Forces of Labor Workers' Movements and Globalization Since 1870 [Paperback]

This 2003 book analyzes the dynamics of labor movements, introducing a new database on labor unrest events worldwide.The book analyzes the global dynamics of labor movements, introducing a major new database on labor unrest events worldwide from 1870 to 1996. The book's purpose is to assess the contemporary crisis of labor movements, but it argues that to do so effectively labor movements need to be studied in a longer historical and wider geographical framework than is normally done. Key themes include the relationship between labor unrest and capital mobility in various global industries (automobiles, textiles, semiconductors, and service industries) and the inter-relationship between world labor unrest and world politics over the past century.The book analyzes the global dynamics of labor movements, introducing a major new database on labor unrest events worldwide from 1870 to 1996. The book's purpose is to assess the contemporary crisis of labor movements, but it argues that to do so effectively labor movements need to be studied in a longer historical and wider geographical framework than is normally done. Key themes include the relationship between labor unrest and capital mobility in various global industries (automobiles, textiles, semiconductors, and service industries) and the inter-relationship between world labor unrest and world politics over the past century.Recasting labor studies in a long-term and global framework, the book draws on a major new database on world labor unrest to show how local labor movements have been related to world-scale political, economic, and social processes since the late nineteenth century. Through an in-depth empirical analysis of select global industries, the book demonstrates how the main locations of labor unrest have shifted from country to country together with shifts in the geographical location of production. It shows how the main sites of labor unrest have shifted over time together with the rise or decline of newlc`