A “Thompsonian” pattern of labour unrest? Social movements and rebellions in the Global South

Ruy Gomes Braga

doi:10.5007/1984-9222.2020.e71404

Abstract

Neste artigo, argumentaremos que o chamado padrão fordista de agitação trabalhista foi uma exceção histórica e geográfica e que o foco nesse modelo dificultou a identificação de padrões alternativos de mobilização dos trabalhadores, sobretudo no chamado Sul global. Consideramos que a problematização elaborada por Beverly Silver a respeito dos padrões de agitação trabalhista dominantes no século XX superou o viés eurocêntrico da análise dos conflitos trabalhistas, redefinindo o campo de estudos do trabalho global. No entanto, diante da retomada das formas de mobilização coletiva dos trabalhadores em escala global após o advento da crise da globalização capitalista inaugurada em 2008, entendemos fazer-se necessário repensar os modelos (“marxiano” e “polanyiano”) de agitação trabalhistas sugeridospor Silver. Em suma, ao destacarmos a resistência contemporânea à mercantilização, em especial por parte do “precariado global”, devemos esperar encontrar a luta de classes, mas não em sua roupagem industrial ou fordista. Para tanto, uma recuperação da obra do historiador inglês Edward Palmer Thompson parece-nos útil para pensarmos o atual padrão de agitação trabalhista em escala mundial.

Highlights

Marx understood capital as an alienated social force formed by abstract labour whose constant impulse of self-valorization does not stop at national borders
In view of the resumption of forms of collective mobilization of workers on a global scale after the advent of the crisis of capitalist globalization inaugurated in 2008, we believe it is necessary to rethink the models (“Marxian” and “Polanyian”) of labor unrest suggested by Silver
If we look at the 1950s, for example, both in Europe and in the United States, we may see the flowering of a theory of industrial relations focused on the action of Fordist unionism and shaped by the experience of collective bargaining

Summary

Introduction

Marx understood capital as an alienated social force formed by abstract labour whose constant impulse of self-valorization does not stop at national borders. I will argue that the so-called Fordist pattern of labour unrest, guided by collective bargaining between workers, companies and governments, and focused on collective action by unions, was a historical and geographical exception and that the focus on this model made it difficult to identify alternative patterns of worker mobilization, especially in the so-called global South This scenario changed substantially in the 1980s and 1990s, with the internationalization of the crisis of Fordism and the emergence of so-called global labour studies, with Beverly Silver’s book collaborating in a remarkable way for the evolution of the field through the identification of dissonant patterns of labour unrest throughout the twentieth century, especially after the Second World War.[6]. From a perspective informed by the changes in the investigative agenda of the field of global labour studies, as well as by my own research experience in countries like South Africa, Brazil and Portugal, I aim to update the field through an alternative hypothesis to the problematization elaborated by Silver on the dominant labour unrest patterns of the 20th century

The limits of the Fordist labour agitation pattern

The emergence of a “Thompsonian” pattern of labour unrest?