Ercüment Çelik and Simon Norbert Schmid (2022) in New Global Studies

Çelik, Ercüment and Simon Norbert Schmid. 2022. “Global Justice Advocacy, Trade Unions and the Supply Chain Law Initiative in Germany.” New Global Studies 16 (1): 91-111. https://doi.org/10.1515/ngs-2022-0005

Abstract

This article focuses on the Supply Chain Law Initiative in Germany (SCLI)/Initiative Lieferkettengesetz as a case of global justice advocacy. The SCLI was a campaign by German civil society organizations that advocated for a law that would make it mandatory for corporations active in Germany to respect human, labor, and environmental rights along their supply chains. This research explores the strategies for advocacy used by the SCLI in the process of effective law-making. It also investigates the role of the SCLI in the context of global labor solidarity. The research results show that although this new law has some shortcomings in terms of international human rights standards, it has achieved partial progress as one of the most successful examples of alliance building between unions and civil society organizations in Germany. The SCLI has brought about a paradigm shift from voluntary towards mandatory due diligence. This experience can be carried one step further to accomplish a supply chain law at the European Union level. The authors argue that the SCLI experience opens up a new stage for rethinking the structural dilemma of unions in Germany in choosing between global solidarity and national corporatist social partnership.

Keywords: global justice; advocacy strategies; trade unions; Germany; supply chains; social movement unionism; social partnership

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Corresponding author: Ercüment Çelik, University of Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, E-mail: Ercuement.Celik@soziologie.uni-freiburg.de

Jonathan Pattenden (2022) The Patriarchy of Accumulation

Pattenden, Jonathan. 2022. “The Patriarchy of Accumulation: Homework, Fieldwork and the Production-Reproduction Nexus in Rural Indonesia.” Canadian Journal of Development Studies, pp. 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/02255189.2022.2054784  

ABSTRACT

This article argues that patriarchy expands capitalist accumulation by increasing surplus labour-time, lowering production costs, and dividing and controlling workers. Consequently, patriarchy increases profits, manages intra-capitalist competition, and impedes labour’s capacity to organise. Analysing how it does so can inform counter-strategies. Based on fieldwork in two West Java villages, the article analyses four forms of patriarchal accumulation: (i) reproductive labour underpinned by the ideology of housewifeization; (ii) the gendered production of cheap foodgrains; (iii) the production of street-food that reduces reproduction time and costs; and (iv) the extension of labour-time through low-waged homework squeezed into the rhythms of reproductive labour.

RÉSUMÉ

Dans le présent article, nous soutenons que le patriarcat favorise l’accumulation capitaliste, en augmentant le surplus de temps de travail, en diminuant les coûts de production, et en divisant les travailleurs pour mieux les contrôler. En conséquence, le patriarcat accroît les profits, régule la compétition intra-capitaliste, et limite la capacité des travailleurs à s’organiser. C’est l’analyse de ce processus qui nous permet d’élaborer des contre-stratégies. Cet article se base sur des recherches sur le terrain, menées dans deux villages situés dans l’est de Java, pour analyser quatre formes d’accumulation patriarcale : (i) le travail reproductif sous-tendu par l’idéologie de housewifeization ; (ii) la production genrée de céréales à bas prix ; (iii) la production de street-food qui réduit le temps et le coût de production ; (iii) l’extension du temps de travail par le biais de travail à la maison peu rémunéré et intégré de force dans les rythmes de travail reproductif.

KEYWORDS: 

Patriarchyaccumulationsocial reproductionclassIndonesia

 

Kim Scipes (2022) The only commonality is uncommonality

Scipes, Kim. 2022. “The Only Commonality is Uncommonality.” Class, Race and Corporate Power 10(1). https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/classracecorporatepower/vol10/iss1/4/

 

Abstract

Noting the extensive number of progressive protests, mobilizations, and social disruption from below since the mid-1980s, not just in the US but around the world, this article suggests that what is going on is the expansion of the global economic and social justice movement, a bottom-up form of globalization. It suggests that this is, ultimately, a rejection of industrial civilization itself. And it points out, through an examination of the effects of climate change, that the continued existence of industrial civilization is imposing a burden on the peoples of the world that far outweighs its benefits, and suggests that protests will expand as more and more people understand the costs of industrial civilization.