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Book SynopsisThis book examines the Brazilian political process in the period of 2003-2020: the governments led by the Workers’ Party and their reformist policies, the deep political crisis that led to the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff and the rise of Bolsonaro neofascism. The author maintains that the Party and ideological conflicts present in the Brazilian politics are linked to the class distributive conflicts present in the Brazilian society. Defeated for the fourth consecutive time in the presidential election, the political parties representing the international capital and segments of the bourgeoisie and of the middle class, abandoned the rules of the democratic game to end the Workers' Party government cycle. They paved the way for the rise of neofascism.Table of ContentsPreface to the English Edition List of Tables and Charts part 1 Reform and Social Classes in the pt Governments 1 State, Bourgeoisie, and Neoliberalism in the Lula Government  1 The Bloc in Power in the Neoliberal Period  2 The Political Ascension of the Industrial Bourgeoisie and Agribusiness under the Lula Government  3 Political Rise, but No Hegemony Established  4 The Political Regime and the Hegemony of Financial Capital  5 Final Considerations 2 The Lula Governments The New “National Bourgeoisie” in Power  1 fhc, Lula, and Disputes within the Bourgeoisie  2 The Political Relations of the Big Internal Bourgeoisie with the Lula Government  3 Contradictions within the Internal Bourgeoisie and the Neodevelopmentalist Front 3 The Political Bases of Neodevelopmentalism  1 The Neodevelopmentalist Political Front  2 The Neodevelopmentalist Program  3 The Classes and Class Fractions Integrating the Neodevelopmentalist Front  4 The Contradictions in the Core of the Front 4 Lulism, Populism, and Bonapartism  1 The Concepts  2 Varguism and Lulism  3 Bonapartism and Lulism 5 Neodevelopmentalism, Social Classes, and Foreign Policy in the pt Governments  1 The Bloc in Power and the Neodevelopmentalist Political Front  2 Foreign Policy and the Neodevelopmentalist Front  3 Conclusion 6 Neodevelopmentalism and the Recovery of the Brazilian Union Movement  1 Neodevelopmentalism and the Union Movement  2 The Union Movement’s Political Moderation  3 The Growth of the Strike Struggle  4 Final Considerations part 2 The Nature and Dynamics of the Crisis that Led to the Impeachment 7 The Political Crisis of Neodevelopmentalism and the Instability of Democracy  1 The Political Crisis  2 The Neoliberal Bourgeois Offensive  3 The Participation of the Upper Middle Class  4 The Presence of the Working Classes  5 The Instability of Democracy  6 The Government’s Reaction and the Popular Movement 8 State, State Institutions, and Political Power in Brazil  1 The Bloc in Power and Class Alliances  2 The Political Regime and the Contradictions within the State Bureaucracy  3 bndes, Petrobras, and the Big Internal Bourgeoisie  4 Judicial Institutions, the Associated Bourgeoisie, and the Upper Middle Class  5 Final Considerations 9 Operation Car Wash, the Middle Class, and State Bureaucracy  1 The State’s Social Function, Social Classes, and Bureaucracy  2 Operation Car Wash and the Middle Class  3 The Middle Class and Corruption 10 The Crisis of Neodevelopmentalism and the Dilma Rousseff Government  1 A Couple of Things to Learn from the Crisis  2 The Bloc in Power and Class Alliances  3 The Political Crisis 11 Why was the Resistance to the 2016 Coup D’état so Weak?  1 The Internal Bourgeoisie was Divided in the Face of the Coup  2 The Marginal Mass of Workers Remained Passive  3 The Unionized Workers were Neutralized  4 After the Coup   Afterword Bolsonaro and the Rise of Neofascism  1 When Can We Speak of Fascism?  2 Bolsonarism is One of the Species of the Fascism Genre  3 The Bolsonaro Government and the Originating Political Crisis  4 Fascism and Bourgeoisie: Unity, Conflicts, and Conciliation  5 Final Considerations Bibliography Index 220

