Globalisation and Labour: The New 'Great Transformation' - Softcover

'This book will be a basic reference work for the next decade. For labour organizers and educators, students and academics, it is going to be at the centre of debate on international labour and labour internationalism!' Peter Waterman, author of Globalization, Social Movements and the New Internationalisms 'Trade unions now have an existential question to answer: What is their role in the 21st century where national solutions no longer have meaning but an effective labour response to globalization still awaits theory, let alone practice? Ronaldo Munck's important new book is the best discussion yet of this major issue. There is only one important question in politics - how to make the world fair, democratic and peaceful. This book is a major contribution to answering that question and should be read by all who believe that working people should have some say over how the 21st century is shaped.' Denis MacShane, MP 'A truly global perspective on 'globalisation', combining sensitive critical discussion of competing theories with a wealth of information on trends in work and labour struggle around the world.' Richard Hyman, London School of Economics 'This is an important book. Ronaldo Munck has one core theme - the centrality of labour to the project of economic globalisation. Here under sharp focus are the key issues being faced by a global labour movement looking hard at its future.' Stuart Howard, Assistant General Secretary, International Transport Workers Federation

Intellectual fashion currently focuses on us as consumers, but the world of production and services still needs us as workers. While globalisation has, in part, been driven over the past two decades by the transnational corporations` search for cheap labour in new regions of the South, scholarly research and the mass media have paid remarkably little attention to the consequent changes that are happening in the world of work. This book is the first to deal comprehensively and analytically with labour`s response to globalisation. It provides a critical overview of the main challenges facing workers and trade unions worldwide. Its author argues that what may be described as the national period in labour history is decisively over. Now the labour movement is itself acting increasingly in a transnational manner. This holds out the hope of its playing a major role in the social regulation of a global economic system which is largely out of control. The author explains how globalisation is foisting flexibilisation and feminisation on working people, but in the process also making them conscious of their transnational links. The `old` internationalism of the trade union movement is now showing signs of developing into a `new` internationalism where workers develop a sense of common interest and new ways of organizing that transcend national boundaries. Drawing his evidence from what is happening to workers and trade unions in a wide range of countries in both the industrialized North and the developing South, Professor Ronaldo Munck suggests that we may be on the brink of a new version of what Karl Polanyi, many years ago, strikingly called `the great transformation`. The implications for workers, trade unions and their transnational corporate employers could be profound.