Immanuel Ness | |
---|---|
Born | 17 June 1958 Denver, Colorado, U.S. |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | New York University Columbia University City University of New York |
Academic work | |
Institutions | City University of New York University of Johannesburg |
Main interests | Political economy Labour and work organization Migration Imperialism |
Notable works | Southern Insurgency:The Coming of the Global Working Class Migration as Economic Imperialism |
Immanuel Ness (born June 17,1958) is an American academic,and Professor of Political Science at the City University of New York (CUNY),Brooklyn,School of Humanities and Social Sciences. [1] His academic focus is on worker's organization,migration,mobilization and politics. He is also a labour activist.
Ness is known for his contributions regarding worker's movements and party formation in the Global South,and has worked with leading activists in India,Southern Africa,East and Southeast Asia. [2] In 1990,he founded the New York Unemployed Committee. He is author and editor of numerous articles and academic and popular books on labour,worker insurgencies and trade unions. Most notably,he worked with Mexican workers,unions,and community organizations in New York City to establish a Code of Conduct for migrant laborers in 2001 who were paid below minimum wage. [2]
Ness is editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Labor and Society ,(JLSO),a quarterly peer-review social science publication founded in 1997 that examines global political economy,imperialism,workers and labor organisations,and assesses transformative social movements. JLSO editorial board includes scholars in academia and activists in labour movements throughout the world,including Marcel van der Linden,Frances Fox Piven Amiya Kumar Bagchi and Samir Amin. [3] Ness is general editor of the eight-volume InternationalEncyclopedia of Revolution and Protest:1500 to the Present,Encyclopedia of Global Human Migration,and the Palgrave Encyclopedia of Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism,published from 2009 to 2016. His research primarily concerns the situation and politics of the international working class and,more generally,"the global poor",low-wage migrant labour or contractual and informal workers,mainly in the Global South.[ citation needed ] In 2013,he was a member of an eight-member delegation of the International Commission for Labor Rights investigation of worker repression in India’s auto industry. [4] Brill,Studies in Political Economy of Global Labor and Work, [5] Great Transition Initiative,Toward a Transformative Vision and Praxis,Planetizing the Labor Movement,April 2019, [6] His works include Migration as Economic Imperialism:How International Labour Mobility Undermines Economic Development in Poor Countries, [7] Organizing Insurgency:Workers Movements in the Global South, [8] Southern Insurgency:The Coming of the Global Working Class (Pluto 2015). [9] Immigrants,Unions and the New U.S. Labor Market,and Guest Workers and U.S. Corporate Despotism (University of Illinois Press 2011). [10] His numerous editing projects include the Encyclopedia of American Social Movements (Routledge). The four volume work was recipient of the American Library Association,Best Reference Source. [11]
This numerous edited volumes include:The Oxford Handbook of Economic Imperialism (2021) with Zak Cope, [12] Routledge Handbook of the Gig Economy 2022, [13] and The Oxford Handbook of Migration Crisis,with Cecilia Menjívar and Marie Ruiz, [14] Choke Points:Logistics Workers Disrupting the Global Supply Chain with/ Jake
Alimahomed-Wilson (Pluto Press 2018),Ours to Master and to Own:Workers Councils from the Commune to the Present (Haymarket Books 2011/Neuer ISP Verlag 2013). [15] [16] The volume covers 22 case histories of factory occupations and workers' councils over the past 150 years. His publications appear in English,Spanish,German,Italian,French,Turkish,Chinese,and Japanese. Ness is general editor of Encyclopedia of Global Human Migration (Wiley Blackwell 2013),a 5-volume examination of human mobility from prehistory to the present. [17]
He was a trade union organizer in the U.S. and labour activist in the Global South from 1989 to 2021. During this period,he learned to advocate on behalf of disconnected jobless workers to organize their own association directly at New York State unemployed offices. In 1990,he co-founded the New York Unemployed Committee (1990–1993), [18] which successfully organized jobless workers at New York State unemployment centers to press for federal unemployment benefit extensions through public protests and demonstrations directed at national and state elected officials,in many cases,often members of the Democratic Party who had surrendered to Republicans during the presidency of George H.W. Bush. Rallies were held in New York City,and with other jobless organizations in Washington,DC,and Kennebunkport,Maine in August 1991. [19]
Ness' work is rooted in understanding production and manufacturing as essential to understanding the labour movement and capitalism. Fordism is viewed as an exceptional period which is not the norm;rather the dispersal of industry has pushed the development of contractors and dispersed work sites. In this way,in 1998,he co-founded the Lower East Side Community Labor Coalition in New York City with members of progressive and leftist local groups,which mobilized low-wage workers with support of UNITE Local 169,a labor union in the neighborhood that was previously affiliated with the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union. [20] The campaign expanded into a successful effort to mobilise Mexican and Latino immigrant workers along with Mexican workers and the Mexican American Workers Association (AMAT),a workers' center in New York. [21] He helped organise large Mayday demonstrations in New York City,centered around authentic-worker led mobilizations for immigrant rights from 1999 to 2001,often culminating in mass arrests of street theatre and protests by New York City police,setting a precedent of immigrant leadership and participation in the US organization of the annual worldwide labour holiday. [22]
