Paul Mason, Live Working or Die Fighting how the Working Class Went Global - Coursework Example

Book Review – Live Working or Die Fighting How the Working Went Global by Paul Mason Live Working or Die Fighting How the Working Class Went Global The book Live Working or Die Fighting How the Working Class Went Global has been written by Paul Mason an award winning journalist affiliated with BBC. The book is basically an attempt to compile the popular history of movement of global workers. The book contains the observation and experiences of Meson that he gained while travelling across different countries of the world including India, China, Bolivia and Canary Wharf etc. During his visit to these countries he got insight to the experiences and problems of the working class in these countries and strives to give them a voice through this book. The book allows having deep intuition to the struggles led by the working class all over the world and their failure to found a mean to organize themselves. In his book, Mason compiles his experiences and observations and tells the tale of miseries of the working class of the present day in connection with the historical incidents took place during the global labour movement from early 1800s to mid-1900s. He connect these stories to the present times and depict the tales of workers of the globalized era to indicate that problems still exist within a system and changing time need changing strategies to ask due rights of the working class. The book describes the current situation of the global working class and identifies some of the major problems and challenges that the workers are facing across of globe due to their unfair treatment. The author explains that the global capitalist system has been driven by the appetite of getting more profits that eventually results in deprives and oppressed condition of the workers. In different countries of the world, the working class is found to be extremely exploited and supressed by the capitalists who compel the workers to a condition of semi-slavery. Mason found that the workers in different countries face different situations however; the problems of the workers are widely same regardless of the country and the need of conducting organized struggle is also equally needed in all the countries of the world. Mason interviewed workers from different countries and make their voice heard to the world because he believes that the workers have to speak out in front of the world so that the stories of their suppression could be widespread and people could know about the unfair dealing of the workers by the capitalist. He gives opportunity to several oppressed workers to share their experiences and problems and include them in the book to let people listen to the victim of the globalization and capitalism. Mason observes that Indonesian and Chinese workers face suppression from the corporations and owners of the factories whereas in London the working class has to face labour discrimination on the basis of their racial identities. It implies that the causes might be different but in the end the condition of the working class seems similar because in one way or another they have to bear undue work stress, pressure and bigotry from the employers. The book exemplifies unfair labour treatment and discrimination in different countries of the world. He identifies that Child labour is being practices in England, women workers are facing discrimination in Persia, and the railway workers are unsatisfied in American Wild West whereas the metalworkers in Germany are also looking towards the way to improve their current working condition. Mason uses these examples to affirm that the working class is struggling all over the world and there are varieties of problems being faced by the workers in different countries. Mason observes that there is little fair labour dealing practiced by the entrepreneurs and employers due to which there is widespread dissatisfaction among the workers working in different fields, position and places. The book creates a link between the problems and challenges faced by the emerging working class of the present time and the historical labour movements. The study of present day working class problem in his historical context allows understanding that despite shift in the time period and situation the working class is facing the same kind of problems and there have been several labour movements also organized during different times to combat those problems. The main theme of the book as reflected in the title is to give the message that the struggle of the working class is a continual process because along with time the nature of the problems faced by the workers might change but the need to struggle for their rights always remain there. He describes some of the major labour movements of the past to encourage the workers of the present age that they are also required to stand up for their rights by brining change in the system. Mason promotes and supports the anti –globalization and anti-capitalist movement because he believes that these are the root causes behind the exploitation of working class and getting rid of these systems would allow the working class to have equity and fairness at work place. He blames these systems responsible for the labour discrimination and assets that all over the world globalization and capitalist system is working for the sake of profit and expansion of business giving little importance to the right of the working class. He explains that the current system is adding to the miseries of the working class because there are some wrong trends penetrated in the market. The globalization of the economy has allowed the companies to invest their capital in the low wage economies. However, the capitalist are not merely intended to improve the condition of workers by providing them employment opportunities but they actually take control over them through long working hours and intensity of production process while giving no importance to the issues related with safety, health and other rights of the workers. He wants the modern day working class to gain information and guidance from the labour movement of the past because he realizes that the young working class is not aware about the struggle of the labour