Labour conflicts in the Global South: an introduction

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article provides an introduction to the special issue on labour conflicts in the Global South. We will first conceptualize the internal relations between structure and agency on the basis of a historical materialist approach in order to assess the strategies of workers within a rapidly changing global capitalism. Second, in order to avoid economic reductionism we will conceptualize the internal relations between class, gender and race to account for the gender-specific manifestations of class as well as how racialization continues to underpin today’s global political economy and is fragmenting the working class and, thereby, undermines its potential for resistance. Finally, we will discuss where appropriate how dualist, binary constructions from Northern Industrial Relations, which are frequently applied in the analysis of labour struggles in the Global South, can be overcome.