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Book SynopsisDès les années 1950, l'Europe s'est symboliquement et concrètement placée sous les auspices d'une référence communautaire supposant égalité entre États, acteurs économiques et régions. Ne s'agissait-il pas dans l'esprit des fondateurs de rompre avec une histoire où avaient alterné, depuis le XVIIe siècle, les pratiques du concert (des grandes puissances) et de l'hégémonie ? Dans la nouvelle Communauté, les lois de l'unanimité puis de la majorité démocratique garantiraient la coexistence égalitaire des petits et grands États membres, des anciens et des nouveaux entrants. Pourtant, force est de reconnaître que la construction européenne a été travaillée par des logiques de hiérarchisation, qu'il s'agisse des institutions, des relations entre États ou encore de l'économie. Moteur franco-allemand, noyau dur , groupe pionnier , Europe à plusieurs vitesses , etc. : les expressions ne manquent pas pour exprimer et voiler tout à la fois cette tendance lourde. Revisitant la notion d' ordre européen , explorant les premiers développements de l'idée d'Europe unie, l'ouvrage, issu d'un colloque international tenu en septembre 2004 à l'Université Pierre Mendès France-Grenoble II, s'essaie à identifier les processus, les domaines et les pratiques qui portent jusque dans l'Europe d'aujourd'hui le poids de préoccupations séculaires.

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Book SynopsisThroughout the industrialised world trade unionists are reforming their organisations as part of a strategy to adjust to new labour market, economic and political circumstances. This volume examines the role of merger activity in this process of reform. The book identifies the pattern of merger activity, the factors that promote its development and its impact on union structure and governance. Most merger activity is shown to originate in some adverse environmental change, such as membership decline. Furthermore, there is little evidence to suggest that mergers have improved union performance in the recruitment, retention and organisation of members, although, in some cases, the reform of systems of membership participation has been facilitated. The shift away from industrial unions has been accelerated by merger involvement, which has also brought into question the role of confederations where the number of affiliated unions has declined markedly. The book comprises two sections. The first section examines the merger process in ten countries (Australia, Austria, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, UK and US). The second section comprises three horizontal' chapters in which authors of the national chapters develop themes that emerge from the national chapters in comparative perspective.

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Book SynopsisDepuis les années 1920 s'esquisse en Europe une nouvelle manière de travailler ensemble, fondée sur la pratique de l'interministérialité; on observe également, à l'échelle de la Petite Europe, l'émergence d'un nouveau type de relations entre les administrations nationales et le système communautaire. Pour la première fois, des historiens analysent la capacité d'adaptation des administrations des États fondateurs de l'Union européenne à la construction européenne. Nature de l'union à bâtir, dynamique générée par les processus d'association ou d'adhésion à la Communauté, analyse lucide des élargissements et de leurs conséquences: autant de débats cruciaux qui traversent le XXe siècle. De l'examen des organigrammes ou des affrontements, souvent contradictoires, entre services administratifs émergent certaines personnalités de hauts fonctionnaires, capables de proposer des schémas alternatifs. Inscrites dans la durée, fondées sur la confrontation des témoignages et des documents d'archives, ces études mettent en évidence de manière inédite à la fois les résistances culturelles d'administrations régies par l'intérêt national et la capacité d'anticipation des enjeux du processus d'unification du continent européen.

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Book SynopsisLe projet d'Europe unie tel qu'il s'est forgé progressivement porte avec lui l'ambition de sécuriser et de pacifier un continent sujet, jusqu'à une époque récente, de conflits répétitifs et meurtriers. Au-delà de ce premier objectif, ne s'agissait-il pas non plus de favoriser, à travers un processus d'unification, la croissance économique et la protection sociale sinon de lutter contre un déclin ou un recul des États européens sur la scène internationale ? Et cela depuis plus d'un siècle, face à l'affirmation des États-Unis, du Japon, puis plus récemment face aux indépendances coloniales, voire face aux pays émergents. Derrière le projet européen se retrouvent plusieurs termes : paix, croissance, protection sociale, état de droit, affirmation et solidarités internationales. Une question demeure cependant : quelle voie suivre pour y parvenir ? Quels schémas mettre en place pour s'en approcher ? Il s'agit donc d'explorer, par des approches croisées qui constituent la matière de ces textes, les représentations et les visions des hommes d'État, des responsables de partis politiques, des personnalités de premier plan des institutions européennes, qui ont pendant un demi-siècle dessiné des voies possibles pour le projet européen et contribué souvent de façon significative à la construction du meccano institutionnel grâce auquel les politiques européennes se sont développées.

