One of the forms in which the working class exists today is at the various nodal points along global supply chains. Our project uses a class analysis to articulate how changes in the sites and methods of production – à la Beverly Silver's Forces of Production – affect the class composition of the global proletariat, towards the end of building worker-to-worker networks that encourage working class self-activity that's cross-sectoral and internationalist.

HISTORY OF THE PROJECT

The project's precursor was an informal group formed in San Francisco, California in the aftermath of the events of September 11, 2001. It continued to meet for several years, with some later going on to create other ultra-left/left communist groups. The original purpose was to research changes in the world political economy; one subgroup studied Islamism and the changes in geopolitical inter-capitalist tensions; the other subgroup researched and attempted to intervene in class struggle. In October 2012 we regrouped as the Global Supply Chains class when we helped co-found the Bay Area Public School.

SCOPE OF THE PROJECT

Capitalism relies on an integrated infrastructure of production clusters and transportation networks, comprised of ports, warehouses, rail lines, highways, information grids and investment vehicles in order to produce and circulate goods. The physical nodes are arrayed in clusters of factories, warehouses, logistics services, and retail, all tied together by maritime, rail, trucking, and telecom networks. This global “factory without walls” allows capitalists to scour the planet for the cheapest and most compliant labor, externalizing costs of its maintenance onto the working class -- or the environment. These networks generate flows of commodities and information with ever-increasing speed, as the system strives for just-in-time production and inventory-less distribution for a unified global market. Our project demonstrates how these nodes, clusters, networks, corridors and flows are interconnected within an integrated system of production, distribution and consumption.

Supply chains are vulnerable and our goal is to identify where working class solidarity has the greatest possibility to spread up and down the chain, across sectors, borders – and even oceans. In providing useful and accessible real time information about conflicts along global supply chains, we aim to facilitate class-based collective action that forges connections and solidarity among related struggles. Our ultimate vision is a world beyond capitalist production and supply chains.

SUPPLY CHAIN INQUIRIES

One of our public activities has been conducting these "thought experiments," where workers model strikes that extended across sectors, go beyond geographical limitations, and across international borders. In our experience, the ideal outcome is further questions, rather than facile answers. Find examples of these inquiries by searching through our blog here on libcom.

CONTACT US

Global Supply Chains Research's study group continues to meet every other week (in San Francisco) and maintains an e-mail list of contacts throughout the world. If you support internationalist class struggle and are interested in joining the project, please contact us.