Live Working or Die Fighting: How The Working Class Went Global

Description

An extraordinary history of the working class and its globalisation that takes Victorian factories, trade unions, fascism and today's migrant labourers, among many other subjects, in its epic sweep. Globalisation has created a whole new working class - and they are reliving stories that were first played out a century ago. In Live Working or Die Fighting, Paul Mason tells the story of this new working class alongside the epic history of the global labour movement, from its formation in the factories of the 1800s through its near destruction by fascism in the 1930s and up to today's anti-globalisation movement. Blending exhilarating historical narrative with reportage from today's front line, he links the lives of 19th-century factory girls with the lives of teenagers in a giant Chinese mobile phone factory; he tells the story of how mass trade unions were born in London's Docklands - and how they're being reinvented by the migrant cleaners in skyscrapers that stand on the very same spot. It is a story of urban slums, self-help co-operatives, choirs and brass bands, free love and self-education by candlelight. And, as the author shows, in the developing industrial economies of the world it is still with us. Live Working or Die Fighting celebrates a common history of defiance, idealism and self-sacrifice, one as alive and active today as it was two hundred years ago. It is a unique and inspirational book.

Paul Mason was born in 1960 in Leigh, Greater Manchester. He is BBC Newsnight's business and industry correspondent. He won the 2003 Wincott Award for business journalism and was named Workworld Broadcast Journalist of the Year in 2004 . He lives in London.

Vividly accessible... required reading for the Seattle brigade * Guardian * Mason, using an impressive range of primary sources, recounts nine of the great stories of working-class revolts * Irish Times * This book tells stories of our past that are indispensable to understanding the present. it is a good answer to all who ask where the working class has gone. Brilliant -- Ken Loach 'Don't die stupid. If you haven't read Mason's book, you know nothing about how this planet works... breathtaking, fascinating, perceptive... Damn, I wish I'd written this book -- Greg Palast, author of the New York Times bestseller Armed Madhouse This is micro-historical writing at its best -- Walden Bello, author of Dilemmas of Domination