"Trade unions enable the proletariat to utilise at each instant, the conjuncture of the market. But these conjunctures – (1) the labour demand determined by the state of production, (2) the labour supply created by the proletarianisation of the middle strata of society and the natural reproduction of the working classes, and (3) the momentary degree of productivity of labour – these remain outside of the sphere of influence of the trade unions. Trade unions cannot suppress the law of wages. Under the most favourable circumstances, the best they can do is to impose on capitalist exploitation the “normal” limit of the moment. They have not, however, the power to suppress exploitation itself, not even gradually"

rosa put that on paper 110 plus years ago 

  the last 30 years of union developments
         suggest  she had this  particular problematic by the balls



she goes on at some length
including this which might well  serve to headline the ast 30 years in the oecd countries :

" if we examine the large factors of social development
 we see that we are not moving toward an epoch marked by
 a victorious development of trade unions
 but rather toward a time when the hardships of labour unions will increase."

analysis ???
she calls this
the second stage of union development and it is exactly opposed to the first stage in
the direction of its motions

ie unlike schmidt who saw the first stage as the only stage and a stage producing
 ever better results t for union growth and prosperity
till labor's share of total VA
  threatens to completely crowd  out the exploiter share

" Once industrial development has attained its highest possible point and capitalism has entered its descending phase on the world market "
that is" highest possible point"
as in reached the existing edge of  that moments   universal technical production frontier

--- UTPF is a concept she implies  not  here of course but above
in her  wage law outline ---

and  "highest possible point" i think oughta be limited to
any one  particular commodity producing region
with its inevitable incompleteness and uneven ness

here   we are better off  in my estimation
 to avoid  vague gestures
 toward some universal "capitalism" going thru unrepeatable world historical stages
so .....
 i would read this passage like this :
 where she has the word "capitalism"
   insert something like :
       any one legally  bounded state centered  but economically ever more open 
market region
--nice and graceful eh ??--
qualifier
a region  dominated by a locally situated advanced system of  inter connected productive capitals


for "descending phase "

i might inject as a for instance

today's  "declining " US  rust belt
vis a vis the han boom belt
as weighed  on the   fixed forex scales mediating world markets (heh heh heh)

-- i'm fairly certain this transgresses  the limits of the simple  underconsumptionist  model in rosa's head ---

now her prophecy :

" the trade union struggle will become doubly difficult."

she was right more then once and wrong a few times in between because of the repeats and "world historical new beginnings "--think post 1939 --

" In the first place, the objective conjuncture of the market will be less favourable to the sellers of labour power, because the demand for labour power will increase at a slower rate and labour supply more rapidly than at present."

demand side
think ever spreading and deepening import competition like post 73 here in the states
ie chronic trade deficits
supply side
immigration and increased rate of  recycling of the job force
 thru gains in productivity per hour
 innovation driven de skilling and  specific sectoral/locational  trade job displacement

" In the second place, the capitalists themselves, in order to make up for losses suffered on the world market, will make even greater efforts than at present to reduce the part of the total product going to the workers (in the form of wages). "

intensified assaults on labor costs  as profit  margins get squeezed by import competition
-- not sure this is adding anything to point one really if point ones logic is worked all the way thru --


" The situation in England already offers us a picture of the beginning of the second stage of trade union development."

indeed it was for  certain future intervals

and for other capitalist  national market systems as well
----------------

roas concludes:


" Trade union action is reduced of necessity to the simple defence of already realised gains, and even that is becoming more and more difficult."

sound like the  rust belt blues to U ???


" Such is the general trend of things in our society."

hmm gotta watch you keep that prophecy specifically locate and finite in duration

" The counterpart of this tendency should be the development of the political side of the class struggle"

 rosa hoped to move the spontaneous radical capitalist  state challenging syndicalism
 of existing militant wage class elements
 with the inevitable  vision that conjures up
of  a general strike final conflict
into a mass based  rev  party building project