Crisis and Working Class Resistance: Solidarity in Global/Local Contexts
2012 Southwest Labor Studies Association conference
Thursday May 17-Friday May 18
UC-Riverside
Workers and working class communities locally and globally are facing a historic crisis in their living and working conditions. This crisis often has both gender and racial dimensions; assaults on working class rights to work and live in dignity often target or disproportionately affect women, immigrants, and people of color. Working class people (including students, the elderly, and the unemployed) are also organizing to defend their interests in new and exciting ways, as the ‘Occupy Movement’ demonstrates. Through this conference, we hope to shed light on local trends, and to also put them into cross-national, transnational, and historical perspective. We also seek to build and strengthen the relationships between scholars, students, and labor and community activists.
We invite you to submit any of the following: research papers, abstracts, or proposals for events (speaker panels, film screenings, art exhibits, cultural performances, workshops/discussions, local tours or actions, etc). For proposed events, please describe (in a paragraph or a few pages) the event you would like to organize, including any speakers or performers you plan to invite.
Event proposals, papers, and abstracts are due by January 31, 2012.
All submissions should include your full name, organizational and/or campus affiliation, your e-mail address, and your phone number. Send your submission to: swlsa.ucr@gmail.com
Possible topics include:
- public sector cutbacks, austerity/structural adjustment programs, and privatization of public services
- the foreclosure crisis, the housing crisis, and the financial crisis
- the crisis in public education
- the declining quality of jobs and labor law violations
- unemployment, underemployment, & the rise in temporary employment
- the contemporary workplace
- global labor markets and the global race to the bottom
- the impact of northern off-shoring on workers and communities in the global south
- cross-border labor organizing, and/or transnational linkages between workers
- the rising cost of living (food prices, gas prices, housing prices, tuition, etc.)
- the assault on unions by employers and politicians
- economic deregulation and politicians’ failure to serve working class interests
- working class resistance (past and present) including labor, community, and student organizing and protest
Submissions are due by January 31, 2012. For more information or to submit your proposals, papers, or abstracts (including your name, affiliation, e-mail address, and phone number), please contact: swlsa.ucr@gmail.com
Organizing Committee: Yesenia Cabral (UFCW), Piya Chatterjee (Women’s
Studies/Labor Studies, UCR), Jesse Diaz Jr. (Labor Studies), Olivia
Gonzalez (Social Justice Alliance & MECHA), Sheheryar Kaoosji
(Warehouse Workers United), Jorge Serrato (UFCW), Desiree Navarro
(Inland Action), Maribel Nunez (California Partnership and Riverside
Community College), Ellen Reese (Sociology/Labor Studies, UCR), Jason
Struna (Sociology/Labor Studies, UCR), and Mary Valdemar (CSEA,
Community Relations, Valley College). Co-sponsors: Applied Economics,
Labor Studies, Program on Global Studies, Sociology, UC Miguel
Contreras Labor Studies Development Grant
