Labor Council Research Articles

A 'Radical Project': Youth Culture, Leisure, and Politics in 1980s Sheffield.

The Leadmill, a cooperative arts centre and nightclub in Sheffield, opened in 1980. The venue sought to provide an accessible leisure space for the economically and socially marginalized, and received funding for this from Sheffield City Council. Focusing on the cultural policies of the new urban left Labour Council in Sheffield during the 1980s, this article explores the relationship between Sheffield City Council and the Leadmill. It builds on recent scholarship on the 1980s that has sought to look beyond Thatcherism as an explanation for the decade, and sheds light on the everyday experiences of living through this period. This article argues for the reinvigoration of local history, and demonstrates that an exploration of a site of community leisure unveils cooperation and engagement between groups with disparate and contradicting aims. It tells a different story of the 1980s, one that recognizes how Thatcherism allowed and in some cases enabled the creation of spaces within which its critics could thrive. It shows how a range of political dialogues were present in shaping the policies of local government, and how the longer tradition of state and market interaction was shaped by the specific social, economic, and political contexts of the decade. Above all, it challenges presentations of the 1980s that favour the hegemonic power of Thatcherism and the decade as one of the triumph of individualism.

Laying the table: the role of business in establishing competition law and policy in South Africa

ABSTRACT Organised business played a significant role in the formal policy processes developing the competition regime after apartheid up to and including the drafting of South Africa’s competition law. The social organisation of business and its participation in formal policy processes were shifting and changing rapidly. Exploring several published accounts of the drafters of South Africa’s first democratic competition law and policy framework reveals the narrative context for the politics of the regime. The process of negotiating and drafting this legislation took place both in National Economic Development and Labour Council (a formal tripartite negotiating organisation) where business was influential, and in Parliament. Big business pursued its interests in competition policy and achieved significant results during this time. The current period differs from the post-apartheid period in light of the much less prominent role of conglomerates in the South African economy, the rise of organised black business structures, and the increasing importance of Parliament as opposed to the NEDLAC.

Social dialogue among outsiders overcoming a social polarization : Focusing on the Economic, Social and Labor Council and Committee by social classes

Social dialogue among outsiders overcoming a social polarization : Focusing on the Economic, Social and Labor Council and Committee by social classes

THE RIGHT OF TRADE UNIONS TO DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION UNDER THE LRA: BALANCING THE INTERESTS OF TRADE UNIONS AND EMPLOYERS

Access to information promotes values of transparency, openness, and accountability that are important for a progressive constitutional democracy. Section 32(1) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (hereinafter “the Constitution”) provides that “everyone has the right of access to information held by the state or by another person that is required for the exercise or protection of any rights”. It is submitted that the word “everyone” in this provision, includes trade unions and employees and that the words “another person” in the provision include employers. Employees and their trade unions, therefore, have the right of access to information that the employer has, which may be required for the exercise or protection of their rights. Section 32(2) of the Constitution, further provides that “legislation may be enacted to give effect to this right”. The Promotion of Access to Information Act (2 of 2000 (PAIA)) gives effect to the right of access to information in general, however, for purposes of this discussion, the Labour Relations Act (66 of 1995 (LRA)) gives effect to the right through a number of provisions; including its sections 16 and 189. While section 16 requires the employer to disclose to a representative trade union all relevant information that will enable trade union representatives to effectively perform functions, which are listed in section 14(4); section 189 regulates the disclosure of information in the context of dismissals based on operational reasons of the employer.The above is in line with the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) Collective Bargaining Standards Recommendation 163 (1981) which provides that “measures adapted to national conditions should be taken, if necessary so that parties have access to the information required by meaningful negotiation”. Section 23(5) of the Constitution grants every trade union a right to engage in collective bargaining. This right is protected and supported through provisions mentioned above which permit trade unions to request relevant information, which is important for the effective exercise of the right. This, however, has often proved to be problematic; largely due to the fact that on the one hand, trade unions need information, while on the other hand, employers sometimes regard this as an invasion of privacy. Employers often refuse to divulge information requested by trade unions as they think that the disclosure of information will also negatively affect their bargaining power or that sensitive information may get to competitors and jeopardize their business. Business South Africa (BUSA) raised concerns regarding the right to disclosure of information in its submissions to the National Economic Development and Labour Council (NEDLAC) during the drafting of the LRA as it regarded the obligation to disclose information to trade unions as a threat and an encroachment into management prerogatives. This argument was largely based on commercial secrecy; confidentiality and that disclosure of information would impede effective decision-making.In view thereof, it is important that there be a balance between the right of trade unions to information and the employer’s duty to disclose the information. This analysis will consider the relevant provisions of the LRA that grant trade unions the right to information and employers’ duty to disclose the information, to determine the balance between the interests of trade unions and employers regarding disclosure of information. It will also look at the position in the United Kingdom (UK) in order to determine whether there are lessons to be learned for South Africa.

