The global labour movement has been divided over ‘free trade’. Many unions in the Global North, especially in export-oriented sectors, supported such agreements to secure markets and jobs, while unions in the Global South opposed them, having experienced job losses and deindustrialisation. In my new article, ‘Divisions in the Core of Global Capitalism? Italian Labour and “Free Trade”’, published in the journal New Political Economy, I demonstrate that a split has opened up in the core of Global Capitalism. Against the background of drastic deindustrialisation, Italian trade unions have moved to an explicit anti – ‘free trade’ position, while especially the export sector German and Scandinavian trade unions continue their support.
Historically, support for ‘free trade’ was part of a post–World War II national consensus in Italy, including also trade unions. Given Italy’s shortage of raw materials and advanced industries, export-led growth was seen as essential to finance necessary imports. Similar to trade unions in other European countries, this pro – ‘free trade’ position first changed in 2014 and 2015 during the broad mobilisation against the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations. As most tariffs between the EU and the US had already been removed at that time, the danger of removing non-tariff barriers such as health and safety regulations, the key focus of TTIP, was clear.







