Suzanne Franzway
and Mary Margaret Fonow,
"Queer Activism, Feminism and the Transnational Labor Movement"
(page 4 of 4)
Discursive Frames and Mobilizing Structures
Collective action takes place through mobilizing structures—the
networks of groups and organizations prepared to mobilize for
action.[29]
These structures, both formal and informal, serve as organizational
mechanisms to collect and use the movement's resources. Although often
designed for other purposes, they also serve as sites for collective
action and identity formation. To identify and develop mobilizing
structures effectively, activists must successfully frame them as useful
and appropriate to the social-change tasks they will be used to
facilitate. In other words, strategic framing is central in shaping the
available range of mobilizing structures.
In order for unions to be viewed as mobilizing structures for
achieving economic justice for existing and potential LGBT members,
unions and their networks have to be discursively framed as such. A
discursive frame "serves as an interpretive schema that simplifies and
condenses the world out there by selecting, punctuating, and encoding
objects, situations, events, experiences and sequences of actions within
one's present or past environment."[30]
Discursive frames are important
because they A) help transform issues and problems into grievances about
which individuals believe something can and should be done, and B) help
participants to see that unions can make a difference. "To be successful
frames must seek congruence and complementarity between the interests,
values, and beliefs of the potential movement participants and the
activities, goals, and ideologies of social movements."[31]
Finding this congruence will not be an easy task, however, since frames that
resonate with queer folks may not resonate with "straight" folks.
Activists use discursive tools (such as conference resolutions,
policy statements, newsletters, websites, and education programs) as
well as institutionally sanctioned spaces (such as conventions,
workshops, labor schools, committee structures) to create a network of
resources that can be called into action to mobilize members and
potential supporters at strategically important moments. Activists
forge a collective sense of themselves as political actors through the
day-to-day activities of building and sustaining these
networks.[32]
As an outcome of feminist activism, unions are struggling with new
ways to think about and frame family issues. Because globalization has
contributed to the merging of private life with the public sphere, it
has become increasingly difficult to distinguish among work, family, and
intimate relations. This shift has important implications for labor
politics. It is essential for labor to understand the sexual politics
of everyday life including family, intimate relations, social
reproduction, sexuality, and self-care. Union feminists are calling on
labor to move far beyond nominal support for policies that help women
balance work and family, and to instead challenge the fundamental
relations of power based on gender in every sphere of life. Responding
to the challenge will be difficult for labor; some men who have been
subject to the economic dislocations of globalization often experience
these dislocations as a threat to their masculinity rather than a basis
for labor militancy. As a consequence, they are vulnerable to
political discourses and movements that call for a return to traditional
"family values."
Politically, it is problematic for labor to uncritically co-opt the
conservative discursive hold on "family values" by turning to "working
families;" such a discursive frame does not take into account the sexual
politics of intimate kinship, or recognize the great variation in family
structures and gender relations that are part and parcel of
globalization. It also does not adequately acknowledge the condition of
individuals who are exploited or at risk within their family structures,
trapped in authoritarian, exploitative, or violent living arrangements.
Progressive organizations that make a simple appeal to "working
families"—without recognizing the complexity of families—will not be
able to mobilize a viable progressive labor movement.[33]
Cognitively, such
language evokes the patriarchal family based on traditional gender
roles, and leaves little room for labor to address the real needs of
many workers who live their lives within alternative families including
single-headed households, multigenerational households, gay and lesbian
households, co-habiting adults, single households, childless couples,
and unrelated adults sharing domestic responsibilities. Debates over
the interpretation of a frame often result in the reformulation and
extension of meaning so that they appeal to a broader audience.
