Page 299 - The ISA Handbook in Contemporary Sociology

9781412934633-Chap-18 1/10/09 8:52 AM Page 270

270 THE ISA HANDBOOK IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIOLOGY

market necessity and in so doing has asserted that derives from the notion of the ironclad
that the foundational values of trade union- nature of markets is transformed into anger at
ism are now market values: individualism, the injustice and inequity of market restruc-
competition, efficiency, profit, shareholder turing. Shifting the discourse from efficiency
enrichment. This model’s social vision is of a and competitiveness to exploitation and jus-
society of individual opportunity and upward tice re-ignites the need for solidarity, the
mobility. This is a politics that stimulates vision of a desirable future and the optimism
individual aspirations, assuaging the desire of social agency.
to climb the social ladder. Such a value shift Business unionism and its embrace of
is radical, corroding the essential driving market ideology represent but one union ori-
power of unionism – the culture of solidarity. entation. Here we identify a historically
Touraine (1987: 112) has highlighted the grounded alternative – social movement
implications of this value shift. He noted: unionism (SMU) – that is driven by a differ-
ent set of core values. A justice discourse
Beliefs and convictions have been lost, with the
result that militant workers lack certainty and inspired the fight against racial oppression in
sometimes even feel that they no longer know South Africa and military dictatorship and
what their action means... it is impossible not to extreme inequality in Brazil, giving rise to
notice how much weaker ideas of a desirable SMU as a key facet of the resistance. In both
future have become.
nations the strategic orientation was articu-
A worker explained, ‘We are at the end of our lated by the union leadership: these were not
tether because there is no prospect of a more struggles for limited, sectional gains in
just, amicable society’ (Touraine, 1987: 115). wages and conditions, important though
Others observed that ‘the trade union move- these might be. This was a much wider resist-
ment is less and less ethically identified ... trade ance for human emancipation, recognition
unionism must rediscover these values in and dignity. To secure such a vision, the
order to give meaning to its activities’ injustice of these regimes had to be fought
(Touraine, 1987: 118). against. The social movement pathway gen-
In the context of this decline, Harvey erated by this strategic value choice provides
(2000: 49) asks, ‘... in a time when the class a model for unions consumed by restructur-
struggle has receded ..., is this not also a time ing. If a counter-movement is to emerge, a
when the painting of fantastic pictures of a global social movement for emancipation,
future society has some role to play?’ Such a equality, meaning, security and against the
shift in discourse lies at the heart of the insecurity, inequity and restructuring’s
union’s predicament. The question of what destruction of meaning will need to be imag-
kind of society unions are fighting for cap- ined and constructed through the power of
tures the fact that imaginative strategy movement. The first signs of such a move-
embraces both the vision (what is being ment are evident in the rise of the World
fought for) and the present predicament Social Forum process and the global social
(what is being fought against). Both dimen- justice movement.
sions are shaped by ethics, by ‘foundational Unions face a critical strategic choice, cap-
beliefs’ that could make ‘political action tured in Figure 18.3.
meaningful, creative, and possible’ (Harvey, Let us illustrate the choices facing labor
1996: 2). Justice (the justness of social rela- through an analysis of the emergence of social
tions) is the core, foundational value that movement unionism in South Africa and in
inspires a social movement alternative to Brazil during the 1970s and 1980s. Our con-
business unionism. Market necessity is tribution is part of the renaissance of scholarly
undermined through highlighting how interest in SMU in recent years led by Peter
market-driven politics functions as a mecha- Waterman. His ‘SMU adventures’ situates the
nism of injustice. Pessimism and inaction question of alternatives in ‘the new global