The Harvard Living Wage Campaign: Origins and Strategy

A member of the Harvard living wage campaign explains its internal development. Begun in 1998, the campaign drew inspiration from the global justice movement, organized labor’s reawakening, and the flowering of college anti-sweatshop groups. Locally, it responded to a decade of attacks on Harvard workers’ livelihoods and unions, as well as the enactment of a living wage ordinance by the city of Cambridge. The article recounts the campaign’s organizing strategy and tactics, its oppositional relationship to the Harvard administration, and the university’s response. Finally, it discusses the campaign’s limited victory on wages and contracting policies, as well as its significance for campus unions, students who participated, and student-labor mobilization beyond Harvard.     

The mid-life crisis of the American labor movement

Although the US labor movement remains an important part of the nation's organized economic and political life it is now struggling to reverse its decline in power and membership. In this article the author identifies factors explaining this decline and its implications for American labor. This contribution continues the debate begun by Michael Piore in Vol 17 No 3 Autumn 1986.     

The ruling bargain: sovereign wealth funds in elite-dominated societies

This paper generates new results on the creation and use of sovereign wealth funds (SWF) as tools for maximizing political power of the ruling class. It models a ruler’s decision to set up a SWF in a society dominated by a powerful elite in order to pacify the elite’s political ambitions by transferring resource rents. Furthermore, it shows under which circumstances the ruler is able to gain the elite’s support using a fund and to overcome the danger of coups d’état. SWFs can serve as appropriate instruments for this purpose because they are long-term oriented and strongly institutionalized.     

基于价值权力争夺的浙商企业GVG体系自主构建研究

嵌入于全球价值链中的"浙商"企业价值绝对量保持增长、但是价值份额下降的现实,明显背离于GVC理论的理论结论,GVC"升级"事实上是"伪升级"。针对GVC的理论立场与逻辑悖论,文章以价值权力获取为新的价值假设,认为构建自主的全球价值体系,是新一轮全球价值体系重构中"浙商"企业的根本出路。     

Intransitive social indifference and the Arrow dilemma

This paper deals with a proposal by Frederic Schick for resolving Arrow’s dilemma of social choice. Schick challenges Arrow’s assumption that rational social indifference is transitive. It turns out, however, that even if we drop this assumption, we still face a dilemma as embarrassing as Arrow’s. Any constitution which satisfies the remaining conditions is a liberum veto oligarchy. This means a unique set of individuals carries any issue on which it is unanimous, and engenders social indifference on any issue which divides it. A formal statement and proof of this theorem follows an informal presentation of the result.     

‘Sameness’ and ‘Difference’ Revisited: Which Way Forward For Equal Opportunity Initiatives?

Recent interest in ‘managing diversity’ has reopened debates about forms of equality in the workplace. Approaches to equality developed in the 1970s and 1980s have been characterized as an attempt to ensure that if individuals bring the same abilities to work, or perform in the same way, they should receive the same access to jobs and employment benefits, regardless of social group membership. Managing diversity appears to be about a more positive valuing of difference. Benefits are seen to derive from different perspectives and approaches and these should be nurtured and rewarded rather than suppressed. Feminists have long argued about the extent to which women are the same as, or different from, men, and about the political consequences of adopting these positions. Recent theoretical developments have led to some novel solutions to this dilemma. These include asserting claims to both ‘sameness’ and ‘difference’, the deconstruction of ‘difference’, and the reconstruction of ‘sameness’ on women's terms. This paper explores approaches to equal opportunities through both established and novel theoretical perspectives. It argues that existing practice cannot be fitted neatly into the conventional distinctions between ‘sameness’ and ‘difference’, and explores the potential characteristics and strengths and weaknesses of equality initiatives based on the new theoretical perspectives.     

Manuel Castells’The City and the Grassroots

Castells’ definition, developed in The City and the Grassroots, of urban social movements as movements which combine struggles over collective consumption with those for community culture and political self‐determination, reflects the dynamics of movements in the 1960s and 1970s — which have since undergone a series of transformations. In spite of these transformations and fragmentations, Castells’ analysis remains relevant to contemporary studies of urban movements. One of its legacies is the identification of the conflict lines along which, still today, the major urban contestations take place, even though most of the individual movements no longer converge in one multi‐class actor intent on urban social change. The issue of collective consumption is more topical than ever in the current conjuncture, as public infrastructure and services are curtailed, and as local as well as supra‐national manifestations of the anti‐globalization movement are zeroing in on the neoliberalization of the public sector. Also, Castells’ highlighting of the contesting of state power has proved prophetic, not only in the continued presence of autonomous strands in the varied protests against commercialization, privatization, surveillance and exclusion, but also because it implies a sharp critique of the limitation of the civic engagement discourse currently in vogue.     

