Presentation Political repertoires in transnational labor struggles and new forms of global labor governance Leonardo Mello e Silva* https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0753-7110 Elísio Estanque** https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6992-3397 Hermes Augusto Costa** https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7873-4440 Te broad diversity of issues associated to the “world of work” afect not only the industrial relations domain as such but also a set of political and social groups in society. Tere is a long tradition in sociology of work that links capital and class to wider themes such as industrialization, development, capitalism and populism. Needless to say, wage labor has become dominant since the eighteenth century, and with it the growth of the labor force as a “commodity”. At the same time, it was against this logic that the workers’ movement and its unions emerged, conquering broader labor and social rights, in a long confict process that in Europe culminated in the triumph of the welfare state. Most of the analyses inspired by Karl Marx’s thought – who experienced the Industrial Revolution and other popular rebellions in Europe closely – became fundamental for a sociological understanding of these processes, from the frst revolts of the English workers to the Paris Commune, through the Revolution of 1848. Te rapid social transformation unleashed since then has highlighted the confictual relationship between the main social classes of modernity. Te wild capitalism of the frst phase of industrialization favored the proftability of technical innovation, but at the same time it stimulated the collective action of the working classes, paving the way for broader civilizational conquests. * University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil. ** University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.