'A breath of fresh air' - Norman FinklesteinWorkers in the Global South are doomed through economic imperialism to carry the burden of the entire world. While these workers appear isolated from the Global North, they are in fact deeply integrated into global commodity chains and essential to the maintenance of global capitalism.Looking at contemporary case studies in India, the Philippines and South Africa, this book affirms the significance of political and economic repres...

The site of industrial struggle is shifting. Across the Global South, peasant communities are forced off the land to live and work in harsh and impoverished conditions. Inevitably, new methods of combating the spread of industrial capitalism are evolving in ambitious, militant and creative ways. This is the first book to theorise and examine the present and future shape of global class struggles.Immanuel Ness looks at three key countries: China, India and South Africa. In each case...

Bureaucratic labor unions are under assault. Most unions have surrendered the achievements of the mid-twentieth century, when the working class was a militant force for change throughout the world. Now trade unions seem incapable of defending, let alone advancing, workers’ interests.As unions implode and weaken, workers are independently forming their own unions, drawing on the tradition of syndicalism and autonomism—a resurgence of self-directed action that augurs a new period of ...

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 va...

Solidarity Unionism is critical reading for all who care about the future of labor. Drawing deeply on Staughton Lynd's experiences as a labor lawyer and activist in Youngstown, OH, and on his profound understanding of the history of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), Solidarity Unionism helps us begin to put not only movement but also vision back into the labor movement.While many lament the decline of traditional unions, Lynd takes succor in the blos...

For several decades, wealthy states, international development agencies and multinational corporations have encouraged labour migration from the Global South to the Global North. As well as providing essential workers to support the transformation of advanced economies, the remittances that migrants send home have been touted as the most promising means of national development for poor and undeveloped countries.As Immanuel Ness argues in this sharp corrective to conventional wisdom...

This book examines the problematic relationship between unions and the unemployed in New York City during the 1990's. Historically, trade unions in the U.S. have had an interest in the political mobilization of the jobless to expand unemployment insurance and lessen the threat of lower wages, reduced union density, and weaker bargaining positions for unions. Despite these advantages, trade unions have rarely organized the unemployed, because they represent a potential threat to the organiz...

Research on the growth of the precarious economy is of signifi cant interest as the economy increasingly becomes dependent on gig work. However, as platform and automated service work has grown, there remains a chasm in understanding the key aspects of digital labour.This handbook presents comprehensive theoretical, empirical, and historical accounts of the political economy of informal work from the late 20th century to the present.It examines the rich and varied analysis ...

Over the past 50 years the global labour market is transforming from reliable employment to low-wage and unstable informal and precarious jobs. This ineluctable shift is a consequence of the concentrated application of neoliberalism since the 1980s, as capitalism is converting standardised labour markets in the developed Global North into contingent and informal labour.Platform Labour and Global Logistics: A Research Companion examines the most important developments and f...

Imperialism has resurfaced as an area of scholarly study in recent years, particularly among those concerned with political economy and international relations. Do countries engage in foreign intervention and "just war" because they feel a responsibility toward the international community? Or are these actions rationalizations for the pursuit of commercial, industrial, financial, and military interests? Around the world, economies, cultures, politics, laws, and nation-states are profoundly...

In this powerful new work, Marable, Ness, and Wilson maintain that contrary to the popular hubris about equality, race is entrenched and more divisive than any time since the Civil Rights Movement. Race and Labor in the United States asserts that all advances in American race relations have only evolved through conflict and collective struggle. The foundation of the class divide in the United States remains, while racial and ethnic segregation, privilege, and domination, and the institutio...

Strikes have been part of American labor relations from colonial days to the present, reflecting the widespread class conflict that has run throughout the nation's history. Against employers and their goons, against the police, the National Guard, local, state, and national officials, against racist vigilantes, against their union leaders, and against each other, American workers have walked off the job for higher wages, better benefits, bargaining rights, legislation, job control, and jus...