Forging a ‘new’ organizational infrastructure for Los Angeles’ progressive community

What margins of maneuverability do urban‐based progressive movements have for affecting policy outcomes in entrepreneurial and neoliberal political systems? This article provides a partial answer to this question by examining how relations developed and stabilized between actors in the different sectors (community based organizations, labor, university) of Los Angeles’ progressive community. Such relations are a necessary but not sufficient condition for affecting policy outcomes. I argue that these relations have resulted from a 20‐year process of interactions between the more innovative agents of each of the sectors. Through their repeated experimentation in building frameworks to coordinate their partnerships, I argue that a variety of complex mechanisms have taken shape that nourish relations and coordinate complex forms of collective action. Functioning as ‘relational platforms’, these coordinating mechanisms have combined to form an emergent ‘organizational infrastructure’ that facilitates both ongoing relational processes and the mobilization of collective resources in politically effective ways. Thus, by examining the organizational infrastructure that makes such a broad based ‘movement’ possible and sustainable, the article offers the reader one insight into how urban progressives have been able to build the power necessary to affect policies in one of the world's most entrepreneurial and neoliberal cities.     

Organizational political climate: Shared perceptions about the building and use of power bases

Organizational politics continues to be acknowledged as a real and important dimension of organizational functioning. Most research has focused on ‘perceptions of organizational politics’ where organizational politics is conceptualized negatively and its relationship with detrimental individual and organizational outcomes is demonstrated. We argue that organizational politics can be conceptualized as a multi-dimensional climate level construct and that ‘organizational political climate’ can be both functional and dysfunctional. We propose and explain a four dimensional model of organizational political climate informed by existing theoretical perspectives on power bases. The four key dimensions are represented by the building and use of personal power, positional power, connection power and informational power. We also highlight the need for a comprehensive measure of organizational political climate which is underpinned by the four dimensions and which enables an assessment of the extent to which the organizational political climate is functional and/or dysfunctional. In summary, we recommend that HR practitioners seek to understand the functional and dysfunctional dimensions of organizational political climate and implement practices to foster a positive political climate. We overview practical implications for HR managers and suggest a future research agenda.     

Employee rights and capital mobility

In this article I analyze the impact that capital mobility has on employee rights in the workplace by studying the effects of the relocation of General Motor’s Corvette plant from St. Louis to Bowling Green, Kentucky. This relocation not only afforded GM an opportunity to increase its control over its hourly work force, but it also set in motion a process in which the rights’ claims of management and workers were redefined. Through a number of planned and unplanned mechanisms, management invaded spaces created by workers, and, as a result, workers’ ability to pursue their interests was diminished. In the concluding section, I discuss the implications of this for research on employee rights and for combining the concern for rights with labor process theory.     

基于共生视角的企业社会责任研究

企业社会责任是现代企业所不能回避的问题,也是许多学者热衷探讨和研究的问题。在追求企业利益最大化的今天,如何协调企业利益和企业社会责任的关系,成为许多企业所面临的两难决策。本文从共生的视角重新审视企业社会责任,认为企业承担社会责任就是为了与各利益相关者和谐共生,以维持企业持续、稳定、健康的发展。     

提高我国大宗商品价格话语权的金融对策研究--从有色金属的角度

进入21世纪以来,随着我国经济持续高速发展,城镇化和工业化推动了我国对大宗商品的消费,产量也相应地快速增长,与此形成鲜明对比的是,由于价格话语权的缺失,我国政府和企业始终未能摆脱大宗商品价格受制于人的尴尬局面。本文以有色金属为例深入分析我国大宗商品价格话语权缺失的现状及其原因,认为现阶段金融化因素在国际大宗商品的形成过程中的作用日益凸显。在此基础上,有针对性地提出提高我国大宗商品价格话语权的金融对策和措施。     

Digital finance and misallocation of resources among firms: Evidence from China

The resources misallocation among firms is serious in China, our calculation shows it has resulted in the total factor productivity (hereafter, TFP) loss of over 200% and has been gradually increasing in recent years, based on the firm-level data from National Tax Survey database from 2007 to 2016. This paper further investigates empirically the impact of digital finance on resources misallocation, by measuring resources misallocation with firm’s capital deviation and labor deviation, as well as measuring digital finance with the number of searches for fintech keywords on Baidu's webpage. Results suggest that digital finance can significantly mitigate resources misallocation among firms to improve the aggregate TFP by redistributing resources from over-resourced firms to under-resourced firms, although it cannot improve the TFP within a representative firm. The findings remain robust after addressing the endogeneity and using alterative variables of digital finance and value of labor output elasticity. Moreover, digital finance can rectify the credit-market discrimination, where its mitigating effect on resources misallocation prefers to non-state-owned firms and small and medium-sized firms. However, traditional finance, as measured by the number of offline bank branches, can also optimize resources allocation, but this effect is gradually diminishing and it also fails to rectify the credit discrimination.     

Engaged in battle: exploring the sources of workplace union militancy at Royal Mail

Sources of workplace union militancy at Royal Mail (UK) are examined in relation to four particular management initiatives in the late 1980s and 1990s. The wider industrial relations context and balance of power are emphasised and an assessment is made of the relative contribution of union leadership to workplace militancy.     

