Turning farmland into real estates: Expulsionary development and the appropriation of space in Pakistan
What is especially interesting about the case of expulsionary urbanization in Pakistan is that it illustrates qualitatively distinct contemporaneous processes of dispossession and displacement. That is, processes of displacement and proletarianization have been largely decoupled. Capital is now primarily interested in appropriating spaces (land and nature) occupied by working people rather than securing their labor-power.
Public health rediscovers the health threatening character of capitalism
Specific analysis of how capitalism shapes the quality of living and working conditions – now termed the social determinants of health -- is now accumulating in the English-language public health literature. This is coming about because of the polycrises in employment security and wages, food insecurity and hunger, health and health care, housing, income and wealth inequality and environmental protection as a result of the acceptance of neo-liberal governance in many capitalist nations. The inability of even social democratic political parties to respond to these crises had led to increasing numbers of public health researchers endorsing Marx and Engels’s call for a rupture from capitalism towards a post-capitalist socialist society.
Radicalism, Trade Unions, and the Law: A Question of Strategy
It is not, therefore, straightforwardly advantageous for a union, such as the IWGB, to identify as one of their shorter term goals recognising their members as ‘workers’ entitled to rely on, and gain access to, the various rights, protections, and institutions, that form part of this legal framework, and which shape the pursuit, by traditional trade unions, of their objectives. While doing so may well help insulate their members from the various legal risks attendant on organisation and industrial action, it does so at the direct expense of exposing them to the very compulsions and incentives that have historically helped to de-radicalise trade unions over time.
Behind the Foxconn Uprising: “Gig Manufacturing” and the Politics of Social Reproduction
Put together, these factors create a dilemma for these workers: dire need of cash income keeps propelling rural parents, who make a significant portion of the workforce, to come to work at Foxconn; the family’s demand for caring and emotional labor, on the other hand, is pulling workers, especially mothers, back to the family. In the end, many of the workers end up turning this job a seasonal gig.
What can US labor learn from multi-employer bargaining in South Korea?
The capitalist system has been utilizing the tactic of workplace fissuring to weaken the organizing power and bargaining position of US unions. This has led to a decline in worker’s ability to negotiate fair wages and benefits. However, as an alternative strategy, unions have begun to adopt multi-employer bargaining in order to rebuild worker power. This approach involves a group of unions coming together to negotiate with a group of employers in a specific industry, thus allowing them to set industry-wide standards for wages and benefits, eliminating competition on labor costs. This in turn allows unions to maintain more independence and power in negotiations, as well as greater solidarity with more precarious groups of workers.
Despite this increased interest, there is a paucity of empirical research on the effectiveness of multi-employer bargaining. While some studies have looked at the relationship between the level of bargaining and overall wage inequality, there is a lack of research on how multi-employer bargaining is associated with solidarity at the workplace level. My recent publication “Lopsided inclusion: The impact of multi-employer bargaining and class-based unionism on non-regular employment in South Korea” aims to fill this gap in knowledge.
This paper […]