This book explores the combination of capital's changing composition and labour's subjective agency to examine whether the waning days of the 'sweatshop' have indeed begun. Focused on the garment and footwear sectors, it introduces a universal logic that governs competition and reshapes the chain. By analysing workers' collective action at various sites of production, it observes how this internal logic plays out for labour who are testing the limits of the social order, stretching it until the seams show. By examining the most valorised parts of underdeveloped sectors, one can see where capital is going and how it is getting there. These findings contribute to ongoing efforts to establish workers' rights in sectors plagued by poverty and powerlessness, building fires and collapses. With this change and a capable labour movement, there's hope yet that workers may close the gap.
Les mer
Acknowledgements; Introduction. The return of the sweatshop; Part I. Past: 1. The bottleneck; 2. The global sweatshop; Part II. Present: 3. China: a strike at a giant footwear producer; 4. India: a warehouse workers struggle at a 'full package' supplier; 5. Honduras: A transnational campaign at a cotton commodity producer; Part III. Future: 6. Cartels of capital; 7. Labour's power in the chain; 8. Conclusion. The end of the sweatshop? Bibliography; Index.
Les mer
'Just as the dynamics of capitalism shuts down opportunities for labour organizing, it can also open up new possibilities. In this important book Ashok Kumar traces the history and geographical spread of the garment industry, how retailers have secured ever more power that has led to the restructuring of the global production chain and increased the structural power of the most exploited workers. Exemplary engaged research that challenges the fatalism accompanying neoliberalism.' Michael Burawoy, University of California, Berkeley
Les mer
Explores the combination of capital's changing composition and labour's subjective agency.

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781108731973
Publisert
2020-10-29
Utgiver
Vendor
Cambridge University Press
Vekt
360 gr
Høyde
222 mm
Bredde
150 mm
Dybde
17 mm
Aldersnivå
P, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Antall sider
290

Forfatter

Biographical note

Ashok Kumar teaches International Political Economy at Birkbeck, University of London. He has authored and edited a number of publications and is on the editorial collective of Historical Materialism. He completed his doctorate from the University of Oxford in 2015.