Labor as Social Movement: A Reassesement

• In Event: 397 - Section on Labor and Labor Movements Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 03. Labor Movements and Protest

Abstract

Largely due to its conservative profile at the time, the labor movement was largely absent from modern social movement literature as it developed in response to the new social movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Recent labor mobilizations such as the Wisconsin uprising and the Chicago Teacher’s strike have been part of the current international cycle of protest that includes the Arab spring, the anti-austerity movements in Greece and Spain, and Occupy Wall Street. These struggles suggest that a new labor movement is emerging that shares many common features with new social movements. This paper offers a general analysis of these and other contemporary labor struggles in light of contemporary modern social movement literature. It also critically reviews assumptions about the labor movement from the 1950s and 1970s and reexamines several social movement concepts.

Author

• K Mann, Cardinal Stritch University