Producers Of The World Unite! A Return Of Reformist Unionism?

Abstract

Some ideas of Reformist "uplift unionism," as exemplified by the nineteenth-century Knights of Labor, have once again become in teresting. Arising in a time of hyper-competition and troubled times for traditional trade unions, the Knights aimed to reform society, primarily through solidarity among producers and the for mation of cooperatives. Their local organizations often included social action groups along with trade unions. Under current con ditions of international hyper-competition and trade union de cline, some of the ideas of the old Knights have new importance. The current concept of unionism as a social movement can be grounded in Reformist notions, as can modern worker-rights orga nizations and the reasoning underlying the workers' capital move ment. Reformism offers a coherent approach to these labor move ment strategies.