Note for Teachers
The following are suggested questions and activities that can be given to your students after they read the materials of each section. The questions are meant to be asked as a review exercise, but also as a critical thinking exercise. The activities, which may require additional research, can be presented as classroom exercises or as individual assignments for essays or class presentations (see also Resources for suggested research materials). Some activities call for students to have debates that would engage the entire class, but all of the questions and activities can be used in this way. These are only suggested questions and activities. Teachers should rewrite or develop their own as they feel necessary.
Essential Principles and History
Study Questions
Question
Why did Polish workers go on strike in August 1980? What was their main demand? Why did they demand the right to form a free trade union? What was Solidarity’s ultimate victory?
Question
Why is freedom of association important? Is it more important than other freedoms? What does labor strategist Tom Kahn mean when he writes, “Freedom of expression without freedom of association is the right to speak freely in the wilderness?”
Question
In his study of the United States in the 1830s, Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville wrote that “the science of association was the mother of all science” in democracy. What did he mean?
Question
What forms of free association can you think of? Where has freedom of association generally been respected and where have states tried to repress this freedom? Why do dictatorships repress or close down free organizations of citizens?
Question
When was the Universal Declaration of Human Rights enacted? Why? What is the more specific meaning of freedom of association in international law?
Question
Why was the International Labour Organization formed? What is its purpose?
Question
How do trade unions strengthen democracy and form a foundation for democracy as a stable form of governance? What is trade union density? What correlates with trade union density?
Question
Why does the Universal Declaration of Human Rights include a clause against compulsory membership in associations? How did authoritarian and totalitarian states try to control association of citizens?
Question
Why do many economists and political theorists consider trade unions essential for democracy as a stable form of governance. What factors does Tom Kahn cite strengthening this argument in “Trade Unions as Mediating Institutions.” How do unions co-exist with free markets?
Question
What are examples of worker resistance to dictatorship? What are examples of workers organizing trade unions in democracies? What was the significance of the 2023 strike by the United Auto Workers?
Activities and Study Topics
Activity
The struggle of workers for freedom of association has a common history across countries and continents. Have students review the accounts of those struggles in Poland, United Kingdom and the United States (see sections in Essential Principles and History). Have class discussion or assign a brief essay on what were the common elements of those struggles? What were uncommon elements in their histories?
Activity
Assign the Albert Shanker Institute and Freedom House report on the state of worker rights in the world (see first item in Resources). Have class discussion or assign a paper on the topic: How does the report assess the US record on protecting freedom of association compared with those of other democracies and why is the United States deemed “partly free”? Have students update findings by looking for news of recent efforts to organize unions and represent workers (such as the 2023 UAW strike).
Activity
Review the section “Unions and Democracy” and/or assign the essay “Organized Labor as a Mediating Institution” (see Resources). Have class discussion or assign an essay on: Why are unions mediating institutions in democracies? How do unions function as membership organizations and as organizations bargaining collectively for workers interests? How has the weakening of trade unions in the last decades impacted US democracy?
Activity
Alternately or in addition, have students review the section “Unions and Dictatorships.” Have class discussion (or assign an essay) comparing the function of unions in democracy and unions in dictatorships? How do authoritarian governments view unions? How do they seek to control them? What are examples of workers organizing unions or other free associations to resist or overcome dictatorship?
Activity
Have class discussion or assign an essay on how other free associations have contributed to the advance of democracy or of democratic freedoms (e.g., the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, the “No Mas” movement in Chile, the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia, etc.). What role does freedom of association have in a democracy?
Chile
Study Questions
Question
What role did freedom of association play in the history of democracy in Chile? In Chile’s “Golden Age of Democracy”?
Question
After the 1973 coup, how did General Augusto Pinochet try to restrict unions? What was the Plan Laboral?
Question
How did unions react to Pinochet’s repression? How did citizens' and workers' associations act to return democracy to Chile in 1988–90?
Question
How have labor rights fared in Chile’s Second Golden Age of Democracy? Why has it been so difficult to improve conditions for workers?
Question
What role have students played in Chile’s recent period of activism? What have been the demands of students? Of workers? Why has it been so difficult to change the Constitution from 1980?
