Struggle and self-organization. Class formation and mobilizations in the logistics industry

Journal title WELFARE E ERGONOMIA
Author/s Emilio Gardini
Publishing Year 2024 Issue 2024/1
Language Italian Pages 15 P. 69-83 File size 251 KB
DOI 10.3280/WE2024-001006
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

The concept of “class struggle” which characterized the mobilizations of the workers’ movement until the 1970s, is no longer recurrent to describe workplace conflicts. This happened because capital managed to “reshape” the working class through “class segmentation” operations, introducing new mechanisms for dividing the workforce into the production system. The use of outsourcing and subcontracting with companies that hire on a fixed-term basis has produced a fragmentation among workers which impacts the organization of the working class. Is it possible, in this context, to imagine new possibilities for working class formation? In the paper we will investigate the extent and meanings that work-place conflict takes on today through the voices of workers, porters and drivers who are members of the inter-branch grassroots union SI Cobas, working in com-panies and cooperatives in the logistics sector in Naples and Campania.

Keywords: social class; working class; grassroots unions; class struggle; logistic; exploitation.

  1. Accornero A. (1997). Era il secolo del lavoro. Bologna: il Mulino.
  2. Accornero A. (1981). Sindacato e rivoluzione sociale. Il caso italiano degli anni ’70. Laboratorio Politico. Il sindacato nella crisi, 4: 5-34.
  3. Accornero A., Pizzorno A., Trentin B. e Tronti M. (1977). Movimento sindacale e società italiana. Milano: Feltrinelli.
  4. Aglietta M. (1998). Capitalism at the turn of the Century: regulation theory and the challenge of social change. New Left Review, 232: 41-90.
  5. Allen W.B. (1997). The Logistics Revolution and Transportation. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 553: 106-116.
  6. Arrighi G., Wallerstein I. and Hopkins T. (1992). Antisystemic movements. Roma: Manifestolibri.
  7. Atzeni M. and Sacchetto D. (2023). Locating Labour conflict and its organizations forms in contemporary times: between class and contemporary capitalism. Partecipazione e conflitto, 16(2): 205-215.
  8. Azzellini D. and Kraft M.G. (2018). The class strikes back: self-organised workers’ struggles in the twenty-first century. Leiden-Boston: Brill. DOI: 10.1163/9789004291478
  9. Borraccino G. (2021). Organising migrant porters of the logistic sector: the Italian case of SI Cobas. In: Martín-Díaz E. and Roca B., editors, Migrant Organising. Community Unionism, Solidarity and Bricolage. Leiden-Boston: Brill. DOI: 10.1163/9789004464964_006
  10. Chibber V. (2017). Rescuing class from the cultural turn. Catalyst. A journal of theory and strategy, 1: 27-55.
  11. Chiesi A.M. (2022). Back to social classes?. Quaderni di sociologia, XLVI(88): 3-33.
  12. Cillo R. and Pradella L. (2018). Power of labour and logistic: immigrant struggle in Italy’s logistic struggle. In: Fishwick A. and Connoly H., editors, Austerity and Working-Class Resistance: Survival, Disruption and Creation in Hard Times. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
  13. Cini L., Maccarone V. and Tassinari A. (2022). With or without U(nions)? Understanding the diversity of gig workers’ organizing practices in Italy and the UK. European Journal of Industrial Relations, 28(3): 341-362. DOI: 10.1177/09596801211052531
