The global supply chain crisis in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic provides an opportunity to reflect on the vulnerabilities of the just-in-time model of capitalist production. As capital studies and prepares for risks to the global supply chain, so must workers if we are to make global systemic changes needed to reverse the many catastrophic crises facing the planet.

The new issue of the journal New Global Studies features a forum on Workers’ Movements and the Global Supply Chain, which examines unions and global labor organizing in seven countries, identifying and assessing strategies for cross-border worker organizing at these choke points to apply pressure, extract gains, and tip the balance of power in their favor.

Join us for this discussion with two of the contributors to that forum, Robert Ovetz and Gifford Hartman, leading experts on global labor struggles and strategy.

***Register through Eventbrite to receive a link to the video conference on the day of the event. This event will also be recorded and live captioning will be provided.***

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Speakers:

Robert Ovetz is a Senior Lecturer in Political Science at San José State University. He focuses on global labor organizing strategy and is the Membership & Organizing Chair of his union, the SJSU chapter of California Faculty Association, an anti-racist, social justice union of 29,000 faculty members in the California State University system. He is the editor of Workers’ Inquiry and Global Class Struggle: Strategies, Tactics, Objectives (2020) and the author of When Workers Shot Back: Class Conflict from 1877 to 1921 (2018) and We the Elites: Why the U.S. Constitution Serves the Few (2022). He writes about worker organizing for Dollars & Sense magazine, is Book Review Editor of the Journal of Labor and Society, and is a contributor to The Routledge Handbook of the Gig Economy (2022). He can reached at [email protected] and his writings can be found here.

Gifford Hartman is a Certified Trainer and Instructional Assistant for the Global Labour University, a founding member of the San Francisco Bay Area-based Global Supply Chain Study/Research Group, and the International Solidarity Liaison for Railroad Workers United. Over the last 25 years he has been an adult educator, labor trainer and labor historian. Prior to that, he was a rank-and-file member of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). He has helped organize workshops, seminars, conferences and educational training sessions for unions, labor activists and environmental organizations in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. His article “Supply Chain Workers’ Inquiries: Class Struggle along Value Chains” appears in the current issue of New Global Studies. He can be contacted at [email protected] and his writings can be found here.

Moderator:

Lala Peñaranda is a climate and labor activist from Colombia, based in New York. She is a member of Internationalism from Below, Science for the People, and DSA.

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This event is sponsored by Internationalism from Below and Haymarket Books. While all of our events are freely available, we ask that those who are able make a solidarity donation in support of our important publishing and programming work.