The Social Structures of Accumulation and the Labor Movement: A Brief History and a Modest Proposal

Kimberly Christensen

Review of Radical Political Economics, 2020, vol. 52, issue 3, 487-505

Abstract: The economic and political crisis of the 1970s undermined the postwar social structures of accumulation (SSA) and gave rise to the current globalized, neoliberal, financialized (GNF) SSA. Under GNF, we have witnessed the explosion of the precariat and the reemergence of simpler forms of labor control characteristic of earlier SSAs. This article discusses the response of the labor movement, broadly defined, to these changes, including the rise of worker centers, worker ownership, campaigns for increased state regulation, and cross-border organizing. Finally, it raises the question of whether the current national labor federation can act as an incubator for the experimentation and structural changes necessary for the labor movement to meet the challenges of the GNF-SSA.

Keywords: labor movement; precariat; social structures of accumulation; worker center (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J50 J51 J54 J58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:reorpe:v:52:y:2020:i:3:p:487-505

DOI: 10.1177/0486613418820664

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