
Essential Work, Disposable Workers
Migration, Capitalism and Class
Mostafa Henaway(Author)
Fernwood Publishing Co Ltd
Published on 20. July 2023
Book
Paperback/Softback
320 pages
978-1-77363-225-4 (ISBN)
Description
Across the world we are witnessing daily the lethal effects of a rapid and scary hardening of borders, ignited and justified by manufactured fear and scarcity. In such conditions, highly exploitative ideas of "managed migration" are presented as reasonable and just.
And temporary worker programs, championed by countries like Canada and the US, are presented as an acceptable response to both acute labour shortages and ugly nationalist feelings. For this, all workers pay the price in the form of dwindling rights and diminished solidarity. This book is the result of decades of thinking, organizing and deep research on the global struggle for equality and freedom in and against an increasingly walled world. Through this immediate and up-close account, Henaway takes the reader on a journey across a familiar consumer landscape of corporate power - from Amazon and Dollarama to chicken farms and late night rideshares -offering a vivid analysis of the consequences of a system built to marginalize, exploit and divide people through the creation of exclusionary categories of belonging.
In Essential Work, Disposable Workers, Henaway offers a counter proposal to the global border, arguing that we reject control over freedom of movement as a means to halt a race to the bottom for all working people and instead build solidarity across struggles for decent work and justice. In this moving account of a global system of hyper-exploitation, Henaway weaves stories of struggle with his own on-the-ground experience and expansive research, to explain the workings of a global system of managed precarity that affects everyone who works, albeit unequally. Written with the unique verve and insight of a committed scholar and decades-long grassroots organizer, Essential Work, Disposable Workers offers a vivid analysis to help us grasp the cruel consequences of borders and points to an alternative future.
And temporary worker programs, championed by countries like Canada and the US, are presented as an acceptable response to both acute labour shortages and ugly nationalist feelings. For this, all workers pay the price in the form of dwindling rights and diminished solidarity. This book is the result of decades of thinking, organizing and deep research on the global struggle for equality and freedom in and against an increasingly walled world. Through this immediate and up-close account, Henaway takes the reader on a journey across a familiar consumer landscape of corporate power - from Amazon and Dollarama to chicken farms and late night rideshares -offering a vivid analysis of the consequences of a system built to marginalize, exploit and divide people through the creation of exclusionary categories of belonging.
In Essential Work, Disposable Workers, Henaway offers a counter proposal to the global border, arguing that we reject control over freedom of movement as a means to halt a race to the bottom for all working people and instead build solidarity across struggles for decent work and justice. In this moving account of a global system of hyper-exploitation, Henaway weaves stories of struggle with his own on-the-ground experience and expansive research, to explain the workings of a global system of managed precarity that affects everyone who works, albeit unequally. Written with the unique verve and insight of a committed scholar and decades-long grassroots organizer, Essential Work, Disposable Workers offers a vivid analysis to help us grasp the cruel consequences of borders and points to an alternative future.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Black Point, Nova Scotia
Canada
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 23 mm
Width: 15 mm
Thickness: 1 mm
Weight
340 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-77363-225-4 (9781773632254)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Mostafa Henaway, a Canadian-born Egyptian, is a long-time community organizer at the Immigrant Workers Centre in Montreal, where he has been organizing for justice for immigrant/migrant workers for over two decades. He is also a researcher and PhD candidate at Concordia University
Harsha Walia is a South Asian activist and writer based in Vancouver, unceded Coast Salish Territories. She has been involved in community-based grassroots migrant justice, feminist, anti-racist, Indigenous solidarity, anti-capitalist, Palestinian liberation, and anti-imperialist movements, including No One is Illegal and Women's Memorial March Committee. She is formally trained in law, works with women in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, and is the author of Undoing Border Imperialism (2013).
Harsha Walia is a South Asian activist and writer based in Vancouver, unceded Coast Salish Territories. She has been involved in community-based grassroots migrant justice, feminist, anti-racist, Indigenous solidarity, anti-capitalist, Palestinian liberation, and anti-imperialist movements, including No One is Illegal and Women's Memorial March Committee. She is formally trained in law, works with women in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, and is the author of Undoing Border Imperialism (2013).
Content
: Foreword by Harsha Walia
Chapter 1: : Neoliberal Migration Takes a Grip
Chapter 2: : Financialization of Migration: Keeping Global Capitalism Afloat
Chapter 3: : The Making of Migration Crisis and the Unwanted Migrants
Chapter 4: : Managing Migration and Class: Trump and Trudeau, Both Want to Globalize the Kafala System!
Chapter 5: : Precarious Work for Precarious Workers
Chapter 6: : The Amazon Economy: Just in Time Distribution for Just in Time Production
Chapter 7: : We Built This City! The City as a Sweatshop
Chapter 8: : Continuity and Change: New Forms of Organizing and Immigrant Workers
Chapter 9: : Workers Centres in a Time of Crisis
Chapter 10: : The Fight for 15 Immigrant Workers: Fight for the Entire Working Class
Chapter 11: : A Day Without an Immigrant: Striking for Status
Chapter 12: : Solidarity Summer and Great Migrations
Conclusion: : From Movements to Power: We Are People, We Are Not Illegal
Chapter 1: : Neoliberal Migration Takes a Grip
Chapter 2: : Financialization of Migration: Keeping Global Capitalism Afloat
Chapter 3: : The Making of Migration Crisis and the Unwanted Migrants
Chapter 4: : Managing Migration and Class: Trump and Trudeau, Both Want to Globalize the Kafala System!
Chapter 5: : Precarious Work for Precarious Workers
Chapter 6: : The Amazon Economy: Just in Time Distribution for Just in Time Production
Chapter 7: : We Built This City! The City as a Sweatshop
Chapter 8: : Continuity and Change: New Forms of Organizing and Immigrant Workers
Chapter 9: : Workers Centres in a Time of Crisis
Chapter 10: : The Fight for 15 Immigrant Workers: Fight for the Entire Working Class
Chapter 11: : A Day Without an Immigrant: Striking for Status
Chapter 12: : Solidarity Summer and Great Migrations
Conclusion: : From Movements to Power: We Are People, We Are Not Illegal