The rise of neo-liberalism has had a devastating impact on the institutions and organizations with which the Left has traditionally been associated. Examining this crisis, this volume focuses on the decline of the trades union movements in the West and the attempts to revive them, contrasting this with the rapid growth of unions in the nations of the developing world and the new industrial countries. The book provides a critique of the post-modernist Left, arguing that the experiences of Eastern Europe and of the Third World demonstrate the need for a universal Left as the only viable alternative to the emerging "new barbarism". The state of the contemporary Left is explored, with an assessment of the contributions of the "Third Left" and "Third Socialism" and the new wave of Left parties and movements such as the German Party of Democratic Socialism, the Workers' Party of Brazil, and the Zapatista of Mexico.