Abstract

ESTANQUE, Elísio. Crise, Estado social e desafios do sindicalismo: breve reflexão sobre a Europa. Educ. Rev. [online]. 2013, n.48, pp.23-37. ISSN 0104-4060.

Currently the Union issue is at a crossroad from which it will hardly be released without suffering deep damage in its current model. In fact, the traditional trade union movement - even the one which has always claimed as class unionism, has long been showing signs of exhaustion. Taking into consideration Europe and all its social legacy, any reflection on this subject is impossible without, at the same time, covering the main lines of changes that have occurred in Europe since the first decades of the 20th century, in both, socio-occupational plan and in the political sphere and the activity of the State. The European union movement fought for labor rights and participated in the most intense anti-capitalist fights of the 19th century, but ended up taking part of the historical commitment that produced (in the shadow of the welfare state) the “middle classes” and empowered the democratic socialism. At the same time, it was not able to keep up with the dynamic that has transformed labor and subsequent social movements that were out of its control. From the sixties to the present struggle against precariousness and democratic deficits, passing through movements against neoliberal globalization and ending in the new political activism of “cyberspace”, the new languages and repertoires that most mobilized the youth in different generations were, or are, relatively lateral experiments on the Union and its leaders. Will the intensity of the current crisis and its overwhelming pressure on the world of work - and the European middle classes - arouse the unions and pull them out of the bureaucratic straitjacket in which they were stuck? Starting from this reality, this text intends to draw a critical balance of the world unionism and question the challenges that are faced today.

Keywords : Unionism; Social Labor Movements.

        · abstract in Portuguese     · text in Portuguese     · Portuguese ( pdf )