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WORKERS of the WORLD, UNITE? a Study of Global Solidarity in the Textile and Garment Industries

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WORKERS of the WORLD, UNITE? a Study of Global Solidarity in the Textile and Garment Industries View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by NORA - Norwegian Open Research Archives WORKERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE? A study of global solidarity in the textile and garment industries Ann Cecilie Bergene Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of The Master’s Degree in Human Geography Department of Sociology and Human Geography University of Oslo, May 2005 Cover photograph: Michael Zargarinejad http://www.sharp-shooter.net Workers of the world, unite? A study of global solidarity in the textile and garment industries Ann Cecilie Bergene Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of The Master’s Degree in Human Geography Department of Sociology and Human Geography University of Oslo, May 2005 2 Acknowledgements First and foremost I would like to thank the ITGLWF and all my informants who have made this study possible by sharing their experiences and perspectives with me. I am especially grateful to Douglas Miller for being a gate opener and always answering my enquiries. My fieldtrips were made financially possible by Solveig and Modolv Bergene and the second trip socially bearable by Hallvard Berge. I would especially like to thank my supervisor, Sylvi B. Endresen, for excellent supervision and for believing in me and the topic chosen. Her interest in the fields of labour and Marxist theories has proved indispensable, and our discussions have provided me with both increased insight and motivation. Many others have contributed at several stages and I will particularly thank Damian Gimenez Cruz; without his transcription and translation of the interview in Spanish valuable information would have been lost. I have also greatly benefited from discussions with Hallvard Berge, and I am very grateful for his moral support and proofreading. Thanks to Jan Hesselberg for placing his ‘library’ at my disposal and taking his time to answer my questions. I would also like to thank my fellow students for their company and for providing a good working environment, and especially David Christoffer Lier, Jenny Kosberg Skagestad, Anders Underthun, Espen Unneberg and Siri Maria Midré for valuable discussions. Finally I would like to dedicate this thesis to my parents, Lillian and Guttorm Bergene. Being proletarians struggling to make ends meet despite the capriciousness of capitalism, they have been a major inspiration for writing this thesis. Most importantly, however, without their backup and support fulfilling my Master’s degree would be a lot harder if not impossible.1 1 Avslutningsvis vil jeg dedikere denne masteroppgaven til mine foreldre, Lillian og Guttorm Bergene. Siden begge er arbeidere som kjemper for å få endene til å møtes tross kapitalismens lunefullhet, har de vært en stor inspirasjonskilde for denne oppgaven. Men, viktigst av alt, uten deres oppbakking og støtte ville mastergraden vært mye vanskeligere, om ikke umulig, å gjennomføre. 3 4 Table of contents LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 7 LIST OF FIGURES 7 INTRODUCTION 11 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 12 THEORETICAL BACKDROP 12 BACKGROUND 14 GLOBAL UNION FEDERATIONS 14 THE TEXTILE AND GARMENT INDUSTRIES 15 CHINA MOPPING UP THE TEXTILE AND GARMENT INDUSTRIES? 16 AN OUTLINE OF THE CONTENTS 17 METHODOLOGY 19 CRITICAL RESEARCH 19 CRITICAL REALISM AND MARXISM 19 THE ONTOLOGY OF CRITICAL REALISM 20 MARXISM AND THE CLASS CONCEPT 21 ANALYSIS AND MODE OF INFERENCE 23 CASE STUDIES 24 METHODS FOR DATA COLLECTION AND SOURCES OF INFORMATION 24 INTERVIEWS 25 INFORMANTS 27 OTHER SOURCES OF DATA 28 VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY 28 INTERNATIONALISM 31 CONCEPTS 31 A BRIEF HISTORY OF WORKERS’ INTERNATIONALISM 32 STRATEGIES 34 PROLETARIAN INTERNATIONALISM 43 GEOGRAPHICAL SCALES 45 NATIONAL CLASS ALLIANCE – THE SONG OF THE SIRENS? 48 THE WORKING CLASS - A SLEEPING GIANT? 57 WHAT IS THE WORKING CLASS? 57 SOLIDARITY 60 BARRIERS TO SOLIDARITY AND DIVISIONS WITHIN THE WORKING CLASS 64 NATIONALITY 64 SECTORS 66 IDEOLOGY 67 5 CULTURE AND IDENTITY 69 THREE NOTIONS OF SOLIDARITY 70 SOLIDARITY AS ABSTRACT PRINCIPLE AND CONCRETE REALITY 71 GLOBALIZING CLASS POLARIZATION? 73 GLOBAL SOLIDARITY IN A POST-FORDIST ECONOMY 77 “UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL” 85 GLOBAL COMPANIES – GLOBAL UNIONS? 86 RELICS OF A BYGONE ERA? 87 INTEREST DISAGGREGATION 89 WORKERS FLEEING UNIONS? 92 ASKING THE DEVIL NOT TO BE SUCH A BAD BOY? 93 THE SEPARATION OF ECONOMICS AND POLITICS 94 THE RELATION BETWEEN BUREAUCRACY AND RANK AND FILE 100 THE IDEOLOGY OF SOCIAL PARTNERSHIP 103 THE CHINESE SPECTRE 107 INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS AND TRADE UNIONS IN CHINA 107 CHINA AND THE INTERNATIONAL LABOUR MOVEMENT 109 GLOBAL UNIONS AS A SOCIAL FORCE 113 GETTING GLOBAL UNIONS TO A PROACTIVE AND PRAGMATIC PLACE? 