I thought list readers might be interested in the following new book from
Nicola Pizzolato on auto workers in Detroit and Turin in the second half of
the twentieth century:
Nicola
Pizzolato, Challenging Global Capitalism:
Labor Migration, Radical Struggle, and Urban
Change in Detroit and Turin, Palgrave
Macmillan Transnational History, 2013
Beginning in the 1950s, and with growing
momentum throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Detroit and Turin were both sites
of
significant political and social upheaval. This comparative and
transnational
study examines the political and theoretical developments that emerged in
these
two "motor cities" among activist workers and political militants
during these decades. Workers and activists in both locations formed a
common
understandings of the realities of capitalism and developed similar
critiques
and strategies of opposition. Interaction between individuals and groups in
Detroit and Turin - through personal correspondence, the exchange and
translation of publications, and personal visits - furthered this common
understanding. At the same time, the protesters merged, often unconsciously,
the local, national, and transnational dimension of their movements. Their
political activism blended agitation in the factory and in the
neighborhoods;
it involved opposition to car manufacturers as well as labor unions; and it
comprised ordinary people who had never been involved before in industrial
disputes
as well as veterans of working-class militancy. It was also characterized by
the interplay of race, ethnicity, and regional provenience as well as class,
and as this analysis shows, differences between Detroit and Turin with
respect
to social identity points towards new insights into the unrest during this
period.
Advance Praise “For anyone who seeks to understand postwar migrations, the
evolution of
Fordist production, and the politics that informed and upended each, Nicola
Pizzolato’s new transnational study of ordinary people’s challenges to the
burgeoning global capitalism of the twentieth century is essential
reading. Not only does Pizzolato shine important new light on the rich
relationships that existed between, and the vibrant protests that were waged
by, workers and activists in both Italy and the United States, but he also
makes clear that their shared critique of capitalist exploitation shaped the
cities, workplaces, and political possibilities of the twentieth century in
ways we all must bear in mind when considering our future.”—Heather Ann
Thompson, Associate Professor of History, Temple University “A tale of two
(motor) cities, a tale of two industries, a tale of two
immigrant groups, southern
Italians and southern African-Americans
and their struggle in the era of the rise and
fall of Fordist production
--and all told with remarkable scholarship and
passion. A vindication of the transnational
approach.” — Donald Sassoon, author of One Hundred Years of Socialism
http://us.macmillan.com/challengingglobalcapitalism/NicolaPizzolato
Ruth Percy, PhDTutor in HistoryRuskin CollegeDunstan Road, Oxford, OX3 9BZ
[Cross-posted, with thanks, from H-Labor]