Josep Maria Antentas (2022), guest editor, "a special issue on global internationalism"

Special Issue

A Special Issue on Global Internationalism, Labor History

Guest editor, Josep Maria Antentas

 

Antentas, Josep Maria. 2022. “Global Internationalism: An Introduction.” Labor History 63(4): 425-40.

Nastovski, Katherine. 2022. “Transnational Labour Solidarity and the Question of Agency: A Social Dialectical Approach to the Field.” Labor History 63(4): 441-58.

Fox-Hodess, Katy. 2022. “The ‘Iron Law of Oligarchy’ and North-South Relations in Global Union Organisations: A Case Study of the International Dockworkers Council’s Expansion in the Global South.” Labor History 63(4): 459-78.

Musto, Marcello. 2022. “History and Political Legacy of the International Working Men’s Association.” Labor History 63(4): 479-91.

Prezioso, Stefanie. 2022. “Globalisation, Internationalism and the Great War.” Labor History 63(4): 492-502.

Walsh, Owen. 2022. “The Human Ocean of the Colored Races”: Interwar Black Internationalism, Marxism, and Permanent Revolution.” Labor History 63(4): 503-17.

Ritchie, Genevieve. 2022. “Migration as Class Struggle: Refugee Youth, Work Rights, and Solidarity.” Labor History 63(4): 518-30.

Michele Ford and Michael Gillan (2022) "Understanding global union repertoires of action"

Ford, Michele and Michael Gillan. 2022. “Understanding Global Union Repertoires of Action.” Industrial Relations Journal 53: 559-77.

Abstract

Unlike national trade unions, which operate within country-specific industrial relations systems, Global Unions have an international mandate and multi-scalar positionality. As a consequence, their repertoires of action and the opportunity structures available to them differ from those of national unions. Drawing on qualitative interview data and fieldwork observations, we propose a typology of different strategic domains used by the Global Union Federations (GUFs), which identifies their characteristics, scale and constraints. We then discuss two cases that illustrate how complementary strategies of (a) engaging in incremental innovation and (b) combining repertoires from different strategic domains have supported the GUFs' desire to play a stronger role as global labour governance intermediaries.

Lefeng LIN (2022) "Power resources and workplace collective bargaining"

Lin, Lefeng. 2022. “Power Resources and Workplace Collective Bargaining: Evidence from China.” The Journal of Chinese Sociology 9: 1-27.

Abstract

During the strike wave of 2010, S provincial authority began to support trade unions in experimenting with workplace union elections and collective bargaining. Drawing data from union documents and ethnographic research, the variability in workplace collective bargaining in the context of official union reform in Y City in S Province is explained in this article. By comparing multiple enterprise union collective bargaining cases, four models of workplace collective bargaining in practice are identified in the research: moderated mobilization, technical negotiation, collective consultation, and managerial domination. Using the power resources approach to analyze collective bargaining, the author argues that the various practices result from the dynamic interactions between workers’ power configuration and employers’ perception of disruption. Furthermore, the author argues that the variability in workplace collective bargaining is not a transient phenomenon but a semi-institutionalized middle ground.

Jörg Nowak (2022) "Data Labour as Alienated or Liberated Labour?"

Nowak, Jörg. 2022. “Data Labour as Alienated or Liberated Labour? Proposals for Radical Economic Change from the Silicon Valley in the Light of Technological Reification.” Global Political Economy 1(2): 293-307. 

Abstract

This article delivers a critical analysis of the proposal to pay wages or royalties to data providers for any form of provision of digital data. It has been developed primarily by researchers of the Microsoft research department. The proposal to create mediators of individual data as trade unions of data providers aims at economic inclusion of everyday users of computers and smartphones. The article analyses the shortcomings of the proposal which does not consider the issue that many workers are obliged to provide data at their workplaces, and the problem of increasing digital tracking of workers’ productive activities. Furthermore, the proposal to pay wages for everyday activities lacks any strategy or vision to create more meaningful and satisfying work relations.