Education and Trade Unions 2nd ed (original) (raw)
2013, Education and Trade Unions
This chapter establishes a case for considering trade unions as educational institution and introduces the writings of Karl Marx and others on institutional trade unionism and education as a springboard to discussion. The identification of a hierarchy of trade union activity and the work of Habermas on knowledge and human interest provides a framework for examining curriculum issues in trade union education. The notion of socialism from below and the potential of the digital age to bring workers in different industrial sectors closer together in ways that operate "in conjunction with, but outside" of formal trade unionism is also discussed. However, despite this promise, while a cadre of information rich workers in a knowledge economy might offer renewed periods of social and political activism, it might also represent organized labour's "last gasps". Introductory Note to the Reader This edition of 'trade unions and education' builds on research undertaken in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In this context, the work appears dated. Therefore, today it seeks only to provide a basic framework for considering the role of trade unions in society and the application of educational concepts to trade unionism. The study was originally undertaken within Australia as a higher degree research project, although both the framework and discussion still have relevance for understanding many aspects of the educational role of trade unionism in the West. The model and its associated principles and practices provide stepping stones to developing critical understandings about trade union education in its broadest context. The humanist works of Marx and other thinkers on the Left provide anchors for the analysis of the content of trade union education. Most of the original findings of the study have been converted to broad generalizations with contemporary references added concerning the various components of trade union education. While the future of trade unionism in the West appeared calamitous and quite uncertain during 2013, Verma and Kochan (2004) suggest four generic possibilities that might shape the future of trade unions. Perhaps a comprehensive analysis of past trends will help trade unions shape a new role for them in society? Powerful niches could also emerge within the trade union movement to plot a new strategic direction for change. Another view suggests some unforeseen crisis will galvanize unionists and trigger a revival of trade union activity in the coming decades. The most promising scenario is that trade unions will undergo a metamorphosis to a new organizational type, one very different from the traditional form of trade unions. In the light of these potential paths, one thing is certain-trade unions must change significantly in order to meet the new challenges of the twenty-first century. The same old approaches and thinking will not deliver a new stage of trade unionism in the social democratic tradition.
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