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Choke Points: Logistics Workers Disrupting the Global Supply Chain
The global economy seems indomitable. Goods travel all over the globe, supplying just-in-time retail stocks, keeping consumers satisfied and businesses profitable.
But there are vulnerabilities, and Choke Points reveals them—and the ways that workers are finding ways to make use of the power that those choke points afford them. Exploring a number of case studies around the world, this book uncovers a little-known network of resistance by logistics workers worldwide who are determined to contest their exploitation by the forces of global capital. Through close accounts of wildcat strikes, roadblocks, and boycotts, from South China to Southern California, the contributors build a picture of a movement that flies under the radar, but carries the potential to force dramatic change.
But there are vulnerabilities, and Choke Points reveals them—and the ways that workers are finding ways to make use of the power that those choke points afford them. Exploring a number of case studies around the world, this book uncovers a little-known network of resistance by logistics workers worldwide who are determined to contest their exploitation by the forces of global capital. Through close accounts of wildcat strikes, roadblocks, and boycotts, from South China to Southern California, the contributors build a picture of a movement that flies under the radar, but carries the potential to force dramatic change.
256 pages, Hardcover
Published May 23, 2018
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November 6, 2018
Could have used more editing (lots of typos + repeated passages) but the content is so, so good. The focus is on the logistics sectors, but there's lots of useful advice on how to build worker power in any industry, along with general commentary on the challenges and opportunities faced by contemporary labour organisers. A must-read for anyone who cares about class struggle.
Read
November 28, 2018I came across “Choke Points” after having attended a European wide meeting of gig economy couriers. The whole point of this meeting was to link up what were currently a set of disparate organising efforts with gig economy couriers (e.g. in Deliveroo, UberEats, Foodora, Glovo) into something much more coherent and much more capable of leveraging power over these companies.
I had only in passing heard of the organising efforts in Amazon warehouses and in particular about the organising efforts in Poland and Germany. I was told by someone involved in similar organising in the US that in order for Amazon workers to be effective in organising in both Poland and Germany it was important for workers in both countries to be in touch with each other - since if there was a strike planned in one warehouse and not the other Amazon would simply try to break the strike by diverting goods to a non-striking warehouse.
These organising efforts are much more clearly set out in the book but you can also read them here: http://www.criticatac.ro/lefteast/sto...
***Summary of the book***
The book looks at organising efforts in logistics across the world in eleven different countries: the US, China, India, Indonesia, Poland, Greece, Italy, South Africa, Chile, Turkey, and Palestine. What you uncover is a world of workers disputes, organising, strategic thinking, and examples of solidarity that are totally unknown. The thing that all these workers have in common is that they work in logistics - in the sector of work that is responsible for bring goods from one place to another. If these workers decide to strike it can send ripples of disruption for the rest of the economy and in many cases could bring whole cities to a stand still. The most interesting or exciting parts of the book for me were the organising efforts by workers in Poland, Italy and southern California - these all involved large amounts of precarious migrant workers who are largely considered unorganisable by the larger trade unions. Nevertheless, even quite under-resourced initiatives have managed to build some significant power in these workplaces.
***Stop Treating Us like Dogs - Worker Resistance at Amazon in Poland***
In this chapter, written by rank-and-file activists and supporters, the writers describe both the conditions of work warehouse workers are under and the organising efforts of IP (Inicjatywa Pracownicza) or “Workers Initiative” in English. IP is a union of workers without paid staff and which approaches organising efforts on the basis that workers become self-empowered and self-organised.
Work in Amazon is both physically intense and highly surveillanced. Many articles have been written about the conditions of Amazon warehouse workers working 60-hour shifts. Work is described as “hell” in the article. Workers face unpaid breaks, they are penalised for taking time of a task, the spend most of their long often breakless shifts either standing or walking. They are surveillanced by having monitors attached to them that examine how well they are meeting given targets and these targets are overlooked by managers in the warehouses.
These working conditions on the one hand mean that workers are angry and feel disrespected but equally it means that workers face a lot of fear of victimasation. Despite these hostile conditions when it comes to organising IP nonetheless has had some major successes in organising workers - now boasting a membership of 400.
