Producers of the World Unite! A Return of Reformist Unionism?

Some ideas of Reformist "uplift unionism," as exemplified by the nineteenth-century Knights of Labor, have once again become interesting. Arising in a time of hyper-competition and troubled times for traditional trade unions, the Knights aimed to reform society, primarily through solidarity among producers and the formation of cooperatives. Their local organizations often included social action groups along with trade unions. Under current conditions of international hyper-competition and trade union decline, some of the ideas of the old Knights have new importance. The current concept of unionism as a social movement can be grounded in Reformist notions, as can modern worker-rights organizations and the reasoning underlying the workers' capital movement. Reformism offers a coherent approach to these labor movement strategies.