Thursday 7 April 2011

Labour and the resistance to neo-liberal restructuring in Europe

Bieler, Andreas (2011) ‘Labour, new social movements and the resistance to neo-liberal restructuring in Europe’, New Political Economy, Vol.16/2: 163-83. Available online: DOI 10.1080/13563461003789779.


The purpose of this article is to analyse one of the very first European level instances of trade union and social movement interaction in defence of the public sector, the Coalition for Green and Social Procurement, an alliance of European trade unions and green and social NGOs, and its campaign for an amendment of the new public procurement directives from 2000 to 2003. It will be examined to what extent this campaign was able to change the directives and counter neo-liberal restructuring effectively as well as what the possibilities but also limits of trade union and social movement co-operation are as exemplified in this particular case study.