"Go South": Union Organising in the 21st Century

Are the trade unions back? After the strike wave of 2022 and 2023 the unions are in a better place - more relevant, more active and more popular. They have achieved much in the last 2 years for their members during the worst cost of living crisis since the war. But what next? As strike days are falling again to pre 2022 levels and membership of trade unions is only showing qualified increases it seems that unions must look outside for inspiration. This books discusses where they might find it - in the Global South.

Britain’s trade union movement is is oldest in the world, among the most experienced and has dealt with an employing class that itself is the most experienced and, on the basis of super profits extracted form centuries of colonial domination, slavery and imperialist war is both immensely wealthy and determined to retain both power and riches.

This book is offered as a contribution to that discussion not in the sense that all the arguments are closed off and that this represents a final word but more as a stimulus to continued investigation, the exchange of experiences and the formulation of a common approach that strengthens - in the insight of Karl Marx: ’Now and then the workers are victorious, but only for a time. The real fruit of their battles lies, not in the immediate result, but in the ever expanding union of the workers. This union is helped on by the improved means of commThe real fruit of their battles lies, not in the immediate result, but in the ever expanding union of the workers.’

His assertion that our unions are in a much better place now than they were before the strike waves of 2022 and 2023 is the foundation of his argument as is his suggestion that this potential is yet unrealised.

This latest book continues the discussion with the proposition that there is so much we can learn from the Global South, about the role of activists and the connection between wider political issues around gender, race, disability and of course poverty and exploitation. The Indian General Strike is a case in point. No doubt that a General Strike in the USA or Germany would attract far more comment, scrutiny and analysis than the Indian campaign.

This book challenges us to look at organising in the Global South but without the blinkers of euro centric thinking. Workers that fight and win in India and Africa have much to teach us. As part of the Manifesto Press ’Decolonising the unions’ Project Flanagan has set out the challenge to Go South.