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The expression ’workers’ dilemma” refers to a controversial place in Marx’s and Engels’ Communist Party Manifesto. The authors argue that the final defeat of the proletariat in its struggle against the bourgeoisie will result in »the common ruin”. A similar motif appears in Walter Benjamin’s note known as »The Angel of History”. He understands progress as the result of the intervention of God («the whirlwind from Paradise”). Several intermediary topics are elaborated in the next: from early forms of capitalist exploitation over trade-union confrontation against workers’ democracy to workers’ sadness. The last sections bring empirical insights into the religiosity of workers in Croatia. The first insight is based on quantitative analysis of large samples. The second insight is based on the author’s interviews with two retired workers, examining, among others, their attitudes toward Church and trade unions in Croatia. In place of a conclusion, the author argues that the major advantage of defeats of both the proletariat and the left thought is cognitive, rather than moral-political. There is a big accumulation of knowledge of what was right and what went wrong, respectively, in the workers’ movement and socialism on the whole. Still, there is perhaps some room for theoretical (non-linear development) and practical optimism within the workers’ dilemma. The latter might be noticed in our interlocutors’ optimism in the sense that a more just society is possible, although they could not elaborate on this. The author could not either accrue more grounds for the principled optimism among workers. Instead, he put forward three remarks. One is that the future children cannot be born or survive based on the devastating pessimism of their ancestors. The other remark stays in the line with Marx’ and others’ contentions with utopian socialism, i.e. confined to rare local communities, while the power of the hegemonic capitalism, is overwhelming, capable of destroying any power that is all too small (like the former Yugoslavia which besides was left without international allies). The last remark concerns religious and non-religious worldviews that are mutually compatible only provided that they support peace and, respectively, deny the need to wage wars in the name of God or any other ideological fetish. Essentially, durable peace is unbearable to capitalism and other non-democratic governments, whereby the question of who or what exactly created the world becomes largely irrelevant.
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The global labor market has, since the last great crisis in 2008, been marked by a strong increase in precarious forms of employment and the so–called »in–work poverty” phenomenon: the fact that, for a large number of , job no longer brings social security. This context is crucial for the rise of platforms such as Uber, Glovo or Wolt, which provide onetime on–demand services through online apps, and have attracted great attention since the mid-2010s. Although platforms promise workers (though they don’t prefer calling them that way) innovative and flexible working conditions, a good salary and the freedom to be their own bosses, platform workers and unions around the world have been warning for years that, behind these beautiful promises and attractive technology, lies insecurity and exploitation. The intention of this text is to present the state of working conditions within the platform economy and to offer a brief sketch of the organized efforts of workers’ collectives and unions around the world to improve them.
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The paper consists of three narrower units within which I try to apply three complementary methodological approaches. The first part is dedicated to the structural changes of the trade union environment, primarily to technological changes such as digitalization and robotization and their repercussions on the increasingly flexible nature of work. The framework of the analysis also includes corresponding climate changes that have a circular, green economy as their answer, as well as demographic changes and migrations and their consequences for the structure of the labour supply. The key resulting dilemma is to what extent the changes in the framework (do not) correspond to the changes in the structure and function of the trade union. The second part consists of an analysis of the union crisis, which has two dimensions: the crisis of the organization and its resources and the complementary decline of its political capital, primarily influence, trust and mobilization power. On the example of Serbia and the position of trade unions and their employees, I rely on the institutional approach, primarily on the dilemma of the extent to which reduced structural and organizational power can be compensated by concluded institutional arrangements and the logic of social dialogue and partnership. The third part is dedicated to the strategies and actors of change and the ideational approach appropriate to them relating to the values - the vision and mission of the union, as well as new alliances that can be a framework for change.
