Between Adaptation and Resistance: Labor Responses to Globalization in France By Marcos Ancelovici B.Sc. Political Science University of Montreal, 1993 M.Sc. Political Science University of Montreal, 1995 SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE IN PARTIAL FULFIMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN POLITICAL SCIENCE AT THE MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY FEBRUARY 2008 © 2008 Marcos Ancelovici. All rights reserved. The author hereby grants to MIT permission to reproduce and to distribute publicly paper and electronic copies of this thesis document in whole or in part in any medium now known or hereafter created. Signature of Author:________________________________________________________ Department of Political Science October 3, 2007 Certified by:_______________________________________________________________ Suzanne Berger Raphael Dorman and Helen Starbuck Professor of Political Science Thesis Supervisor Accepted by:______________________________________________________________ Edward Steinfeld Associate Professor of Political Science Chairman, Graduate Program Committee Between Adaptation and Resistance: Labor Responses to Globalization in France By Marcos Ancelovici Submitted to the Department of Political Science on October 3, 2007, in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science ABSTRACT This dissertation aims at accounting for labor responses to globalization in France. It addresses this issue through a comparative study of two labor organizations—the French Democratic Labor Confederation (CFDT) and the General Confederation of Labor (CGT)—that today respond differently to globalization even though they held common positions in the past: while the CGT opposes globalization, the CFDT sees it as an opportunity for French workers. I call the former response the resistance strategy and the latter the adaptation strategy. This dissertation claims that responses to globalization are formed and transformed over time as the environment of organizations changes and intraorganizational struggles unfold. More specifically, it argues that in France the formation of labor responses to globalization stemmed from a path dependent process constituted by three different steps. First, organizational failure, illustrated by union decline, implied a critical juncture that fed intraorganizational struggles and opened the way for a reorientation of labor organizations. Second, once the crisis was acknowledged, whether organizations would take the path to adaptation or resistance depended on three factors: (1) resources inherited from the past that limit the range of options that actors can conceive and choose; (2) the presence and content of two mechanisms of change—bricolage and identity shift—that describe how actors used their inherited resources; and (3) the ability of leaders to articulate a narrative that would appeal to enough people inside their organizations so as to induce cooperation. The third and last step of this path dependent process refers to the stabilization of the new path that the CFDT and the CGT had taken. The central mechanism that stabilized these paths was a shift in the organizational opportunity structure. Although labor organizations were not completely locked in the new path, once the organizational opportunity structure had shifted it was very difficult to return to the previous path or engage in a substantially different one. Therefore, unless another critical juncture takes place, the CFDT and the CGT are likely to stick with their current responses to globalization for many years. Thesis Supervisor: Suzanne Berger Title: Raphael Dorman and Helen Starbuck Professor of Political Science 2 CONTENTS List of Figures and Tables 4 List of Acronyms 6 Acknowledgements 8 PART I: THE ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK 1. Varieties of Labor Responses to Globalization 10 2. An Organizational Approach 36 PART II: THE CHALLENGES 3. The Structural Challenge: The Crisis of Class Politics 63 4. The Competitive Challenge: The Rise of the Antiglobalization Movement 89 PART III: THE PATHWAYS 5. The Path to Adaptation: The Case of the CFDT 129 6. The Path to Resistance: The Case of the CGT 195 PART IV: CONCLUSION 7. Organizational Pathways and the Politics of Globalization 260 Bibliography 267 3 LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figures 1.1: The Growth of Parallel Summits in the World 11 1.2: International Trade and Job Security 17 1.3: International Trade and Job Creation 17 1.4: The Transformation of Labor Responses to Globalization 23 1.5: The Top Decile Income Share in France, 1900-1998 27 2.1: Repertoires and Innovation Capacity 52 2.2: Linkages and Flexibility 54 2.3: The Paths to Adaptation and Resistance 59 3.1: The Electoral Performance of