Understanding Regional Trades and Labour Councils: Sources for Australian Labour History

An exploration of sources available to document the history of a specific type of Australian labour organisation, the regional trades and labour council, has been informed by a quest for the early history of the Gippsland Trades and Labour Council. This paper builds on previous surveys to investigate the variety, extent and relevance of sources available to document the formation of such organisations and the context within which they determine and carry out their strategies and campaigns. The paper also considers advances in technology and the challenges and opportunities they offer for accessing, appraising and making available labour history sources, both physical and born digital.

Editorial: Corporate tax dodging is stealing from workers and must be stopped

2 | International Union Rights | 25/1 EDITORIAL Editorial: Corporate tax dodging is stealing from workers and must be stopped For decades wages have stagnated, public services have been squeezed and inequality has risen while workers struggle to understand why the riches of globalisation pass them by. This edition opens the lid on possibly the single largest scam in the globalisation riddle. And one of the central barriers to organised labour doing better for workers. It explains why nobody has noticed how capital and the richest in the world have hoarded and hidden the loot – because they shift it before they even declare it is made. Most importantly this edition provides a union perspective on these issues and outlines what is to be done. Make no mistake, tax avoidance supresses wages. Workers cannot bargain for profits that are not there profits that have been shifted to jurisdictions specifically designed to hide the cash and defend the secrecy of the owners. Recent scandals have highlighted how the global system has been established to shift profits to avoid taxes. But little attention is paid to how shifting these profits allows companies to claim they have no money to pay workers, and is often used to justify job cuts. If the tax office can’t find the money what chance do workers have? Recently, a few unions have understood the problem and fought back. Jason Ward outlines how the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) took on Chevron, one of the largest oil companies in the world, who are now required to pay 10 billion AUSD more in taxes. Nick Allen and Mary Joyce Carlson explain why a coalition of public and private sector unions lead by the SEIU pursued Mcdonalds tax practices in the Fight For 15. Perhaps none is more chilling than Dick Forlands article on the massacre of mine workers at Marikana, South Africa - killed for demanding decent wages - and the tax avoidance and secrecy of the company. In addition to supressing wages, Peters Adeyemi from the Nigerian Labour Council, demonstrates how corporate tax avoidance undermines economic and social development. It drives up inequality, starves public services and shifts taxation to those least able to pay. Jose Antonio Ocampo, explains the details of corporate tax avoidance and what policy change is needed to stop it. In each case a conspiracy of secrecy is at the heart of the scam. The indefensible can only be defended if never discussed. The beneficiaries deliberately keep information from the public. They know that each time we learn more, the foundations of the system are weakened. Ultimately tax is about power. There is barely more radical a project than taking from the wealthiest and most powerful on the planet for the benefit of workers. And without the collective power of workers organised into unions the project cannot succeed. Nadine Flood from the Australian CPSU, explains how unions have made corporate tax avoidance a popular issue and forced progressive and right-wing political parties to change tax policy. Dany Richard, Madeline Rodriguez and Sergio Hemsani argue that protecting workers from whistleblowing is a fundamental trade union right and essential for ensuring that secrecy and vested interests cannot continue to control the agenda. Recent union campaigns, like Chevron and McDonalds, show how holding corporations to account for their tax practices can build union power beyond traditional union action. They make immediate gains for workers and simultaneously raise awareness of the broken tax system and how it must be fixed. This edition is the first attempt to bring this knowledge together. A coalition of global unions has just launched an International Centre for Corporate Tax Research to help unions better understand tax avoidance and profit shifting in their industry and take action. A global conference will be held in the second half of 2018 for public and private sector unions that want to learn more, and do more. Daniel.bertossa@world-pse.org / Leo.hyde@world-psi.org Next issue of IUR Articles between 850 and 1800 words should be sent by email (mail@ictur.org) and accompanied by a photograph and short biographical note of the author. Please send by 5 June 2018 if they are to be considered...

