Choke Points

Description

Global capitalism is a precarious system. Relying on the steady flow of goods across the world, trans-national companies such as Wal-Mart and Amazon depend on the work of millions in docks, warehouses and logistics centres to keep their goods moving.



This is the global supply chain, and, if the chain is broken, capitalism grinds to a halt. This book looks at case studies across the world to uncover a network of resistance by these workers who, despite their importance, often face vast exploitation and economic violence.



Experiencing first hand wildcat strikes, organised blockades and boycotts, the authors explore a diverse range of case studies, from South China dockworkers to the transformation of the port of Piraeus in Greece, and from the Southern California logistics sector, to dock and logistical workers in Chile and unions in Turkey.

Introduction: Forging Workers’ Resistance Across the

Global Supply Chain - Jake Alimahomed-Wilson and Immanuel Ness

PART I - Building Labor Power and Solidarity Across the World’s Choke Points

1. Labor and Social Movements’ Strategic Usage of the Global Commodity Chain Structure - Elizabeth A. Sowers, Paul S. Ciccantell, and David A. Smith

2. Across the Chain: Labor and Conflicts in the European Maritime Logistics Sector - Andrea Bottalico

3. Durban Dockers, Labor Internationalism, and Pan-Africanism - Peter Cole

PART II - Disruptions: Logistics Workers Resisting Exploitation

4. Worker Militancy and Strikes in China’s Docks - Bai Ruixue and Au Loong Yu

5. “Work Hard, Make History”: Oppression and Resistance in Inland Southern California’s Warehouse and Distribution Industry - Ellen Reese and Jason Struna

6. Stop Treating Us Like Dogs! Workers Organizing Resistance at Amazon in Poland - Amazon workers and supporters

7. Decolonizing Logistics: Palestinian Truckers on the Occupied Supply Chain - Jake Alimahomed-Wilson and Spencer Louis Potiker

PART III - Neoliberalism and the Global Transformation of Ports

8. Decoding the Transition in the Ports of Mumbai - Johnson Abhishek Minz

9. Back to Piraeus: Precarity for All! - Dimitris Parsanoglou and Carolin Philipp

10. Contested Logistics? Neoliberal Modernization and Resistance in the Port City of Valparaíso - Jorge Budrovich Sáez and Hernán Cuevas Valenzuela

11. Logistics Workers’ Struggles in Turkey: Neoliberalism and Counterstrategies - Çağatay Edgücan Şahin and Pekin Bengisu Tepe

PART IV - New Organizing Strategies for the Global Supply Chain

12. “The Drivers Who Move This Country Can Also Stop It”: The Struggle of Tanker Drivers in Indonesia - Abu Mufakhir, Alfian Al’ayubby Pelu, and Fahmi Panimbang

13. Lessons Learned from Eight Years of Experimental Organizing in Southern California’s Logistics Sector - Sheheryar Kaoosji

14. Struggles and Grassroots Organizing in an Extended European Choke Point - Carlotta Benvegnù and Niccolò Cuppini

15. Beyond the Waterfront: Maintaining and Expanding Worker Power in the Maritime Supply Chain - Peter Olney

Contributor Biographies

Index

Sujets

• POLITICAL SCIENCE
• Employabilité, métiers et formations
• Movimiento sindical
• 21st century
• Sociology
• Fordism
• General officer
• Trade union
• Indonesia
• Economics
• Chile
• Capitalism
• World
• Business
• General
• China
• Labor
• Amazon
• San Francisco
• Indonésie
• Chili

Informations

• Publié par: Pluto Press
• Date de parution: 20 avril 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781786802347
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 6 Mo

Extrait

CHOKE POINTS

Wildcat: Workers’ Movements and Global Capitalism Series Editors: Immanuel Ness (City University of New York) Peter Cole (Western Illinois University) Raquel Varela (Instituto de História Contemporânea (IHC) of Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisbon New University) Tim Pringle (SOAS, University of London) Peter Alexander (University of Johannesburg) Malehoko Tshoaedi (University of Pretoria) Workers’ movements are a common and recurring feature in contemporary capitalism. The same militancy that inspired the mass labor movements of the twentieth century continues to define worker struggles that proliferate throughout the world today. For more than a century, labour unions have mobilized to represent the political-economic interests of workers by uncovering the abuses of capitalism, establishing wage standards, improving oppressive working conditions, and bargaining with employers and the state. Since the 1970s, organized labour has declined in size and influence as the global power and influence of capital has expanded dramatically. The world over, existing unions are in a condition of fracture and turbulence in response to neoliberalism, financialization, and the reappearance of rapacious forms of imperialism. New and modernized unions are adapting to conditions and creating class- conscious workers’ movement rooted in militancy and solidarity. Ironically, while the power of organized labour contracts, working-class militancy and resistance persists and is growing in the Global South. Wildcat publishes ambitious and innovative works on the history and political economy of workers’ movements, and is a forum for debate on pivotal movements and labor struggles. The series applies a broad definition of the labor movement to include workers in and out of unions, and seeks works that examine proletarianization and class formation; mass production; gender, affective and reproductive labor; imperialism and workers; syndicalism and independent unions, and labor and Leftist social and political movements. Also available: Just Work? Migrant Workers’ Struggles Today Edited by Aziz Choudry and Mondli Hlatshwayo Wobblies of the World: A Global History of the IWW Edited by Peter Cole, David Struthers and Kenyon Zimmer Southern Insurgency: The Coming of the Global Working Class Immanuel Ness The Spirit of Marikana: The Rise of Insurgent Trade Unionism in South Africa Luke Sinwell with Siphiwe Mbatha Working the Phones: Control and Resistance in Call Centres Jamie Woodcock