Ness has been a consistent advocate for opening admission to colleges and universities and lowering tuition and fees at City University of New York (CUNY). [23] Following appointment as visiting professor at the University of Hyderabad in January 2016,Ness refused the academic position upon his arrival and actively joined a student strike,mass pickets,and demonstrations at an outdoor encampment to protest structural discrimination against Dalit students that was the cause of the suicide of Rohit Vemula,a graduate student. His refusal to serve as a visiting professor gained national attention in India. Yet Ness maintained,
“In India,the major contradiction and division is the difference between permanent and contract,and it plays itself out in furthering the super exploitation of the labour force of this country.” [24] [25]
Ness was elected chair of the Professional Staff Congress City University of New York (PSC/CUNY) International Committee in September 2016 and has been chair of the United States Peace Council in May 2018,advocating for working-class solidarity and against war and imperialism. In May 2021,as PS International Committee Chair,Ness sponsored the passage of a ‘No Cold War with China Resolution,now official policy of Professional Staff Congress,the faculty and staff union of City University of New York. [26] In addition,Ness,helped shepherd a resolution condemning Israel for its intolerance and violence towards Palestinians. [27]
In 1990s,his research became more critical of traditional unions,and he began to participate in advancing rank-and-file self-activity outside of traditional structures through new forms of autonomist Marxist unions. His advocacy included solidarity efforts with new and independent unions that had few or limited links to trade union centers and affiliates. Much of his organizing,advocacy,and research since 2015 has focused on a rejection of utopian and idealist notions propounded by social democrats,anarchists,Western Marxists,and through applying an anti-imperialist state-centered Marxist approach rooted in unequal exchange between the rich countries of the Global North and poor countries of the Global South,which comprise 85% of the world’s population. Ness is formulating a reconceptualization of the centrality of the working class as a social force in building disciplined workers parties,accountable to mass workers and actually existing socialist states (AES). [28]
A trade union or labor union,often simply referred to as a union,is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment,such as attaining better wages and benefits,improving working conditions,improving safety standards,establishing complaint procedures,developing rules governing status of employees and protecting and increasing the bargaining power of workers.
Human migration is the movement of people from one place to another,with intentions of settling,permanently or temporarily,at a new location. The movement often occurs over long distances and from one country to another,but internal migration is the dominant form of human migration globally.
The Communications Workers of America (CWA) is the largest communications and media labor union in the United States,representing about 700,000 members in both the private and public sectors. The union has 27 locals in Canada via CWA-SCA Canada representing about 8,000 members. CWA has several affiliated subsidiary labor unions bringing total membership to over 700,000. CWA is headquartered in Washington,DC,and affiliated with the AFL–CIO,the Strategic Organizing Center,the Canadian Labour Congress,and UNI Global Union.
Stanley Aronowitz was an American sociologist,trade union official,and political activist. A professor of sociology,cultural studies,and urban education at the CUNY Graduate Center,his longtime political activism and cultural criticism was influential in the New Left movement of the 1960s,1970s,and beyond. He was also an advocate for organized labor and a member of the interim consultative committee of the International Organization for a Participatory Society. In 2012,Aronowitz was awarded the Center for Study of Working Class Life's Lifetime Achievement Award at Stony Brook University.
A migrant worker is a person who migrates within a home country or outside it to pursue work. Migrant workers usually do not have an intention to stay permanently in the country or region in which they work.
Labor unions represent United States workers in many industries recognized under US labor law since the 1935 enactment of the National Labor Relations Act. Their activity centers on collective bargaining over wages,benefits,and working conditions for their membership,and on representing their members in disputes with management over violations of contract provisions. Larger labor unions also typically engage in lobbying activities and electioneering at the state and federal level.
Reserve army of labour is a concept in Karl Marx's critique of political economy. It refers to the unemployed and underemployed in capitalist society. It is synonymous with "industrial reserve army" or "relative surplus population",except that the unemployed can be defined as those actually looking for work and that the relative surplus population also includes people unable to work. The use of the word "army" refers to the workers being conscripted and regimented in the workplace in a hierarchy under the command or authority of the owners of capital.
