uneven worker power
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Mark P. Thomas and Steve Tufts, York University: "Uneven Worker Power and the Populism-Austerity-Labour Nexus"TRANSCRIPT
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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
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Conceptual framework
The populism-austerity-labour nexus
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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
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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