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Trade union membership has been declining in recent decades. They are becoming less popular for several reasons: the nature of jobs that dominate is changing and new professions are often individualistic; predominant forms of work are becoming flexible and geared towards reducing workers’ rights (especially collective ones); trade unions are cumbersome bureaucratized structures that cannot respond effectively to labour market challenges and changes. The research follows the stated causes of the trade union crisis from the perspective of the countries of Southeast Europe, a region that sees its future mainly in the »race to the bottom«. The implications of such state policies are multiple and they are felt in the trade unions themselves, ie union–active workers. Identifying the causes and finding an alternative are the main goals of the research. The initial hypotheses are pointed in two directions. On the one hand, it is shown that the existing symbiosis of state policy makers and owners of capital, significantly affects the possibilities of realization of collective rights of workers. On the other hand, a theoretical model of a »new union« is being introduced in order to respond to some of the challenges posed, making the idea of collective strength and solidarity attractive to workers again, while adapting to the new reality of social relations, labour market movements and aggressive neoliberal policies of diminishing labour rights. The research begins with a brief review of the legacy of the previous system of socialist self-governing relations in Yugoslavia. Then, a cross-section of normative solutions and the factual state of trade unions is made in selected countries - Croatia, Serbia and Hungary. In the next part of the research, based on the previous review, the most important conclusions concerning the trade union crisis in this region are sublimated. Finally, the last part of the research is devoted to concluding remarks, and alternative solution to the actions of the trade union in the existing unfavorable circumstances is offered.
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Firstly is the short review on the history and sociology of syndicalism showed in the article, with especially review on the contemporary development. Then, the crisis of the global capitalism is depicted, with especially explications of transition of postsocialistic states on the Balkans in the peripherical capitalism. In this global and regional context, it is presented the role of syndicats in the relations between the labour and the capital, the new modes of the exploatation (precariate...) and marginalization of the left–side’s actors acting. In the end, it is showed the plaidoyee for building of the new strategy of acting, as well as renovation of the idea of self–managing movement in the function of protection the labor interests and the struggle for postcapitalistic alternatives.
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In former ‘hard’ versions of ‘real socialistic’ societies where trade unions were weak already at the beginning of the transition process, at the end of Europeanisation - i.e. inclusion into the European market, the weak unions were marginalised and/or partially vanished. This process corresponds to the civil society interest atomization. Within the resulting environment nationalistic authoritarian ‘re-integration’ of these societies has solid conditions for growth. Comparison of the three post–Yugoslav societies and Hungary suggests that in spite of the devastating crisis and wars (within which the transitions to the ‘market economy’ were concluded) in post–Yugoslav societies trade unions still exist. The different types of ‘real-socialist’ societies explain this difference. In Yugoslav socialism workers had a voice in their factories. It was a basis of the workers movement from the late 1980s and the emerging trade unions in post–Yugoslav societies. The comparable workers voice simple did not exist in other ‘real-socialistic societies’.
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The research subject of this paper is particracy in modern Bosnia and Herzegovina. Within that context, we analyze its political, economical, and social consequences on Bosnia and Herzegovina with a special focus on the current conditions of syndicates in this country. The hypothesis of this paper is that, with the help of enforcement of national divisions in the early nineties of the twentieth century, national party–cartelization of the political system. Thereby particracy has been established, to which »transitional« significant reduction of the socialism ideas of class binding and class struggle suppressed due to strengthening of always strong and to citizens in Bosnia and Herzegovina, close international stratifications and conflicts. It has shown its radical form in the civil war from 1992 to 1995. In that kind of atmosphere, the process of privatization which had doctrinal sources of at the time dominating discourse - neoliberal theory, began. The compound of domestic political elites destroyed the social state, »transitional and particratic capitalism«, sovereignty taking, and the series of domestic and international political and economical »experiments«, led to the weakening of the syndicates. In time, they lost all of their significance and previous role. According to the conducted research, most of the citizens consider syndicates in Bosnia and Herzegovina are their own purpose and subjects to political elites. This kind of state of syndicates additionally empowers particracy and disables appropriate struggle for better position of workers and more responsible political elites.
