The collapse of the
Soviet Union, which consecrated the worldwide triumph
of capitalism, has profoundly transformed the lives
of the people of the region. A period of economic
restructuring has been accompanied by steep economic
decline, plummeting living standards, widespread
corruption and authoritarian government. Despite a
high rate of union membership, millions of workers
went for months without wages for work done, while a
small group accumulated vast fortunes.
Based upon an abundance
of first-hand material gathered by the author in the
course of more than a decade of research and labour
education in the region, Labour After the Soviet
Union examines the complex interplay of history,
ideology, leadership, state policy, and economic
conditions to explain the difficulties workers have
encountered in defending their interests against a
methodical, state-led attack on living standards and
work conditions, and against the arbitrary power of
predatory managers and owners. It combines a
comparative analysis of the union movements of the
three countries with detailed case studies of local
unions.
Of the fifteen
independent countries that emerged from the former
Soviet Union, Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus were the
most industrialized. Although integral parts of the
highly centralized Soviet system for seventy years,
they nevertheless display significant differences
linked to geography, history, state policy and
economic structure. The comparative analysis
presented in this volume allows the author to assess
the impact of these factors on the labour movements.
On a more general
level, the book is an inquiry into the condition of
civil society after the fall of Soviet
totalitarianism. Unions being by far the largest and
most influential popular organizations, their fate is
central to the prospects for democracy in these
countries.
Table of Contents
DAVID MANDEL, labour
and 'post-Soviet' scholar, union and political
activist, teaches political science at the University
of Quebec, Montreal. He is co-founder of the School
for Worker Democracy, which conducts rank-and-file
labour education in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. He
has written extensively on labour, society, and
politics, past and present, in the region. See: Perestroika and the
Soviet People,
Former
"State Socialist" World,
Looking
East Leftwards.
296
pages, 6x9, bibliography, index
Paperback ISBN: 1-55164-242-5 $28.99
Hardcover ISBN: 1-55164-243-3 $57.99
Labour Studies /
Business & Economics / Politics
May
2004
