Globalisation and labour : the new 'Great Transformation'

Intellectual fashion likes to see us as consumers, but the world of production and services still needs workers.

Globalization has been driven by the transnational corporations search for cheap labour, but little attention has been paid to the consequent changes in the world of work.

Ronaldo Munck argues that the national period in labour history is decisively over. Now the labour movement is itself acting in a more transnational manner, with workers developing common interests and ways of organizing that transcend national boundaries.

Indeed, the trade union movement could play a major role in the regulation of a global economic system now largely out of control.

Munck suggests that we may be on the brink of what Karl Polanyi once called "the great transformation".

The implications for workers, trade unions and their transnational corporate employers could be profound.