Do you want to stay informed about this journal? Click the buttons to subscribe to our alerts.
Mobilising, Politicising and Serving: The Ambivalence of the ‘Revitalisation’ of Argentine Trade Unionism
In: Journal of Labor and SocietyAbstract
Since the beginning of the 2000s, a significant literature has developed around the study of the “revitalisation” of trade unionism. These contributions often take up typologies that oppose the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ and thus tend to harden the contours of what would constitute a ‘trade union renewal’. From this perspective, this article re-examines the nature and limits of this process, in the light of the Argentine case. It is based on a field survey of two comisiones internas that are emblematic of the ‘bottom-up revitalisation’ of Argentinean trade unionism since the 2000s. The localized and in-depth study of these two collectives makes it possible to document the concrete conditions of trade union work, by relating them to the socialization trajectories of the delegates and the social contexts in which they evolve. In this way, the article shows the constraints that lead delegates to internalise a ‘sense of limits’ in their work of politicising trade union action, thus highlighting the articulations between militant practices and service practices that characterise their modes of action.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
-
Abal Medina, P. and N.D. Menéndez, eds., Colectivos Resistentes: Procesos de Politización de Trabajadores En La Argentina Reciente (Buenos Aires: Imago Mundi, 2011).
-
Ariovich, L., Organizing the Organized: Trade Union Renewal, Organizational Change, and Worker Activism in Metropolitan America (New York, NY: Peter Lang, 2010).
-
Atzeni, M. and P. Ghigliani, “The Resilience of Traditional Trade Union in the Revitalisation of Argentine Labour.” in Trade Union Revitalisation: Trends and Prospects in 34 Nations, ed. C. Phelan (Düsseldorf: Peter Lang, 2007), 105–119.
-
Atzeni, M. and P. Ghigliani, “The Re-Emergence of Workplace-Based Organization as the New Expression of Conflict in Argentina.” In New Forms and Expressions of Conflict at Work, ed. G. Gall (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), 66–85.
-
Atzeni, M., “Capitalism, Workers Organising and the Shifting Meanings of Workplace Democracy.” Labor History 57 (3) (2016), 374–89.
-
Atzeni, M., and J. Grigera, “The Revival of Labour Movement Studies in Argentina: Old and Lost Agendas.” Work, Employment and Society 33 (5) (2019), 865–876.
-
Benin, L.D., The New Labor Radicalism and New York City’s Garment Industry: Progressive Labor Insurgents During the 1960s (New York, NY: Garland Publishing, 2000).
-
Bourdieu, P., ‘Delegation and Political Fetichism.” Thesis Eleven 10–11(1984), 56–70.
-
Connolly H., L. Kretsos and C. Phelan, eds, Radical Unions in Europe and the Future of Collective Interest Representation (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2014).
-
Denis, J.-M. “The Case of sud-Rail: The Limits of “Radical Political Unionism”.” European Journal of Industrial Relations 18 (3) (2012), 267–272.
-
Eliasoph, N., Avoiding Politics: How Americans Produce Apathy in Everyday Life, Cambridge Cultural Social Studies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).
-
Etchemendy, S. and R.B. Collier, “Down but Not Out: Union Resurgence and Segmented Neocorporatism in Argentina (2003–2007).” Politics & Society 3 (35) (2007), 363–401.
-
Fairbrother, P. and E. Webster, “Social Movement Unionism: Questions and Possibilities.” Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal 20 (4) (2008), 309–313.
-
Frege, C. and J. Kelly, eds, Varieties of Unionism: Strategies for Union Revitalization in a Globalizing Economy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).
-
Ghigliani, P., J. Grigera and A. Schneider, “Sindicalismo Empresarial: Problemas, Conceptualización y Economía Política Del Sindicato.” Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios Del Trabajo 17 (27) (2012), 141–164.
-
Heery, E., M. Simms, D. Simpson, R. Delbridge and J. Salmon, “Organizing Unionism Comes to the UK.” Employee Relations 22 (1) (2000), 38–57.
-
James, D., Resistance and Integration: Peronism and the Argentine Working Class, 1946–1976 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988).
-
Julliard, E., Réformer les syndicats. Une sociologie politique du syndicalisme états-unien des mouvements sociaux des années 1960 aux années 2010, PhD Dissertation (Paris: EHESS, 2018).
-
La Nacion. “Kraft, un caso testigo”, La Nación (11 October 2009).
-
Lazcano A. and B. Pedrozo, “Los Bachilleratos Populares y El Kirchnerismo: Acerca de Los Sentidos Contradictorios Del Estado.” In Los Movimientos Sociales de La Década Ganada, ed. A. Massetti and M. Gómez (Córdoba: Eduvim, 2017), 49–63.
-
Le Queux, S. and I. Sainsaulieu, “Social Movement and Unionism in France: A Case for Revitalization?.” Labor Studies Journal 35, (4) (2010), 503–519.
-
Lenguita, P., “Revitalización Desde Las Bases Del Sindicalismo Argentino.” Nueva Sociedad 232(2011), 137–149.
-
Levitsky, S. and K.M. Roberts, eds, The Resurgence of the Latin American Left (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011).
-
Martínez Lucio, M., S. Marino and H. Connolly, “Organising as a Strategy to Reach Precarious and Marginalized Workers. A Review of Debates on the Role of the Political Dimension and the Dilemmas of Representation and Solidarity.” Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research 23 (1) (2017), 31–46.
-
McBride, J. and I. Greenwood, Community Unionism: A Comparative Analysis of Concepts and Contexts (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).
