Katy Fox-Hodess is a lecturer in employment relations at the University of Sheffield.
From India to Canada to Belgium and many places in between, union members are standing up in solidarity with the Palestinian people, taking action to stop the flow of arms being used by Israel in its destructive war on Gaza.
Pro-Palestine “Block the Boat” actions, where dockworkers block the transport of arms to Israel, have proliferated in recent years. Recalling actions against apartheid South Africa, they’re an effective way for labor to oppose Israel’s war on Gaza.
The logistics industry is key to the global circulation of goods under capitalism. Workers have immense power within it to grind that circulation to a halt — if they can get organized.
From maritime empires to modern logistics, capitalism has been forged on the seas.
Dock workers in San Francisco and Durban, South Africa, have huge amounts of strategic leverage in the global economy. Both have long used that power not just to fight for better wages, but also to fight imperialism and racism.
The Swedish Dockworkers Union has announced plans for indefinite strike action. The future of independent, left-wing, rank-and-file trade unionism in Sweden hangs in the balance.
In the logistics industry, from port workers to truckers to delivery drivers, time is of the essence. Their potential control over that time gives workers enormous leverage in the global economy.
The University of California’s only response to successful labor organizing is violence and intimidation.
Even if the UAW had won in Tennessee, another conversation is needed about the kind of organization the union has become.
Frederick Wiseman’s At Berkeley mistakes the enemies of public higher education for its defenders.
The fascist Golden Dawn party has drawn Greece’s ruling party further right — and opened space for deeper austerity measures.