Jenny Chan received the 2018 Best Teaching Award

Jenny Chan, assistant professor, received the 2018 Best Teaching Award, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Andreas Bieler and Adam D. Morton: Theorising the International

Andreas Bieler and Adam D. Morton - Free online resource on International Relations theory: 

Theorising the International

https://sites.google.com/site/irtheoryresource/ 

Scholars Demand the Shenzhen Government Release Jasic Workers Arrested for Attempting to Unionize (30 July 2018)

30 July 2018

Scholars Demand the Shenzhen Government Release Jasic Workers Arrested for Attempting to Unionize

Dear Scholars,

Prof. Pun Ngai of the University of Hong Kong, Prof. Jack Qiu of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Prof. Jenny Chan of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University sincerely and urgently invite you to co-sign this open letter to support Jasic Shenzhen workers currently on strike to defend their right to unionize and those arrested for joining or observing workers' protest. 

At this moment, 30 workers from Shenzhen Jasic (Jiashi) Technology Co. and observers are detained after workers attempted to practice their legal right to organize a trade union. Workers were threatened, beaten and arrested but are still strong and eager to defend their rights. They desperately need support from progressive individuals and organizations elsewhere in the world to let the Chinese government know, the world is watching. For more details, please refer to SACOM's video.

Workers’ actions are remarkable in the sense that workers are standing up to defend not only their economic, but also their political rights. This marks the rising consciousness and awareness of the working class in modern China. Your support and concern are crucial to widen the space available for Chinese workers to mobilize and defend themselves in this strike.

For the link to the petition, please refer to:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdl82DkA67nWz4e5a6KyBUnVrCc9Do-k_9FCsOubiNHO0S5Vg/viewform  (English Version, effective as of 30 July 2018)

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScnnEzX6Si3RjswDPVMuA_D5exUgZCI82kKDbvp6qxgeSZ2gw/viewform?usp=sf_link (Chinese Version, effective as of 30 July 2018)

We would appreciate it if you could co-sign the letter and pass it on to other scholars in your network who would support workers in their strike. 

More information at: Michael Ma, Project Officer, Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (SACOM) Website: www.sacom.hk Tel: (852) 2392 5464 Fax: (852) 2392 5463

Email: michaelma@sacom.hk Mailing Address: P.O.Box No. 79583, Mongkok Post Office, HONG KONG

New podcast about the book by A. Choudry and S.Vally

Podcast "Radical histories and social movements" on the recently published book by Aziz Choudry and S. Vally ("Reflections on Knowledge, Learning and Social Movements History's Schools", Routledge 2018) is now available online in the Will Brehm's blog.

The New Project on Trade Union Responses to Immigration led by Rolle Alho

"Whose interests? A Comparative Study on Trade Unions’ Responses to Migration and Migrants in Finland, Ireland, and Portugal" - new project led by the RC44 member, Rolle Alho, founded by the Academy of Finland and carried out at the University of Helsinki’s Swedish School of Social Science. The project aims to provide an international comparative perspective on the response and attitudes of trade unions to immigration. More information about the project can be found at: https://www.helsinki.fi/en/news/nordic-welfare/whose-interests-do-trade-unions-serve

Kim Scipes promoted to Professor of Sociology at Purdue University Northwest

On 7th April, the RC44 member, Kim Scipes got promoted to Professor of Sociology at Purdue University Northwest.  Congratulations! More information about his research can be found at: https://faculty.pnw.edu/kim-scipes/

The LERA 2018 James G.Scoville Award Granted to Katy Fox-Hodess

We are pleased  to inform you that the LERA 2018 James. G. Scoville Best International/Comparative Industrial Relations Paper Award has been awarded to the RC44 member, Katy Fox-Hodess for her article "(Re-)Locating the Local and National in the Global: Multi-Scalar Political Alignment in Transnational European Dockworker Union Campaigns" published in the British Journal of Industrial Relations 55(3): 626–647.

The article's abstract: Labour activists have called for greater international co-ordination among trade unions in response to the assault on organized labour by global capital, but such co-ordination faces many hurdles. Under what conditions can unions overcome those barriers and co-ordinate effectively to achieve campaign goals? I examine this question through a comparison of European-level international solidarity with Portuguese, Greek and English affiliates of the International Dockworkers Council involved in labour disputes. The divergent outcomes of otherwise similar cases reveal the critical role of politics and strategy at different scales and sites of union organization in determining the successful exercise of labour internationalism.