Dictionary:

unionism

  (yūn'yə-nĭz'əm)

1. The principle or theory of forming a union.
2. The principles, theory, or system of a union, especially a trade union.
3. Unionism Loyalty to the federal government during the Civil War.

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Three political meanings:

(1) elliptical for trades unionism; therefore, support for the political aims of trade unions;
(2) support for the Union (i.e. the North) before and during the American Civil War;
(3) in the UK since 1886, support for the maintenance of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (since 1921, Northern Ireland). Although the word in sense (iii) is not attested before 1886, the concept goes back to the seventeenth century. The 1707 Union between England and Scotland was driven, on the English side, by the fear that the Scots might pass an act of succession that would give them a different (and possibly warring) king to the king of England. On the Scottish side, the unionists perceived that an independent Scotland was economically doomed to domination by the much larger English economy. The Irish Union of 1800-1 was likewise driven by strategic arguments on the British side. It was less stable than the Scottish Union, because the large majority of the Irish were Catholic, disenfranchised (a promise to enfranchise them after Union being broken), and not consulted.

Irish demands for Home Rule (what would now be called devolution) led 1886 to the regrouping of British politics into a unionist and an anti-unionist coalition. The centre of gravity of Unionism was always in the Conservative (for much of the time since 1886 it has been officially entitled the Conservative and Unionist) Party. But for most of the twentieth century the Labour Party was also unionist, for a principled and an unprincipled reason. The principled reason was that securing equal living standards throughout a nation implies unionism because it must entail redistribution from rich regions to poor ones, and therefore a central government strong enough to enforce that. The unprincipled reason was that Labour needed the parliamentary votes of its Scottish and Welsh MPs, where they were doubly overrepresented (Scotland and Wales had too many seats, and the plurality electoral system gave them a majority of seats on a plurality of the vote).

Unionism has weakened substantially since 1997. Conservatives care less about the Union as such, now that they hold almost no seats outside England. Labour controls a majority of seats in England and therefore needs its Scottish and Welsh overrepresentation less.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: the system or principles and theory of labor unions
  Synonym: trade unioniam

Unionism may refer to:

Trade Unionism

• Trade unionism, support for trade unions
  • Community Unionism, describes the various ways in which trade unions can work with communities and community organisations
  • Craft unionism, an approach to union organizing in the United States and elsewhere that seeks to unify workers in a particular industry along the lines of the particular craft or trade that they work in
  • Dual unionism, the development of a union or political organization parallel to and within an existing labor union
  • Industrial unionism, a labor union organizing method through which all workers in the same industry are organized into the same union
  • New Unionism, a term which has been used twice in the history of the labour movement to describe moves to broaden the union agenda
  • Open-source unionism, a term coined by academics Richard B. Freeman and Joel Rogers to explain a possible new model for organizing workers
  • Social Movement Unionism, a trend of theory and practice in contemporary trade unionism
  • Student unionism in Australia, student organisations at Australian universities known variously as student associations, student guilds, student unions, or student representative councils
  • Voluntary student unionism (VSU), a policy under which membership of – and payment of membership fees to – university student organisations is voluntary

Political Unionism

• Unionism (American Civil War), support for the Union by citizens from both the Northern and Southern states
• Unionism (Central America), a movement for political and economic integration of the states that once comprised the Federal Republic of Central America
• Unionism (Romania and Moldova), support for the "union of the two Romanian states" of Romania and Moldova.
• Unionism (Belgium), a political movement advocating the end of federalism and the institution of only one, national, parliament

British Unionism

British Unionism is the support of the British constituent countries remaining part of the United Kingdom state. The most notable movements to this end are:

• Unionism in Ireland, support for Ireland (or Northern Ireland) being part of the United Kingdom, as opposed to (part of) a Republic of Ireland or an independent Northern Ireland.
  • Also see: Category:Unionism
• Unionism in Scotland support for Scotland remaining as part of the UK.

Religion

• Christian ecumenism, refers to initiatives aimed at worldwide religious unity

Also see

• Union
• Union Organizer

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