What began to occur in the last quarter of the twentieth century was the break up of the
dominant nation state-based economic model as what we now call globalisation kicked into gear.
Economic internationalisation had flourished previously (1870-1914) but this time round its
momentum seemed unstoppable. The potential threat of an alternative social and political order
had evaporated with the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The 1990s were the period of easy
globalisation: the corporations, the international economic organisations and the dominant
nation-states paved the way for a new ‘market-friendly’ order. The trade unions oriented toward
the nation-state found that the centre of gravity had shifted elsewhere. Back in the 1970s there
had been sporadic moves towards trade union internationalism in a number of sectors but now a
global outlook had become an imperative. A gradual realisation came across the labour
movement that the old corporatist arrangements and partnerships with employers were no longer
to be a viable mechanism to defend, let alone advance, the interests of working people.