For a century after 1870, labor unions and working-class political movements grew steadily in virtually all industrialized capitalist economies. By the late 1970s, unions enrolled 40 percent of the total labor force in Germany and New Zealand; 50 percent in Australia, Italy, and the United Kingdom; over 60 percent in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, and Norway; and over 80 percent in Finland and Sweden (24). In addition, unions' political allies held important political offices in many of these countries, including control of the government in Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Scandinavia.