In determining their response to the crisis, trade unions must not only think about short-term policies but also long-term strategy, says Global Labour University. This report is edited by CSID at Wits University. Although it may be easy to point out that the crisis showed that the balance of power between labour and capital needs to change, it is far less easy to elaborate how this change can be brought about. Richard Hyman writes a compelling article in which he looks at how capitalism and economic democracy have tried – and failed – to coexist. In some countries, trade unions have been included on company boards in order to ensure that decisions would be favourable to workers. However, in many cases, labour had to take a backseat. As Hyman puts it, in a difficlt political context, labour has to wage a Gramscian ‘war of position’ and, ‘(t)o capture hearts and minds, the labour movement has to commence a campaign against global casino capitalism which is linked to a credible set of alternatives for socially accountable economic life’. Because an anti-capitalist response is not on the current political agenda, a mobilising strategy could be found in a call for “good capitalism” [see book announcement below]. Richard Hyman is Emeritus Professor of Industrial Relations at the LSE and founding editor of the European Journal of Industrial Relations. He has written extensively on the themes of industrial relations, collective bargaining, trade unionism, industrial conflict and labour market policy. He is currently working on a book comparing trade union strategies in ten European countries.