Labor environmentalism as a paradigm of social movement unionism: Participation of Portuguese trade unions in the national climate jobs campaign

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-204
Author(s):  
Chrislain Eric Kenfack
Keyword(s):  
Social Movement ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Social Movement Unionism

Social Movement Unions and Political Parties (in South Africa and the Philippines): A Win-Win Situation?

2007 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 373-393
Author(s):  
Michael Schiavone
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
South African ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Third World ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
African National Congress ◽  
Social Movement Unionism ◽  
National Congress ◽  
The Third World

AbstractSocial movement unionism is increasingly being seen as the strategy that US unions should adopt. However, what is often forgotten is that social movement unionism originated in the Third World. As part of the strategy it is argued that unions should form alliances with political parties. However, by analyzing the alliances between the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the African National Congress (ANC), and the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) and the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) I argue that union alliances with political parties have badly damaged social movement unions.

scholarly journals “They don´t represent us!” Opportunities for a Social Movement Unionism Strategy in Spain

2015 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 240-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holm-Detlev Köhler ◽  
José Pablo Calleja Jiménez
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
New Social Movements ◽  
Social Efficiency ◽  
Spanish Economy ◽  
Social Movement Unionism ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
Facilitating Conditions

Our goal is to analyze strategies of union revitalization that have been successful elsewhere and have the potential to become so in Spain. Within these practices, Social Movement Unionism focuses on alliances with other groups to improve unions’ social efficiency. In this article, we address the applicability of the principles of Social Movement Unionism in the specific case of Spain. Given the transformations in the Spanish economy and labour laws tending towards further deregulation, Spanish unions have had to react. The emergence of new social movements such as the Indignados or Mareas Ciudadanas (civic tides) and the declining confidence in unions among the Spanish population, make this approach timely and appropriate. For this article, we will take certain aspects from the trade union revitalization debate and combine them with the main theories on New Social Movements. We will apply these approaches to a specific case study: The viability of cooperation between the largest Spanish trade unions and the recent social movements arising from the Indignados movement. For this purpose, we will primarily use data from secondary sources and transcripts of interviews conducted with unionists and social movement activists. With all these elements taken into consideration, we will conclude by showing the inhibiting and facilitating conditions for the development of a Social Movement Unionism strategy for the referred actors.

Union Strategies in the Sri Lankan Tea Plantations: Rediscovering the Movement Dimension

2003 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-79
Author(s):  
Janaka Biyanwila
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Participatory Democracy ◽  
The State ◽  
Strategic Orientation ◽  
Sri Lankan ◽  
Social Movement Unionism ◽  
Tea Plantations

With the launch of export-oriented industrialisation policies in 1977, trade unions in Sri Lanka entered a new set of challenges. The state promotion of labour market deregulation and privatisation has directly undermined union strategies based on bureaucratic modes of organising worker solidarity. Nevertheless, among the gamut of union strategies are tendencies characterising what is described as social movement unionism (SMU). The SMU approach focuses on strategies of independent unions combining participatory democracy internally with structured alliances externally. This paper looks at the case of a union in the tea plantations and its potential towards developing a SMU strategic orientation. In particular, the discussion focuses on the deepening of democratic tendencies within the unions which may be capable of reinforcing the movement dimension of unions.

Diverse and Contra-Sectional Subjectivities in Social Movement Unionism: A Study of Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha (Mazdoor Karyakarta Samiti)

2020 ◽  
pp. 003802292097031
Author(s):  
Dillip Kumar Dash
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Social Movement Unionism ◽  
Sectional Analysis

Social movement unionism is one of the experiments of bringing together different issues and struggles associated with workers. The idea has been critiqued by different scholars because of different confrontations associated with issues and strategies. The paper argues that such discomfort arises from a monolithic understanding of social movements and their subjects. Assumption of ideological uniformity restricts analysis of the confronting nature of subjects and subjectivities as well as factions and fragmentation of movements. Here, the attempt is to understand diversity in movements through ‘contra-sectionality’. The ethnography for research was conducted on a movement named Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha (Mazdoor Karyakarta Samiti) in Chhattisgarh. Through a contra-sectional analysis, the article reflects on fragmented consciousness and its implication for the movement.

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