empirical work in Africa, particularly, has found that differentials between skilled and unskilled workers are rather limited (Bates, 1971;Jeffries, 1978) and that the skilled workers are no less likely to be militant than others.…”

“…In particular, this has required analysis of working class mobilization by populist regimes, and how working class militancy has been variously manipulated and contained by populist leaderships and/or more reactionary forms of corporate state. At one level, this has led to a focus upon trade union organization (labour bureaucracy, 'paralell' union structures, and pervasively, a lack of rank and file democracy) and structural ties of unions with the state; at another, more advanced level, it has led to attempts to establish relationships between trade union developments and forms of state required by the changing nature of local economies' insertion into the global system, (there being a detectable shift away from 'welfare populism'--which facilitated the development of national capitals on the basis of expanding domestic markets-to more regressive regimes (often military dictatorships) associated with the postwar inflow of foreign capital oriented to export-led growth) (Almeida and Lowy, 1976;Epstein, 1979;Harding and Spalding 1976;Moises 1979). Furthermore, as illustrated by the Chilean and Cuban experiences particularly, mobilization of the working class may proceed beyond the structural limits established by reformist unionist leaderships to more radical forms of political action (Erickson, Peppe and Spalding, 1974;Jelin, 1979;Petras, 1970;Spalding, 1979;Winn, 1973).…”