A theme that is common throughout the book and which many rank-and-file activists are familiar with is the lack of solidarity and undermining that comes from larger trade unions. The writers report how “Solidarnosc” one of the largest trade unions in Poland failed both to organise workers effectively in other warehouse, instead presenting themselves as collaborative and reasonable to Amazon. In turn, they also condemned IP as being reckless and irresponsible for organising strike action and slowdowns in warehouses.
However, the results of these actions have been wage rises, less surveillance and an increased self-confidence of workers. After one slowdown, Amazon put up wages by 8% and after strike action and a strike threat, wages were increased by 20%. Very simply, when workers fight they win. When they don’t things stay the same or worsen.
***Struggles and Grassroots Organising in an Extended European Choke Point***
Northern Italy boasts a network of what are called logistics hubs. These hubs often sit outside major cities and link up with ports. The workforce in these warehouses and hubs are largely migrant workers from the Middle East and Africa. Many mainstream trade unions in Italy largely avoid organising migrant workers, believing them to be too transient a workforce to try and organise. As such organising efforts in these hubs have largely been left up to more and rank and file unions in this case SI Cobas.
The organising efforts in these warehouse took an approach whereby organising was done both inside and outside the workplace. An important aspect of the organising was drawing on existing unity within migrant communities as well as empowering migrant workers to take militant strike action. Since 2010 the union has held strikes in multiple warehouses and hubs, at one point culminating in a general logistics strikes running for 24 hours. Workers have in turn won improved working conditions and wages, just as importantly these workers have won back dignity and power in their workplaces.
An important aspect of building themselves was strike action itself. Strike actions and building for strike action continues to be one of the major ways that unions build themselves - as opposed to slowly try to build through petitions or other actions that don’t apply any leverage.
***Lessons Learned from Eight Years of Experimental Organising in Southern California’s Logistics Sector***
Here organisers describe efforts to organise unions in logistic in Southern California. In particular they highlight the work done by both the Teamsters union as well as an experimental organising project called Warehouse Workers United - a project funded by the United Food and Commercial Workers union (UFCW).
The logistics sector is extremely strategic with over $500 billion worth of goods passing through every year. This accounts for up to 43% of the USA’s goods. In the US (as in Poland and the UK) unions are shackled by anti-union law which regulates everything from where unions have entry to things like secondary picketing (picketing by strikers of the premises of a firm that trades with their employer but is not otherwise involved in the dispute in question.)
The Teamsters as well as other supporters focussed on truck drivers. Over the years trucking had seen massive amounts of deregulation with regards to both price controls and routes. This meant that the market was undercut by new entrants who undercut existing unionised truck services. In this sector (as is seen in the gig economy) large amounts of workers are falsely categorised as independent contractors and as such are not entitled to basic workers rights and carry many of the costs of the logistics (such as vehicle maintenance) on their shoulders.
The chapter describes how Teamsters fought both a legal battle to have drivers recognised as employees as well as using strikes to bolster this legal battle and leverage power to win more.
These campaigns have been very successful in having thousands of drivers recategorised as employees and in many cases truck drivers have won union contracts. In one port (Shippers Transport Express) workers now have secure wages and benefits as well as driving environmentally cleaner vehicles.
The other organising effort reported is that of the Warehouse Workers United (WWU). There are over 100,000 workers in warehouses in Southern California, with 30% of those being on casual contracts with little or no other workers rights. WWU made use of legal battles to fight the outsourcing of Walmart. In the end they had thousands of workers recognised to be direct employees of Walmart rather than their subsidiaries. They combined these legal battles with what are called Unfair Labor Practice strikes - these are strikes that can be lawfully held by workers in the case that their working conditions are too dangerous to work in. These strikes again were used to bolster the legal campaign. They also served to win higher wages and better working conditions in many of the warehouses. Nearly every warehouse is facing outsourcing litigation charges and workers have won over $21 million from these cases as well as being recognised as direct employees.
Despite these wins, support for the campaign was pulled by the UFCW and the campaign is now struggling financially. This is a real shame and highlights the way the rest of union movement in the US is shortsighted in its approach and strategy in a time where unions are heavily under attack.
