Labour in the Global South

By Sarah Mosoetsa, Michelle Williams on January 01, 2012

From the book's preface: The current volume discusses the very different experiences of trade unions with governments they had mobilized to vote for. It shows that winning elections is not enough, and that real Labour in the global South change also requires a movement that has the strength and public authority to keep those elected accountable to their voters as well as to help them to withstand the lobbying pressure of the countervailing forces. This, as some of the authors highlight, will not be possible without trade unions that reach out and mobilize beyond their traditional strongholds. Facing a crisis that is not only economic and social but also ecological rules out the possibility of another century of global economic growth during which the South is supposed to catch up to the North by growing even faster than the North does. Labour needs new strategies to mobilize and organize and to build new alliances, but it also needs development concepts that question capitalism’s insatiable appetite for growth, without denying the necessity of income growth for the billions of people living in abject poverty.
By selecting diverging and potentially controversial views on these issues, this book contributes the much-needed southern perspective to this essential debate, as well as to the global discourse.

View list of all: Books & Book Chapters