115 POLITICIZATION – TAKING ON THE NEOLIBERAL AGENDA 123 CONCLUSION 129 HOW DOES THE NEW REGIME OF ACCUMULATION IMPACT UPON GLOBAL TRADE UNIONISM? 129 HOW ARE THE GLOBAL UNIONS RESPONDING TO THE NEW OPPORTUNITIES AND BARRIERS? 131 RELEVANCE IN OTHER CONTEXTS 133 EPILOGUE: THE EMPIRE’S NEW CLOTHES? 135 REFERENCES 137 6 List of abbreviations • ACFTU All- China Federation of Free Trade Unions • CSR Corporate Social Responsibility • GATT General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade • GFA Global Framework Agreement • GUF Global Union Federation • ICFTU International Confederation of Free Trade Unions • ILO International Labour Organization • ITGLWF International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation • ITS International Trade Secretariat • IMF International Monetary Fund • IUF International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Union • MFA Multi-Fibre Arrangement • NGO Non-Governmental Organization • OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development • TNC Transnational Corporation • UNI Union Network International • WCL World Confederation of Labour • WFTU World Federation of Trade Unions • WTO World Trade Organization • WWI/WWII World-War I/II List of figures Figure 1: Trade union affiliations Figure 2: Galtung’s depiction of centre-periphery relations 7 8 “If [the worker] resigned himself to accept the will, the dictates of the capitalist as a permanent economical law, he would share in all the miseries of the slave, without the security of the slave.” (Marx 1865:unnumbered, ch. 12) 9 10 Introduction Now, as never before, we will need real and effective trade union co-operation and solidarity, nationally, regionally and globally, to protect workers everywhere from the worst ravages of exploitation, injustice and poverty. The General Secretary of the ITGLWF The assumptions behind this quote form the backbone of this thesis, the objective of which is to examine global solidarity and trade unionism in a deregulated global capitalism. I have chosen to explore the mechanisms of trade union cooperation in the textile and garment industries through the lens of the increased competition resulting from the phase out of the Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA). In doing so, the project aims at a reassessment of the assumption in much of the Marxist theories of imperialism about the conflicting interests between workers in developed and underdeveloped countries, perhaps most explicitly formulated by Galtung (1974). The hypothesis is not that they were wrong at the time of their writing, but that recent changes in the capitalist mode of production and reproduction call for a new assessment. According to Munck (2002) the labour movement was from its very inception internationalist in outlook, and 1848 saw an important publishing event; The Communist Manifesto written by Marx and Engels, the last sentence of which is the much quoted slogan and the title of this thesis “Workers of the world, unite!”. However, the perspective grew more nationalist during the twentieth century, and during the Cold War the international labour movement was torn into two opposing camps. However, the 1990s witnessed a strengthened resistance against the new world order on part of labour organizations, and Munck (2002) is of the opinion that labour movements might be on the way of a rebirth, now in a global perspective. A precondition is, however, that global unions are capable of transcending internal lines of conflict, lines dividing, but maybe also crossing, national and regional trade unions. Despite its long history and renewed vigour, Wills (2001) maintains that labour internationalism is undertheorized both as tradition and practice and that there is a pressing need to remedy the lacuna in the face of global capitalism. I suspect there are some ignored perspectives, and, intending to contribute to theorizing labour internationalism, I will in addition to develop new insights argue for the continued relevance of theories conceived in the 19th century. Stokke (1999) argues that collective mobilization has not acquired centre stage in human geography, not even in the radical political geography tradition. This can be attributed to a disproportionate privilege given to structures at the expense of agents, but also that when agents are taken into consideration it is often corporations and capitalists. According to Amoore (2002) the preoccupation with all things global has tended to disproportionally focus on only one agent; the transnational corporation. The transnationals have been portrayed as the primary vehicles of the globalization process, and theories have delineated their actions and reactions in pursuit of profits (for instance Dicken 2003). Workers are in many instances left out, but when they do enter the picture it is often as passive victims. Hence, I will in this thesis abstain from writing about the
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