-
Milkman, R. and K. Voss, eds, Rebuilding Labor: Organizing and Organizers in the New Union Movement, (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2005).
-
Montes Cató, J., P. Ventrici and R. Bresnahan, “Labor Union Renewal in Argentina: Democratic Revitalization from the Base.” Latin American Perspectives 38 (6) (2011), 38–51.
-
Mohandesi, S., ““Becoming one with the people”: the American workbench yesterday and today.” Les Temps Modernes 684–685 (3–4) (2015), 120–146.
-
Murray, G. “Union Renewal: What Can We Learn from Three Decades of Research?.” Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research 23 (1) (2017), 9–29.
-
Nizzoli, C. C’est du propre! Syndicalisme et travailleurs du « bas de l’échelle » (Marseille et Bologne) (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2015).
-
Pagis, J., K. Yon and L. Fleury, “Au Service de La Classe Ouvrière: Quand Les Militants s’établissent En Usine.” In Changer Le Monde, Changer Sa Vie. Enquête Sur Les Militantes et Les Militants Des Années 1968 En France, eds. O. Fillieule, I. Sommier, S. Beroud and C. Masclet (Arles: Actes Sud, 2018), 453–484.
-
Phelan, C., ed, Trade Union Revitalization: Trends and Prospects in 34 Countries (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2007).
-
Ruggeri, A., “Worker Self-Management in Argentina: Problems and Potentials of Self-Managed Labor in the Context of the Neoliberal Post-Crisis.” In Cooperatives and Socialism, ed. C. Piñeiro Harnecker (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), 235–258.
-
Svampa, M., “Las Dimensiones de Las Nuevas Movilizaciones Sociales: Las Asambleas Barriales.” El Ojo Mocho 17(2003), 57–64.
-
Svampa, M. and S. Pereyra, Entre La Ruta y El Barrio: La Experiencia de Las Organizaciones Piqueteras, Sociedad (Buenos Aires: Biblos, 2009).
-
Thomas, A., “Universitaires engagés et nouveaux cadres syndicaux aux États-Unis : une alliance pour faire face au déclin des syndicats?.” Genèses 3 (84) (2011), 127–142.
-
Thomas, A., “The Transnational Circulation of the “Organizing Model” and Its Reception in Germany and France.” European Journal of Industrial Relations 22 (4) (2016), 317–333.
-
Upchurch, M. and A. Mathers, “Neoliberal Globalization and Trade Unionism: Toward Radical Political Unionism?.” Critical Sociology 38 (2) (2012), 265–280.
-
Upchurch, M., G. Taylor and A. Mathers, The Crisis of Social Democratic Trade Unionism in Western Europe: The Search for Alternatives, Contemporary Employment Relations (Farnham: Routledge, 2009).
-
Varela, P. and D. Lotito, “La lucha de Kraft-Terrabusi. Comisiones Internas, izquierda clasista y “vacancia” de representación sindical.” Conflicto Social 2 (2) (2009), 256–291.
-
Varela, P., La disputa por la dignidad obrera: sindicalismo de base fabril en la zona norte del conurbano bonaerense 2003–2014 (Buenos Aires: Imago Mundi, 2015).
-
Varela, P., ed, El Gigante Fragmentado: Sindicatos, Trabajadores y Política Durante El Kirchnerismo (Buenos Aires: Final Abierto, 2016).
-
Ventrici, P., “La Resignificación de Una Marca Histórica: El Panorama Actual de La Representación Sindical En El Lugar de Trabajo.” Estudios Del Trabajo 7 (43–44) (2012), 25–48.
-
Voss, K., “Democratic dilemmas: trade union democracy and renewal.” Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, 16(3), 369–382.
-
Voss, K. and R. Sherman, “Breaking the Iron Law of Oligarchy: Union Revitalization in the American Labor Movement.” American Journal of Sociology 106 (2) (2000), 303–349.
-
Yon, K., “Quand le syndicalisme s’éprouve hors du lieu de travail.” Politix 1 (85) (2009), 57–79.
-
Yon, K. “A Long Awaited Homecoming: the Labour Movement in Social Movement Studies.” In Social Movement Studies in Europe: the State of the Art, eds. O. Fillieule and G. Accornero (New York, NY: Berghahn Books, 2016), 54–68.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 95 | 95 | 21 |
| Full Text Views | 4 | 4 | 3 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 4 | 4 | 0 |
Mobilising, Politicising and Serving: The Ambivalence of the ‘Revitalisation’ of Argentine Trade Unionism
In: Journal of Labor and SocietyAbstract
Since the beginning of the 2000s, a significant literature has developed around the study of the “revitalisation” of trade unionism. These contributions often take up typologies that oppose the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ and thus tend to harden the contours of what would constitute a ‘trade union renewal’. From this perspective, this article re-examines the nature and limits of this process, in the light of the Argentine case. It is based on a field survey of two comisiones internas that are emblematic of the ‘bottom-up revitalisation’ of Argentinean trade unionism since the 2000s. The localized and in-depth study of these two collectives makes it possible to document the concrete conditions of trade union work, by relating them to the socialization trajectories of the delegates and the social contexts in which they evolve. In this way, the article shows the constraints that lead delegates to internalise a ‘sense of limits’ in their work of politicising trade union action, thus highlighting the articulations between militant practices and service practices that characterise their modes of action.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 95 | 95 | 21 |
| Full Text Views | 4 | 4 | 3 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 4 | 4 | 0 |