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Book SynopsisThe concerns of the people, whose experiences are explored in this book, rarely make it through to the academic discourse and political praxis in Central and Eastern Europe. In the public discourse and in many sociological accounts, manual workers tend to be represented as disoriented victims of post-socialist transformation. But how can such an approach explain the diversity of the actual ways of coping with social change adopted by workers in the new capitalist reality? To address this question the author turns to workers themselves, to their life strategies and personal experiences. He reconstructs the processes of adapting to and resisting structural changes in working-class milieus in one of the industrial regions of Poland (Silesia). Through this in-depth analysis of 166 personal interviews with blue-collar workers, Mrozowicki reaches general conclusions. The workers rarely resemble the passive puppets of historical forces. Their ability to reflect upon their lives, upon their deeply-ingrained moral ethos, and upon their social circumstances emerge as the foundation of their efforts to overcome socially imposed limitations. Exploring the life strategies of the socially disadvantaged, this book is of interest not only to those interested in post-socialism and working class theory, but also to anybody inclined to think critically about workers' empowerment in late capitalist societies. This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content).Trade Review'This is a very strong contribution to both the sociology of post-communist countries, and to the sociology of the working class. The theoretical framework is very rich and original.'G. Meardi, University of WarwickAdam Mrozowicki's Coping with Social Change makes a significant contribution to the growing scholarship on postsocial change on several levels.Like Lynne Haney's groundbreaking study (Inventing the Needy: Gender and the Politics of Welfare in Hungary) of the reflexive actions of Hungarian women workers in the context of changing conceptions of the welfare state, or Elizabeth C. Dunn's excellent study (Privatizing Poland: Baby Food, Big Business, and Remaking of Labor) of Polish worker practices in the multinational firm, Mrozowicki's analysis of the daily practices of workers that constitute concurrent resistance to, and active participation in, the construction of new capitalism in Poland represents a firstrate response to Barbara Falk's ("Resistance and Dissent in Central and Eastern Europe: An Emerging Historiography," East European Politics and Societies 25 [2011]: 318-60) recent call for reconstruction of the research agenda and adoption of a bottom-up perspective in order to capture the complexity of postsocialist change.Suava Zbierski-Salameh, Haverford Institute, American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 118, No. 2 (September 2012), pp. 524-526 The interviews however, both the extended excerpts and the author's discussion of them, are quite interesting, and cannot be adequately summarized in a short review.The analysis that follows is subtle: rather than reaching general conclusions, the study focuses on differences within the working-class experiences, between the skilled and unskilled, younger and older generations, between collective and individual orientations. In explaining workers' response to change, it also presents a convincing synthesis between past analyses of postcommunist workers focused on the ideological and institutional legacies of the communist period with more current studies that have emphasized the structural impact of Poland's insertion into the global capitalist system.Contemporary Sociology 42, 3, Stephen Crowley Table of ContentsACKNOWLEDGEMENTSCHAPTER 1IN SEARCH FOR THE AGENCY OF WORKERSCHAPTER 2WORKERS AND CAPITALIST TRANSFORMATION: THE CASE OF POLANDRethinking post-socialist capitalism: the frames of sociological understandingFrom heroes to rebels:the working class in People's Poland and SilesiaSegmentation of the working-class milieux in