Offshoring, labour migration and neo-liberalisation: nationalist responses and alternatives in Eastern Europe

Self Cite

Was neoliberal capitalism the only possible development path in Eastern Europe after the collapse of real socialism? How did the restoration of capitalism in the former Eastern bloc affect the economic and political situation in the world? Is the support of workers and lower classes for right-wing populists that has been observed in Eastern Europe for the past 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall a permanent phenomenon? By asking these questions, the authors point out that the offensive of the far right began in Europe before the 2015 migration crisis and the 2008 financial crisis, and that it coincided with the weakening of leftist workers’ parties. This process began in the 1990s after the collapse of the Eastern bloc. What can stop this process and change the situation? The solution is to show that another model is still possible: greater egalitarianism, democracy and the rule of law. This sociopolitical alternative, however, must simultaneously oppose two powerful forces: neoliberal capitalism and nationalist populism. JEL Codes: B50, P30, P34, P36

Section: A Shift Of the People’s Classes’ Sympathies: From The Left Tmentioning

confidence: 99%

Capitalism after communism: The triumph of neoliberalism, nationalist reaction and waiting for the leftist wave

Żuk

Toporowski

2020

Self Cite

“…According to the CEE Development Institute (Duszczyk and Matuszczyk, 2015: 13), compared to 2004, by 2013 Latvia registered an estimated 513% (23,000 to 141,000) increase in the number of citizens residing in the EU-15, with similar numbers observed in Lithuania (436% – 50,000 to 268,000), Romania (325% – 541,000 to 2.3 million) and Poland (210% – 580,000 to 1.8 million). As many as 11.6% of Romanian, 9% of Lithuanian, 8% of Croatian and 7% of Latvian nationals were estimated to reside in the EU-15 (see also Żuk and Żuk, 2018: 103). While on the part of some sections of capital in the ‘sender’ countries these developments engendered demands for liberalisation of immigration policies, state managers in worst crisis-hit states described the labour exodus and plummeting birth and family formation rates as a ‘natural course of events’.…”

Section: The Double Exploitation Of ‘Post-communist’ Labourmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On this register, trade unions in the UK and Ireland have played a pioneering role in reaching out to Eastern European migrants via developing international linkages and adopting innovative organisational strategies. Co-operation with Polish counterparts – Solidarity, which to great dismay has recently sided with the right-wing populist Law and Justice party in endorsing anti-immigrant slogans at home (Żuk and Żuk, 2018: 110–111), and OPZZ – was particularly effective in posting organisers that helped facilitate the recruitment of activists among migrants. Solidarity’s use of Internet promotions to encourage departing workers to unionise in the UK has been complemented with the TUC (Trades Union Congress) members’ attendance at job fairs in Warsaw and the pressure for local unions to develop Polish-language website sections and application forms (Campbell, 2006).…”

Section: Cartographies Of Eastern European Labour’s Resistancementioning

confidence: 99%

Baltic labour in the crucible of capitalist exploitation: Reassessing ‘post-communist’ transformation

Bieler

Salyga

2020

Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, this article re-assesses ‘post-communist’ transformation in the Baltic countries from the perspective of labour. The argument is based on a historical materialist approach focusing on the social relations of production as a starting point. It is contended that the uneven and combined unfolding of ‘post-communist’ transformation has subjected Baltic labour to doubly constituted exploitation processes. First, workers in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have suffered from extreme neoliberal restructuring of economic and employment relations at home. Second, migrant workers from Central and Eastern Europe in general, trying to escape exploitation at home, have faced another set of exploitative dynamics in host countries in Western Europe such as the UK. Nevertheless, workers have continued to challenge exploitation in Central and Eastern Europe and also in Western Europe, and have been active in extending networks of transnational solidarity across the continent. JEL Codes: E11, E24, J61

“…After initially ignoring the union, Foxconn put in place a more careful cooperation strategy that resulted in several collective bargaining agreements with the union. This might be due to the weak trade unions in Czechia and the declining union density in the post-1989 period that characterised all CEE countries (Żuk and Żuk, 2018).…”

Section: Revisiting the Transfer Debatementioning

confidence: 99%

One firm, two countries, one workplace model? The case of Foxconn’s internationalisation

Andrijasevic

Sacchetto

Pun

2020

This article aims to provide insight into the employment relations in China-based multinational companies internationalising to Europe, a still relatively unexplored topic. We investigate the transfer of work and employment practices from Foxconn’s manufacturing headquarters in mainland China to its subsidiaries in Czechia and the factors that influence the firm’s internationalisation of production. By drawing upon original ethnographic fieldwork, the study makes a two-fold contribution. First, it shows the analytical inadequacy of the ‘latecomer’ model which assumes that the Chinese firm is an asset seeker. Second, it illustrates the relevance of diversity of labour and non-institutionalised forms of workers’ agency for theorisation of internationalisation. These topics are still insufficiently addressed by the literature that favours managerial agency and the model of distinctive and stable national labour forces. The study contributes to the theoretical debates on internationalisation by illustrating the limits of the national institutionalist perspective, the importance of considering a multi-scalar analytical framework and the relevance of labour composition in shaping multinational employment relations. JEL Codes: J61, J42, L23