In his recently
published monograph Labour Internationalism in the Global South: The
SIGTUR Initiative (Cambridge University Press, 2019) Robert
O’Brien has made a major contribution to our understanding of the possibilities
for, but also obstacles to, transnational solidarity across borders in the 21st
century. In this blog post, I will provide some reflections on this fascinating
book.
Robert O’Brien
makes two major contributions in this book. First, it is conceptually
innovative due to his development of six different faces of labour
internationalism. Second, drawing on these six faces, he then explores in
detail the experiences of the Southern
Initiative on Globalisation and Trade Union Rights
(SIGTUR), a radically different attempt at transnational solidarity between
labour movements of the Global South.
Six
Faces of Labour Internationalism
The six faces
identified include 1) autonomous
internationalism, in which the national economy generates the particular
interests of the national working class, 2) statist
internationalism, which argues that labour movements should focus their
efforts on influencing the state, 3) nationalist
internationalism, which implies that labour movements in the Global South should
prioritise national liberation over class struggle, 4) networked internationalism, which argues that since the economy is
now global so should be the focus of labour movements, 5) globalist internationalism arguing that influencing global
institutions may be more important than states, and 6) empathetic internationalism, which emphasises the importance of
internationalism on the basis of empathy between people. Ultimately, all six
faces represent ideal types. As O’Brien argues, ‘the six faces described
above illuminate tendencies in internationalism. Individuals, groups or organizations
may contain dominant and recessive strains of different forms of
internationalisms’ (P.34).
In a second step, O’Brien
then groups the six faces of internationalism into two different prisms. The
national prism includes autonomous internationalism, statist internationalism
and nationalist internationalism, while the global prism consists of networked
internationalism, globalist internationalism and empathetic internationalism.
Chapters 2 and 3 of the book do not only develop these various types of
internationalism in more detail. O’Brien also uses his two prisms to provide a
comprehensive overview of past and present attempts by labour movements to
establish solidarity across borders.
Thus, he discusses, for
example, the impact of International Framework Agreements and the role of
international labour organisations such as the International Trade Union
Confederation (ITUC). Moreover, he highlights that it is not always material
interests, which motivate workers to show solidarity. As an example of
empathetic internationalism, O’Brien reflects on the motivation of workers from
around the world to assist the Republican Government during the civil war in
Spain in 1936 to 1939. ‘Structural conditions such as unemployment provided a
push, the Communist Party provided the transport, but a sense of shared
experience from immigrant histories and a commitment to universal struggles
provided the motivation for particular individuals to leave their home, travel
across an ocean and put their lives at risk in a bloody conflict’ (P.81).
The
Southern Initiative on Globalisation and Trade Union Rights
SIGTUR was initially called
the Indian Ocean Regional Trade Union Conference (IORTUC) at its first meeting
in May 1991 in Perth, Australia, before it changed its name into the Southern
Initiative on Globalization and Trade Union Rights (SIGTUR) in 1999. Key
members over the years include the Congress of South African Trade Unions
(COSATU), the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA), the Korean Confederation of
Trade Unions (KCTU), the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), the Kilusang
Mayo Uno (KMU) from the Philippines and later on the Central Unica dos
Trabalhadores (CUT) from Brazil as well as the Central de Trabajadores de la
Argentina (CTA).
From its inception, constituted
as a network with a focus on radical action, SIGTUR has intended to provide a
clear alternative to more bureaucratic international labour organisations such
as the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). SIGTUR’s identity is not
clear-cut. While Australia is, for example, located geographically in the
Global South, the country is part of the group of industrialised countries.
Hence, ‘rather than referring to a geographic area or a post-colonial tradition
(both of which have some salience) “southern” captures an activist,
independent, subaltern, and confrontational orientation towards capitalism’
(P.127).
Of course, member trade
unions are rather different. For example, CITU reflects most closely the
national prism of labour internationalism, while other SIGTUR members have
emphasised aspects of the global prism. In general, however, O’Brien asserts
that ‘over the period under study (1990-2018) we see a gradual erosion of the
national prism as members’ economies become increasingly internationalized,
global regulation becomes more intrusive, and cosmopolitan appeals have more
resonance’ (P.118).
Importantly, despite a clear
personal, emotional involvement, O’Brien does not assess SIGTUR through
rose-tinted glasses. As he acknowledges, SIGTUR has not fully fulfilled the
hopes of its founders. There is little reach into the membership bases of the
various participating unions beyond the conference delegates. A lack of
adequate funding has made it often difficult to maintain continuity between
congresses and there have only been limited joint actions. The Futures Commission,
a network of trade union researchers and labour academics established in 2013
and entrusted with the task to develop alternatives to neo-liberalism produced
a first report Challenging Corporate Capital in 2015
(see also Proposals for Alternatives to
Neo-liberalism), but there is hardly any ongoing integration
into SIGTUR initiatives and a revival of its role is doubtful. Nevertheless,
‘SIGTUR has been able to begin this task [of developing international
relationships of solidarity] by bringing together labour activists and engaging
them in productive discussion. This has led to the first major accomplishment
which is the education of a sector of the global labour movement’ (P.190).
There is one area I am
slightly critical about this book. The six faces of internationalism separate
out the material from the ideational and the state/regulatory level. While this
works well for presentational purposes, we ultimately end up analysing only the
external relations between these various factors. Hence, by overlooking or
taking uncritically as starting-point this apparent separation between the
economic and the political, the material and the ideational, the historical
specificity of capitalism and the way exploitation is organised around wage
labour and the private ownership or control of the means of production is
overlooked. Inevitably, then, discussions about labour internationalism stay
within the limits of capitalism, but cannot reflect on potential transformative
steps beyond.
This criticism should not,
however, diminish the huge importance of this volume. As O’Brien correctly
observes, ‘if there is a worldwide struggle over the organization of
production, consumption and distribution of resources, labour will play a
central role’ (P.181). SIGTUR has clearly played its part in this struggle.
Robert O’Brien, who has followed the development of SIGTUR closely, attended
most of its Congresses, talked to the key union representatives and surveyed
all the related documents, has done a major service to the international labour
movement. The future of SIGTUR is currently unclear, but the lessons we can
learn from this experiment stay with us, largely thanks to O’Brien’s
scholarship.
And finally, the book is also
testimony to the life achievement of SIGTUR's key founder Rob Lambert, who passed
away earlier this year. As O’Brien points out, ‘from the early 1990s until 2010
the SIGTUR mobilizing structure revolved around a single person, its regional
coordinator, Rob Lambert’ (P.165) (see also Lambert 2013). It
was his vision of a new type of labour internationalism, which drove the
project. It was his personal empathy, which allowed him to bring together
labour representatives from vastly different cultural and ethnic backgrounds
and overcome tensions and obstacles during the development of SIGTUR. In a way,
this book is also the legacy of Rob Lambert’s work, who was in many respects
ahead of his time, when it comes to labour internationalism.
This is a hugely important book, a must read for
all those interested in driving further labour internationalism towards a
fairer and more just future. I highly recommend it for reading!
Andreas Bieler
Professor of Political Economy
University of Nottingham/UK
University of Nottingham/UK
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