state socialism: structural legaciesThe socialist makings of the working-class discourse: a cultural legacy of socialismPost-socialist capitalism and the transformation of workers' milieuxRe-segmentation of the working-class milieux: persistence and changeWorkers and a grand narrative of transformation: the end of the working class?Challenge of understanding: sociologists, workers and a "grand transition"CHAPTER 3LIFE STRATEGIES OF WORKERS: THEORETICAL SENSITIVITYTheories of agency and a critical realist approachThe agency of the weak: rethinking working-class studiesMarxism and structuralist working-class studiesEmbourgeoisement and its critics: the early culturalist traditionClass cultures and reflexive modernisation: new working-class studiesAgency, structure and reflexivity: sociological approaches to life strategiesLife strategies in late modernity: individuality's discourse and reflexivityThe forms of capital, habitus and structured life strategies in Bourdieu's theoryLife strategies, reflexivity and action contexts in Archer's theoryEthos, resources and reflexivity: the potential for conceptual integrationCHAPTER 4BACK TO THE PEOPLE:BIOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH ON POLISH WORKERSResearch processData sources: biographical interviews and secondary dataChoice of informants: theoretical sampling and field work practiceData analysis: GTM coding and biographical analysisResearch contexts, research sites and research participantsResearch sites and basic socio-structural characteristics of informantsEvaluation of the research: methodological limitationsCHAPTER 5NEGOTIATIONG THE MEANING OF THE POST-SOCIALIST TRANSFORMATIONDevaluation of labour and the revaluation of skillsNostalgic paternalism and pragmatisation of consumptionContested communitarianism and privatisation of social bondsThe opening of the public sphere and conditional freedomEmbedding in history: ideological frames of remembering Neutralisation of history: the "private frames of remembering"Understanding the ambivalence: segmentation, strategies and reflexivityCHAPTER 6FORMS OF CAPITAL, ETHOS, AND LIFE STRATEGIES OF WORKERSBody-related resources: work as an ethos and necessitySocio-psychological resources: resourcefulness and helplessnessEducational resources and craft skills: redefining cultural capitalSocial resources at work: embeddedness in work milieu and privatismTrade union resources and trade union ethosResources, reflexivity and career patterns: the typologyAnchor careersBricolage careersDead-end careersPatchwork careersSocial resources beyond work: embeddedness in familyEmbeddedness in locality and social resources beyond work and familyEconomic capital, pragmatism and life styles in the sphere of consumptionStructured and reflexive dimensions of life projects: towards synthesisCHAPTER 7COPING WITH SOCIAL CHANGE: THE TYPES AND DYNAMICS OF WORKING-CLASS LIFE STRATEGIESWorkers' strategies after system change: typology buildingEmbedding: the logic of communitarian persistenceIntegrating: the logic of collective co-determinationGetting by: the logic of a privatised survivalConstructing: the logic of a privatised bricolageTowards theoretical integration: ethos, reflexivity and hybridisationSocial structures, agential powers and the evolution of workers' milieuxCHAPTER 8THE AGENCY OF THE WEAK: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONSRethinking the agency of the weak: theoretical implicationsLabour studies in Eastern Europe: towards new sociological imagination?Towards the politics of empowermentLITERATUREAPPENDICESAppendix 1.Narrative interviews with workers. Instruction for interviewersPhase I: Spontaneous narrationPhase II : Supplementary narrative questionsPhase II : "Theoretical" questionsAppendix 2.The acquired sample: the structural description of workers' positionsAppendix 3.Matrix of cases. Core cases and context casesSUMMARYCoping with Social Change. Life Strategies of Workers in Poland's New CapitalismSTRESZCZENIESposoby radzenia sobie ze zmianą społeczną. Strategie życiowe robotników w nowym polskim kapitalizmie