Focus: An unprecedented challenging situation!

In the last nine months - and especially after the massive popular protests at the turn of 2017-2018 - a struggle has arisen across Iran’s industry and workforce, one which has gained fierce impetus and which shows no sign of abating any time soon. In addition to their urgent demands for unpaid wages and salaries, working people have also targeted the policies of regime which have brought about the widespread privatisation and plunder of national resources; attempts to remove requirements for occupational safety and the right to form independent union organisations; continual efforts to raid the social security fund and the retirement schemes paid for by workers; and government schemes for the deregulation of labour markets and labour relations. The growth and spread of the workers’ protest movement has been one of the important features of the country's political scene in recent months. The implementation of anti-popular policies such as privatisation and economic liberalisation has imposed very tough conditions for the working class, who can no longer bear this situation. The strike of the workers at Hepco, the Haftappeh sugar cane complex workers and that of the truck drivers, as well as the onslaught by law enforcement and security forces on the workers of the Ahvaz National Steel Industrial Group - along with and dozens of other protests and strikes - reflect the growing grievances of Iran’s working people. In addition to the strikes and meetings in workshops and factories throughout the country, some significant protests took place at some of the most important industrial-manufacturing plants which employ a considerable number of industrial and technical workers. These include Hepco, Polyacryl, various parts of the national railways, parts of the operational phases of the South Pars gas field, Tabriz Machine Tools Manufacturing Company, Kerman copper mining and the refineries in Elam and Kermanshah. The atmosphere in these key manufacturing plants is filled with discontent, tension and volatility. The growing number of protests by teachers, who form an integral part of the trade union movement in Iran, must also be mentioned. These have been violently crushed by the regime’s security forces in recent weeks. Their main demands include job security, fair wages, abolition of temporary contracts, payment of unpaid and late wages and opposition to privatisation. Prospect of US economic sanctions These protest movements are taking place in the wake of the political developments and challenges affecting Iran which arise from the US withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA) nuclear agreement. This is resulting in a realignment of the regime’s political forces and factions and is therefore deemed to be very important. Poverty, unemployment and lack of job security are the main factors behind these protests. Continuous devaluation of the currency coupled with inflation has brought more poverty to an already struggling working class. Over the past 3 months Iranian currency has lost half its exchange value. Workers complain that their wages are in rials (Iranian currency) while their expenditures are in US dollars. According to official statistics, the accommodation price index in Tehran has increased some 33 percent in the last 12 months prior to last winter. Over the same period, the housing rental index has increased by 26.6 percent. Furthermore, prices of goods and services have increased by 35 percent resulting in an ever higher cost of living and more hardship. Even Faramarz Toufighi, the workers’ representative on the official ‘Supreme Labour Council’ acknowledges that the situation is catastrophic: It is anticipated that by the first of August the inflation for items in the basket of living consumer goods will be dazzling. A leap of 40 percent in poultry prices, a 30 percent jump in meat prices, a 18 percent jump in rice and oil prices, and a 28 percent jump in housing and … indicates that government agencies have given up all attempts to control the spiralling inflation. He predicts that: 83 percent of workers live under the existence threshold. Given the recent policies of the US administration in attempting to torpedo the 5+1 nuclear deal with Iran and renewed threats of economic sanctions - and even military intervention - the economy has been seriously affected. The flight of capital in recent months...

