Collective Action, Marx’s Class Theory, and the Union Movement

1978 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 163-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas E. Booth
2004 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doowon Suh

This article investigates Tilly's (1978) long-neglected question of how collective action outcomes modify agents' interests and movement dynamics. A case study of the Korean white-collar union movement demonstrates how the framing of collective action outcomes influences movement trajectories in two ways. First, actors' subjective evaluation of whether collective action succeeds or fails to attain movement goals alters movement dynamics by changing goals, strategies, tactics, action repertoires, and collective identities. Second, to whom the cause of the collective action outcome is attributed mediates these transformations. The evaluation of outcomes and attribution of causes is ongoing. They occur throughout the development of social movements and dynamically shape their trajectories. The case study confirms these observations: in early stages of collective action, when union members considered union efforts to improve their economic well-being fruitless and blamed government intervention for their failures, union activities evolved into political protest against the state and struggle for democratization. At a later stage, when agents successfully achieved economic and political goals and credited their union activism for the victory, union movements progressed by intensifying interunion solidarity.


2008 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 541-561 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tonia Novitz

In 2007, Brian Bercusson observed that: [T]he future of the trade union movement, but also of the EU, may depend on whether on judgment day the European Court of Justice decides that the EU legal order upholds the right of trade unions to take transnational collective action.Previously, deference to domestic labour legislation did not translate into judicial recognition of a right to collective bargaining or a strike. There was only speculation that this should be the case, accompanied by significant opposition from the UK to such a prospect. Judgment day has since come and we have been told that ‘[t]he right to take collective action, including the right to strike, must … be recognised as a fundamental right which forms an integral part of the general principles of Community law’. Indeed, it also seems that such a right extends at least in theory to secondary and transnational action.


2014 ◽  
Vol 38 (01) ◽  
pp. 76-101
Author(s):  
PETER M. SANCHEZ

AbstractThis paper examines the actions of one Salvadorean priest – Padre David Rodríguez – in one parish – Tecoluca – to underscore the importance of religious leadership in the rise of El Salvador's contentious political movement that began in the early 1970s, when the guerrilla organisations were only just beginning to develop. Catholic leaders became engaged in promoting contentious politics, however, only after the Church had experienced an ideological conversion, commonly referred to as liberation theology. A focus on one priest, in one parish, allows for generalisation, since scores of priests, nuns and lay workers in El Salvador followed the same injustice frame and tactics that generated extensive political mobilisation throughout the country. While structural conditions, collective action and resource mobilisation are undoubtedly necessary, the case of religious leaders in El Salvador suggests that ideas and leadership are of vital importance for the rise of contentious politics at a particular historical moment.


2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 245-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ezekiel W. Kimball ◽  
Adam Moore ◽  
Annemarie Vaccaro ◽  
Peter F. Troiano ◽  
Barbara M. Newman

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