Working-Class Internationalism and the Appeal of National Identity

Patrick Pasture Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Johan Verberckmoes Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

• Working class internationalism and the appeal of national identity - historical dilemmas and current debates in Western Europe, Patrick Pasture and Johan Verberckmoes; social solidarity and national identity in the Basque country - the case of the nationalist trade union ELA/STV, Ludger Mees; trade unionism in Catalonia - have unions joined nationalism? Klaus-Jurgen Nagel and Jacint Jordana; the temptations of nationalism - regionalist orientations in the Belgian Christian labour movement, Patrick Pasture; trade unions in a divided society - the case of Northern Ireland, Christopher Norton; shifting loyalties - working class organizations in Ulster between religious, nationalist and socialist strategies, Andreas Helle; regionalism threatening trade unions in Northern Italy, Michael Braun; joining the EU - the reactions of Austrian trade unions, Elisabeth Beer and Jorg Flecker; learning to play - the Europeanization of trade unions, Jelle Visser.

'The volume must be considered a success, as it moves away from the traditional, primarily theoretical, approach to the issue of working-class movements and nationalism, and begins to offer empirical data questioning many presuppositions and prejudices which have served more to occlude than to enlighten historical research on this topic.'Social History'Pasture and Verberckmoes have made a major contribution to labour and international history ... In short, this is a provocative set of studies, pointing to how much we need to re-think categories of class, nationalism, and internationalism.'International History Review