Editorial: Corporate tax dodging is stealing from workers and must be stopped

2 | International Union Rights | 25/1 EDITORIAL Editorial: Corporate tax dodging is stealing from workers and must be stopped For decades wages have stagnated, public services have been squeezed and inequality has risen while workers struggle to understand why the riches of globalisation pass them by. This edition opens the lid on possibly the single largest scam in the globalisation riddle. And one of the central barriers to organised labour doing better for workers. It explains why nobody has noticed how capital and the richest in the world have hoarded and hidden the loot – because they shift it before they even declare it is made. Most importantly this edition provides a union perspective on these issues and outlines what is to be done. Make no mistake, tax avoidance supresses wages. Workers cannot bargain for profits that are not there profits that have been shifted to jurisdictions specifically designed to hide the cash and defend the secrecy of the owners. Recent scandals have highlighted how the global system has been established to shift profits to avoid taxes. But little attention is paid to how shifting these profits allows companies to claim they have no money to pay workers, and is often used to justify job cuts. If the tax office can’t find the money what chance do workers have? Recently, a few unions have understood the problem and fought back. Jason Ward outlines how the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) took on Chevron, one of the largest oil companies in the world, who are now required to pay 10 billion AUSD more in taxes. Nick Allen and Mary Joyce Carlson explain why a coalition of public and private sector unions lead by the SEIU pursued Mcdonalds tax practices in the Fight For 15. Perhaps none is more chilling than Dick Forlands article on the massacre of mine workers at Marikana, South Africa - killed for demanding decent wages - and the tax avoidance and secrecy of the company. In addition to supressing wages, Peters Adeyemi from the Nigerian Labour Council, demonstrates how corporate tax avoidance undermines economic and social development. It drives up inequality, starves public services and shifts taxation to those least able to pay. Jose Antonio Ocampo, explains the details of corporate tax avoidance and what policy change is needed to stop it. In each case a conspiracy of secrecy is at the heart of the scam. The indefensible can only be defended if never discussed. The beneficiaries deliberately keep information from the public. They know that each time we learn more, the foundations of the system are weakened. Ultimately tax is about power. There is barely more radical a project than taking from the wealthiest and most powerful on the planet for the benefit of workers. And without the collective power of workers organised into unions the project cannot succeed. Nadine Flood from the Australian CPSU, explains how unions have made corporate tax avoidance a popular issue and forced progressive and right-wing political parties to change tax policy. Dany Richard, Madeline Rodriguez and Sergio Hemsani argue that protecting workers from whistleblowing is a fundamental trade union right and essential for ensuring that secrecy and vested interests cannot continue to control the agenda. Recent union campaigns, like Chevron and McDonalds, show how holding corporations to account for their tax practices can build union power beyond traditional union action. They make immediate gains for workers and simultaneously raise awareness of the broken tax system and how it must be fixed. This edition is the first attempt to bring this knowledge together. A coalition of global unions has just launched an International Centre for Corporate Tax Research to help unions better understand tax avoidance and profit shifting in their industry and take action. A global conference will be held in the second half of 2018 for public and private sector unions that want to learn more, and do more. Daniel.bertossa@world-pse.org / Leo.hyde@world-psi.org Next issue of IUR Articles between 850 and 1800 words should be sent by email (mail@ictur.org) and accompanied by a photograph and short biographical note of the author. Please send by 5 June 2018 if they are to be considered...

Focus: An unprecedented challenging situation!

