Radical Unions in Europe and the Future of Collective Interest Representation, edited by Heather Connolly, Lefteris Kretsos and Craig Phelan. Peter Lang, Oxford, 2014, 267 pp., ISBN: 978 3 0343 0803 9, £45.00, hardback.
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/bjir.12107 |
| Published date | 01 December 2014 |
| Date | 01 December 2014 |
| Author | John Kelly |
ex-mobster mayor, with an outcome that allows McAlevey to declare victory in what
she calls a ‘labor war’ (chapter 12). Important as this victory is for the workers
involved, it is short-lived for the Local, which becomes embroiled in a turf war with
the California Nurses Association. It is, however, mainly internal strategic differences
and power struggles within the SEIU that result ultimately in the union organization
that McAlevey has been instrumental in building falling apart (chapter 13). McAlevey
ends by criticizing the current SEIU as a professionalized foundation that runs
advocacy campaigns to alleviate poverty by improving wages that appeal to the liberal
conscience. In the afterword, she argues for a worker-led social movement union that
focuses on issues of control and power.
This book is a passionate, moving, humorous and accessible story that argues
convincingly for rebuilding the US labour movement by recreating unions along the
lines of the CIO but for the new service economy. McAlevey’s outlook complements
North American union leaders and academics, such as Sam Gindin and Leo Panitch,
who argue that progressive movements must address how capitalism stunts workers’
desires as well as their capabilities. McAlevey demonstrates how everyday workplace
and community struggles raise expectations of what workers can and want to
achieve collectively. Moreover, these struggles generate profound personal, commu-
nity and organizational development, and rekindle the sense that unions are not only
collective organizations, but that in forming a social movement they also alter the
very meaning of union revitalization. The book is, thus, a welcome antidote to
desperate and ill-informed attempts by unions to import the US model of ‘organiz-
ing’ and ‘community unionism’ and to academics that champion them. Such strat-
egies are based on the premise of union weakness in the workplace and moderation
in politics. It would have been interesting to read about how the workers and union
organizers viewed politicians and politics and the feasibility of realigning union
political allegiances, which from her account seem to be almost hopelessly frag-
mented. Her story and outlook engender hope rather than despair for successful
union revitalization.
ANDREW MATHERS
University of the West of England
Radical Unions in Europe and the Future of Collective Interest Representation, edited
by Heather Connolly, Lefteris Kretsos and Craig Phelan. Peter Lang, Oxford,
2014, 267 pp., ISBN: 978 3 0343 0803 9, £45.00, hardback.
Are trade unions in Europe becoming more radical in the current economic crisis?
Optimistic answers to this question are usually couched in terms of strategic options
and possibilities rather than empirical achievements. Radical Unions in Europe and the
Future of Collective Interest Representation presents evidence about union movements
in a variety of countries which suggests that progress towards radical unionism is both
limited and contradictory.
In their theoretical chapter, Upchurch, Mathers and Taylor take the optimistic
position. They use the term ‘radical political unionism’ and define it as an organiza-
tion with three attributes: it is democratic, belongs to a broader social and political
movement, and is politicized, that is its leaders and members display a consciousness
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Book Review 825
© 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd/London School of Economics.
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