In fact, the remarkable thing about all of these efforts is the extent to which the heavy lifting in strategic sectors of logistics is left to smaller unions - with often the fraction of the resources available to larger unions. As is pointed out in the chapter, the organising efforts in Southern California were very good, the issue was that they were not mirrored across the country despite there being 15 million union members in the US who could replicate these types of efforts.
***What I learned and who I recommend this book to***
I work as Deliveroo rider and have been involved in workplace organising (I have also done strike support for lecturer strikes and helped in efforts to run rent strikes in university halls). Here is some of what I learned from reading this book.
Firstly, it is totally possible to run organising drives in unorganised sectors even with very limited resources. The important thing is to have a good strategy and an approach that ensures that builds rank and file confidence and self-dependence.
Secondly, given that the above is the case, the union movement in many countries could actually dig itself out of its crisis, if it used even a fraction of its resources to replicate wins and good organising efforts that have occurred many other workplaces - including those that union hostile. For example, the GMB here in the UK could learn from organising efforts by smaller more combative unions and put them towards organising gig economy workers - a sector that now has over 3 million workers.
Thirdly, it is often these larger and more bureaucratic unions that have undermined what are extremely impressive organising efforts - e.g. when UFCW pulled support for the warehouse worker organising efforts, or when Solidarnosc condemned and refused to give solidarity to Amazon workers in Poznan.
What was missing for me was a discussion of how to engage with trade union bureaucracy. When is it worth fighting with the existing bureaucracies in large trade unions and when is it worth it putting that to one side and starting something new yourself? For example, it would have been interesting to hear more about the development of rank and file reform caucuses in many US unions (e.g. Teamsters for a Democratic Union, or the Caucus of Rank and File Educators that spearheaded the 2012 Chicago Teachers’ strike).
In the end it seems there is the possibility to organise and win great things and probably even more. However, the main issue is that the unions who should be putting people into action and developing people know-how and confidence in that regard are not doing that.
I had only in passing heard of the organising efforts in Amazon warehouses and in particular about the organising efforts in Poland and Germany. I was told by someone involved in similar organising in the US that in order for Amazon workers to be effective in organising in both Poland and Germany it was important for workers in both countries to be in touch with each other - since if there was a strike planned in one warehouse and not the other Amazon would simply try to break the strike by diverting goods to a non-striking warehouse.
These organising efforts are much more clearly set out in the book but you can also read them here: http://www.criticatac.ro/lefteast/sto...
***Summary of the book***
The book looks at organising efforts in logistics across the world in eleven different countries: the US, China, India, Indonesia, Poland, Greece, Italy, South Africa, Chile, Turkey, and Palestine. What you uncover is a world of workers disputes, organising, strategic thinking, and examples of solidarity that are totally unknown. The thing that all these workers have in common is that they work in logistics - in the sector of work that is responsible for bring goods from one place to another. If these workers decide to strike it can send ripples of disruption for the rest of the economy and in many cases could bring whole cities to a stand still. The most interesting or exciting parts of the book for me were the organising efforts by workers in Poland, Italy and southern California - these all involved large amounts of precarious migrant workers who are largely considered unorganisable by the larger trade unions. Nevertheless, even quite under-resourced initiatives have managed to build some significant power in these workplaces.
***Stop Treating Us like Dogs - Worker Resistance at Amazon in Poland***
In this chapter, written by rank-and-file activists and supporters, the writers describe both the conditions of work warehouse workers are under and the organising efforts of IP (Inicjatywa Pracownicza) or “Workers Initiative” in English. IP is a union of workers without paid staff and which approaches organising efforts on the basis that workers become self-empowered and self-organised.
Work in Amazon is both physically intense and highly surveillanced. Many articles have been written about the conditions of Amazon warehouse workers working 60-hour shifts. Work is described as “hell” in the article. Workers face unpaid breaks, they are penalised for taking time of a task, the spend most of their long often breakless shifts either standing or walking. They are surveillanced by having monitors attached to them that examine how well they are meeting given targets and these targets are overlooked by managers in the warehouses.
