Place, Space and the New Labour Internationalismsedited by Peter Waterman and Jane Wills, Oxford: Blackwell, 2001, 300 pp., ISBN 0-631-22983-3.

In the last decade, academic and political obsession with the “globalization of business” has served to obscure an important and related development—the revival of the theory and practice of labour internationalism. A flurry of recent literature even suggests that the collapse of Communism in 1989 and the simultaneous acceleration of neo-liberal globalization have helped create a new era of labour internationalism characterized by genuine solidarity and effective cooperation in both old and new forms. This edited collection by Waterman and Wills is a timely and insightful contribution to the debate. Its main aims are to critically investigate the “new labour internationalisms,” highlight new and controversial issues for global solidarity building and make “constructive proposals for the future.” Featuring thirteen original chapters from mainly within and around the tradition(s) of Marxism, the book not only bridges the theoretical/empirical and academic/ activist divides, but also the “North/South” divide as well, assembling contributors from across Asia, Europe and the Americas. In part one, entitled “New Developments in Trade Union Internationalism,” many authors openly question whether the traditional and still dominant form of labour internationalism—international trade unionism—is suited to what Waterman calls a “globalize/networked/informative capitalism.” Both Waterman and Kjeld Jakobsen (International officer of the Brazilian CUT) make similar if slightly simplistic critiques of the “official” head body of the international trade union movement, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU). They accuse it of having resisted necessary reforms in relation to developing country representation and women, leaving the organization embedded in a bureaucratic, Northern-dominated, top-down, unrepresentative and debate-stifling structure. Reinforcing this critique are positive examples of “new” modes of internationalism. Rob Lambert and Eddie Webster’s somewhat uncritical insider account of the Southern Initiative on Globalization and Trade Union Rights (SIGTUR)—a new network of democratic trade unions in Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Africa and Latin America—reveals its championing of innovative positions such as alliance-building, forging new regional and global identities, the representation of all workers, and the exploitation of cyberspace technologies. Andrew Herod meanwhile highlights two different but equally effective U.S. trade union campaigns resisting corporate globalization at Ravenswood Aluminium Corporation and General Motors. On a more sobering note, Franco Barchiesi outlines the many difficulties that have confronted the South African Municipal Workers’ attempts to mobilize international solidarity and make lasting and effective alliances with social movements in response to the privatization and restructuring of water services. The second half of the book examines “New Issues for Labour Internationalism.” Several chapters cover trade union and NGO strategies towards MNCs and the international trade regime. In an often contradictory analysis using evidence from Indian domestic politics, Rohini Hensman examines the controversial ICFTU campaign to link workers’ rights to trade agreements under the World Trade Organization (WTO). She accuses trade union and NGO opponents of linkage of economic nationalism before supporting their concerns over allowing the WTO to enforce workers rights’ given its entire agenda serves to destroy them. Lance Compa’s optimistic analysis of the North American Free Trade Agreement’s (NAFTA) labour side-accord (NAALC) is also somewhat questionable. Although recognizing NAALC’s weak and limited scope, Compa sees it as a “viable new arena for creative transnational action” because its oversight mechanism encourages trade unions and NGOs to work together across borders to highlight abuses by governments and corporations and publicly shame them into redress. The evidence he finds to support this is, however, very thin. On a similar theme, Angela Hale and Linda Shaw of Women Working Worldwide have serious reservations about the efficacy of voluntary Corporate Codes of Conduct (CCC) for creating “ethical trade” in the global garment industry. This is partly because the Western …