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Book SynopsisThis study follows the textile industry through periods of oil boom, structural adjustment and liberalization. The focus is on the successful institutionalization of the trade union based labour regime.'

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisThe implementation of building maintenance scheme has attracted a considerable amount of attention from the general public and government authorities as a result of injury and damage lose due to structural degradation and aging of the buildings. Unfortunately, Building in neglect has been a long-standing problem in Hong Kong and most accidents can be prevented through simple inspection and maintenance works. To solve the problem of building dilapidation, Buildings Department has launched the Mandatory Building Inspection Scheme (“MBIS”) in December 2011 and fully implemented from June 2012.This book is written as a pioneer to review and examine the statistics and distribution of the aged building in Hong Kong. A workforce model is also developed to assess the building professional workforce demand and supply in the MBIS.

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Book SynopsisThis book takes a systems-thinking approach to allow readers to understand how Workplace safety and health (WSH) is an integral part of any organisation. The different chapters are strung together by an overarching model of incident causation, and underpinning models are presented to allow a strong conceptual foundation. Practical WSH knowledge also discussed in relevant chapters to ensure that beginners have an introduction to the fundamentals of WSH hazards and controls.The second edition presents additional systems thinking concepts and archetypes not covered previously, the safe design process in Australia, thoughts on learning disabilities and safety culture, and additional case studies. Besides the strong emphasis on conceptual framework, readers will also be exposed to the details of a WSH management system and practical WSH processes, hazards and controls. A series of online quizzes are available to readers to help them to reinforce the concepts of each chapter.Undergraduates and post-graduates will benefit from the systematic introduction to the foundations of WSH management. Practitioners will strengthen their conceptual understanding and widen their perspective by re-visiting the foundations of WSH management through a systems-thinking lens.

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisThis review volume is devoted to a discussion of analogies and differences of complex production systems — natural, as in biological cells, or man-made, as in economic systems or industrial production. Taking this unified look at production is based on two observations: Cells and many biological networks are complex production units that have evolved to solve production problems in a reliable and optimal way in a highly stochastic environment. On the other hand, industrial production is becoming increasingly complex and often hard to predict. As a result, modeling and control of such production networks involve many different spatial and temporal scales and decision policies for many different structures. The common themes of industrial and biological production include evolution and optimization, synchronization and self-organization, robust operation despite high stochasticity, and hierarchical dynamics. The mathematical techniques used come from dynamical systems theory, transport equations, control theory, pattern formation, graph theory, discrete event simulations, stochastic processes, and others. The application areas range from semiconductor production to supply chains, protein networks, slime molds, social networks, and whole economies.

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Book SynopsisThis book takes a very practical approach to radiation protection and presents very readable information for anyone working in the radiation field or with radioactive material. Offering information rarely found elsewhere, the authors describe in detail both the basic principles and practical implementation recommendations of radiation protection. Each chapter includes self-assessment review questions and problems, with answers provided, to help readers master important information. Coupled with a teacher's manual, this book is highly suitable as an undergraduate text for students preparing for careers as X-ray, radiation oncology, or nuclear medicine technologists. It can also be used as a reference for residents in radiology and radiation oncology, medical personnel, or anyone working with radioactive materials such as those involved in homeland security/emergency services, or employed at a nuclear power plant.Table of ContentsFundamental Concepts: Detectors; Units Associated with Radiation Protection; Biological Effects and Effective/Equivalent Dose Limits; Common Survey and Calibration Instruments; Personnel Monitors; Practical Means of Radiation Protection; Principles Governing Specific Devices: Good Working Habits; Radionuclides and the Law; Shielding from External Radiation; Internal Dosimetry; Absorbed Dose from External Photons.

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Book SynopsisWhat is the scope and what are the limits of research in industrial relations? How to develop an appropriate methodological choice according to the peculiarities of a research subject in in working relationships? What are the mechanisms convened to identify the studied reality in human resources management? From the top of his professional background and expertise, the author guides us here through the meanders of research in industrial relations and business administration.Indeed, graduate students should find in this book the material needed, to prepare them for the labyrinth of research (from collection to data analysis), teachers and professors will find here a renewed and adapted tool (according to the use that will be made), to familiarize their students with the essential concepts to allow them to develop their own methodological considerations.Also, general public and professionals wishing to improve their personal approach in writing and / or analyzing scientific reports will find real opportunities for personal development; because reading is largely facilitated by a synthetic style, not hesitating to give life to the words with the help of numerous illustrations.In short, in this book, students, researchers, teachers, officials, managers, academic, general public, professional and the curious will appreciate the clear presentation of the fundamentals of research, as well as the way in which the usefulness of concepts in general is established.

