Issues and Themes

The memory of trade unions often focuses on collective actions and strikes, as these have often been dramatic events, leaving a big impact on the long-term memory of trade unionists—and sometimes even on societies at large. Hence, it is important to ask how strikes and other forms of collective action are remembered.

Trade unions have often been the backbone of democratic movements around the world. How do these communities remember their struggles for both political and industrial democracy? The democratization of state structures was often important to trade unions as independent unions can only develop and flourish in political democracies. Trade unions have also been crucially engaged in extending workplace democracy on the shopfloor and in various corporatist arrangements. The history and memory of those vital initiatives for democracy will also be featured in this section of the webpage.

Trade unions rarely fight for the rights of working people alone. Throughout global history, trade unions have been the strongest when they could find powerful societal allies. These included political parties, cooperative grassroots movements, and various social movements also fighting for the rights of working people (for example, landless labourer movements, movements engaged in securing reasonable housing for working people, and many more). As such, we aim to demonstrate how these alliances functioned in history and how they are remembered.

Trade union leaders often had an iconic status and are well-remembered in their respective movements. We are looking to continue collecting material that demonstrates how these leaders are commemorated around the world.

Trade union struggles, as well as prominent activists and unionists, are memorialized by various statues and monuments. What do these memorials depict, and how has public reception of the memorials changed over time, if at all?