In the last nine months - and especially after the massive popular protests at the turn of 2017-2018 - a struggle has arisen across Iran’s industry and workforce, one which has gained fierce impetus and which shows no sign of abating any time soon. In addition to their urgent demands for unpaid wages and salaries, working people have also targeted the policies of regime which have brought about the widespread privatisation and plunder of national resources; attempts to remove requirements for occupational safety and the right to form independent union organisations; continual efforts to raid the social security fund and the retirement schemes paid for by workers; and government schemes for the deregulation of labour markets and labour relations. The growth and spread of the workers’ protest movement has been one of the important features of the country's political scene in recent months. The implementation of anti-popular policies such as privatisation and economic liberalisation has imposed very tough conditions for the working class, who can no longer bear this situation. The strike of the workers at Hepco, the Haftappeh sugar cane complex workers and that of the truck drivers, as well as the onslaught by law enforcement and security forces on the workers of the Ahvaz National Steel Industrial Group - along with and dozens of other protests and strikes - reflect the growing grievances of Iran’s working people. In addition to the strikes and meetings in workshops and factories throughout the country, some significant protests took place at some of the most important industrial-manufacturing plants which employ a considerable number of industrial and technical workers. These include Hepco, Polyacryl, various parts of the national railways, parts of the operational phases of the South Pars gas field, Tabriz Machine Tools Manufacturing Company, Kerman copper mining and the refineries in Elam and Kermanshah. The atmosphere in these key manufacturing plants is filled with discontent, tension and volatility. The growing number of protests by teachers, who form an integral part of the trade union movement in Iran, must also be mentioned. These have been violently crushed by the regime’s security forces in recent weeks. Their main demands include job security, fair wages, abolition of temporary contracts, payment of unpaid and late wages and opposition to privatisation. Prospect of US economic sanctions These protest movements are taking place in the wake of the political developments and challenges affecting Iran which arise from the US withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA) nuclear agreement. This is resulting in a realignment of the regime’s political forces and factions and is therefore deemed to be very important. Poverty, unemployment and lack of job security are the main factors behind these protests. Continuous devaluation of the currency coupled with inflation has brought more poverty to an already struggling working class. Over the past 3 months Iranian currency has lost half its exchange value. Workers complain that their wages are in rials (Iranian currency) while their expenditures are in US dollars. According to official statistics, the accommodation price index in Tehran has increased some 33 percent in the last 12 months prior to last winter. Over the same period, the housing rental index has increased by 26.6 percent. Furthermore, prices of goods and services have increased by 35 percent resulting in an ever higher cost of living and more hardship. Even Faramarz Toufighi, the workers’ representative on the official ‘Supreme Labour Council’ acknowledges that the situation is catastrophic: It is anticipated that by the first of August the inflation for items in the basket of living consumer goods will be dazzling. A leap of 40 percent in poultry prices, a 30 percent jump in meat prices, a 18 percent jump in rice and oil prices, and a 28 percent jump in housing and … indicates that government agencies have given up all attempts to control the spiralling inflation. He predicts that: 83 percent of workers live under the existence threshold. Given the recent policies of the US administration in attempting to torpedo the 5+1 nuclear deal with Iran and renewed threats of economic sanctions - and even military intervention - the economy has been seriously affected. The flight of capital in recent months...

Educating for Change: How Labor Education Centers and AFL-CIO Bodies Can Grow and Transform Together

In order to survive and prosper today, both labor councils and labor education centers need to rethink their mission, goals, and strategies. In this report, we examine how partnerships between these two types of organizations have fostered creative transformation for both. We examine the innovative relationships between labor education programs and their respective labor councils and state federations in five states (Oregon, Washington, Massachusetts, Iowa, and West Virginia). These cases include those with long-standing strong relationships and those that have been recently rebuilt or rethought. In several cases, the labor education centers owe their very existence to the work of state labor leaders to who helped found them and, more recently, to maintain and expand their resources. In addition, we document the role played by the UCLA labor education program in revitalizing the Orange County AFL-CIO, as well as two key partnership programs of Cornell and the AFL-CIO in New York: the Union Leadership Institute and the New York City Capacity Building Initiative.

From Clean Rooms to Dirty Water: Labor, Semiconductor Firms, and the Struggle over Pollution and Workplace Hazards in Silicon Valley

Abstract This article argues that labor activists initiated Silicon Valley’s antitoxics movement and were the driving force behind environmental remediation in the region in the first half of the 1980s. In order to unionize semiconductor plants, activists associated with SCCOSH and United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers, a left-wing union, attacked corporate negligence regarding worker safety and health. SCCOSH later allied itself with the Central Labor Council of Santa Clara County to push for the cleanup of aquifers contaminated by the semiconductor industry. The activists ultimately failed to organize Silicon Valley, but their campaigns led to a revolution in safety among microelectronics firms and to large-scale remediation efforts conducted under the EPA’s Superfund program.

