Labor Movement

In Search of a Theory of the Labor Movement

Labor movements are phenomena both complex and, in a sense, contradictory. They first arose as groups organized to improve conditions in capitalist industry. But they have often pursued the much more ambitious goal of changing society as a whole. Everywhere, they have bred organizations that gradually came to accept the rules applied by the economic and political systems in which they had to operate but still pursued long-term goals that frequently conflicted with those rules. Although these organizations manage industrial and social conflict, the integration of large masses of workers into the economic, social, and political systems of industrial democracies would have been very different in nature—and perhaps impossible—without them.

While contemporary social sciences have conducted detailed analyses of labor movements, more general discussions of them are still largely couched in conceptual terms drawn from theories developed several decades ago that may be termed classic. The explanatory capacity of these theories is dubious and erratic, but their continuing interest for social scientists stems from rather different factors. Each of them has been put forward as a general theory but has centered on only one of the different alternatives faced by labor movements across countries and historical periods. Yet it is precisely for this reason that these theories have become important as self-interpretations by different components of the international labor movement, thereby influencing the latter's perception of itself and its goals. Hence, these theories are simultaneously analytical instruments and ideologies.

From this point of view, Marxism—which developed the most powerful theoretical apparatus—also can be seen as the dominant ideology shaping [Page 1404]socialist positions within labor movements. Its contribution to the analysis of such movements, however, is still relevant in many respects. First, by framing labor movements in the context of a structurally divided class society, it helps remedy the shortcomings of merely psychological or behavioral explanations of their origins and goals. Second, by explaining industrial conflict in light of a theory of social change, Marxism suggests that analysis should extend beyond the short-term objectives of such conflict and consider the aspirations latent within it to achieve a different social order, which may cyclically orient collective action. Finally, by viewing unionism as one—albeit the most important—of the many different forms assumed historically by labor organization, it allows the latter to be seen in relation to other types of action available to workers rather than as the sole natural expression of their needs and culture.

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