Rethinking Labour Movements in Times of Polycrisis

We are living in times of multiple, overlapping crises, also referred to as polycrisis, including a crisis of global political economy, a crisis of global labour relations, a crisis of global gender relations, a crisis of global race relations and a global ecological crisis. Underpinning these internally related crises, as I will argue in this paper, is the relentless expansionary dynamic driving the capitalist mode of production and extending exploitation and expropriation into ever further areas of life. And yet, where there is exploitation, there is also resistance. Labour movements have played and will play a crucial role in efforts of defending life and finding alternative ways out of crises.

The purpose of this paper is to reflect critically on how to conceptualise labour movements best in times of multiple crises. I will argue that considering that capitalist exploitation is not only focused on exploitation of wage labour in the workplace but also on the expropriation of unpaid labour and cheap natures in the spheres of social reproduction, resistance to expropriation in social reproduction has also to be understood as a form of class struggle. Hence, labour movements do not only comprise trade unions and other workplace-based organisations, but equally social movements, citizens’ committees and environmental groups. It is such an expanded and broadened understanding of class struggle and labour movements, which provides a basis for constructive reflections on progressive ways out of crises.