Putting History to Work: The Labor Archives of Washington as a Model for Forging Stronger Connections between Labor and the Academy

In 2008, labor history in the Pacific Northwest was facing a crisis. Collections were being thrown away or were decaying in basements, attics, sheds, and boiler rooms. Records creators needed a place to save their treasures from age, mildew, and insects. Even collections that were retained and stored in good conditions were inaccessible to scholars, remaining unstudied. Reduced in staff due to the recession, the University of Washington’s Special Collections library division was unable to accept new collections or process existing ones. Two thousand cubic feet of labor-related holdings existed in various states of preservation and description; many collections lacked online finding aids, and those with them often lacked detailed inventories. No online topical listing of labor collections existed, so remote or inexperienced researchers had to either visit in person or rely on remote reference queries to understand UW’s labor holdings. The labor community had no place to donate their records even if those materials survived moves, mergers, or leadership changes. Researchers had very limited ability to understand the significance, scope, or intellectual contents of collections.That year, a group affiliated with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) approached the chair of the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies at the UW (James Gregory) about this crisis. Together, they formulated a bold solution: found a labor archives. The Bridges Center group approached UW’s libraries about partnering to found the Labor Archives of Washington (LAW). The resulting fundraising campaign was a surprising success. The ILWU’s Longshore Division provided critical and sustained funding; the Washington State Labor Council provided the go-ahead, fundraising help, and a convention resolution of support. Dozens of other unions and organizations and hundreds of individuals have donated close to $700,000 since 2008.In 2010, the organizers had sufficient funds to hire a labor archivist. In that position, I have focused on curating collections, managing the processing of new and legacy collections, and increasing online access via enhanced description and digitization projects. All labor collections now have online finding aids, all legacy finding aids have been scanned and attached to online versions, and these are in the process of being improved so that they will be keyword-searchable and indexed by search engines. An online listing points researchers to labor collections, and a digital portal allows them to see highlights and, in some cases, entire digital collections. I have curated exhibits and created events highlighting LAW collections and taught workshops on the importance and methods of preserving labor records to the labor community. I also teach orientations for students and faculty of local colleges and universities on how to conduct research in our collections, and I promote the archives at conferences of professional and stakeholder organizations.In 2015, the Washington State Labor Council lobbied for state funding for LAW. Surprisingly, we got funding, which covers the salary of the labor archivist, a part-time student curatorial assistant, and processing supplies. State funding enabled hiring a full-time assistant archivist to work directly with the labor community, helping with a regional labor-records survey and day-to-day archival processing operations.The creation of LAW proved to be an organizing tool for closer connections between the academy and the labor and social justice communities. As such, it offers a model for similar projects to preserve labor history and bring together various stakeholder communities. As James N. Gregory detailed in his Labor article,Nothing has done more to build the scholar-union relationship than the Bridges Center’s decision . . . to create a labor archives at the University of Washington. . . . [The] Organizing Committee, which includes most prominent union leaders in Washington State, has strengthened ties and trust while it raises money. Our experience in building [LAW] affirms the old axiom that the best way to organize people is to ask them to work on a project. Every state deserves a labor archives, and the project of building one is a great way to advance campus-labor-community partnerships.1The Labor Archives began as a temporary three-year project but now seems well positioned to operate at increased capacity in the future. The lessons of the past six years present a repeatable organizing model that may help labor scholars and the labor movement to collaborate on projects that advance their agendas and to find areas of overlap and collaboration.........LAW will play a role at LAWCHA’s Seattle conference at the UW in June of 2017. Please join us at our annual event, “Past Forward: The Legacy of the ILWU and Progressive Unionism on the West Coast” on the evening of Saturday, June 24, 2017.

