ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the rank-and-file activists of the trade unions of two different countries, Italy and Poland, considered as the heirs of the labour movement. It explains in a historical digression why the experience of Solidarity in Poland is comparable to that of Western trade unions. Trade unions, as interest organisations, are usually analysed from economic, institutional, and organisational standpoints. Quantitative studies, investigations of collective bargaining or game-theory analyses may appear more suitable than a qualitative, interpretative approach. A higher level of awareness of the logic underlying trade union action can contribute to the understanding of which interests will be represented in which forms. The search for a unitary working class consciousness among trade union activists from different countries is nowadays bound to be in vain. According to the Franco-Polish research team, Solidarity as a trade union is not only the company-level organisation of a wider political movement; its trade union action is above all 'class' action.
