Elizabeth Humphrys (2019) How Labour Built Neoliberalism (Brill: Leiden)

Elizabeth Humphrys. 2019. How Labour Built Neoliberalism: Australia’s Accord, the Labour Movement and the Neoliberal Project. Brill: Leiden.

How Labour Built Neoliberalism

Australia’s Accord, the Labour Movement and the Neoliberal Project

Series:

• Studies in Critical Social Sciences, Volume: 126

Author: Elizabeth Humphrys

Why do we always assume it was the New Right that was at the centre of constructing neoliberalism? How might corporatism have advanced neoliberalism? And, more controversially, were the trade unions only victims of neoliberal change, or did they playSee More

Publication Date: 

8 October 2018

ISBN: 

978-90-04-38346-3

DOI: 

https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004383463

Marissa Brookes (2019) The New Politics of Transnational Labor (Cornell ILR Press)

Marissa Brookes. 2019. The New Politics of Transnational Labor: Why Some Alliances Succeed. Ithaca: Cornell ILR Press.

Over the years many transnational labor alliances have succeeded in improving conditions for workers, but many more have not. In The New Politics of Transnational Labor, Marissa Brookes explains why this dichotomy has occurred. Using the coordination and context-appropriate (CCAP) theory, she assesses this divergence, arguing that the success of transnational alliances hinges not only on effective coordination across borders and within workers' local organizations but also on their ability to exploit vulnerabilities in global value chains, invoke national and international institutions, and mobilize networks of stakeholders in ways that threaten employers' core, material interests.

Brookes uses six comparative case studies spanning four industries, five countries, and fifteen years. From dockside labor disputes in Britain and Australia to service sector campaigns in the supermarket and private security industries to campaigns aimed at luxury hotels in Southeast Asia, Brookes creates her new theoretical framework and speaks to debates in international and comparative political economy on the politics of economic globalization, the viability of private governance, and the impact of organized labor on economic inequality. From this assessment, Brookes provides a vital update to the international relations literature on non-state actors and transnational activism and shows how we can understand the unique capacities labor has as a transnational actor.

Yang, Jenny Chan and Xu Lizhi (2019) La máquina es tu amo y señor (Virus Editorial)

Yang, Jenny Chan and Xu Lizhi. 2019. La máquina es tu amo y señor (The Machine is Your Lord and Master). Translated in Spanish by Li Fei and Zhang Xiaoqio. Barcelona: Virus Editorial.

Una oleada de suicidios durante el año 2010 en la ciudad-fábrica de Foxconn, en Shenzhen, sacó a la luz las condiciones infrahumanas en las que vive y trabaja su plantilla laboral, formada en su mayoría por jóvenes y migrantes, llegados de diferentes regiones rurales de China.

Esta empresa es la mayor fabricante mundial de componentes electrónicos y da servicio a compañías como Apple, Amazon o Google. El cándido discurso de Silicon Valley —«el sentimiento de construir un mundo mejor gracias a la tecnología»— contrasta con las condiciones neoesclavistas que padecen las y los trabajadores de Foxconn, basadas en un taylorismo extremo y en una disciplina y vigilancia militarizadas, dentro y fuera de la cadena de montaje.

Este libro recoge los testimonios de Yang, un estudiante y obrero industrial; Tian Yu, trabajadora migrante que sobrevivió a un intento de suicidio; y Xu Lizhi, que antes de poner fin a sus días dejó escritas descarnadas poesías que nos adentran en las fauces del sistema de Foxconn. Estos poemas, como el resto de textos, cuestionan el beneficio tecnológico, desde ese «otro lado del mundo», en relación con el coste humano, ecológico y social que entraña.

«Hemos perdido el valor que nos corresponde como seres humanos y nos hemos convertido en una extensión de las máquinas, su apéndice, sí, su esclavo. Muchas veces pensaba que la máquina era mi amo y señor, cuyo cabello tenía que peinar como un esclavo.»

Michele Ford (2019) From Migrant to Worker (Cornell ILR Press)

Michele Ford. 2019. From Migrant to Worker: Global Unions and Temporary Labor Migration in Asia. Ithaca: Cornell ILR Press.

What happens when local unions begin to advocate for the rights of temporary migrant workers, asks Michele Ford in her sweeping study of seven Asian countries? Until recently unions in Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand were uniformly hostile towards foreign workers, but Ford deftly shows how times and attitudes have begun to change. Now, she argues, NGOs and the Global Union Federations are encouraging local unions to represent and advocate for these peripheral workers, and in some cases succeeding.

From Migrant to Worker builds our understanding of the role the international labor movement and local unions have had in developing a movement for migrant workers' labor rights. Ford examines the relationship between different kinds of labor movement actors and the constraints imposed on those actors by resource flows, contingency, and local context. Her conclusions show that in countries—Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Thailand—where resource flows and local factors give the Global Union Federations more influence local unions have become much more engaged with migrant workers. But in countries—Japan and Taiwan, for example—where they have little effect there has been little progress. While much has changed, Ford forces us to see that labor migration in Asia is still fraught with complications and hardships, and that local unions are not always able or willing to act.

Indian Perspectives on Workplace Bullying (2018) D’Cruz, Noronha, Mendonca and Mishr, eds (Springer Nature)

Premilla D’Cruz, Ernesto Noronha, Avina Mendonca and Nidhi Mishra, eds. 2018. Indian Perspectives on Workplace Bullying: A Decade of Insights. Singapore: Springer Nature. 

https://www.springer.com/us/book/9789811310164#aboutAuthors