the PCF and the FN in Presidential Elections 70 3.2: Net Union Density Rates in OECD Countries 71 3.3: Articles Referring to “Socialism” in Le Monde 73 3.4: Strikes, 1975-2005 74 3.5: Correlation Between Unemployment and Union Density in France 77 3.6: Correlation Between Unemployment and Union Density in Six OECD Countries 77 4.1: ATTAC in Leading Leftwing Newspapers 105 4.2: ATTAC’s Organizational Lineages 106 4.3: The Symbolic Redefinition of the Opposition to Globalization 123 4 4.4: The Rise of the Tobin Tax in Leading Leftwing Newspapers 125 5.1: Total Membership of the CFDT, 1965-1995 154 5.2: Share of Unionized Workers by Sector 156 5.3: The Identity Shift of the CFDT 170 5.4: The Boomerang Strategy 175 6.1: Total Membership of the CGT, 1960-1995 218 6.2: Total Membership of the CGT, 1945-2005 (1,000) 218 6.3: CGT Membership by Workers’ Federation, 1974-1993 220 6.4: Work Councils Elections, 1966-2001 222 6.5: Electoral Performance of the PCF in Legislative Elections, 1945-2007 223 6.6: The Identity Shift of the CGT 237 Tables 1.1: The French Economy in Comparative Perspective (2003) 15 1.2: French Public Opinion in Comparative Perspective (2003) 18 1.3: Varieties of Labor Responses to Globalization 22 4.1: Public Perception of Globalization in France (1998-2005) 121 4.2: Results of Administrative Board Elections 127 5.1: Total Membership of the CFDT, 1965-1995 153 6.1: Total Membership of the CGT, 1960-1995 217 5 LIST OF ACRONYMS AC! Acting Together Against Unemployment AFL-CIO American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations ATTAC Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions for the Aid of Citizens CFDT French Democratic Labor Confederation CFTC French Confederation of Christian Workers CGC General Confederation of Managers CGT General Confederation of Labor CP Peasant Confederation DAL Right to Housing DD!! Right Ahead EEC European Economic Community ESF European Social Forum ETUC European Trade Union Confederation EU European Union FDI Foreign Direct Investment FO Workers’ Force GAPS Action Group for Unionization G8 Group of Eight ILO International Labor Organization 6 IMF International Monetary Fund LCR Communist Revolutionary League MAI Multilateral Agreement on Investment MDC Citizens’ Movement MEDEF Movement of French Enterprises MNC Multinational Corporation NAFTA North American Free Trade Agreement NGO Non Governmental Organization NIEO New International Economic Order OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development PCF French Communist Party PS Socialist Party PSU Unified Socialist Party RPR Rally for the Republic SNCF National Society of Rail SMO Social Movement Organization SUD Solidarity, Unity, Democracy UN United Nations WFTU World Federation of Trade Unions WSF World Social Forum WTO World Trade Organization 7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Writing this dissertation has taken me more time than I care to admit. Many people and institutions generously helped me along the way. First, I wish to thank my dissertation committee. Suzanne Berger went far beyond the call of duty as my thesis supervisor. She cultivates a rare balance of rigor and open-mindedness, professionalism and empathy. Throughout my graduate studies, she supported me in every possible way and consistently challenged me, pushing me to question and reformulate what I took for granted. Several years ago, as we were walking together across the MIT campus to attend a conference, I asked her whether she had ever considered another career than teaching. She answered without hesitating that she never could have done anything else. As her students witness everyday, teaching and research are her vocation. I hope in the future to convey to my students the same passion. As late additions to my committee, Michael Piore and Jane Jenson quickly became instrumental in helping me move forward with the dissertation. Swirling conversions and email exchanges with Mike provided food for thoughts for weeks while his contacts helped me when I returned to Montreal. In 2005, Jane welcomed me at the Canada Research Chair in Citizenship and Governance, at the Université de Montréal, and provided not only office space but also, and more importantly, a warm and stimulating environment to test some ideas and write up my dissertation. Her support and willingness to discus yet another draft were unflinching. I also thank her, as well as her colleague Laurence McFalls, for helping me prepare my job talk at McGill University in the fall 2006. I also wish to thank two other persons who played an important role at the beginning of this project. Joshua Cohen read several drafts of my dissertation proposal and provided stimulating feedback, helping me to clarify my argument. I have strong memories of our meetings and of his astonishing