Place, Space and the New Labour Internationalisms

New interest in labour and union internationalism has developed over the last 10-15 years. This collection, co-edited by scholars from an older and younger generation, is a very original attempt to grapple with the challenges of globalisation for labor. The collection includes contributions from academics and activists based in the North and South.

It’s a post-Seattle world out there, and long-familiar geographical notions are reeling not only under the impact of capitalist globalization, but of myriad new linkages among globally-connected working people and communities. For cutting edge views of what all this means for the labor movement, read Place, Space and the New Labour Internationalisms. – Jeremy Brecher co-author of Globalisation from Below: The Power of Solidarity (Southend Press, Boston) This is the first major interpretation of the future of labour internationalism in the wake of the Seattle protests. Waterman and Wills are to be congratulated for producing stimulating, original and forward-looking account. – Robin Cohen, Dean of Humanities, University of Cape Town For those who wish to understand the potential strength and perils of labor in the neoliberal globalized world, Place, Space and the New Labour Internationalisms is essential reading. Waterman and Wills review and anticipate key battles that the labor movement will ineluctably face as corporate domination is challenged by the world-side movement for social justice. – Immanuel Ness, editor of WorkingUSA: The Journal of Labor and Society

Peter Waterman (London, 1936) is the author of Globalisation, Social Movements and the New Internationalisms (Cassell, London, 1998), and co-editor, with Ronaldo Munck of Labour Worldwide in the Era of Globalisation: Alternative Union Models in the New World Order (Macmillan, London, 1999). He has published widely in academic and political journals, in English and Spanish. Since 1994 he has had visiting positions or fellowships at universities in the UK, US, South Africa and Mexico. He worked for over a quarter century within the labour studies and politics of alternative development strategies programmes of the Institute of Social Studies, The Hague. He took early retirement in 1998. His current interests are: global solidarity movements, in political, communicational, and cultural terms; the life histories of internationalists - and his long-suffering Global Solidarity website. Jane Wills is Lecturer in Geography at Queen Mary, University of London. She is co-author of Union Retreat and the Regions: the shrinking landscape of organised labour (Jessica Kingsley, London, 1996), Dissident Geographies: an introduction to radical ideas and practice (Prentice Hall, London, 2000) and co-editor of Geographies of Economies (Arnold, London, 1997). She has long-term political and research interests in orgasnised labour and has undertaken ESRC-funded research into European Works Councils, union renewal and partnership agreements.