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To examine an exceptional case of international labor solidarity and advocacy in a nontraditional labor-receiving country of South Korea.

Ethnographic research on migrant advocacy organization in Korea from its inception in the mid-1990s to the present; theoretical and comparative review of literature on migrant labor mobilization, with a focus on labor unions and migrant advocacy organizations.

The significance of the Korean case is that there are an unusually high number of migrant advocacy organizations that increasingly espouse an internationalist ideology. Furthermore, their effectiveness and sustainability rest on embedded solidarity networks across a spectrum of progressive labor and civic organizations.

The chapter underscores the agentic power of society’s vulnerable populations, such as undocumented immigrant workers, despite the market-driven forces of globalization that disrupts communities and disciplines workers. Embedded solidarity with migrants from a transnational perspective adds to the much-needed discussion about global protests in the context of globalization and neoliberalism.

This paper aims to present an exploration of grassroots perspectives on trade union methods of organisational change management through internationalism. A case study of UNISON (one of the largest UK trade unions, representing public sector workers) is explored with the intention of identifying whether or not there are opportunities for the rebuilding of grassroots‐led collective identities, solidarity and community beyond national borders.

The paper is based upon a case study of UNISON's North West region in England. Participant observation was conducted and semi‐structured interviews were held with UNISON key informants. Focus group sessions were conducted with UNISON grassroots members.

There remains a big divide between the aspirations of unions such as UNISON, and the grassroots perspectives upon labour internationalism of many members. Nonetheless, as some trade unions increasingly recognise that the choice is between organisational change and growing irrelevance, we show that the way in which organisational change is understood by the grassroots is of growing significance.

The research raises implications for understanding the relationship between international officials and others within union leadership roles; the meaning of internationalism at union branch level; and the impacts of new or emergent civil society agendas such as global climate change.

The research equips trade unions with a deeper understanding of how their organisational change management strategies are supported, or questioned, by members. It demonstrates the level of grassroots support for internationalism, enabling the identification of how members position themselves with respect to cross‐border solidarity, and how they interpret organisational change strategies.

There has been great debate as to the effects of globalisation and neoliberalism on trade unions and the strategies available to achieve renewal. One such strategy is trade union internationalism. Very little is known, however, about the extent and manner of membership understandings of internationalism. Do members support internationalism, or do they perceive it as a distraction from a core agenda? The paper explores this grassroots perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the capacity for trade unions to mobilise internationally by considering how stevedores in Australia successfully internationalised a major dispute.

The paper reports the findings of a single case study of the “waterfront dispute” of 1998, an industrial dispute in the Australian stevedoring industry which included the mobilisation of unions internationally. This case study is one of the four cases in a PhD research project, which examined international trade union activity in the mining, manufacturing, banking and stevedoring industries. The methodology included semi‐structured interviews with trade union leaders and activists, as well as document analysis, and involved comparative analysis across the four case studies.

Australian stevedores or “wharfies” were well placed to mobilise internationally due to a combination of internal and external factors. In particular, the Maritime Union of Australia's long‐standing support for international causes, largely due to its left‐wing, internationalist politics, resulted in the union gaining significant support from unions internationally. Important external factors included the nature of the stevedoring industry, with its organic link to other industry sectors, combined with the neo‐liberal approach adopted in Australia which also influenced the internationalisation of the union campaign.

The study provides the opportunity to consider capacity for international mobilisation in the stevedoring industry and the contingent nature of international campaigns, with wider implications for union strategies in other industry sectors.

The paper contains an in‐depth analysis of a major dispute in the Australian stevedoring industry and makes a significant contribution to the expanding literature on the internationalisation of union campaigns and union strategy.

The crisis of globalisation and the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic pose new threats to the national security of all countries. States have been increasingly challenged on their role, particularly in the economic order. Their actions concerning pandemic, ecology, climate or air pollution have been strongly inspired by the decisions of specialised international organisations, too often advised by dominant commercial and financial interests. In this context, states have no longer been able to assume the full range of national security components. Mercantilists considered that dependence on a State’s foreign trade led to an unacceptable reduction to the power of the Prince. Today, all countries are dependent on others, and then economic wars are becoming more and more likely. Armed warfare between states remains a potential response to these possible disruptions of essential intermediate consumption or to the search for power. Moreover, the lack of solidarity perceived during the pandemic testifies to the maintenance of political and economic power relations between States and the priority given to national interests to the detriment of international public goods. The pandemic highlights the inability of states to find common solutions to today’s global problems, thus developing a strong sense of insecurity among citizens.

This chapter offers insight on how existing paradigms within Black Studies, specifically the ideas of racial capitalism and the Black Radical Tradition, can advance sociological scholarship toward greater understanding of the macro-level factors that shape Black mobilizations. In this chapter, I assess mainstream sociological research on the Civil Rights Movement and theoretical paradigms that emerged from its study, using racial capitalism as a lens to explain dynamics such as the political process of movement emergence, state-sponsored repression, and demobilization. The chapter then focuses on the reparatory justice movement as an example of how racial capitalism perpetuates wide disparities between Black and white people historically and contemporarily, and how reparations activists actively deploy the idea of racial capitalism to address inequities and transform society.

Environmental justice activism is increasingly globalized, multi-faceted and multi-scaled (Bickerstaff & Agyeman, 2009; Walker, 2009a, 2009b). The existence or perception of injustice triggers the development of social activism in increasingly diverse contexts. The present contribution seeks to assess the explanatory value of resources in understanding activism (Freeman, 1979). In place of justice, the under-studied social movement theory of resource mobilization is explored as a complementary and partly oppositional account of justice activism. The highly controversial anti-GMO movement in France is selected as an invigorating context for evaluating activism. The perceived injustice of lifting restrictions on the importation of GM maize into France inspired the mobilization of a nationwide movement. In sharp contrast to existing literature, ideology is considered as a resource that effectively promotes or hinders social activism. Significant conclusions are developed for environmental justice activism research around emphasizing instability, heterogeneity, cultural sensitivity and above all, the limitations of agency-centric arguments.