#Walmartstrike and the union resurgence

The #Walmartstrike on Black Friday was an historic moment for the global labour movement. It represents the public coming out of the synthesis of occupy direct action tactics and sustainable union structures to produce a direct unionism that has the capacity to overturn corporate hegemony.

Corporate USA, especially in the retail sector, had an extremely effective strategy for ensuring their underpaid staff don’t come together in a representative union structure. This anti-union induction video for Walmart competitor, Target, is a striking example of the strategy:

An Indestructible Union (Part 10)

As we build up the membership continuum, this post will move to the first type of membership for those who are in paid work – minority membership.

An Indestructible Union (Part 4)

There has been a qualitative shift in the employment relationship over the last 30 years that has placed severe pressure on the representative Union structure. Colloquially, this is known as the disappearance of the job for life. Like most instances of remembering historical relationships the notion of the job for life, is based on a combination of mythologising the past and the real life collective experience of the Australian working class.

The Precariat: the new dangerous class

The Precariat is infuriatingly interesting. Its author Guy Standing, a Professor of Economic Security at the University of Bath, has set out to explain the rise of a new class, “the precariat”, and explore the social/political implications of this ‘class-in-the-making’. The Precariat’s originality lies in the journey which Standing takes the reader on. Standing’s start point is simple enough; his understanding that we cannot return to a mythical Keynesian capitalist Golden Age where (nearly) everyone had a decent job. Although the journey can be challenging and takes some unexpected directions, Standing has written a book that is vital to understanding the workings of contemporary global economy.