Divisions in the Core of Global Capitalism? Italian Labour and ‘Free Trade’

The global labour movement has been divided over ‘free trade’. Many unions in the Global North, especially in export-oriented sectors, supported such agreements to secure markets and jobs, while unions in the Global South opposed them having experienced job losses and deindustrialisation. In my new article, ‘Divisions in the Core of Global Capitalism? Italian Labour and “Free Trade”’, published in the journal New Political Economy, I demonstrate that a split has opened up in the core of global capitalism. Against the background of drastic deindustrialisation, Italian trade unions have moved to an explicit anti – ‘free trade’ position, while especially the export sector German and Scandinavian trade unions continue their support. 

 

Historically, support for ‘free trade’ was part of a post–World War II national consensus in Italy, including also trade unions. Given Italy’s shortage of raw materials and advanced industries, export-led growth was seen as essential to finance necessary imports. Similar to trade unions in other European countries, this pro – ‘free trade’ position first changed in 2014 and 2015 during the broad mobilisation against the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations. As most tariffs between the EU and the US had already been removed at that time, the danger of removing non-tariff barriers such as health and safety regulations, the key focus of TTIP, was clear.

 

While other trade unions, however, returned to a supportive position on ‘free trade’ over the EU – Mercosur agreement, the ‘free trade’ agreement between the EU and Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, Italian trade unions retained their opposition. The Stop TTIP Italia alliance consisting of not only trade unions but also other members of the labour movement broadly defined such as social movements and environmental groups, continued the Stop TTIP campaign against the EU – Mercosur agreement.

 

The EU – Mercosur agreement has been criticised for the underpinning dynamics of ‘unequal exchange’, reflected in increasing exports of primary (agricultural) commodities including raw (mineral) materials, soy and ethanol as well as meat from Mercosur to the EU in exchange for increasing chemical exports including hazardous pesticides as well as fossil-fuel cars and car parts such as combustion engines in return. As labour and nature intensive products are exchanged with more advanced industrial commodities, surplus value is syphoned off from the Mercosur countries to the EU, causing deindustrialisation and a re-focus on the export of primary commodities in the former.

 

Moreover, the Stop TTIP Italia alliance also criticised the impact of increased soy production driving deforestation and undermining the rights of Indigenous people in Mercosur. Another criticism was the threat to Italy’s high quality food products of geographical indications including gorgonzola and Parma and San Daniele hams, for example. The fact that Mercosur companies do not have to comply with the higher European animal welfare and food safety standards makes agricultural production more expensive in the EU.

 

As I argue in the article, in order to understand this shift in Italian trade unions’ position on ‘free trade’, we need to analyse the Italian labour movements’ agency within the structuring conditions of the capitalist global political economy. Against the background of a falling rate of profit, Italy experienced drastic deindustrialisation from the late 1970s onwards as part of widespread neo-liberal restructuring, globalisation and increasing informalisation of the Italian political economy. The end of the Multi Fibre Arrangement in 1994 and the gradual, but eventually full liberalisation of the textile and clothing sectors by 2005, for example, implied that over only two years in 2004 and 2005 Italy lost 400,000 jobs. In general, globalisation and ‘free trade’ have implied deindustrialisation, job losses and informalisation of work in the Italian context. It is therefore no surprise that trade unions have turned against ‘free trade’.

Andreas Bieler

Professor of Political Economy

University of Nottingham/UK

Andreas.Bieler@nottingham.ac.uk

10 July 2026