A Tale of Two Cities: Employer and Trade Union Responses to Local Government Retrenchment in Britain

This paper examines the strategies and dilemmas faced by local employers and trade unions in Britain in responding to austerity measures. Drawing on two local authority case studies this paper extends strategic choice analysis highlighting the use of pro-austerity and anti-austerity frames by local actors to advance their strategies. We challenge the dominant interpretation of austerity as signalling the triumph of neo-liberalism in which there is no scope for the exercise of strategic choice with the assumption Conservative and Labour councils pursue similar policies of outsourcing and wage cuts. Our findings consider austerity as practice as well as ideology and indicate variable responses at local level by employers and trade unions. These differentiated outcomes underline the divergent policy responses to the economic crisis between and within countries.

‘Militant Liverpool’ as Liverpool Exceptionalism: The Rise, Fall and Character of the City Council, 1983–1987

This study examines the programme and policies of Liverpool City Council between 1983–1987, a period noted for the ruling Labour Group’s strategy of confrontation with central government. In order to fill the financial shortfalls left in illegal deficit budgets, and as leaders of a city in the throes of secular decline, the combative stance of the council was adopted in a bid to win extra funding from Whitehall in an era of mass unemployment, disinvestment, slum housing, and a steady dwindling of the population as thousands left the city year on year in search of work. Investigating the nature of the so-called ‘rebel council’ – not least the involvement of the Trotskyist Militant Tendency within the Liverpool Labour Party – the study situates the tumultuous events of those years in the broader context of Liverpool exceptionalism, linking the conflict between a Conservative national government and a left-wing local authority to a broader tradition of Liverpudlian difference, rooted firmly in the city’s eccentricities, its sense of Scouse pride, local chauvinism, and its economic, social, cultural and political peculiarities.Vilified by the national press, Liverpool had long had a reputation as a hotbed of industrial militancy despite its weak industrial base, and its identity as a centre of truculence and radicalism, separate from the mainstream of English political culture, was solidified by the appearance of bolshie, working-class Scousers and selfconfessed revolutionary Marxists holding high office in one of Britain’s major cities. Using interviews with some of the key political players of the period, this study explores how the rise of the Labour council, and the Militant phenomenon, were symptomatic not just of socioeconomic determinations or working class reactions to industrial decline and urban deprivation, but were a unique expression of a wider Scouse cultural identity – resilient, gritty and self-consciously Other – and indicative of particularly Liverpudlian historical specificities.

From Clean Rooms to Dirty Water: Labor, Semiconductor Firms, and the Struggle over Pollution and Workplace Hazards in Silicon Valley

This article argues that labor activists initiated Silicon Valley's antitoxics movement and were the driving force behind environmental remediation in the region in the first half of the 1980s. In order to unionize semiconductor plants, activists associated with SCCOSH and United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers, a left-wing union, attacked corporate negligence regarding worker safety and health. SCCOSH later allied itself with the Central Labor Council of Santa Clara County to push for the cleanup of aquifers contaminated by the semiconductor industry. The activists ultimately failed to organize Silicon Valley, but their campaigns led to a revolution in safety among microelectronics firms and to large-scale remediation efforts conducted under the EPA's Superfund program.

Wearing the Turban: The 1967–1969 Sikh Bus Drivers’ Dispute in Wolverhampton

When a Sikh bus driver working for Wolverhampton Borough Council in 1967 wore a turban and beard to work for the first time he was sent home for breaching the existing dress code. The Sikh municipal workers pursued their demands through pressure-group politics after being marginalized by their union. It ended with a change in the employer and the employment regulations, and subsequent changes to the law. This case illustrates how a religious and cultural issue, originating from outside the workplace, led to challenges to the making and enforcement of workplace rules. It indicates the nature of struggle with, in this case, the relevant trade union failing to support its Sikh members, the local Labour council failing to confront its own racial prejudices, and how immigration, then as now, divides and weakens communities across the class spectrum. The limitations of treating industrial relations as mainly based on job regulation within the organization, to the neglect of external, often political, factors, are discussed, and the subsequent arguments over legal exceptionalism for Sikhs are rehearsed.