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Over three decades since the beginning of the transformation and privatisation processes in former SFRY, and particularly in BiH, the outcomes are deindustrialized societies, atomized workers divided on different grounds, large industrial complexes completely ruined and their workers empoverished and fully disempowered through layoff s, bankruptcy and liquidation procedures, and the union organizing and actions are reduced to a minimum. Within this context, this paper analyses perception of (former) workers of three former industrial giants in BiH - Rudi Čajavec, Energoinvest, Aluminij - on the privatisation and transformation processes, role of the workers and unions within those processes, as well as the outcomes of the processes for unions and the trust of the workers in unions. Through the set of interviews with (former) workers of above mentioned three enterprises, we analyse the patterns and discourses emerging from their statements, shedding additional, workers perspective on the processes that have been going on in former SFRY and BiH spaces since the eighties. The results point out several interconnected discourses that are combined together: privatisation as stealing and robbing off workers, disempowered workers within the privatisation processes, i.e. lack of agency due to loss of power-position, politics of fear incorporated in workers’ and unions’ (non-)action, division among workers, (dis)continuities of union struggles, and finally, loss of trust in unions and labour organizing. Based on the research results, we conclude that the strategies and tactics for pacification of the workers’ rebellion and union struggles, implemented during the privatisation processes by various political, ethno–national and economic elites, resulted in complete smashing of the workers’ rebellion, division of workers and union fragmentation, thus disabling any wide-scale organizing of workers in the class struggle.
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In the article, the author elaborates the historical processes that influenced ideological and organizational formation of the early labor movement on the territory of today’s Croatia. The analysis is focused on the period from the late 1860s, i.e. from the time of the first known strikes and foundation of workers’ associations, to the beginning of the First World War. The paper deals with the issues of heterogeneity of the working class and its social and political position within the context of industrialization. Moreover, it takes in consideration and explains the most important demands articulated by the labor movement. The author discusses ideological forces that shaped the movement, its regional specificities, the most important strikes, prevailing forms of workers’ organization and the government’s attitude towards the subversive activities of socialist agitators. In short, the aim of the article is to provide an outline of key characteristics of the labor movement that was present in Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia, but also Dalmatia and Istria at the turn of the century. Also, it seeks to provide a socio-historical insight into the life of the working class faced with challenges of modernization and affirmation of capitalism. Archival sources, newspaper materials and relevant secondary literature were used during the preparation of the text. Previous researches done by the author, dedicated to the phenomenon of the labor movement in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, served as the starting point for the composition of this article.
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The paper discusses the problems of union organization that researchers face at the beginning of their academic careers in the context of the neoliberal transformation of universities in Serbia, which began in 2005, through the introduction of the Bologna reform. At the beginning of the paper, a conceptual framework was given around the terms »academic precariat«, »gig academy«, »academic capitalism«, which served to enable the specific working position of academic workers in the context of neoliberal transformation of the university. Through the analysis of legal and strategic documents, as well as a review of relevant research that takes the position of young researchers at the academy as a central topic, some of the key problems faced by young researchers are presented: non-standard employment contracts, legal problems, low investments in scientific research, labor migration and difficult models of association in order to protect labor rights through the actions of representative bodies. The paper gives examples of trade unions and organizations that work in the institutional and noninstitutional field on naming the problem of precariousness of young research and models of sustainable solutions. Finally, the paper points out the problems of the position of academic unions in the modern context as well as the need for their autonomous action in relation to power structures.
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The aim of this paper is to explain the model of media framing of trade unions as the enemy of the people in conservative populism’s discourse. For this purpose, we take the case study of the conflict between The Government of Serbian and the president of Serbia with the Union of doctors and pharmacists of Serbia, during the COVID–19 pandemics in 2020. The authors assert that conservative populism and unions have potential for collective action mobilization for making pressure on government policies, each on its side of ideological specter respectfully. We infer that conservative populisms uses media and other ideological state apparatuses to recognize trade unions as the enemies of the »people«. The paper relies on structural approach of Louis Althusser and his thesis of ideological state apparatus in particular as a means of interpellation of the subject. The case study of clash of unions and conservative populists in Serbia demonstrates that unions are interpellated as subject-enemies by the use of the media state ideological apparatus, narrowing unions’ potential for collective action.
