Robert Ovetz (2019) When Workers Shot Back

Ovetz, Robert. 2019. When Workers Shot Back: Class Conflict from 1877 to 1921. Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books.

When Workers Shot Back argues that the escalation of working-class conflict drives rather than reacts to capital's consolidation and reorganisation.

When Workers Shot Back: Class Conflict from 1877 to 1921 explores one of the most tumultuous times in United States history. Self-organized workers recomposed their power by devising new strategies and tactics to disrupt the capitalist economy and extract concessions. Mine, railroad, steel, and iron workers pursued a strategy of tension that sometimes erupted into militant class conflict and general strikes in which workers took over and ran a number of cities. Turning conventional wisdom on its head, When Workers Shot Back argues that the escalation of working-class conflict drives rather than reacts to the consolidation and reorganisation of capital and economic and political reform of the state. Studying the class composition of this period illustrates why workers escalated the intensity of their tactics, even using tactical violence, to extract concessions and reforms when all other efforts to do so were blocked, co-opted or repressed.

Pat Armstrong and Hugh Armstrong, eds (2020) The Privatization of Care

https://www.routledge.com/The-Privatization-of-Care-The-Case-of-Nursing-Homes-1st-Edition/Armstrong-Armstrong/p/book/9781138346024

Book Description

Nursing homes are where some of the most vulnerable live and work. In too many homes, the conditions of work make it difficult to make care as good as it can be. For the last eight years an international team from Germany, Sweden, Norway, the UK, the US and Canada have been searching for promising practices that treat residents, families and staff with dignity and respect in ways that can also bring joy. While we did find ideas worth sharing, we also saw a disturbing trend toward privatization.

Privatization is the process of moving away not only from public delivery and public payment for health services but also from a commitment to shared responsibility, democratic decision-making, and the idea that the public sector operates according to a logic of service to all.

This book documents moves toward privatization in the six countries and their consequences for families, staff, residents, and, eventually, us all. None of the countries has escaped pressure from powerful forces in and outside government pushing for privatization in all its forms. However, the wide variations in the extent and nature of privatization indicate privatization is not inevitable and our research shows there are alternatives.

Dundon and Wilkinson, eds. (2020) case studies in work, employment and human resource management

Dundon, Tony and Adrian Wilkinson, eds. 2020. Case Studies in Work, Employment and Human Resource Management. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Choudry, A. and Vally, S. eds. (2020) The University and Social Justice

Choudry, A. and Vally, S. eds. 2020. The University and Social Justice: Struggles Across the Globe. London: Pluto Press. (Between the Lines.)

Schierup, Likic-Brboric, Wise and Toksöz (eds., 2019) Migration, Civil Society and Global Governance

Schierup, Branka Likic-Brboric, Raúl Delgado Wise and Gülay Toksöz, eds.  2019. Migration, Civil Society and Global Governance. London: Routledge. 

Description

How do the United Nations, international organizations, governments, corporate actors and a wide variety of civil society organizations and regional and global trade unions perceive the root causes of migration, global inequality and options for sustainable development? This is one of the most pertinent political questions of the 21st century.

This comprehensive collection examines the development of an emerging global governance on migration with the focus on spaces, roles, strategies and alliance-making of a composite transnational civil society engaged in issues of rights and the protection of migrants and their families. It reveals the need to strengthen networking and convergence among movements that adopt different entry points to the same struggle, from fighting ‘managed’ migration to contesting corporate control of food and land. The authors examine the opportunities and challenges faced by civil society in its endeavour to promote a rights-based approach within international and intergovernmental fora engaged in setting up a global compact for the management of migration, such as the Global Forum for Migration and Development, and in other global policy spaces.

URL: https://www.routledge.com/Migration-Civil-Society-and-Global-Governance-1st-Edition/Schierup-Likic-Brboric-Wise-Toksoz/p/book/9780367147266

Morena, Krause and Stevis (eds, 2020) Just Transitions: Social Justice in the Shift Towards a Low-Carbon World

Morena, Edouard, Dunja Krause and Dimitris Stevis, eds. 2020. Just Transitions: Social Justice in the Shift Towards a Low-Carbon World. London: Pluto Press.

In the field of 'climate change', no terrain goes uncontested. The terminological tug of war between activists and corporations, scientists and governments, has seen radical notions of 'sustainability' emptied of urgency and subordinated to the interests of capital. 'Just Transition' is the latest such battleground, and the conceptual keystone of the post-COP21 climate policy world. But what does it really mean?

Just Transition emerged as a framework developed within the trade union movement to encompass a range of social interventions needed to secure workers' and frontline communities' jobs and livelihoods as economies shift to sustainable production. Just Transitions draws on a range of perspectives from the global North and South to interrogate the overlaps, synergies and tensions between various understandings of the Just Transition approach. As the concept is entering the mainstream, has it lost its radical edge, and if so, can it be recovered?

Written by academics and activists from around the globe, this unique edited collection is the first book entirely devoted to Just Transition.

URL: https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745339924/just-transitions/

Lee, Ng and Landbury (eds, 2020) Trade Unions and Labour Movements in the Asia-Pacific Region

Lee, Byoung-Hoon, Ng Sek-hong and Russell D. Lansbury, eds. 2020. Trade Unions and Labour Movements in the Asia-Pacific Region. London: Routledge.

Description

Recent developments in the world economy, including deindustrialisation

and the digital revolution, have led to an increasingly individualistic relationship

between workers and employers, which in turn has weakened labour

movements and worker representation. However, this process is not

universal, including in some countries of Asia, where trade unions are

closely aligned with the interests of the dominant political party and the

state. This book considers the many challenges facing trade unions and

worker representation in a wide range of Asian countries. For each country,

full background is given on how trade unions and other forms of worker

representation have arisen. Key questions then considered include the challenges

facing trade unions and worker representation in each country, the

extent to which these are a result of global or local developments and the

actions being taken by trade unions and worker representative bodies to

cope with the challenges.

https://www.routledge.com/Trade-Unions-and-Labour-Movements-in-the-Asia-Pacific-Region-1st-Edition/Lee-Sek-Hong-Lansbury/p/book/9780367190491