Resisting neo-liberalism, reclaiming democracy?: 21st-century organised labour beyond Polanyi and Streeck

Title
Resisting neo-liberalism, reclaiming democracy?: 21st-century organised labour beyond Polanyi and Streeck
Publication Date
2017
Author(s)
Lloyd, Christopher
Ramsay, Tony
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5817-1724
Email: aramsay5@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:aramsay5
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Sage Publications Ltd
Place of publication
United Kingdom
DOI
10.1177/1035304617693800
UNE publication id
une:20440
Abstract
Despite its greatly weakened condition, could organised labour again be counterhegemonic to and ultimately transformative of capitalism? Or is the current crisis, a crisis of collapse of manufacturing and wages and under-consumption due to the loss of redistributive power by key socio-political agents, possibly the final crisis of unionism, as argued by Wolfgang Streeck? Some on the political left, such as Streeck, argue that a new phase has been reached where redistributive and oppositional power of organised labour has been not just defeated but destroyed, with enormous consequences for the future of workers and capitalism itself. This article rejects such an overly pessimistic interpretation and asks what the possibility is of the labour movement's again playing its historic role of transforming capitalism. It explores the potential role of organised labour in re-embedding the economy within democratic society, as Karl Polanyi argued, and building a socio-economic structure that is both stable and enhancing of social and environmental health. This problem is approached through a critique of the theories of Polanyi and Streeck and an examination of the unfortunate embrace of labourism and accommodation to neo-liberalism in the Australian labour movement.
Link
Citation
The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 28(1), p. 129-145
ISSN
1838-2673
1035-3046
Start page
129
End page
145

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