Presentations: Class Struggle Along Global Supply Chains, Parts I & II. If you are in or near Southern California, please join us for these explorations of the possibility of class struggles spreading along commodity chains. November 29, 7:00 p.m. & December 14, 3:00 p.m. at The Public School Los Angeles
North America container logistics map
Class Struggle Along Global Supply Chains, Part I
November 29, 2013, 7:30 p.m.
The Public School Los Angeles
One of the forms in which the working class exists today is at the various nodal points along commodity chains. Global production is based on a system of “factories without walls,” where components are manufactured using an inventory-less subcontracting system that scours the globe for the “leanest” costs of production – especially cheap and compliant labor. Yet these just-in-time chains are vulnerable and this presentation identifies the nodes where class struggle offers the greatest possibility for solidarity to spread down supply chains – and across borders and oceans.
Empire-Logistics.org was designed to be a platform for mapping the goods movement infrastructure and documenting strikes and other militant actions within and between its many distribution nodes. These maps become strategic tools that reveal class interests common to a geographically-dispersed but materially-connected global working class. This presentation will focus on the Inland Empire (a critical node in the North American supply chain) and the use value of the Empire Logistics project in mapping the geography of struggle and facilitating militant action in the area. An open discussion will follow.
Presented by Michael W. Wilson, Empire-Logistics mapping project
Class Struggle Along Global Supply Chains, Part II
December 14, 2013, 3:00 p.m.
The Public School Los Angeles
Part II will focus on struggles over commodities sold on world markets, like the 35+ bread riots in 2008 that presaged the Arab Spring in 2011, as well as the battles of longshore workers handling the grain. This presentation will show the links between revolts in Cairo, port shutdowns in Oakland, worker sabotage and wildcat strikes in Puget Sound, and militant actions by supply chains workers everywhere. Empire Logistics maps the geography of these struggles in an attempt to foment militant action that spreads working class solidarity beyond these nodes, across sectors, and along supply chains to all corners of the globe. An open discussion will follow.
An LA/Long Beach port troquero organizer is tentatively scheduled to co-present with us.
Presented by Hieronymous, Empire-Logistics & Global Supply Chains study/research group
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Also, we're planning to do an investigation of the ports of Los Angeles & Long Beach, as well as the logistics complex in the Inland Empire while we're in Southern California. Please contact us if you'd like to join us for this militant research.
Lastly, we would like to do similar presentations in the Pacific Northwest around the first of the year. We tentatively will be in Portland around Christmas and Seattle around New Years. We also plan on passing through Longview and Bellingham, WA and traveling as far north as Vancouver, BC. Please contact us if you could host a presentation -- or would like to tour the ports and logistics infrastructure with us as part of a radical investigation.
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The Public School Los Angeles
951 Chung King Road, 90012
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