Ronaldo Munck and Peter Waterman, eds., Labour Worldwide in the Era of Globalization: Alternative Union Models in the New World Order. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999. vii + 269 pp. $79.95 cloth.

Abstract

In the wake of the Russian Revolution, labor radicals believed that they had discovered the ideal organizational form: internationally affiliated parties of professional revolutionaries to coordinate the activities of national trade unions and mass political parties toward revolutionary ends. Communist “vanguard” parties proved capable of mobilizing masses but also of imposing dictatorial control over entire labor movements and for decades defended Joseph Stalin's hecatombs. Many of today's labor militants have ransacked the contemporary political scene for alternative methods of bringing unions into mass politics. The provocative and important collection edited by Ronaldo Munck and Peter Waterman argues that labor radicals should emulate social movements such as the peace, environmental, and feminist movements.