Gregoris
Ioannou
(a
shorter version of this review is forthcoming in Capital and Class, Vol. 41:3)
The
book’s argument:
The
book begins with a historical overview which sets the Marxian analytic
framework and situates the narrative in the context of the current neo-liberal
era. This is characterized by the huge increase in Foreign Direct Investment
(FDI) in the Global South which has grown exponentially since the II World War
and which has integrated previously excluded areas and populations into the
global capitalist economy. Ness argues that FDI replaces foreign aid as the key
form of development finance and that this reshapes imperialism. The movement of
capital to the Global South is driven by the search for low waged workers and
the highest possible extraction of surplus value but the profits produced there
are primarily repatriated to the imperialist countries. Moreover the
penetration of capital restructures the societies changing the form of rather
than reducing the prevalence of poverty as industrialization is based largely
on temporary migrant labour and on destroying pre-existing subsistence modes of
life.
The
main argument developed by Ness is that workers’ resistance is a constant
parameter in this process and that global capital is only able to maintain this
system through the use of direct force, social repression and indirect coercion.
More importantly it illustrates how workers’ contestation of their employment
terms and conditions is constant, determined, resilient and sustained in time,
ingenious and creative and utilizing multiple and plural resources and
techniques and assuming a variety of forms. This argument is substantiated through
empirical data produced in the context of the three case studies which overview
the recent big strikes and extended worker mobilizations in India’s auto
manufacturing, China’s shoe manufacturing and South Africa’s platinum mining
industries.
One
of the main tenets of Ness’ argument is that the expansion of FDI is tied to
increased proletarianization and enhanced urbanization in the Global South and
the expansion of the world’s industrial workers in absolute terms as well as in
relative terms; the proportion of industrial workers in the South rising from
50% in 1980 to 80% in 2010 (p.38). This occurs through the subcontracting
networks that feed into major multinational corporations. Through statistical
data Ness illustrates that the inequality between developed and developing
countries resting on imperialism and capital flows further accentuates poverty
and social inequality while Northern capital comes to depend on low-waged
Southern labour (p. 33). Multinational corporations take advantage of systemic
unemployment and the lack of unionization in the extensive southern informal
sector and relocates industrial production to the Global South as the Global
North shifts to services.
Trade
unionism, its condition, forms and limits constitutes a thread that traverses
Ness’ narrative. Trade unionism is at the outset a central part of the
descriptive and analytic goals of the book’s endeavor to account for the
working class in struggle. It is approached both as an organizational form in
historical terms as well and in terms of its actual current political function
in different regional and national settings. This allows Ness to both compare
forms of trade unionism on issues of composition and density, degrees of
institutionalization and political leverage, militancy and effectiveness,
providing insights as well as critical comments based on the observation of
practices. Ness examines the implications of the weakness of traditional trade
unionism and concludes that the militancy of the new industrial proletariat of
the Global South transcends traditional trade unionism through the formation of
worker assemblies, the formation of new independent unions and through
pressurizing traditional trade unions forcing them to change their approach.
The
notion of the “reserve of army of labour” is the key conceptual tool employed
in the book in order to explain both capital’s strategy as well as the terms
and conditions of work that workers’ have to face globally. The “reserve army
of labour” is identified as the most important of the Marxian concepts and it
is used to frame the historical development of 20th Century
capitalism and explain its operation in the 21st Century. Ness
argues that migration, both internal and international has always been tied to
capitalist expansion and has taken different forms according to the patterns of
global history as this has been shaped by imperialism. It was migrant labour
that turned the USA into the world’s biggest economy, it was migrant labour
that rebuilt Europe after the II World War and it is on migrant labour,
internal as well as international that neoliberal globalization is currently
built.
The
book’s first case study focuses on Indian industrialization occurring in a global
neoliberal setting and examines the processes of class formation through
workers’ mobilizations in the recent period. As the state is unreservedly and
fully backing global capital’s operation of exploiting low cost labour and as
trade unions’ social and political influence has declined, worker
representation and demands shift from the parliamentary level to innovative
firm level workers’ organizational attempts. In the neoliberal era, all
government and all major parties in both the global north and the global south
have adopted more or less the neoliberal imperatives, argues Ness, and this
creates a very restrictive context for traditional trade unionism in the last
three decades. This has opened the space for new trade union initiatives which
operate on a different logic and which focus on casual and insecure workers in
the informal sector who are excluded not only from labour rights but also from
traditional trade unionism as well. Often class antagonism unfolds and is waged
on the terrain of trade unionism between and within unions, with employers
establishing company unions in an attempt to counter autonomous unionization
(p. 94). And more often it is brute repression that calls the shots, making things
worse for the insurgents but really unable in the medium and long term to
pacify the working class and prevent further insurgency elsewhere.
