9/24/13

During the first round of political incorporation, unions and the working class accepted political incorporation in major part because they did not have the autonomous power to defeat capital.  That is to say, despite the growth of their organizations they still fought an uphill battle against managers and employers at the workplace.  Political incorporation offered workers the chance to gain political power to supplement their organizational power.  (In many cases political power was or became the vast majority of unions' power, either replacing their preexisting economic power or making up for the fact that they never had any in the first place!)

Now, workers again find themselves weakened in the face of capital,their previous political connections having abandoned them to market-oriented economic policies.  Meanwhile capital has heightened its power.  Even as labor movements have spread nationally, capital has gained the ability to divide workers internationally.  Moreover, the heightened ability for capital flight has left governments also at a disadvantage in teh face of capital.  As workers once faced before, now governments face the authoritarian hand of managers picking up shop in the face of unfavorable rules.

And yet national institutions still matter, and capital is not utterly free to jump from place to place.  Not all industries are hypermobile.

Workers again need to advance their movement politically, access the power of the state to make up for their weakness in bargaining.  (How does national political incorporation work in an international world?)  That is to say, an important well for union power still remains with the state.  In this new incorporation moment, however, unions find themselves weak,  somewhat unattractive allies.

There has to be some connection between international solidarity, national political power, and local bargaining power.  Anner (2010) effectively shows that transnational movements are not effectively institutionalized without local organizing.