in past that contains several important lessons and guidelines for them. There is no point mourning that but it means the new working class of what campaigners call the ‘global south’ is being born unconscious of the stories of the past (Mason, viii). In order to make the young workers aware of the struggle of the past he includes the description of the labour movements and struggle of the past alongside the examples of modern day labour discrimination cases because he wants to modern day workers to realize that their problems are also similar to the problems of the workers of the past and they could look into the past labour movements to find some tips and guidelines for their struggle. He criticizes globalization for adding miseries to the lives of the working class. He believes that globalization has destroyed the social culture by weakening the social system. As he writes in the introduction that In the process of globalization, a culture that took 200 years to build was torn apart in twenty ( Mason, viii). He blames globalization for promoting capitalist system that took the right of exploiting labour for granted and uses them as mean of production giving no importance to the human factor. Globalization gives capitalist access to the weak and low wages economies where they found it quite easy to violate labour laws and get more work done at lower cost of production. Mason wants the people think that the good are not cheap because the capitalist have found better way of production but the good have become cheap because the capitalist have found the way to exploit the workers of the poor economies by taking them maximum work against minimum wages and giving no value to the labour rights like gender equity and child labour prevention measures etc. Due to this reason, the manufacturing units of big capitalists are often found accused of discrimination of labour whereas several production units are also found engaged in child labour. Mason observes that along with time there have been several changes occurred in the working system and conditions of the working class but the fundamental characters of the struggle workers use to conduct has not been changed over the time. The history of the labour movements and struggle tells that there during all the time the workers are exploited by their employers in different manner and the strong bosses traditionally discriminate the workers in different grounds like gender, race and skills etc. The book attempts to assist the workers of the new generation all over the world to organize their efforts strategically and encourage them to carry on anti-capitalist movements because he believe that the earlier movements conducted by the working class resulted in the recognition of their problems and the present day working class could also make their voice heard only though movement and struggle. They have to come out in the streets like the workers of the previous age and have to fight for their rights that have been seized by the capitalist corporations and employers. The book makes people think about the problems of the people behind the production of the goods that they consume in their daily lives. Mason impressively create sympathetic feelings among the common people regarding the condition and problems of the working class that plays very important role in running the cycle of the economies of the world. He insists that attention must be given to those who work for making certain things available to use but remain away from numerous things and rights that they really deserve. Mason identifies the importance of trade unions in the struggle of the working class and proves from the historical evidences that trade unions have always played active role in putting forward the demands of working class in front of the authorities. He insists that the trade unions provide a platform to the workers to organize their efforts and express their power and unity to the employers. The overall tone of the book is very convincing and promising. The book is an interesting and inspiring reading experience that clearly indicates that Mason is right on the side of the working class and want them to struggle for their rights in strategic manner. Most of the arguments posed in the book are very convincing because Mason has proved all the arguments with the help of real life examples of the working class problems that he collected from all over the world. The description of the problems and stories of the working class makes the book an interesting and compelling account that allows the readers understanding the current state of labour discrimination across the world. Despite the fact that Mason presents the case of working class in very effective manner there are some points and arguments pose in the book that seem weak. For instance, Mason believes that the labour unions could work to assure the rights of the working class but in real it has been observed that the labour unions have mostly become political oriented and they have also lost the confidence and membership of the workers over the last few decades. It implies that the labour unions are no longer very effective platform to conduct the struggle of the working class and there is need to go beyond the union and look for the way through which the labour can get their rights. The book is an impressive and interesting attempt of Mason to make people think about the problems of the working class led by globalization and capitalism. The inclusion of experiences of workers from different countries in the book makes it more interesting and substantial source of getting inside the workers’ problems. It makes several strong evidences and arguments against the capitalist system and globalization. Some of the arguments are well supported and well-presented however, at many places it seems that Mason has go beyond the ground realities to oppose globalization and capitalist and has taken a purely anti capitalism approach in the book. Hence, the book is an impressive attempt and highly recommendable resource of getting insight to the modern day and past struggles of the working class and the causes behind their problems. References Mason. P. (2010). Live Working or Die Fighting How the Working Class Went Global. London: Haymarket Books Read More