“They use everything about the hog except the squeal.” ― Upton Sinclair, The Jungle Driving into work today I listened to a story about how many large countries of the world had recently banned imports of Brazilian beef and chicken into their countries. Reports from a whistle-blower about cardboard being
Continue readingTag: exploitation
Parchment in the Fire: Germany: Refugees today, the exploited workers of tomorrow? – Equal Times
Wajdi arrived in Germany a few months ago. He had studied law in Syria. But he was not able to bring his diplomas with him. The only things he still has with him from his home country after his long journey across Europe are his passport and his smartphone. Over a million migrants and asylum… More Germany: Refugees today, the exploited workers of tomorrow? – Equal Times
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: Our gawker culture
Suddenly the Net lit up with headlines news: celebrity nude photos leaked! Videos too! Facebook timelines were replete with media stories. Shock. Horror. Voyeurism. Click, click, click the viewers racked up the view count as they raced to the sites just in case they actually showed something. A little flesh
Continue readingParchment in the Fire: Capital, Labour, and the Eurozone Crisis
Most of the coverage regarding the Eurozone crisis has understandably focused on the politics of austerity. Less attention, however, has been paid to the longer term trends in the industrial relations of those countries hardest hit by the crisis: Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain; the so-called PIIGS countries. Recent
Continue readingPolitical Eh-conomy: Political Eh-conomy Radio: Temporary Foreign Workers
The Temporary Foreign Workers Program has been increasingly in the spotlight the last few weeks. Many allegations have surfaced about the appalling living and working conditions faced by migrant workers. While much of the media coverage has ignored what is most important, my two guests on this week’s podcast are ready to offer some
Continue readingParchment in the Fire: Americanized Labor Policy Is Spreading in Europe – NYTimes.com
Americanized Labor Policy Is Spreading in Europe – NYTimes.com. While most of the debate over Europe’s response to the financial crisis has focused on the budget austerity enveloping the Continent, the comparatively unheralded erosion of worker protection is likely to have at least as big and lasting an impact on
Continue readingParchment in the Fire: Class Struggle in County Durham
Dispatches from the class struggle in County Durham: What the colliers’ dependence on the exploiters for their homes means in practice can be seen in any strike. For example, the strike in Durham in November 1863. The people were evicted, wives and children included, in the harshest weather; and their
Continue readingParchment in the Fire: Rethinking the Industrial Revolution
Five Centuries of Transition from Agrarian to Industrial Capitalism in England Michael Andrew Žmolek, University of Iowa In Rethinking the Industrial Revolution: Five Centuries of Transition from Agrarian to Industrial Capitalism in England, Michael Andrew Žmolek offers the first in-depth study of the evolution of English manufacturing from the feudal
Continue readingParchment in the Fire: Recovering the Centrality of Class
by Ellen Meiksins Wood Originally published in Solidiarity WHEN E.P. THOMPSON’S The Making of the English Working Class came out in 1963, there still existed a vibrant anti-capitalist culture on the intellectual left, which flourished with a special vigor among the British Marxist historians, a remarkable group to which Thompson belonged.
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Untangling the Temporary Foreign Worker Knot
Banks as predators? Surely, no! Temporary foreign workers have become a lightning-rod topic in Canadian labour in recent months with the high-profile news of the Royal Bank of Canada replacing staff with TFWs. But the issue is not about RBC, which is merely the latest flashpoint. The temporary foreign worker
Continue readingLeDaro: Bangladesh: The Value of Human Life
The death toll from the Bangladesh factory collapse has surpassed 620. This is in a building which the architect said was not designed to handle industrial equipment. There was an obvious disregard of safety standards for which hundreds paid with their lives. Are the lives of Bangladeshis seen as equal
Continue readingLeDaro: Bangladesh: The Value of Human Life
The death toll from the Bangladesh factory collapse has surpassed 620. This is in a building which the architect said was not designed to handle industrial equipment. There was an obvious disregard of safety standards for which hundreds paid with their lives. Are the lives of Bangladeshis seen as equal
Continue reading