The Weakness of Strong Social Movements: Models of Unionism in the East European Context

Despite recent arguments that political and social movement unionism is the key to labour revitalization, this article shows that such strategies have been detrimental to labour in Eastern Europe, and that only a recent turn towards economic unionism has helped turn the tide. Through an analysis of East European labour strategies since 1989, particularly in Poland, the article argues that much recent theory is based on capitalist experiences that are inappropriate for understanding post-communism. Whether social movement unionism will be beneficial to labour depends on the kind of social movement of which unions see themselves a part.