Introduction to Labor, Trade, and Globalization

The Industrial Revolution changed the physical landscape with railroads, large factories, automated farming, and booming cities. It also altered society, creating a new working class whose lives centered on the factory, mine, or construction project. During the nineteenth century, this work was arduous and often dangerous. There were few assurances of safety and no guarantees of a living wage. Children worked alongside adults. Labor organizations and unions arose to address these issues. While skilled laborers had long organized into gilds, mass organization of the working class was often met with repression—at the hand of both the company boss and the government. Denounced as insurgents, agitators, and radicals, labor protesters fought for worker's rights, fair pay, limitations on the working week, and safer working conditions—from the depths of coal mines to the top floor of the factory sweatshop.

While labor protest takes many forms, this chapter emphasizes the strike—a protest weapon unique to the labor movement. The sources here present accounts of strikes in various forms, from speeches to song. "Which Side Are You On?" is an oft-adapted anthem of striking workers and union organizers. With lyrics frequently changed to suit the particular action, the Depression-era song has found repeated use for generations of protesters. Included here is President Ronald Reagan's controversial response to the 1981 air traffic controllers' strike in the United States. Finally, to demonstrate the power of a labor union turned mass political protest movement, "Solidarity's Message to the Working People of Eastern Europe" discusses the role of Solidarity in Poland's independence movement and break with communism.

Just as the methods of production revolutionized in the modern era, so to did trade. International trade is not the invention of the modern world, but it is fully entrenched as the fixture of an increasingly global economy. Whereas protesters in the nineteenth century pressed for freer markets ("Great Free Trade Demonstration At Liverpool"), some now lobby for more restricted markets to protect local workers or farmers. Some oppose the trend of outsourcing work to lower paid, less protected workers in developing nations; other protesters argue that globalization and free-trade agreements weaken developing nations.

The current anti-globalization movement, or global justice movement, opposes many aspects of increased globalization including the perceived control of trade associations and international monetary policy by a small handful of the wealthiest nations and most powerful corporations. Though a majority of anti-globalization protests are peaceful, many have employed tactics of vandalism. Frequent targets are overseas locations of American owned companies. Pictures of damaged McDonald's, similar to the one included in this chapter, have become the U.S. media's iconic image of anti-globalization protests abroad. The diversity of aims and tactics of the global justice movement is discussed in "What Charles and Evan Did for Spring Break," a first-hand account of two youth protesters at one of the past decade's largest anti-globalization demonstrations.