DIREITOS SOCIAIS E IDENTIDADE OPERÁRIA: O PODER DA IDEOLOGIA TRABALHISTA NO GOVERNO DE GETÚLIO VARGAS (BRASIL, 1930-45)

O objetivo deste trabalho é apresentar como na primeira metade do século XX, no Brasil, as discussões políticas e as pressões sociais pela busca de direitos, associadas ao projeto político de Getúlio Vargas (no período de 1930, após a Revolução, até 1945), construíram a identidade de classe dos trabalhadores brasileiros. Na literatura nacional, o período é um marco para a construção da ideologia trabalhista nacional. A partir do momento em que o Estado converte sua estrutura agrário-exportadora para a fase industrial, mudanças nas instituições políticas, na economia e na construção da narrativa jurídica tornam-se fundamentais para a compreensão do período histórico. Parte dessas narrativas são revisitadas e confrontadas a partir da análise de fontes primárias produzidas no âmbito do Conselho Nacional do Trabalho e nos debates parlamentares na Assembleia Nacional Constituinte de 1933-34.

Constructing “British Values” within a Radicalisation Narrative

This article examines the reporting of the “Operation Trojan Horse” affair in two British newspapers, the Daily Mail and The Guardian, in 2014. I argue that this high-profile case was a vehicle for the Conservative-led Government, and parts of the United Kingdom’s press, to advance their doctrine of muscular liberalism, an ideology that locates the rise of extremism in the policies of multiculturalism. In this interpretation of the event, it was argued that, under a Labour council, schools in Birmingham had been given the freedom to practise a segregationist agenda, resulting in an infiltration of Islamist ideology. Through a radicalisation narrative, that locates the causes of terrorism with extremist thought, an issue of local governance and agency was transformed into an argument about terrorist radicalisation. This allowed Government agencies to intervene, at a local and national level, promoting an assimilationist agenda through conceptualisations of national identity, here constructed as “British values”.

Women Leaders Bring Indigenous and Black Issues to Colombia Peace Table

Labour leader Agripina Hurtado Caicedo, land rights leader Francia Elena Márquez Mina and international advocate Gimena Sánchez-Garzoli are three extraordinary women working to bring peace to Afro-Colombian communities after five decades of violent conflict and centuries of discrimination and disempowerment. Agripina grew up among sugar cane cutters, whose working conditions 20 years ago deteriorated to such an extent that they came to resemble modern-day slavery. As a union leader, she fought to have the protections of Colombia’s labour laws implemented and she has also endured violent antiunion harassment, including the murder of her daughter and unborn grandchild. Agripina is currently president of the Afro-Colombian Labour Council and works on behalf of Afro-Colombian workers to end discrimination and unfair labour practices. Francia comes from one of many communities whose lands and livelihoods have been threatened by big mining companies. The corporations’ industrial approach devastates the ecosystem and displaces thousands of Afro-Colombians to urban violence and lives of destitution. In 2010, Francia led her community to victory through peaceful protests and court battles against the holder of an illegal mining permit. Since then, she, as a member of Black Communities Process, has been advocating at the national and international levels against environmental destruction and the displacement. Gimena is based in Washington but, with close ties to Afro-Colombian activists, she has become the go-to person for trade unions, displaced Afro-Colombian communities and human rights networks when they need protection and international support.

The Politics of Justice: Rethinking Brazil's Corporatist Labor Movement

This article analyzes the role of collective bargaining in the Brazilian labor courts in two very different political settings: the democratic era preceding the 1964 coup and the initial period of the military dictatorship, from 1964 to 1968. The study is based on a quantitative and qualitative analysis of collective grievance procedures handled by the Regional Labor Council of São Paulo State. While observing the performance of the labor courts in regard to labor relations, it focuses primarily on three issues: compulsory arbitration, the right to strike, and wage increases. It seeks to reexamine the role of the labor courts in the broader context of Brazilian corporatism and its relations with the labor movement, against the backdrop of a critique of the binary opposition between corporatist and contractualist models of regulating labor relations. In this study, labor judges are viewed as important social actors because their decisions and political and ideological positions were crucial in the enforcement of labor laws.