These working conditions on the one hand mean that workers are angry and feel disrespected but equally it means that workers face a lot of fear of victimasation. Despite these hostile conditions when it comes to organising IP nonetheless has had some major successes in organising workers - now boasting a membership of 400.
A theme that is common throughout the book and which many rank-and-file activists are familiar with is the lack of solidarity and undermining that comes from larger trade unions. The writers report how “Solidarnosc” one of the largest trade unions in Poland failed both to organise workers effectively in other warehouse, instead presenting themselves as collaborative and reasonable to Amazon. In turn, they also condemned IP as being reckless and irresponsible for organising strike action and slowdowns in warehouses.
However, the results of these actions have been wage rises, less surveillance and an increased self-confidence of workers. After one slowdown, Amazon put up wages by 8% and after strike action and a strike threat, wages were increased by 20%. Very simply, when workers fight they win. When they don’t things stay the same or worsen.
***Struggles and Grassroots Organising in an Extended European Choke Point***
Northern Italy boasts a network of what are called logistics hubs. These hubs often sit outside major cities and link up with ports. The workforce in these warehouses and hubs are largely migrant workers from the Middle East and Africa. Many mainstream trade unions in Italy largely avoid organising migrant workers, believing them to be too transient a workforce to try and organise. As such organising efforts in these hubs have largely been left up to more and rank and file unions in this case SI Cobas.
The organising efforts in these warehouse took an approach whereby organising was done both inside and outside the workplace. An important aspect of the organising was drawing on existing unity within migrant communities as well as empowering migrant workers to take militant strike action. Since 2010 the union has held strikes in multiple warehouses and hubs, at one point culminating in a general logistics strikes running for 24 hours. Workers have in turn won improved working conditions and wages, just as importantly these workers have won back dignity and power in their workplaces.
An important aspect of building themselves was strike action itself. Strike actions and building for strike action continues to be one of the major ways that unions build themselves - as opposed to slowly try to build through petitions or other actions that don’t apply any leverage.
***Lessons Learned from Eight Years of Experimental Organising in Southern California’s Logistics Sector***
Here organisers describe efforts to organise unions in logistic in Southern California. In particular they highlight the work done by both the Teamsters union as well as an experimental organising project called Warehouse Workers United - a project funded by the United Food and Commercial Workers union (UFCW).
The logistics sector is extremely strategic with over $500 billion worth of goods passing through every year. This accounts for up to 43% of the USA’s goods. In the US (as in Poland and the UK) unions are shackled by anti-union law which regulates everything from where unions have entry to things like secondary picketing (picketing by strikers of the premises of a firm that trades with their employer but is not otherwise involved in the dispute in question.)
The Teamsters as well as other supporters focussed on truck drivers. Over the years trucking had seen massive amounts of deregulation with regards to both price controls and routes. This meant that the market was undercut by new entrants who undercut existing unionised truck services. In this sector (as is seen in the gig economy) large amounts of workers are falsely categorised as independent contractors and as such are not entitled to basic workers rights and carry many of the costs of the logistics (such as vehicle maintenance) on their shoulders.
The chapter describes how Teamsters fought both a legal battle to have drivers recognised as employees as well as using strikes to bolster this legal battle and leverage power to win more.
These campaigns have been very successful in having thousands of drivers recategorised as employees and in many cases truck drivers have won union contracts. In one port (Shippers Transport Express) workers now have secure wages and benefits as well as driving environmentally cleaner vehicles.
The other organising effort reported is that of the Warehouse Workers United (WWU). There are over 100,000 workers in warehouses in Southern California, with 30% of those being on casual contracts with little or no other workers rights. WWU made use of legal battles to fight the outsourcing of Walmart. In the end they had thousands of workers recognised to be direct employees of Walmart rather than their subsidiaries. They combined these legal battles with what are called Unfair Labor Practice strikes - these are strikes that can be lawfully held by workers in the case that their working conditions are too dangerous to work in. These strikes again were used to bolster the legal campaign. They also served to win higher wages and better working conditions in many of the warehouses. Nearly every warehouse is facing outsourcing litigation charges and workers have won over $21 million from these cases as well as being recognised as direct employees.