How Foundations Exercise Power

Foundations (and philanthropy in general) have great political power in the United States and worldwide, yet this is hardly noted by political analysts or journalists. Their power is exerted in many ways, such as by funding progressive organizations and movements; sponsoring policy “think tanks” and organizations of public officials; influencing the political culture through media, academic researchers, and university programs (including public interest law in law schools); and co‐opting activists and potential rebels among the rich and poor. Because of their resources and prestige, they are powerful members of coalitions and collaborations with overt and covert government departments, U.N. agencies, universities, and nongovernmental organizations. Foundations have been major actors in the “Cold War,” which continues as the attempt to deflect any movement towards socialism here or abroad. Globalization has amplified the power of foundations, for many of the global institutions were created by foundations and continue to be fostered by them. The sponsorship of civil society institutions worldwide by private foundations, now with additional billions from governments and international governmental institutions, supports U.S. hegemony: military, political, and economic. We cannot know what the world would have been like absent foundation activities, but the current one does not appear to have a democratic, peaceful, or sustainable future.     

Labor and Capital in the Twenty-First Century: Rereading Braverman Today

How has Harry Braverman’s book Labor and Monopoly Capital, published forty years ago, stood the test of time? In this essay I argue that it remains a vital text for understanding the capitalist labor process. But I also address three lacunae in Braverman’s book. First, it overlooked limits to deskilling, such as the challenge of standardizing services; second, Braverman refused to concede that states could provide workers with material welfare, which can protect them from the labor market; and third, Labor and Monopoly Capital’s vision of the future is unnecessarily pessimistic. Standardization and automation can degrade work, but they also generate surplus that can potentially expand human freedom. Braverman’s critical analysis of production begs an equally critical account of exchange and distribution.     

Policies for people on the move: the future of migration

The labor shortages that attracted major inflows of immigrant workers to several European Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries in the 1950s and 1960s have given way in the 1980s to persistent labor surpluses and high rates of unemployment. However, differences in economic conditions between the more and less developed regions of the world will continue to attract migrants from one country to another. With strict controls now imposed on the numbers entering host countries legally, many OECD countries are facing a growing illegal immigration problem. For the industrialized countries, the main challenge today is to meet the needs and demands of their existing stock of immigrant labor rather than to absorb new inflows. A 2nd or 3rd generation of young foreigners have emerged who often have only a rudimentary knowledge of their parents' native country and language. Immigrants usually fill the vacancies in industry and the service sector left by the domestic labor force which has gravitated into more highly skilled, better paid work, but with the introduction of automation and new technology, the demand for unskilled labor is diminishing. Although some host countries in Europe have tried to induce immigrants to return home, one should not expect any dramatic movement in that direction so long as there remains a major economic imbalance between sending and receiving countries. In the absence of this solution, countries with large pools of unemployed, low-skilled immigrant labor need to facilitate their passage into higher level jobs. It is necessary to establish the social and political rights of newcomers and to combat discrimination; positive policies (such as those in Australia, Canada, and the US) to promote the involvement and participation of immgrants in community and political life are needed as well.     

Does labor–management partnership deprive union members of activism toward their unions? Evidence from union members in Korea

This study aims to analyze whether partnership ideology really deprives union members of the willingness and passion to act for their union, resulting in union decline, and whether militant unionism, which includes adversarial ideology against employers is more effective for igniting members' activism for their unions rather than labor–management partnership. The survey data were obtained from union members working in Mechanical and Metal Manufacturers Complex, Changwon, Republic of Korea. Judging from the overall results of the data analysis, Kelly's (1996) claim that moderate unionism based on partnership ideology would undermine members' activism for their unions was not supported; on the contrary, partnership ideology had positive effects on both members' activism for their unions and decision-making practices. The difference between partnership and militancy is that militancy had an intensive effect on the narrow focus of union activities, but the impact of partnership achieved a better balance between participation in union activities and in management decision making.     

基于马克思劳动价值论的逻辑辩证分析

马克思的劳动价值论,是一个完整的、科学的理论体系。它是揭示资本主义从起源到灭亡的基础理论,是建立科学社会主义的一个理论基石。马克思提出的价值理论包括劳动价值论和剩余价值论两部分,他认为"价值是凝结在商品中的无差别的人类劳动"。文章根据其主要内容,分析了马克思劳动价值论在科学社会主义学说中的逻辑线索和基础地位。     

Emergence of Political Unionism in Economies of British Colonial Origin: The Cases of Jamaica and Trinidad

Abstract . What were the circumstances under which political unionism has emerged in economies of British colonial origin, such as Jamaica and Trinidad? The hypothesis tested is that the political activities of trade unions in such economies played a role in the process of economic development, helping to achieve political independence and then economic growth. But at that stage political unionism is found to be incompatible with needed acceleration of growth rates. A significant deterioration in economic and social conditions produced a crisis and the unions traded support for the parties for some control over economic and social policy. This gave the political leaders the power they needed to negotiate for independence but, in Jamaica, it changed the focus and character of the labor movement.