Introduction to Symposium on “The Futureof Social Movement Unionism”

Victor G. Devinatz

Published online: 26 June 2008# Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2008

I am most pleased to present this symposium on the future of Social Movement Unionism(SMU) in this issue’s Perspectives section. Nearly 20 years ago, Peter Waterman firstproposed the concept of SMU. Since his initial discussion of the topic, SMU has come toencompass a diversity of theoretical perspectives when implemented by trade unions in thecore countries of the industrialized North and the peripheral countries of the developingSouth. Broadly defined, SMU is a trend in contemporary unionism in which workers andtrade unions are united in larger coalitions with an array of community organizations forachieving mutual goals in the furthering of economic and social justice.

In the first part of this symposium, two of the world’s top scholars on SMU have writtenessays on the future of this trend in trade unionism and its meaning in the early decades of thetwenty-first century. In the first essay entitled “Neo-Liberalism Guarantees Social MovementUnionism,” Dr. Dan Clawson, Professor of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts,argues that because of the global dominance of neo-liberalism, which he refers to as “capitalismon steroids,” trade unions will be forced to adopt strategies consistent with SMU in order tosurvive and prosper in the coming years. In the second piece entitled, “Social MovementUnionism or Trade Unions as Social Movements,”Dr. Peter Fairbrother, Professor of Sociologyat Cardiff University, contends that trade unions are social movements per se and will alwaysremain as important organizations in challenging the hegemony of capital and the capitaliststate. Moreover, he states that trade unions potentially could become the focal point ofalternative social movements although labor organizations must be eternally vigilant againstcooptation and compromise when participating in these broader coalitions. The second part ofthis symposium, to be published in the December 2008 issue, will provide two additionalarticles: a paper written by Peter Waterman in response to the Clawson and Fairbrother essaysand a piece written in response to the Waterman article by Fairbrother and Eddie Webster,another internationally recognized scholar of SMU.

Other symposiums on important employment relations topics are planned for futureissues of the Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal. If any of the journal’s readershave suggestions for symposiums on specific topics, please do not hesitate to contact me. Ihope that you enjoy this symposium and find it most illuminating.

Victor G. Devinatz, Editor of “Perspectives” Section

Employ Respons Rights J (2008) 20:205DOI 10.1007/s10672-008-9081-3

V. G. Devinatz (*)Department of Management and Quantitative Methods, Illinois State University,Normal, IL 61790-5580, USAe-mail: vgdevin@ilstu.edu