Quelle: WSI
: Issue 03/2025
WSI-MITTEILUNGEN 3/2025
Christoph Scherrer
Geopolitical Change: Germany’s Economic Challenges
Abstract
The article outlines the new geopolitical tensions, particularly between the USA and the People’s Republic of China, and explains them as a consequence of capitalist competition. The central thesis is that the competitive principle of capitalism has an inherent tendency to transcend borders and at the same time to mobilise social forces at a national level. Not only for the USA, but also for Germany in particular, China’s technological catch-up represents a challenge that both countries are countering with a strategy of de-risking supply chains and with industrial policy. At the same time, due to the much more extensive measures taken by the USA, which have a high level of financial strength and sanctions power, the German economy threatens to fall behind. In addition, the transformative potential of industrial policy sustainability measures is not being fully exploited due to the use of resources in competition. The resurgence of nation-state mentalities is also jeopardising European cohesion, which is indispensable for overcoming the many challenges. more … (in German)
WSI-MITTEILUNGEN 3/2025
Jenny Simon
China’s Growing Importance as a Challenge for the Global Economic Order?
Abstract
The article analyses China’s integration into the global economy and asks what impact it has on global economic regulation. Focusing on China’s new role in global trade and financial relations, the author argues that this has not radically changed the regulation of the global economy but is accompanied by a series of incremental transformation processes and conflicts over the shape of the global economy. The conflicts highlight cracks in the claim to universal validity of the market-liberal paradigm. The counterstrategies of the USA and the EU governments contribute to a fragmentation of the market-liberal global economic order and further a development towards an increasingly multipolar constellation. more … (in German)
WSI-MITTEILUNGEN 3/2025
Simone Claar
Energy and Climate Financing as a Global Challenge
Abstract
The climate crisis requires global solutions that promote the adaptation to the consequences of climate change through comprehensive policy measures and investments. The Ukraine war has highlighted the geopolitical role of fossil fuels and the need to reduce dependencies. The article looks at energy and climate financing and shows how geopolitical dynamics influence the energy crisis. The analysis proves that there is a paradigm shift from state- to market-based financing. Various financial instruments are promoting the energy transition, with the public sector often assuming the risk when attracting private investors. This development is illustrated by examples of bidding competitions, international credit agreements and green funds based on research findings on the energy transition in Africa. The article illustrates that market-orientated financing is strongly represented but makes local participation more difficult. In the long term, solutions are needed that give the Global South more room for manoeuvre and do not reinforce existing inequality structures and power relations. more … (in German)
WSI-MITTEILUNGEN 3/2025
Frauke Banse
The Geopolitics of the New Post‑colonial Debt Crisis
Abstract
The article analyses the causes of the current debt crisis of post-colonial states in their geopolitical and geo-economic contexts. It shows that the handling of the first major debt crisis in the Global South in the 1980s set the course for today’s debt situation. Measures such as the introduction of Brady Bonds and structural adjustment programmes have deepened the “passive extraversion” (Becker) of post-colonial states and thus exacerbated the debt problem. Geopolitical/geo-economic interests play a major role in both the debt crisis of the 1980s and today. In the current debate, however, the role of China is being exaggerated, and that of private creditors in the crisis dynamics underestimated. more … (in German)
WSI-MITTEILUNGEN 3/2025
Florian Butollo
The Technology Race for Artificial Intelligence and Its Pathologies
Abstract
Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a key technology that is quickly and widely adopted. This article discusses the importance of data and computing power as well as trends in economic concentration, which have structural influence on the global economy. Due to the significant economic, political and military role of AI, the race for control of this technology continues to intensify, unfolding as a new level of competition among large tech companies on the one hand and as geopolitical competition on the other. The article identifies the unequal reorganisation of the transnational division of labour, the concentration of power with Big Tech and the subordination of public welfare-oriented objectives to economic interests as pathologies of this race. more … (in German)
WSI-MITTEILUNGEN 3/2025
Ismail Doğa Karatepe
Globalisation Unabated: Casual Labour Back in Western European Ports
Abstract
This study examines how the particular labour regimes in the ports of Antwerp and Hamburg, which were established after the Second World War, have developed under the pressure of flexibilisation requirements. These labour regimes included the formation of monopolistic pools of unionised dockworkers that guaranteed companies a continuous supply of experienced personnel and a basic form of job security for registered workers. The author shows that the dockworkers were largely able to defend the pool system. However, outside these ports, in Vlissingen, a new port close to Antwerp, a ‘market-type’ labour control regime for logistics workers developed. Vlissingen has become particularly important for the handling of perishable fruits such as bananas, which requires a high degree of flexibility. The case of Vlissingen is interpreted as an example of evasive strategies when the dismantling of workers’ protective rights encounters resistance from well-organised workforces that are ready for conflict. more … (in German)
WSI-MITTEILUNGEN 3/2025
Stefanie Lorenzen
Transforming Global Value Chains. Does the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive Provide Social Sustainability?
