Using Domestic Legal Tools to Further Western Labour Internationalism

The labour movement faces a number of profound challenges in the twenty-first century. Chief among those difficulties is coping with the labour market consequences of the industrialization, modernization and globalization of the Chinese and Indian economies. The surge of a numerically large, relatively low paid and politically weak labour force into the global economy threatens to undermine existing economic protection and achievements by Western labour movements and has the potential to lead to destructive conflict between nations and states. The globalization of the US financial crisis in 2008–9 and the ensuing global recession provide further challenges because of reduced employment levels in most states. As a result, governments have been tempted to spark economic growth through measures that undermine or threaten the welfare of other countries, such as the ‘Buy America’ provisions in the US. The potential for the further use of the beggar-thy-neighbour policies of the 1930s could reappear and further exacerbate the economic crisis.