Conclusion
The labor movement is formally structured to represent the economic
and political interests of workers at local, national and international
levels, and thus represents a valuable transnational resource for
feminist and LGBT activists. Networks and alliances between trade unions
and LGBT activists are vital; complete consensus is unnecessary, but
without such groupings, activists involved in queer organizing risk
isolation and burnout. While workers benefit from queer organizing, the
labor movement also gains in relevance, energy and growth. However,
the potential political opportunities arising from such alliances cannot
be realized without first analyzing and challenging the obstacles of
sexual politics within the structures of queer organizing, as discussed
in this paper. As Carol Beaumont, New Zealand Council of Trade Union
Secretary recently observed: "We are a long way from having stamped out
homophobia—certainly in the community as a whole but also among
unions—our officials, activists and members."[34]
With their critique of heteronormative social relations, queer
activists and feminists have the potential to revitalize and expand the
boundaries of the labor movement by pushing unions to consider new forms
of organizing, new types of workers and workplaces, and different types
of issues.[35]
In turn, unions have the potential to provide queer
activists and feminists with resources to participate in transnational
politics. Because they identify with multiple social movements,
feminist and queer labor activists are in a position to build alliances
between social movements. Finally, such activism situates the local
struggles of workers within a transnational context—one that attempts to
link questions of economic justice to the social and economic rights of
LGBT workers around the world.
Endnotes
1. This paper draws on our research for our book,
Making Feminist Politics in Global Labor Movements: Transnational
Alliances between Women and Labor, under contract with the
University of Illinois Press. [Return to text]
2. Suzanne Franzway & Mary Margaret Fonow, "An
Australian Feminist Twist on Transnational Labor Activism." Signs
33: 3 (2008): 537-544. [Return to text]
3. See Mary Margaret Fonow & Suzanne Franzway,
"Transnational Union Networks, Feminism and Labour Advocacy." Trade
Union Responses to Globalization. Ed. Verena Schnidt. Geneva: ILO
Press, 2007. 165-176. Also Suzanne Franzway & Mary Margaret Fonow, "An
Australian Feminist Twist on Transnational Labor Activism," Signs
33: 3 (2008). 537-544. [Return to text]
4. Kate Millet, Sexual Politics. New York:
Avon Books, 1969: 23-4. [Return to text]
5. Suzanne Franzway, Sexual Politics and Greedy
Institutions: Union Women, Commitments and Conflicts in Public and in
Private. Sydney: Pluto Press Australia, 2001. [Return to text]
6. Jude Irwin, 'The pink ceiling is too low':
workplace experiences of lesbians, gay men and transgender people,
1999. http://www.arts.usyd.edu.au/Arts/departs/social/jirwinpub.
[Return to text]
7. Fiona Colgan, Chris Creegan, Aidan McKearney, &
Tessa Wright, Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Workers Equality, Diversity
and Inclusion in the Workplace. A Qualitative Research Study.
London: Comparative Organisation and Equality Research Centre [COERC],
London Metropolitan University, 2006. [Return to text]
8. See report by Education International, The
Rights of Gay and Lesbian Education Personnel, Triennial Report.
Education International, 2001. [Return to text]
9. John Blandford, "The Nexus of Sexual
Orientation and Gender in the Determination of Earnings." Industrial
and Labor Relations Review, 56 (2003): 622-642. [Return to text]
10. Ragins, B. R., Cornwell, J. M., Belle Rose
Ragins, John M. Cornwell, & Janice Miller, "Heterosexism in the
workplace." Group and Organization Management, 28 (2003): 1: 45-74. [Return to text]
11. Sheila Cunnison, & Jane Stageman,
Feminizing the Unions: Challenging the Culture of Masculinity.
Aldershot: Avebury, 1995; Sue Ledwith, "The Future as Female? Gender,
Diversity and Global Labor Solidarity." The Future of Organised
Labor. Ed. C. Phelan. Oxford: Peter Lang, 2006: 91. [Return to text]
12. Monica L. Bielski, Identity at Work: U.S.
Labor Union Efforts to Address Sexual Diversity through Policy and
Practice (Rutgers, Dissertation 2005); Hunt G. & M. Bielski Boris,
"The lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender challenge to American
labor." The Sex of Class: Women Transforming American Labor. Ed.
