A seminar with Dina Bishara, Middle East Initiative Research Fellow and Ph.D. in Political Science, the George Washington University. Part of the Middle East Initiative Research Fellow Seminar Series.
Moderated by Tarek Masoud, Sultan of Oman Associate Professor of International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School.
When do trade unions emerge as major political actors or adopt an agenda that transcends their members’ material interests? Given their typically large and stable membership, trade unions often have strong organizational capacities and the potential, in some cases, to emerge as platforms for political mobilization. This makes it particularly important to understand the conditions under which trade unions shift between unionist and political agendas. Existing explanations—focusing on the degree of trade union autonomy from the state, labor’s material incentives to support democratization, and the labor movement’s relationship to elite actors in the transition—do not sufficiently account for the UGTT’s high-profile political role in Tunisia’s transition, as well as the fact that the organization has sometimes prioritized its political role over its members’ material interests. Using a historical analysis of the evolution and trajectory of the UGTT, I argue that the context in which trade union organizations emerge and whether their formation precedes the establishment of a post-independence regime has important long-term implications for the type of union activism in a given country. If trade union organizations have a strong presence at the time of regime formation, and if their institutional identity is tied to broader struggles (perhaps the struggle for national independence), these unions are more likely to maintain a commitment to both unionist and broader political goals.
For more about Dina Bishara, click here.