Despite these wins, support for the campaign was pulled by the UFCW and the campaign is now struggling financially. This is a real shame and highlights the way the rest of union movement in the US is shortsighted in its approach and strategy in a time where unions are heavily under attack.
In fact, the remarkable thing about all of these efforts is the extent to which the heavy lifting in strategic sectors of logistics is left to smaller unions - with often the fraction of the resources available to larger unions. As is pointed out in the chapter, the organising efforts in Southern California were very good, the issue was that they were not mirrored across the country despite there being 15 million union members in the US who could replicate these types of efforts.
***What I learned and who I recommend this book to***
I work as Deliveroo rider and have been involved in workplace organising (I have also done strike support for lecturer strikes and helped in efforts to run rent strikes in university halls). Here is some of what I learned from reading this book.
Firstly, it is totally possible to run organising drives in unorganised sectors even with very limited resources. The important thing is to have a good strategy and an approach that ensures that builds rank and file confidence and self-dependence.
Secondly, given that the above is the case, the union movement in many countries could actually dig itself out of its crisis, if it used even a fraction of its resources to replicate wins and good organising efforts that have occurred many other workplaces - including those that union hostile. For example, the GMB here in the UK could learn from organising efforts by smaller more combative unions and put them towards organising gig economy workers - a sector that now has over 3 million workers.
Thirdly, it is often these larger and more bureaucratic unions that have undermined what are extremely impressive organising efforts - e.g. when UFCW pulled support for the warehouse worker organising efforts, or when Solidarnosc condemned and refused to give solidarity to Amazon workers in Poznan.
What was missing for me was a discussion of how to engage with trade union bureaucracy. When is it worth fighting with the existing bureaucracies in large trade unions and when is it worth it putting that to one side and starting something new yourself? For example, it would have been interesting to hear more about the development of rank and file reform caucuses in many US unions (e.g. Teamsters for a Democratic Union, or the Caucus of Rank and File Educators that spearheaded the 2012 Chicago Teachers’ strike).
In the end it seems there is the possibility to organise and win great things and probably even more. However, the main issue is that the unions who should be putting people into action and developing people know-how and confidence in that regard are not doing that.
April 17, 2020
This is an OK collection. The first chapter is great as an overview of the concept of "choke points" within a global commodity chain framework—i.e., where can workers exert leverage along the chain from the point at which they extract raw materials to the point at which consumers get finished products? After that first chapter, only about a third of the chapters are useful from an organizing perspective. One is by and about Amazon warehouse workers in Poland and gets into the nitty gritty of strategies and tactics, including how to collaborate across borders. The other chapters that are useful for organizing all deal with Southern California, including a fitting closing chapter ab0ut the changing role of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union as dockworker labor gets displaced to inland warehouses and as environmental justice movements take on the logistics industry.
The remainder of the volume varies a lot in aim, method, etc. Most of the chapters don't think through the concept of "choke points" at all and center unions and strikes—even though the chapters mentioned above tackle how workers need new imaginaries, strategies, and tactics for resistance for diversifying labor regimes (increase precarity) and the geographical dispersion and division of work. Most disappointing is that a lot of these other chapters are not from the perspective of workers at all, dealing more with port development, legal/regulatory regimes, and union organization in a broad sense. There is even at least one chapter that doesn't really question the labor-capital relationship. From an academic global studies perspective, the most interesting of these other chapters are those that deal with Palestinian truck drivers, Israeli checkpoints, and the vertical geography of logistics in Palestine, and with Durban's port as a locus of pan-African, globalist worker solidarity.
The remainder of the volume varies a lot in aim, method, etc. Most of the chapters don't think through the concept of "choke points" at all and center unions and strikes—even though the chapters mentioned above tackle how workers need new imaginaries, strategies, and tactics for resistance for diversifying labor regimes (increase precarity) and the geographical dispersion and division of work. Most disappointing is that a lot of these other chapters are not from the perspective of workers at all, dealing more with port development, legal/regulatory regimes, and union organization in a broad sense. There is even at least one chapter that doesn't really question the labor-capital relationship. From an academic global studies perspective, the most interesting of these other chapters are those that deal with Palestinian truck drivers, Israeli checkpoints, and the vertical geography of logistics in Palestine, and with Durban's port as a locus of pan-African, globalist worker solidarity.
