The Social Foundations of Structural Power: Strategic Position, Worker Unity and External Alliances in the Making of the Chilean Dockworker Movement

Abstract

This article examines the associational and societal foundations of structural power. A case studyof the ten-year-long history of the Unión Portuaria de Chile is analysed with a focus on a criticaljuncture in 2012–2014. The Chilean dockworker case is an emblematic example of trade unionmovement revitalisation via strikes of strategically positioned workers. Yet ethnographic researchwith the organisation suggests that the role it has come to play in the country was only possible asa result of intensive long-term organising efforts to develop a high degree of internal unity atmultiple scales, as well as sustained alliances with external actors. As a result, the authors argue thatthe most economistic accounts of worker power and trade union movement revitalisation areanalytically insufficient and would benefit from greater attention to associational and societaldimensions of power, even among the most strategically positioned workers.KEYWORDS: trade union revitalisation; structural power; associational power; strategic position; dockworkers