Steven TuftsAssociate Professor, Department of Geography

York University 

Mark ThomasAssociate Professor, Department of Sociology

York University

Paper presented at:

The Global Economic Crisis and Canada: Perception Versus Reality

Ryerson University

March 23, 2012

 

Uneven Worker Power and the Populism-Austerity-Labour Nexus

 

Conceptual framework

The populism-austerity-labour nexus

The populism-austerity-labour nexus

Crisis and Uneven Austerity Aspect of populism Implications for actually existing labour movement

Strategic opportunities for the labour movement

Decline of manufacturing sector

Producerism Sympathy for manufacturing workers

Gendered services as intensive ‘productive labour’

New sectors, telecommunications, labour intensive services as production (healthcare, hospitality)

Public sector workers

Rise of 1%, persistent financial capital

Scapegoating Backlash against 1% narrative, (anti-semitic, class-warfare)

Re-establishment of sustainable taxation regime

Finance- State collusion Conspiricism Austerity measures to support

bailouts/stimulus spending (re) organizing public sector workers

Environment and apocalypse Apocalyptic narratives Climate change as means of disciplining labour versus Triple E vision (employment, equity, environment)

Greening Work and Labour

Right with populist leaders (e.g., Ford)

Cult of leadership Challenge to decentralized models of governance

Left leadership, diffused power

Security state, loss of right to strike, and protest in public space

Authoritarianism Rise of back-to-work legislation, disciplining of dissent

Security guards, mobilization around legislated unions

Anti-migration sentiment, discipline of migrant labour

Local development, sourcing

Nativism Contradiction between rise of migration and decline of status

Alliances with migrant community groups

Local procurement strategies

Implications for labour

New Sectors for Organizing?Security workersLow-wage financial workersGreen workplacesPopulist re-organizing and the public-sector

New Working-Class Formations? OCCUPY and Labour AssembliesCLAC