China’s
path to industrialization was different, as a result of its different
historical trajectory, institutional context and positioning in global
capitalism. Although the Chinese state effectively embarked upon liberalization
and market policies since the late 1970s in its attempt to modernize and
industrialize, attracting global capital ventures, it has largely remained in
control of its economy maintaining a unique state capitalist framework combined
with foreign investment. The new working class in China has been crystallized
through the decline and privatization of state owned firms, internal migration
expanding the private sector workforce and the decline in the reserve army of
labour amid growing worker demands (p.115). Ness observes that the main form of
mobilization is spontaneous single-factory struggles as the workers are unable
to coordinate themselves and form regional and national organizations. However
this is also a form of strength for the Chinese working class because it allows
the growth of workplace power and militancy, qualities that would have been
moderated in the presence of a nationally coordinated trade unionism. Ness
takes this argument further by examining the role of (ACFTU) the existing national
labour federation and the only authorized trade union, which although it is in
reality a branch of the ruling Communist Party, it is effectively similar in
terms of its role and function with Western trade unions.
Ness
indirectly claims that the key factor in assessing trade union function is not
the closeness between its leadership and management and the state, but between
its leadership and its rank and file. Moreover, in opposition to scholars and
commentators who view the ACFTU as thwarting the struggle for labour rights,
Ness takes a more nuanced position and argues that in fact the inability of
ACFTU to represent the interests of its increasing members allows workers to
engage in a variety of repertoires of rank and file action. At the same time,
the exponentially increasing labour disputes are the real driver behind the
expansion of ACFTU membership (p. 130). And last but not least both the ruling
Communist Party and ACFTU are often caught off guard and are unable to control
growing labour unrest. Workers in China are thus able both to act outside the
existing trade union framework and to secure wages and benefits directly from
their employers and indirectly from the state as a result of the pressure their
militant collective action can exert on it.
The
different historical trajectory of South Africa tells a different story of
trade unionism, whereby the leading role of trade unionism into the anti
apartheid struggle led it, in the neoliberal universe of the post apartheid
period, into the absorption of the big confederation of trade unions (COSATU)
in the South African government. Ness claims that the insurrectionary working
class of the transitional period became gradually disillusioned with COSATU
which prioritized issues of political equality for the blacks while neglecting
the socio-economic struggle and the enhanced poverty brought about by
neoliberal capitalism. A severe blow to COSATU came in the last years after its
failure to respond in the growing violent repression against insurrectionary
mine workers. Ness views the traditional South African trade unions as
complicit to the growing informalization of labour and accounts for their
hostile stance in the face of recent strikes allowing and facilitating their
brutal repression which culminated in the massacre of 2012 in Marikana. More
importantly however, the insurrectionary forces were not pacified by the
Marikana massacre as the strike wave of 2014 testifies and the result was a
split in the trade union movement through the emergence of more militant trade
unions that seek to express and direct the growing labour unrest in South
Africa.
Discussing
the book’s approach and implications:
Having
outlined the main arguments and provided an overview of the author’s
perspective I will now refer to some weak points and omissions in the analysis.
There are two main weaknesses in the book: the overt focus on the global south
and on industrial work while arguing for the coming of the global working class
and subsequently the insufficient balance between and within the three case
studies and between description and explanation in the development and
substantiation of the argument.
While
Ness documents very well the industrialization processes in the global south
and emergence of a militant industrial working class, in his attempt to situate
his findings in and against the dominant western discourses, he takes for
granted the equation working class=factory workers used by liberal claims about
the working class being an “outdated” notion. Ness adheres to a classic late 19th
and early 20th Century Marxist conceptualization of the working
class tied to industrial and manufacturing work and defends it through an
exclusive focus on the global south. Although he substantiates his claim and
justifies his approach both analytically and empirically, he omits to link this
with proletarianisation processes under way in the service sectors in the
global north as well as to smaller extent in the global south and thus weakens
the generalisability of his argument concerning “the coming of the global
working class”. Even when he discusses developments in global north, he
restricts his references to proletarianisation processes to the past and
present of migrant work. The absence of even a rudimentary discussion of major
processes occurring in the global north, such as the rising social inequality
and the shrinking of the so called middle class or labour aristocracy, is in my
opinion a significant omission that, although carrying the danger of diluting
the argument, could have enriched the scope and projected implications of the
book’s analysis.
The
second weakness concerns the balance between and within the three case studies
and between the descriptive and explanatory function of the analysis employed.
