Labor Rising: The Past and Future of Working People in America by Richard Greenwald & Daniel Katz

Author:Richard Greenwald & Daniel Katz
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Economics
ISBN: 9781595587985
Publisher: New Press
Published: 2012-07-02T22:00:00+00:00

THE HOUR WHEN THE SHIP COMES IN

Leon Fink

For labor-oriented progressives, “globalization” is something of a curse word. There is no doubt that the pressures of the competitive, international marketplace have again and again proved a scourge to community- or nation-based norms, standards, and rights secured—often after decades of struggle—by worker-centered social movements. The negative impact of globalization—at least on developed-country working-class living standards—poses a continuing political dilemma on issues ranging from trade to immigration to social welfare legislation. Moreover, it seems, out-and-out opposition to globalizing economic forces risks not only likely failure but a revanchist, protectionist, and likely racist reaction among peoples as well as nations. So what’s the alternative?

As it happens, the history of merchant shipping, the industry with the longest track record of the commercial crossing of borders as well as one of the most international of labor forces, may provide a partial answer. Research for my own just-completed book, Sweatshops at Sea: Merchant Seamen in the World’s First Globalized Industry from 1812 to the Present (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2011), points to two powerful historical precedents that could conceivably serve as a broader wedge to radical economic reforms.

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