Labor Militancy and Self-Transformation

• In Event: Strikes, Labor Unions, and Political Theory

Abstract

According to what we might call “the interest group theory” of unions, advanced by Mancur Olson in The Logic of Collective Action, unions can be understood as advancing the pre-existing “latent” common interests of workers. But is a commonplace in union organizing that high-stakes collective action, like that involved in a contested strike, organizing drive, or contract negotiation, changes people. This paper draws on the work of Laurie Paul to argue that forms of collective action engaged in by union members can be understood as “transformative experiences” that alter and redefine the interests of workers. The key to understanding such transformative experience is a practical and dynamic conception of interests. As one acquires power as part of a collectivity that addresses the problems of workers in collective forms, and becomes committed to this projects, ones deliberative landscape changes. Insofar as common interests move from latency to becoming manifest through collective action, they are satisfied—paradoxically--only by being partly transformed.

Author

• Benjamin Laurence, University of Chicago