Ness undertakes a very ambitious task at hand: to account for recent
developments in the labour relations system of three big sectors in three
countries, two of them really having the size of continents. While this
empirical strategy allows Ness to make the necessary projections and identify
global theoretical and political implications, this also sets additional
analytic difficulties. Because of the huge volume of facts and data that need
to be mentioned in order for the reader to understand the broader historical,
economic, political and social context in each case study, Ness has less room
for discussion of the issues he identifies. While the richness of the empirical
data used is often more than valuable, at certain points the analysis becomes
thin as the weight falls on contextual description, chronicling of events and
narrating facts.
“Southern
insurgency: the coming of the global working class” is a book that is situated
in the empirical tradition of Marxist literature, that uses Marxian concepts
and frames in order to account for and explain social phenomena. Although Ness
mainly employs classical Marxian concepts and notions drawn from the orthodox
Leninist approach, the development of the analysis is also informed by subsequent
Marxist elaborations. For example the focus on the strikes and the accounting
of the relationship of the militant workers’ groups with their broader
communities resonates with the 1960s and 1970s spirit of approaching working
class consciousness and class composition in historical and political terms
through observing the forms, modes and patterns of worker resistance[1]. Theoretically
the geo-political and international political economy framework employed connects
the book with the third worldist Marxian school[2]
albeit with a novel take on the notions of dependency and inequality that takes
into account the developments occurring in the neoliberal era.
Although
a Marxist book, “Southern insurgency: the coming of the global working class” is
open both in terms of analytic tools and insights, as well as in terms of its
general implications for social science, which extend beyond the Marxist school
and tradition. The book is primarily situated in the field of political economy
but it also draws elements from and contributes to a series of other social
science fields such as sociology of labour, employment relations and labour
history. The interdisciplinary spirit characterizes also the methodology with
multiple means of data collection such as fieldwork interviews, document
analysis and descriptive statistics.
“Southern
insurgency: the coming of the global working class” is a valuable book and
constitutes a significant contribution for social science in general and
Marxist analysis in particular. First of all it analyses very recent
developments and is thus covering hitherto unchartered ground expanding the
scope of existing knowledge. Second it offers a comparative discussion across
sectors and countries and sets Western analyses in a global context. Third it
empirically substantiates the refutation of a series of Western-centric “post
Marxist” discourses about the declining significance of industrial work and of
the industrial working class as an analytic category and a social force[3].
Fourth it provides detailed accounts of new forms of struggle by informal
workers, outside traditional trade unions which can expand and enhance our
understanding of mobilization processes and social movements. The latter continues
and builds upon Ness’ previous work on migrant workers in the USA[4].
The
main implications arising from Ness’ research is the need to rethink the role
of industrial production in capitalism taking into account the new conditions
effected through the expansion of foreign direct investment in conditions of
neoliberal globalization. The rise of a militant working class in the global
south, as documented by Ness creates a new parameter, necessary in the analysis
of present day imperialism as well as in the analyses of labour relations and class
politics in a global setting. Multinational corporations and their
subcontracting networks and their sweat shops are not challenged mainly by
consumer politics in the global north as mainstream conventional wisdom has it,
but by workers’ resistance in the global south. More importantly, this resistance
which scores sometimes small and sometime bigger successes renews the
discussion on trade unionism, its demise and its renewal. Ness argues
forcefully that the demise of traditional trade unionism is structural and that
it cannot in its current form have organizational success, challenge neoliberal
capitalism or express workers’ interests and that more attention and energy
must be spend in new and innovative forms of really-existing worker mobilization
as they appear primarily in the informal labour markets in the global south.
In
the form of conclusion, I reiterate my position that “Southern insurgency: the
coming of the global working class” contributes significantly to our
understanding of present day capitalism and the forms of the dialectic of
capital accumulation and worker resistance in the global south. With fresh
data, analytic rigor and a detailed narrative, Ness sketches the contours of
the 21st century class struggle and offers an account rich in
insights on trade unionism and class composition in the global political
economy.
References:
Amin, S. (1976) Unequal
development, Sussex: Monthly Review Press
Giddens, A. (2006) Sociology,
(5th ed.) Cambridge: Polity Press
Gorz, A. (1982) Farewell to the working class: an
essay on post-industrial socialism, London:
Pluto Press
Laclau, E. and Mouffe, C. (1985) Hegemony and socialist strategy: towards a radical democratic politics,
London: Verso
Ness, I. (2005) Immigrants, Unions and the New
US Labor Market, Philadelphia, PA: Temple University
Press
Ness, I. (2016) Southern insurgency: the coming
of the global working class London, Pluto Press.
Tronti, M. (1966) Operai
e capital, Einaudi Editore [Workers and capital]
Thompson, E.P. (1963) The making of the English working class, London: Penguin
Wallerstein,
I. (1979) The capitalist world economy, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press
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