  14. Clover J. (2023). Riot, sciopero, riot. Una nuova epoca di rivolte. Udine: Meltemi.
  15. Crouch C. e Pizzorno A., a cura di (1977). Conflitti in Europa: lotte di classe sindacati e stato dopo il ’68. Milano: Etas.
  16. Curcio A. (2017). Italy: The revolution in logistics. In: Azzellini D. and Kraft M., editors, The class strikes back: self-organised workers’ struggles in the twenty-first century. Chicago: Haymarket Books. DOI: 10.1163/9789004291478_014
  17. Drahokoupil J., a cura di (2015). The outsourcing challenge: organizing workers across fragmented production networks. Brussels: ETUI.
  18. Forsyth A. (2022). The future of unions and worker representation. Oxfort: Hard. DOI: 10.5040/9781509925001
  19. Gramsci A. (1973a). Sindacati e consigli, Scritti politici II. Roma: Editori Riuniti.
  20. Gramsci A. (1973b). Funzionarismo, Scritti Politici II. Roma: Editori Riuniti.
  21. Grappi G. (2016). Logistica. Roma: Ediesse.
  22. Grappi G. e Sacchetto D. (2013). La gestione e la produzione delle differenze: razza e razzismo nei processi lavorativi italiani. Studi culturali, 2: 315-322.
  23. Hobsbawm E. (1998). Il trionfo della borghesia 1848-1874. Roma-Bari: Laterza. (ed. or. 1975).
  24. Marx K. (2006). Salario, prezzo, profitto. Roma: Editori Riuniti (1865).
  25. Marx K. (1971). Miseria della filosofia. Roma: Editori Riuniti (1847).
  26. Marx K. (1968). Il Capitale. Libro terzo. Roma: Editori Riuniti (1894).
  27. Marx K. (1964). Il Capitale. Libro primo. Roma: Editori Riuniti (1867).
  28. Pakulski J. and Waters M. (1996). The Death of Class. London: Sage.
  29. Però D. (2020). Indie Unions, Organizing and Labour Renewal: Learning from Precarious Migrant Workers. Work, Employment and Society, 34(5): 900-918. DOI: 10.1177/0950017019885075
  30. Pizzorno A. (1977). Scambio politico e identità collettiva nel conflitto di classe. In: Crouch C. e Pizzorno A., a cura di, Conflitti in Europa: lotte di classe sindacati e stato dopo il '68. Milano: Etas Libri.
  31. Pizzorno A., Reyneri E., Regini M. e Regalia I. (1978). Lotte operaie e sindacato: il ciclo 1968-1972 in Italia. Bologna: il Mulino.
  32. Regalia I., Regini M. e Reyneri E. (1977). Conflitti di lavoro e relazioni industriali in Italia, 1968-75. In: Crouch C. e Pizzorno A., a cura di, Conflitti in Europa: lotte di classe sindacati e stato dopo il ’68. Milano: Etas.
  33. Sassoon D. (2022). Il trionfo ansioso. Storia globale del capitalismo 1860-1914. Milano: Garzanti. (ed. or. 2019).
  34. Sassoon D. (1997). Cento anni di socialismo. La sinistra nell’Europa occidentale del XX secolo. Roma: Editori Riuniti. (ed. or. 1996).
  35. SI Cobas (2017). Carne da macello. Roma: Red Star Press.
  36. Silver J.B. (2008). Le forze del lavoro. Movimenti operai e globalizzazione dal 1870. Milano: Mondadori (2003).
  37. Supiot A. (2024). Lo sciopero a livello internazionale. Le monde diplomatique, 1.
  38. Thompson P.E. (1981). L’economia morale delle classi popolari inglesi nel secolo XVIII. In: Società patrizia, cultura plebea. Torino: Einaudi.
  39. Trentin B. (2019). Conoscenza, azione, emancipazione. Le lotte operaie come apprendimento collettivo. Milano: Fondazione Feltrinelli.
  40. Wallerstein I. (1985). Il capitalismo storico. Economia, politica e cultura di un sistema-mondo. Torino: Einaudi.
  41. Wright E.O. (2019). Capire la Classe. Milano: Edizioni Punto Rosso (2015).

Emilio Gardini, Lotta e autorganizzazione. Formazione della classe e mobilitazioni nel comparto della logistica in "WELFARE E ERGONOMIA" 1/2024, pp 69-83, DOI: 10.3280/WE2024-001006