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In this paper we want to show the conditioned action of trade unions accepted by the non - alternative ideology of neoliberalism, in the Serbian variant of wild capitalism. The activities of the trade union are not directed towards the deconstruction of established economic and social relations, but towards finding rational solutions within the mentioned non-alternative ideology of neoliberalism. Even in such circumstances, the union is exposed to ideological criticism from two, ideologically opposed positions. First, from the position of the right, where any state interference in the form of social benefits »drugs the system« and thus nurtures a culture of dependence where unions are consequently criticized because they protect the interests of these »dependent« social groups. Second, from the position of the far left, the unions are accused of collaborating with big capital and thus accepting inhumane economic and social relations in which workers are disenfranchised.
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The article examines the causes of the decline in social power of trade union organizations in Serbia. Some of them are indirectly related to global socio-economic opportunities and changes in the labor market, but in this article the causes arising from the specifics of the Serbian transicional society are analyzed in more detail. The article searches for answers to the following questions: In which direction the trade union should be reformed? How to define a union strategy for the 21st century and increase the social power of trade union?
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This paper discusses the participation of Serbian trade unions in political processes, focusing on their attempt to restrain capitalism through the participation in the activities and functions of the Social and Economic Council. One of the main objectives of this paper is to establish whether the Social and Economic Council is an agent in the promotion and support of a different model of social and economic relations in which trade unions are actively involved, or a tool which the government and employers use to manipulate trade unions. Another aspect of the paper is the power (or the lack of it) of Serbian trade unions in general. This opens a host of questions related to various issues, from the current situation in Serbia, organization and functioning of the state, rule of law, to Serbian involvement in the Euro-Atlantic integrations, to whether there is a genuine desire among the political, economic and intellectual elite to support the transformation of Serbian society into one governed by rule of law and informed by social dialogue.
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The changes and additions to the Labour law of the Republic of Serbia in 2014 were a legal turnpoint regarding labour related rights in Serbia. The changes of the law that were adopted in 2014 have enabled easier lay off of workers and they had the general characteristics of neoliberal deregulation. The privatisation process in Serbia has been accelerated by the changes of the Labour law, enabling investors to hire and fi re workers much easier. In this study we shall take a look at the specifics of the socialist social organization of Yugoslavia and how did it influence the development of the privatisation process in Serbia and what was the role of unions in the period after the political turmoil of October the fifth 2000. and whether the unions defended the interests of the working class, with special focus on the case of the adoption of changes to the Labour law in 2014. The unions we will focus on are the largest, so called representative unions that have the leading role in the workers movement of Serbia. Through the example of union activities surrounding the period when the changes to the Labour law were adopted, and also through the analysis of the general activity of these unions we will try to reach an understanding of the methods these unions use and how do they affect the socioeconomic position of the working class in Serbia. It is important to emphasize that this is an area with extremely scarce sources for studying, especially regarding the events from 2014 and unfortunately there are almost no archive materials that would enable a concrete insight into the specific circumstances that surrounded the period around the adoption of the changes of the Labour law. This is why this study uses many media reports and other publicly available resources as it’s main source for informations about this topic.
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The Catholic Church was not “born yesterday”, it is a century-old co-creator of social, political, economic, cultural, religious processes in European societies. It existed long before free laborers, workers and unions emerged in 19th century Europe as a completely new and unknown reality of the Church, as a reality that began to change the existing world, based on the feudal world. However, despite longevity and extensive experience in working with the religious population, it took the Church a long time to find suitable answers to the questions posed after the French Revolution of 1789 by these new, in many ways crucial times, especially the 19th century that brought labor and labor movements. In this paper, the author wants to answer the question of what are the beginnings of the relationship between the Catholic Church, labor and trade unions, and were the two earthly realities rivals or inseparable partners from those very beginnings?
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This paper presents the development of Catholic Social Teaching on the issue of trade unions from Pope Leo XIII. to Pope John Paul II. Social encyclicals and other church documents are analyzed in the chronological order of their creation. In addition to church documents, other available theological, sociological, and political science literature is used. Special emphasis is placed on the social doctrine of John Paul II. which in several documents legitimized the trade union movement as socially relevant and necessary.
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