Austerity and working‐class resistance: survival, disruption and creation in hard times. Edited by Adam Fishwick and Heather Connolly (eds) (2018), London, New York: Rowman & Littlefield International, 225 pages, £27.95

AuthorAna Lopes
Published date01 July 2020
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/ntwe.12168
Date01 July 2020
250 New Technology, Work and Employment
New Technology, Work and Employment 35:2
ISSN 0268-1072
Book Review
Austerity and working-class resistance: survival,
disruption and creation in hard times
Adam Fishwick and Heather Connolly (eds) (2018), London, New York: Rowman &
Littleeld International, 225 pages, £27.95
‘(1) How are different working classes surviving in the context of increasing
hardship and does this produce resistance? (2) In what ways are they disrupting
the institutions and structures that reproduce the political economic order? (3) To
what extent can we observe resistance(s) that are creating something new within
and against this?’ (p. 1). These are the important questions posed and addressed
by ‘Austerity and Working-Class resistance: survival, disruption and creation in
hard times’.
The aim of the volume is to explore and shed new light on working-class
resistance in the specic context of austerity politics. It brings together researchers
and experts from different elds such as sociology, politics, international and
labour relations. It arose from a series of workshops hosted by the Centre for
Urban Research on Austerity (CURA) at de Montfort University.
The book contains eight chapters, covering different examples of working-class
struggles and resistance, giving the reader a sense of how diverse these are, as
well as an understanding of the sites, spaces and practices of working-class re-
sistance that have emerged in the past decade. The editors highlight three main
themes running through the various chapters: survival, disruption and creation.
Each chapter offers a radical perspective and engages in solidarity with their
‘objects of analysis’. In chapter 1, Mckenzie examines two grassroots housing
campaigns set up by women in East London in direct struggle with local councils
and government. Whilst the campaigns ‘folded’ and were co-opted by well-mean-
ing outsiders, the ‘very act of resistance is a victory in itself’, as Mckenzie points
out (p. 30).
Shibata and Bailey compare social struggles in the UK and Japan and the im-
pact these have on the rolling out of austerity measures in these countries. They
use both varieties of capitalism theory and what they call minor Marxism to show
that whilst resistance happens differently in particular socio-political contexts, cap-
italism ‘remains invariably contested’ (p. 56).
In chapter 3, Cillo and Pradella examine resistance in the Italian logistics sector,
highlighting an interesting and contradictory dynamic: the growth of the logistics
sector and the way the sector is organised (i.e. according to Just In Time prin-
ciples) has actually increased workers’ power through their capability to disrupt
supply chains.
Stuart Price offers an historical analysis from a left libertarian point of view,
linking the current political crisis in Catalonia to the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939).
He reveals how different forms of oppression have led to the emergence of new
modes of resistance with potential for revolutionary practice.
In chapter 5, Connolly and Centrepois analyse the relationship between undoc-
umented migrant workers and trade unions in France. They show how the sans
papiers movement emerged as a community-based social movement and how it

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