Community unionism,also known as reciprocal unionism,refers to the formation of alliances between unions and non-labour groups in order to achieve common goals. These unions seek to organize the employed,unemployed,and underemployed. They press for change in the workplace and beyond,organizing around issues such as welfare reform,health care,jobs,housing,and immigration. Individual issues at work are seen as being a part of broader societal problems which they seek to address. Unlike trade unions,community union membership is not based on the workplace- it is based on common identities and issues. Alliances forged between unions and other groups may have a primary identity based on affiliations of religion,ethnic group,gender,disability,environmentalism,neighborhood residence,or sexuality.
Journal of Labor and Society,formerly WorkingUSA:The Journal of Labor and Society,is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by Brill covering the political economy of labour,labor movements,and class relations throughout the world. The journal is published in print and online. It focuses on the current context and shape of capitalist social relations,business and corporations,labor relations,the working class and the labor unions in the Global South. The journal encourages submissions on the political economy of imperialism,global inequality and poverty,labor and the right wing,and political movements. The journal was established in 1997 and published by Wiley Periodicals through December 2020. In January 2021,Journal of Labor and Society begins publishing with Brill. The editor is Immanuel Ness. The title reflects the journal's commitment to publishing peer-reviewed scientific research into the social,political,economic,and cultural conditions faced by workers worldwide. Its editorial office is located within the Graduate Center for Worker Education at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. It is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics.
Ruth Milkman is an American sociologist of labor and labor movements. She is Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center and the director of research at CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies. Between 1988 and 2009 Milkman taught at the University of California,Los Angeles,where she directed the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment.
Bruce Nissen is a professor emeritus of labor studies and director of research at the Center for Labor Research and Studies (CLRS) at Florida International University (FIU). He also formerly directed that university's Research Institute on Social and Economic Policy (RISEP).
Boris Yulyevich Kagarlitsky is a Russian Marxist theoretician and sociologist who has been a political dissident in the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation. He is an associate of the Transnational Institute. Kagarlitsky is the director of Institute of Globalisation Studies and Social Movements (IGSO) and editor in chief of Levaya Politika quarterly in Moscow. Kagarlitsky hosts a YouTube channel Rabkor,associated with his online newspaper of the same name.
The Argentine anarchist movement was the strongest such movement in South America. It was strongest between 1890 and the start of a series of military governments in 1930. During this period,it was dominated by anarchist communists and anarcho-syndicalists. The movement's theories were a hybrid of European anarchist thought and local elements,just as it consisted demographically of both European immigrant workers and native Argentines.
The Global Labour University (GLU) is an international network of universities,trade unions,NGOs and the International Labour Organisation. It was initiated in 2002 and offers master's programs,academic certificate programs and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) on sustainable development,social justice,international labour standards and trade/labour unions,economic policies and global institutions.
Jane F. McAlevey was an American union organizer,author,and political commentator. She was a Senior Policy Fellow at the University of California,Berkeley's Institute for Research on Labor and Employment,and a columnist at The Nation.
Progressivism is a left-leaning political philosophy and reform movement that seeks to advance the human condition through social reform –primarily based on purported advancements in social organization,science,and technology. Adherents hold that progressivism has universal application and endeavor to spread this idea to human societies everywhere. Progressivism arose during the Age of Enlightenment out of the belief that civility in Europe was improving due to the application of new empirical knowledge.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the broad,interdisciplinary subject of globalization:
A workers' council,also called labor council,is a type of council in a workplace or a locality made up of workers or of temporary and instantly revocable delegates elected by the workers in a locality's workplaces. In such a system of political and economic organization,the workers themselves are able to exercise decision-making power. Furthermore,the workers within each council decide on what their agenda is and what their needs are. The council communist Antonie Pannekoek describes shop-committees and sectional assemblies as the basis for workers' management of the industrial system. A variation is a soldiers' council,where soldiers direct a mutiny. Workers and soldiers have also operated councils in conjunction. Workers' councils may in turn elect delegates to central committees,such as the Congress of Soviets.
Anti-imperialism in political science and international relations is opposition to imperialism or neocolonialism. Anti-imperialist sentiment typically manifests as a political principle in independence struggles against intervention or influence from a global superpower,as well as in opposition to colonial rule. Anti-imperialism can also arise from a specific economic theory,such as in the Leninist interpretation of imperialism,which is derived from Lenin's 1917 work Imperialism,the Highest Stage of Capitalism. People who categorize themselves as anti-imperialists often state that they are opposed to colonialism,colonial empires,hegemony,imperialism and the territorial expansion of a country beyond its established borders.
The labour movement is the collective organisation of working people to further their shared political and economic interests. It consists of the trade union or labour union movement,as well as political parties of labour. It can be considered an instance of class conflict.
{{cite web}}
: Missing or empty |title=
(help){{cite web}}
: Missing or empty |title=
(help)2001 Archives