Activities and Study Topics
Activity
Have class discussion or assign an essay to discuss the topic of how Chilean students and workers affected recent events. Compare this to the United States (how are students and workers acting here to affect its democracy)? What are common (or dissimilar) issues and actions? Does the U.S. have similar issues in relation to addressing neo-liberal policies? Why has it been difficult for Chile and the U.S. to address these issues?
Activity
Assign Chile and Tunisia Country Studies to students to compare the role of trade unions in each country in overthrowing a dictatorship and bringing about democracy. Have class discussion or assign a comparative essay on the topic: Has the freedom of association situation improved or worsened in each country? What events have had an impact on freedom of association? How have workers and others responded? In comparing the two, note the recent events in Current Issues and how the struggle for freedom of association is an ongoing one in each country.
Activity
After reading the Chile Country Study, assign students the article by Ariel Dorfman on the 50th Anniversary of the coup against Salvador Allende by General Pinochet. Have class discussion or assign a paper on “How was democracy lost in Chile?” What were the consequences? How did Chileans regain their democracy? Use as a comparative study on authoritarianism and democracy.
Tunisia
Study Questions
Question
What has been the political role of trade unions in Tunisia? What role did it play during the struggle for independence during the colonial period? In achieving independence? During the 55 years of post-independence dictatorship? And in the Jasmine Revolution?
Question
What role did the trade union federation, UGTT, play in the transition in Tunisia?
Question
Why did the National Dialogue Quartet win the Nobel Peace Prize for 2015?
Question
What recent events threaten the democratic transition in Tunisia? Is there hope for the democratic transition to continue or has President Kais Saiid achieved a permanent turn back to authoritarianism? What is the UGTT’s response?
Activities and Study Topics
Activity
Assign students to review the sections in History and Freedom of Association on the democratic transition from 2011 to 2015. What lessons can be learned in relation to the essential principles of Consent of the Governed and Constitutional Limits? What allowed the transition to succeed—for a time? What made it unstable? How has Kaïs Saiïd taken Tunisia back on an authoritarian path? What lessons does this hold for Tunisia in relation to its history? Other countries? (One may use this discussion to discuss challenges in the U.S.: e.g., would the Insurrection Act serve a similar purpose as Article 80 in the Tunisia Constitution?)
Activity
Using the Country Study and additional materials in the Resources section, answer the following questions in class discussion or in an assigned essay: What were the key issues debated in Tunisia’s transition from dictatorship to democracy? How were these issues resolved? What is the debate between secular and religious parties in Tunisia? How did the transition process in Tunisia differ from Egypt (or Syria), which also experienced a revolution during the Arab Spring? What marked the Tunisia transition process? How can these factors work to Tunisia’s favor now during a turn back to authoritarianism?
China
Study Questions
Question
What was the role of freedom of association in imperial China? Were there independent groups? In the Republic of China? Did trade unions develop similarly to other countries? If not, why not?
Question
How did the communist authorities in the People’s Republic of China suppress freedom of association? Did workers simply submit to communist rule?
Question
What are examples of workers and citizens expressing discontent or dissatisfaction with communist rule?
Question
What role did workers play in the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations?
Question
How has the People's Republic of China suppressed freedom of association and the development of free trade unions since 1989? What are current examples of suppression of freedom of association?
Activities and Study Topics
Activity
Assign the Freedom of Association section and Freedom of Expression sections in China’s two Country Studies. Have class discussion or assign a student essay on the topic of how the consolidation of power by Xi Jinping since 2012-13 affected both freedom of association and freedom of expression. How have these freedoms been further repressed in the last decade?
Activity
Discuss in class or assign an essay on how the People’s Republic of China has controlled worker organization and citizens’ organization. How have workers rebelled against communist control?
Activity
Assign the section on Hong Kong and have students also read the previous specific Country Reports on Hong Kong in Freedom House’s Survey of Freedom in the World. Discuss how Chinese authorities cracked down on Hong Kong’s democracy movement. What has that meant for Hong King’s previously independent trade union movement? What did the democracy movement in Hong Kong indicate about the preferences of Chinese citizens for democracy?
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