Scipes,
Kim. 2020. “Regional
Aspirations with a Global Perspective: Developments in East Asian Labour
Studies.” Educational Philosophy and
Theory 52(11): 1214-24.
Abstract
Workers in East Asia have shown over the past 50 years that they are capable of challenging capital, despite facing vehement opposition by corporations, oftentimes joined by governments and their militaries, and sometimes even armed thugs. They have built some of the most dynamic labour organizations in the world. This article is designed to put these developments into a global and historical perspective. It identifies today’s movements of capital as the continuation of processes that developed to a new level in the 1700s, and which continue today. It also discusses struggles of workers under the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU-May First Movement) Labor Center of the Philippines, and shows how valuable research conducted to date has identified a number of lessons learned from these struggles, and how they have been communicated to workers worldwide.
Keywords: KMU labor center, labor organizations, global struggles, labor education, worker research, East Asia
Kim Scipes, Ph.D., is a Professor of Sociology at Purdue University Northwest in Westville, Indiana, USA. He has been working to build global labor solidarity since 1983, having published three books and over 230 articles and book reviews in the US and 10 other countries, and with another book currently in press. A list of Dr. Scipes’ publications, many with links to original articles, can be accessed at https://www.pnw.edu/faculty/kim-scipes-ph-d/publications/.
