Southern Insurgency: The Coming of the Global Working Class

241 Pages·2015·3.958 MB·English

by  Immanuel Ness

SOUTHERN INSURGENCY
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Wildcat: Workers’ Movements and Global Capitalism
Series Editors:
Peter Alexander (University of Johannesburg)
Immanuel Ness (City University of New York)
Tim Pringle (SOAS, University of London)
Malehoko Tshoaedi (University of Pretoria)
Workers’ movements are a common and recurring feature in contemporary
capitalism. The same militancy that inspired the mass labor movements of
the twentieth century continues to define worker struggles that proliferate
throughout the world today.
For more than a century labor unions have mobilized to represent the
political-economic interests of workers by uncovering the abuses of
capitalism, establishing wage standards, improving oppressive working
conditions, and bargaining with employers and the state. Since the 1970s,
organized labor has declined in size and influence as the global power and
influence of capital has expanded dramatically. The world over, existing
unions are in a condition of fracture and turbulence in response to
neoliberalism, financialization, and the reappearance of rapacious forms
of imperialism. New and modernized unions are adapting to conditions
and creating class-conscious workers’ movement rooted in militancy and
solidarity. Ironically, while the power of organized labor contracts, work-
ing-class militancy and resistance persists and is growing in the Global
South.
Wildcat publishes ambitious and innovative works on the history and
political economy of workers’ movements and is a forum for debate on
pivotal movements and labor struggles. The series applies a broad defi-
nition of the labor movement to include workers in and out of unions,
and seeks works that examine proletarianization and class formation; mass
production; gender, affective and reproductive labor; imperialism and
workers; syndicalism and independent unions, and labor and Leftist social
and political movements.
Also available:
Just Work?: Migrant Workers’ Struggles Today
Edited by Aziz Choudry and Mondli Hlatshwayo
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Southern Insurgency
The Coming of the Global Working Class
Immanuel Ness
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First published 2016 by Pluto Press
345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA
www.plutobooks.com
Copyright © Immanuel Ness 2016
The right of Immanuel Ness to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by
him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 0 7453 3600 8 Hardback
ISBN 978 0 7453 3599 5 Paperback
ISBN 978 1 7837 1708 8 PDF eBook
ISBN 978 1 7837 1710 1 Kindle eBook
ISBN 978 1 7837 1709 5 EPUB eBook

This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and
sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to
conform to the environmental standards of the country of origin.
Typeset by Curran Publishing Services
Text design by Melanie Patrick
Simultaneously printed by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham, UK
and
Edwards Bros in the United States of America

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Contents
List of Maps, Figures, and Tables ix
Preface and Acknowledgments xi
Introduction The New International Working Class 1
Here Comes the Post-Industrial Economy 2
Why Global South Workers? 5
Global Capital Investment and Class Struggle 8
Imperialism, Globalization, and Multinational Capital 16
Imperialism, Monopoly Capitalism, and Repressive Power 17
From Market Liberalization to World Bank Benevolence? 18
Imperialism, Monopoly Capital, Poverty, and Worker
Resistance 19
Chapter Outline 22
Conclusion 25
Part I Capitalism and Imperialism 27
Chapter 1 The Industrial Proletariat of the Global South 29
Poverty North and South 30
The 21st-Century ‘Forces of Labor’ 32
Production and Imperialism 36
A New Industrial Proletariat Under Neoliberal Capitalism 43
Workers’ Movements and Organized Labor 46
Trade Union Decline: Poverty and Inequality 49
Corporatism and Trade Unions 53
Extraction and Production in Neoliberal Capitalism 55
Conclusion 57
Chapter 2 Migration and the Reserve Army of Labor 60
Theories of Labor Migration 61
Labor, Marxism, and the Social Formation 65
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Contents
Migration and Labor over Time and Space: The
Commodification of Labor 66
The Americas: Colonization, Capitalist Development,
and Labor Migration 67
After the Second World War: A New Global Labor
Migration Pattern 70
Global Capital, Labor Mobility, and State Regulation 75
Migration, Proletarianization, and Poverty 76
Part II Case Studies 79
Chapter 3 India: Neoliberal Industrialization, Class
Formation, and Mobilization 81
Manufacturing and Worker Militancy in India’s Auto Sector 83
The New Trade Union Initiative – Organizing Informal
and Contract Workers 89
Auto Worker Mobilization in New Delhi’s Industrial Belt,
1999–2013 92
Management–Labor Standoff and State Repression 103
Conclusion: Corporate Control and Worker Solidarity 105
Chapter 4 China: State Capitalism, Foreign Investment,
and Worker Insurgency 107
China’s Manufacturing Exports in the Global Economy 109
Guangdong Province and the Pearl River Delta 112
State Capitalism and the Rise of the New Working Class 114
Migrant Labor, Proletarianization, and the Hukou System 117
Migrant Workers’ Pension Shortfall 119
Youth Workers and Labor Shortages 121
ACFTU and the Chinese Labor Movement 123
ACFTU Representation of Workers in the Export Sector 126
The First Wave of Labor Protests, 1997–2002 130
The 2008 Labour Contract Law 132
Yue Yuen Mass Strike, Dongguan, March–April 2014, and
Its Aftermath 135
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Contents
Conclusion: Can Workers Organize Independent Trade
Unions in China, and Should They? 144
Chapter 5 South Africa: Post-Apartheid Labor Militancy
in the Mining Sector 148
The Rise of Mining and Manufacturing in Neoliberal
Capitalism 148
Southern African Platinum and the Global Economy 150
Mining, Capital, and Contract Labor in Post-Apartheid
South Africa, 1994–2015 151
Labor Unions in Modern South Africa 154
The Tripartite Alliance and Post-Apartheid Trade Unions 158
The South African Mine Worker Insurgency, 2009–14 161
The South African Strike Wave of 2014 173
Conclusion 175
Chapter 6 Conclusion 179
Promoting Foreign Investment for Export Production 180
Reliance on a Migrant Workforce 182
Citizenship Rights and Living Conditions 183
Imperialism and the Global Working Class, North and
South 184
Trade Unions and Workers Movements in the Global South 184
Rank-and-File Workers and the Future of Trade Unions 188
Notes 191
Index 215
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Maps, figures, and tables
Maps
4.1 India, with a focus on Haryana State 82
5.1 China, with a focus on the Pearl River Delta 108
6.1 South Africa, with a focus on the North West 149
Figures
1.1 International comparison of hourly labor costs in
the textile industry, 2011 10
1.2 Labor costs in manufacturing industries in selected
countries, 2012 11
1.3 Hourly manufacturing wage in selected countries, 2012 12
1.4 Hourly compensation costs in manufacturing in
selected countries, 2009 13
3.1 Number of international migrants, 1960–2000 75
5.1 Actual and projected average annual rate of change of
China’s population, 1950–2015 120
5.2 Percentage of population residing in urban areas in
China, by major area, five-year averages based on mid-
year figures, 1950–2050 122
5.3 Employment growth in urban areas of China, 2009–13 123
5.4 ACFTU membership 1952–2012 124
Tables
1.1 Total male and female employment by sector,
world, and regions 7
1.2 Value added by activity in 2010 8
2.1 FDI inflows and outflows by major regions, 1990–2013 34
2.2 FDI inflows and outflows by major regions, 1990–2013
(percentage share of total) 35
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