Abstract
Disruptions, geopolitics and climate change are affecting global value chains. One factor driving this transformation is the race for critical raw materials. At the same time, social and ecological sustainability are high on the political agenda. The EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) is to contribute to this aim by imposing due diligence requirements on large companies to prevent adverse human rights and environmental impacts in their value chains. The article shows that the CSDDD offers scope for trade unions and NGOs to influence corporate actions to the benefit of those affected. The potential implications are outlined through three examples drawn from the automotive sector. more … (in German)
WSI-MITTEILUNGEN 3/2025
Maike Finnern, Carmen Ludwig
International Co-operation as a Response to Multiple Crises. Global Trade Union Campaigns in the Education Sector
Abstract
Against the backdrop of multiple crises, international trade union cooperation is becoming more important. The authors describe the work of the Global Union Federation Education International (EI) against the privatisation of education, highlighting the potential of global trade union campaigns to respond to new challenges. They emphasise that strengthening the cooperation between education unions and civil society organisations was crucial for their success. more … (in German)
WSI-MITTEILUNGEN 3/2025
Nora Räthzel, Dimitris Stevis
Considerations for an Effective Socio-ecological Trade Union Policy
Abstract
Every product has a life cycle that begins with the extraction of resources from nature and ends with the return of its remnants to nature. Whether a product was produced in an ecologically viable and socially just manner can only be judged based on its entire life cycle. For example, wind turbines, solar systems and electric cars require increasing amounts of minerals, causing greater destruction of nature, promoting local and global social inequalities, and creating new forms of geopolitical competition and power relations. This makes green growth a questionable idea. These are the points of departure from which the authors develop four criteria for an effective socio-ecological trade union policy. more … (in German)
WSI-MITTEILUNGEN 3/2025
Neva Löw
Deport and Recruit. Trade Unions’ Options for Action in the Current Migration Policy Debate
Abstract
How can trade unions position themselves in the heated debate about migration? The current migration policy debate is characterised by two moments that are mutually dependent but appear contradictory at first glance: the deportation and the recruitment of foreign workers. In this charged political situation, it is more important than ever for trade unions to succeed in shifting the balance of power in their favour by expanding strategies of solidarity. The experiences of the welcoming movements in 2015 can provide important indications. more … (in German)
WSI-MITTEILUNGEN 3/2025
Marie Diekmann, Maximilian Pichl
Immigration Unions? Labour Migration as a Strategic Challenge for Trade Unions
Abstract
The article explores the strategic importance of labour migration for trade unions in the context of labour shortages and a radicalised migration discourse. Although in the past, unions have oscillated between solidarity and distancing in their relationship with migrants, they have become essential spaces for organising the interests of migrant workers and key actors in defending their rights. Organising migrant workers in the highly precarious low-wage sector remains particularly challenging. Union strategies include not only specialised advisory and support structures but also political advocacy for equal labour standards. more … (in German)