D.S. Cobble. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2007: 81-99; Mary
Margaret Fonow, Union women: forging feminism in the United
Steelworks of America. Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis Press,
2003. [Return to text]
13. Mary Fainsod Katzenstein, Faithful and
Fearless: Moving Feminist Protest inside the Church and Military.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999: 33. [Return to text]
14. Jennifer Curtin, Women and Trade Unions: A
Comparative Perspective. Sydney: Ashgate, 1999: 33. [Return to text]
15. Genge, Sue, "Solidarity and Pride."
Canadian Women's Studies 18: 1 (1998): 97-99. [Return to text]
16. Gerald Hunt, & Judy Haiven, "Building
Democracy for Women and Sexual Minorities: Union Embrace of Diversity."
Relations industrielles, 61: 4: 666-682. [Return to text]
17. Fa'afafine is a Samoan term that literally
means to be like a woman, and Takataapui is a Maori term to describe
intimate friends of the same sex. [Return to text]
18. Patrick McCreery, & Kitty Krupat,
Introduction. "Out front: Lesbians, gays, and the struggle for workplace
rights." Social Text, 17: 4 (1999): 1-8, 5. [Return to text]
19. Neale Towart, "Mardi Gras: The Biggest Labor
Festival?" Workers Online (2002). [Return to text]
20. Robin Fortescue, "Mardi Gras: The biggest
labor festival of the year." Hecate, 262 (2000): 62-65, 64. [Return to text]
21. See Laboring for Rights: Unions and Sexual
Diversity across Nation, Ed. Gerald Hunt. Philadelphia: Temple,
1999; Out at Work: Building a Gay-Labor Alliance, Eds. Kitty
Krupat & Patrick McCreery. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,
1999. [Return to text]
22. A Global Union Federation (GUF) is an
international federation of national unions organized by industry,
sector, or occupation. Unions are members of the global union
federation in their sector. For example, a steelworker in the U.S.
would belong to the United Steelworkers of America and that union would
in turn belong to the International Metalworkers Federation—the GUF
representing workers in steel, auto, electronics, and precision
instruments. GUFs are peak labor bodies because the pull together
workers from different unions and different countries. To read more
about GUFs see
http://www.global-unions.org. [Return to text]
23. For the value of self-organizing see the
special Industrial Relations Journal, 37, 4, 2006. [Return to text]
24. See PSI web site
http://www.world-psi.org and
EI web site
http://www.ei-ie.org/en/index.php.
[Return to text]
25. http://www.ei-ie.org/lgbt/en/.
[Return to text]
26. http://www.ei-ie.org/lgbt/en/.
[Return to text]
27. Workers Online. Workers Out For Gay
Games. 2002.
http://workers.labor.net.au/139/news83_gay.html.
[Return to text]
28. See worldOutgames at
http://www.games-cologne.de/en.
[Return to text]
29. Dieter Rucht, "The Impact of National
Contexts on Social Movement Structures: Across Movement and Cross
National Comparison." Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements:
Political Opportunities, Mobilizing Structures and Cultural
Framings. Eds. Doug McAdam et al. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1996. [Return to text]
30. David A. Snow, E. Burke Rochford, Steven K.
Worden & Robert D. Benford, "Frame Alignment Processes, Micro
Mobilization and Movement Participation." American Sociological
Review, 51 (1986): 464-81. [Return to text]
31. Mary Margaret Fonow, "Human Rights,
Feminism, and Transnational Labor Solidarity." Just Advocacy? Women's
Human Rights, Transnational Feminisms, and the Politics of
Representation. Eds. Wendy S. Hesford & Wendy Kozol. New Brunswick,
NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2005: 221-243. [Return to text]
32. Mary Margaret Fonow, Union Women: Forging
Feminism in the United Steelworkers of America. Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 2003. [Return to text]
33. Lisa Duggan, "Crossing the Line: The Brandon
Teena Case and the Social Psychology of Working Class Resentment."
New Labor Forum, 12 (2003): 37-44. [Return to text]
34. Carol Beaumont, "Stamping out homophobia all
over the world." Paper presented at the UK Trades Union Congress
Conference "Stamping Out Homophobia." London, 2006. [Return to text]
35. For an excellent discussion of the way women
are transforming the labor movement, see The Sex of Class: Women
Transforming American Labor. Ed. Dorothy Sue Cobble. Ithaca, NY:
Cornell University Press, 2007. [Return to text]
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