This article is an offshoot of a three year study into the self-organized groups for women, black members, disabled members and lesbians and gay men which have been enshrined in the constitution of the UK's public sector union UNISON. The argument is that self-organization has become a significant axis around which trade union democracy is being reconstituted in the late twentieth century. However, our understanding of this phenomenon has been obscured by the ascendancy of mainstream union perspectives over self-organized perspectives, which has unfortunately been compounded by academic researchers. A re-conceptualization of self-organization proceeds in three stages. First, it is contextualized politically and theoretically in terms of trade union histories, new social movements and models of a diversified democratic polity. Second, it is re-signified by attending to its actual unfolding over the past two decades and the self-understandings of its activists. Third, is problematized with reference to exogenous pressures towards bureaucracy and oligarchy, and endogenous pressures towards essentialisms and exclusions.
本文是对英国公共部门工会 UNISON 的章程中规定的妇女、黑人会员、残疾人会员和男女同性恋者自发组织的团体进行的一项为期三年的研究的成果。其论点是,自组织已成为 20 世纪末工会民主重建的重要轴心。然而,我们对这一现象的理解却因主流工会视角凌驾于自组织视角之上而变得模糊不清,不幸的是,学术研究人员又加剧了这种情况。对自组织的重新认识分为三个阶段。首先,从工会历史、新社会运动和多元化民主政体模式的角度,对自组织进行政治和理论背景化。其次,通过关注其在过去二十年中的实际发展及其积极分子的自我理解,对其进行重新定义。第三,参照官僚主义和寡头政治的外生压力以及本质主义和排斥的内生压力,将其问题化。