Introduction: Sri Lanka, the global south and worker struggles -- History of unions in Sri Lanka : the colonial state and political unionism -- The nurses' and a monk : limits of economic unionism -- Plantation workers and anti-Tamil violence : struggles of political unionism -- Free trade zone...

The roots of decline : the AFL-CIO in the Meany years -- A new president, and a new decade -- Kirkland fights back : the 1981 Solidarity Day mass march -- From solidarity to defeat -- Defending what we have : survival and decline in Reagan's second term -- Partial détente : George H.W. Bush and...