July 23, 2024
What is logistics?
With that out of the way...An insightful collation of case studies into the supply lines arena of class war, from the "logistics of occupation" in Palestine and international solidarity to the role of American teamsters, Italian migrant warehouse workers, and others.
Highlights:
1.
This is a continued legacy of the post-Cold War neoliberal triumphalist wave, which saw egregious examples, notably including the Treuhandanstalt acting as an agent for pennies-on-the-dollar colonization of former DDR assets by West-turned-unified Germany (Stasi State or Socialist Paradise?: The German Democratic Republic and What Became of It). The hastiness involved in a process even liberals called rushed and corrupted highlight the ideological impetus behind this move beyond direct financial gain. Examples of this are happening today, right down to regional and local levels.
=====================
2. The chapter on Greece's discussion of the "precariat" as a collective which "cannot be accommodated in a unified subjectivity in analogy with previous patterns of class-based collective identities" provoked some thoughts hearkening back to a grad school course I took on digital labour: if class positioning is iterative, precarious, and drawn from a pool of marginalized labour (infamously miscategorized as "independent contractors"), the notion of "social movement unionism" feels increasingly important. If radicalization of labour movements was presented in Marx's day as being facilitated by the socialization of labour, well, that socialization remains, but in a mixture of ways, in a context of spatially, temporally, and socially segmented 'workplaces' (see The Making of the Tech Worker Movement). Social movements (dare I say it, even a party with a program?!) offer a vehicle for sustained organization and orientation in this iterative, precarious context.
=====================
3. Reminiscent of The People’s Republic of Walmart: How the World’s Biggest Corporations are Laying the Foundation for Socialism (indeed, Walmart makes a few cameos), there is the noted contradiction of corporations needing internal coordination but trying to work around any potential choke points---where that coordination could be exploited by organized workers to disrupt the flow in labour actions. This book is a clarion call for organization, but it addresses the reality of often isolated or segmented actions that the labour movement has been dealing with (in Canada in particular, at least, the formula tends to be for patchwork rather than industry-level organization). It also does explore concrete instances of coordination (Durban dockworkers stopping weapons shipments in solidarity with Zimbabwe workers being attacked by police, similar actions supporting Palestinian liberation...).
Organizing should have a sustained coherence, but there are twists. The role of teamster organizing in galvanizing others is touched on extensively, but for me a standout illustrative case comes from The Great Stewardess Rebellion: How Women Launched a Workplace Revolution at 30,000 Feet which recounts a nervous meeting between stewardess reps and Jimmy Hoffa that turned out less as a signal of affiliation and more as a way to alarm management into a willingness to negotiate. That seems to fit with the spirit of this book: signalling that organizing is an option is a major first victory, even if the initial plan doesn't pan out, as long as its followed up on.
=====================
4. From Chapter 13: Experimental Organizing in Southern California:
Further, it is crucial to recognize that, as with warfare broadly, these strategic positions are "not static"---the choke points in the supply chain evolve with politics and technology (containerization), and so labour must aim as high and and broadly as feasible as a matter of sustained organizing. The point that, as the final chapter sums it up, "No worker is an island" extends globally.
Most importantly, all of the struggles outlined in this series of essays are ongoing. There is no final victory in sight, and a series of recent defeats, but the point is that these defeats are lessons and involve the initial victory of actually organizing. This, I think, is a crucial lesson politically and economically. We can't afford to 'focus on the small immediate wins now and worry about the big picture later'. The two have to be directly connected, and the risk of short-term frustration is necessary.
A warning that this is one of those books that loves its jargon and acronyms, so be prepared to follow those closely.
In a broader sense, logistics refers to practices that organize the operations of capital to maximize the transfer, transportation, communication, coordination, and distribution of data, ideas, people, and objects.
