Workers in a Lean World

Unions in the International Economy

by Kim Moody

In this comprehensive study of current labor relations worldwide, Kim Moody surveys both sides of the picket line. He provides a measured assessment of multinational managements' strategies to downsize, introduce flexible production and compel workers to accept less pay for more work.

An emphasis is placed on the need in the face of these changes for renewal and international coordination among national unions. Examples from North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia illustrate how this has been achieved.

Workers in a Lean World is a bracing riposte to conventional wisdom concerning the irrestistible power of globalization. It's the definitive account of contemporary labor relations on an international scale.

As a union organizer and activist in the 1960s and 1970s and as a journalist and director for Labor Notes in the 1980's and 1990's, Kim Moody has been a close observer of the trends and struggles he analyzes. In plain language, he deals with the complex forces facing unionism and the means for dealing with them.

Contents Include

• The "Globaloney" myth
• The development divide between North and South
• Strategies workers are using to fight back
• Rank-and-File internationalism
• Official labor internationalism in transition
• Corporatism, Neoliberalism, Free Trade, and the State
• Crisis of the working class

From the introduction:

Writings on globalization frequently dazzle the reader with big figures..."Investment inflows" of $315 billion may sound impressive, but this is less than 5% of total world investment...The idea, so prominent in globalization literature, the businesses pick up stakes and relocate offshore in the blink of an eye are "globaloney."

From chapter one: The World-Wide Fightback Starts

By the mid-1990s the streets of continental Europe, Latin America, and parts of Asia were filled with hundreds of thousands of angry people...Korean workers paralyzed that country with a month of general strikes...mass political action broke out in Greece, Belgium, and Ecuador.

What others are saying about Workers in a Lean World:

"If you're an activist trying to get a handle on globalization, if you're struggling to come to grip with where the working class is at today and the possibilities of moving beyond capitalism - then you won't find a better place to start than Kim Moody's latest book."

— Sam Gindin, Assistant to the President,
Canadian Auto Workers

"A tremendous breath of fresh air. Without underestimating the global power of transnational capital, Moody documents the growing labor movement fightback around the world. The sheer breadth of coverage is both remarkable and illuminating, and testimony to the resurgence of collective action and to the reshaping of the labor movement."

— John Kelly, Senior Lecturer in IndustrialRelations,
London School of Economics and
author of Trade Unionists and Socialist Politics

"Kim Moody is one of the leading intellectuals of the labor movement. In this book he sweeps across the world to reveal exactly how class struggle between multinational capital and labor has shaped working conditions, capital mobility, state power, and the prospects for a visionary labor movement."

— Robin D.G. Kelly, author, Race Rebels:
Culture, Politics, and the Black Working Class

"Of the many books we've seen on globalization, Workers in a Lean World present the best analysis of how working people can respond strategically to the on-going transformation of capitalism."

— Jeremy Brecher and Tim Costello,
New Politics magazine

342 pages