The need for a progressive transnational trade union movement

The growth of multinational companies, the breaking down of economic and financial borders, the accelerated spread of new models of work organization and the privatization of public services are all elements that have facilitated the expansion of capitalism during the past 40 years. Nearly unlimited exploitation of resources and labour has led to extraordinary concentration of wealth for some and to the impoverishment of the rest of the world.

Thus the workers' movement, once powerful enough to win significant social gains, is now weakened everywhere by successive liberal reforms, by the repression of trade unionists, by the rise of authoritarianism and by new forms of work that make workers’ conditions ever more precarious. This has led progressively to an erosion of class consciousness.

In response, trade union organizations are now seeking to forge links with other social movements and to broaden the bases of their action. Local union action alone can no longer respond adequately to social, climatic and political emergencies. Moreover, the relocation strategies of multinational companies also encourage unions to form alliances with other unions around the world, whether with unions in the North or with those in the South. These alliances take a variety of forms, from the creation of spaces for social dialogue to the development of combative campaigns within multinationals. More and more unions have chosen to diversify their action strategies and to organize on a global scale in order to increase their power.

In response to this challenge, the Global Labour Institute (GLI) aims to support and help renew the international trade union movement by creating a network of trade union and civil society organizations and movements.

The mission of the GLI is to provide a space for free discussion for all those who seek to restore the international trade union movement to its original purpose: to be the engine of progressive and radical transformation of society. Alongside the French-speaking GLI (GLI Paris), the GLI also has branches in Geneva, Manchester, New York and Moscow.