With that out of the way...An insightful collation of case studies into the supply lines arena of class war, from the "logistics of occupation" in Palestine and international solidarity to the role of American teamsters, Italian migrant warehouse workers, and others.
Highlights:
1.
A study by the Transnational Institute examined privatizations in seven Europeam countries, and came to the conclusion that 'state companies are consistently undersold and even end up costing governments extra money...state assets have often been sold for prices far below their true market value.'
While profitable companies are sold under market value, unprofitable assets are sold without their debts.
This is a continued legacy of the post-Cold War neoliberal triumphalist wave, which saw egregious examples, notably including the Treuhandanstalt acting as an agent for pennies-on-the-dollar colonization of former DDR assets by West-turned-unified Germany (Stasi State or Socialist Paradise?: The German Democratic Republic and What Became of It). The hastiness involved in a process even liberals called rushed and corrupted highlight the ideological impetus behind this move beyond direct financial gain. Examples of this are happening today, right down to regional and local levels.
=====================
2. The chapter on Greece's discussion of the "precariat" as a collective which "cannot be accommodated in a unified subjectivity in analogy with previous patterns of class-based collective identities" provoked some thoughts hearkening back to a grad school course I took on digital labour: if class positioning is iterative, precarious, and drawn from a pool of marginalized labour (infamously miscategorized as "independent contractors"), the notion of "social movement unionism" feels increasingly important. If radicalization of labour movements was presented in Marx's day as being facilitated by the socialization of labour, well, that socialization remains, but in a mixture of ways, in a context of spatially, temporally, and socially segmented 'workplaces' (see The Making of the Tech Worker Movement). Social movements (dare I say it, even a party with a program?!) offer a vehicle for sustained organization and orientation in this iterative, precarious context.
=====================
3. Reminiscent of The People’s Republic of Walmart: How the World’s Biggest Corporations are Laying the Foundation for Socialism (indeed, Walmart makes a few cameos), there is the noted contradiction of corporations needing internal coordination but trying to work around any potential choke points---where that coordination could be exploited by organized workers to disrupt the flow in labour actions. This book is a clarion call for organization, but it addresses the reality of often isolated or segmented actions that the labour movement has been dealing with (in Canada in particular, at least, the formula tends to be for patchwork rather than industry-level organization). It also does explore concrete instances of coordination (Durban dockworkers stopping weapons shipments in solidarity with Zimbabwe workers being attacked by police, similar actions supporting Palestinian liberation...).
Organizing should have a sustained coherence, but there are twists. The role of teamster organizing in galvanizing others is touched on extensively, but for me a standout illustrative case comes from The Great Stewardess Rebellion: How Women Launched a Workplace Revolution at 30,000 Feet which recounts a nervous meeting between stewardess reps and Jimmy Hoffa that turned out less as a signal of affiliation and more as a way to alarm management into a willingness to negotiate. That seems to fit with the spirit of this book: signalling that organizing is an option is a major first victory, even if the initial plan doesn't pan out, as long as its followed up on.
=====================
4. From Chapter 13: Experimental Organizing in Southern California:
The lesson of the last eight years (and the last 80), is that it really doesn't matter who is in the White House or Congress. Only focused, sustained organizing with local investment blended with a national or global strategy can affect capital at the level necessary to make real change.
Further, it is crucial to recognize that, as with warfare broadly, these strategic positions are "not static"---the choke points in the supply chain evolve with politics and technology (containerization), and so labour must aim as high and and broadly as feasible as a matter of sustained organizing. The point that, as the final chapter sums it up, "No worker is an island" extends globally.
Most importantly, all of the struggles outlined in this series of essays are ongoing. There is no final victory in sight, and a series of recent defeats, but the point is that these defeats are lessons and involve the initial victory of actually organizing. This, I think, is a crucial lesson politically and economically. We can't afford to 'focus on the small immediate wins now and worry about the big picture later'. The two have to be directly connected, and the risk of short-term frustration is necessary.
A warning that this is one of those books that loves its jargon and acronyms, so be prepared to follow those closely.
June 23, 2019
🛳🚚📬💰📦📍👷♂️👷♀️👷♀️ big rec!!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews