The Class Strikes Back: Self-Organised Workers’ Struggles in the Twenty-First Century(150 Historical Materialism Book Series)

The Class Strikes Back examines a number of radical, twenty-first-century workers’ struggles. These struggles are characterised by a different kind of unionism and solidarity, arising out of new kinds of labour conditions and responsive to new kinds of social and economic marginalisation. The essays in the collection demonstrate the dramatic growth of syndicalist and autonomist formations and argue for their historical necessity. They show how workers seek to form and join democratic and independent unions that are fundamentally opposed to bureaucratic leadership, compromise, and concessions. Specific case studies dealing with both the Global South and Global North assess the context of local histories and the spatially and temporally located balance of power, while embedding the struggle in a broader picture of resistance and the fight for emancipation. Contributors are: Anne Alexander, Dario Azzellini, Mostafa Bassiouny, Antonios Broumas, Anna Curcio, Demet S. Dinler, Kostas Haritakis, Felix Hauf, Elias Ioakimoglou, Mithilesh Kumar, Kari Lydersen, Chiara Milan, Carlos Olaya, Hansi Oostinga, Ranabir Samaddar, Luke Sinwell, Elmar Wigand.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements Note on Contributors 1 Introduction: A Return to the Shop Floor or How to Confront Neoliberal Capitalism  Dario Azzellini and Michael G. Kraft Workers’ Self-Organisation beyond and against Corporative Unions and the State 2 Workers’ Struggles and Autonomy: Strategic and Tactical Considerations  Mithilesh Kumar and Ranabir Samaddar 3 Autonomous Worker Committees in Marikana, South Africa: Journey to the Mountain  Luke Sinwell 4 Greece: Grassroots Labour Struggles in a Crisis-Ridden Country  Antonios Broumas, Elias Ioakimoglou and Kostas Haritakis 5 Fighting Against Capitalist Ownership and State Bureaucracy – Labour Struggles in Venezuela  Dario Azzellini Non-Corporate Unionism and Social Movements 6 Revolts on Goose Island: A Long Fight Pays Off for Chicago Window Factory Workers  Kari Lydersen 7 The Egyptian Workers’ Movement: Revolt, Revolution and Counter-Revolution  Anne Alexander and Mostafa Bassiouny 8 Bosnia and Herzegovina: From Workers’ Strike to Social Uprising  Chiara Milan 9 Sinaltrainal: Transforming the Workers’ Movement in Colombia  Carlos Olaya 10 A Fistful of Dollars? The Labour Dispute in the Babylon Cinema  Hansi Oostinga Renewed Forms of Struggle and Workers’ Self-Management 11 New Workers’ Struggles in Turkey since the 2000s: Possibilities and Limits  Demet Ş. Dinler 12 Recovered Imaginaries: Workers’ Self-Organisation and Radical Unionism in Indonesia  Felix Hauf 13 The Revolution in Logistics  Anna Curcio 14 Sweat and Detergent not Bread and Roses: Behind the Shiny Surface of London’s Financial Industry, Latin Cleaners Struggle for Dignity  Elmar Wigand References Index

About the Author :
Dario Azzellini, Ph.D. (1967), Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany and Meritorious Autonomous University of Puebla (BUAP), Mexico, is visiting scholar at Murphy Institute/CUNY. He has published monographs, edited books and articles on social movements, social transformation, labour and migration studies, and Latin American Studies. Michael G. Kraft, Ph.D. (2004), Vienna University of Economics, is a lecturer on social movements and economic and social transformations. He has published on heterodox economics and neoliberalism, social struggles and workers’ self-management in Ex-Yugoslavia.