Johann Philipp Becker, [International Trade Union Organization]This passage is an excerpt from the summary of resolutions adopted at the ‘centralist’ IWMA Geneva Congress (1873–“Autonomist”)Geneva Congress (1873). They were published on 24 September, in the biweekly of Leipzig Der Volksstaat, with the title Vom Der Kongress der Internationalen Arbeiterassoziation. Its author, Johann Philipp Becker, Johann PhilippBecker [1809–86], was editor of Der Vorbote and a key leader of the IWMA of which he was a tireless organizer in Switzerland and Germany. Delegate to the London Conference of 1865 and to all IWMA Congresses, he was also the promoter of the ‘centralist’ IWMA Geneva Congress (1873). The full version is in PI, IV: 222–4.

This article analyses the origins, development and organisation of cross-union, company-based trade union networks in transnational corporations in the metal and chemical industries in Brazil. Collectively developed by local, national, foreign and international trade union organisations, this kind of union action was introduced in the country in the early 2000s as a way to connect local labour representatives organising workers in different locations within the same company. Networks strengthen local labour power and stimulate transnational connections. Promoting solidarity among workers across multiple factories, they offer the perspective for a global unionism connected to shop-floor organisation. Despite these achievements, networks face important challenges. Power imbalances, the reliance on restrictive social dialogue arrangements and the compromise with traditional structures limit the reach of the strategy. KEY WORDS: globalisation; trade unions; new labour transnationalism; trade union networks; Brazil

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Globalisation and the dilemmas of international trade unionism

Transfer European Review of Labour and Research ◽

10.1177/102425890000600105 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 29-42 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Rebecca Gumbrell-McCormick

Keyword(s):

International Trade ◽

Multinational Corporations ◽

Trade Union ◽

Trade Unions ◽

Global Economy ◽

Trade Union Movement ◽

Labour Movement ◽

Trade Unionism ◽

Union Movement ◽

Economic Developments

This article presents the author's reflections on the possibilities of a restructuring of the international trade union movement, on the basis of a collective research project to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) which seeks to open a debate within the movement over the lessons to be learned from its history as a guide for its future action. The most important question facing the trade union movement today is what is generally called 'globalisation', a phenomenon that goes back many years, both in terms of economic developments and labour struggles. From this perspective, the paper examines the basis for the existing divisions of the international labour movement, before going over the work of the ICFTU and of the International Trade Secretariats (ITSs) to achieve the regulation of the multinational corporations and of the international economy, and concluding on the prospects for unity of action in the unions' work around the global economy.

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