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Book SynopsisWorkplace safety and health (WSH) is an important area of any business or organisation. A serious accident or ill health incident can cause much suffering and distress to workers, co-workers, and the victims' family and friends. In addition, the organisations involved in the WSH incident will have to manage negative consequences including increase in insurance premium, lost time and delays, morale issues, union and community protests, and reputation losses. On the other hand, good WSH can lead to organisational excellence.This book takes a systems-thinking approach to allow readers to understand how WSH is an integral part of any organisation. The different chapters are strung together by an overarching model of incident causation and underpinning models are presented to allow a strong conceptual foundation. Practical WSH knowledge are also discussed in relevant chapters to ensure that beginners have an introduction to the fundamentals of WSH hazards and controls. Besides the strong emphasis on conceptual framework, readers will also be exposed to the details of a WSH management system and practical WSH processes, hazards and controls. A series of online quizzes are available to readers to help them to reinforce the concepts of each chapter.Undergraduates and post-graduates will benefit from the systematic introduction to the foundations of WSH management. Practitioners will strengthen their conceptual understanding and widen their perspective by re-visiting the foundations of WSH management through a systems-thinking lens.

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Book SynopsisWorkplace safety and health (WSH) is an important area of any business or organisation. A serious accident or ill health incident can cause much suffering and distress to workers, co-workers, and the victims' family and friends. In addition, the organisations involved in the WSH incident will have to manage negative consequences including increase in insurance premium, lost time and delays, morale issues, union and community protests, and reputation losses. On the other hand, good WSH can lead to organisational excellence.This book takes a systems-thinking approach to allow readers to understand how WSH is an integral part of any organisation. The different chapters are strung together by an overarching model of incident causation and underpinning models are presented to allow a strong conceptual foundation. Practical WSH knowledge are also discussed in relevant chapters to ensure that beginners have an introduction to the fundamentals of WSH hazards and controls. Besides the strong emphasis on conceptual framework, readers will also be exposed to the details of a WSH management system and practical WSH processes, hazards and controls. A series of online quizzes are available to readers to help them to reinforce the concepts of each chapter.Undergraduates and post-graduates will benefit from the systematic introduction to the foundations of WSH management. Practitioners will strengthen their conceptual understanding and widen their perspective by re-visiting the foundations of WSH management through a systems-thinking lens.

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Book SynopsisSince 2012, industrial overcapacity has become an increasingly serious problem in China, against the backdrop of domestic economic slowdown and continued downturn in international markets. Overcapacity is widespread in the traditional manufacturing sector, particularly in iron and steel, cement, electrolytic aluminium, flat glass, and ship-building industries. It is also grave in emerging industries such as polysilicon, solar cells, and wind power equipment.This book provides an overview on the overcapacity problem facing China and examines the main characteristics of overcapacity in some important industries. The book identifies two types of overcapacity: one is excess capacity that results from natural supply-demand dynamics or cyclical economic fluctuations under a relatively sound market system; the other is overcapacity caused by the overinvestment of enterprises under a flawed economic system. It probes into how overcapacity is caused and finds two contributors — change of growth model and institutional flaws. It explores to establish a long-term mechanism for solving the problem. The book concludes that China should establish a long-term mechanism to prevent and resolve overcapacity, and to establish healthy relationship between the market and the government.

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Book SynopsisA global account of the grassroots environmental movements on the frontlines of the climate crisis. Environmentalism from Below takes readers inside the popular struggles for environmental liberation in the Global South. These communities—among the most vulnerable to but also least responsible for the climate crisis—have long been at the forefront of the fight to protect imperiled worlds. Today, as the world’s forests burn and our oceans acidify, grassroots movements are tenaciously defending the environmental commons and forging just and sustainable ways of living on Earth. Scholar and activist Ashley Dawson constructs a gripping narrative of these movements of climate insurgents, from international solidarity organizations like La Via Campesina and Shack Dwellers International to local struggles in South Africa, Colombia, India, Nigeria, and beyond. Taking up the four critical challenges we face in a warming world—food, urban sustainability, energy transition, and conservation—Dawson shows how the unruly power of environmentalism from below is charting an alternative path forward, from challenging industrial agriculture through fights for food sovereignty and agroecology to resisting extractivism using mass nonviolent protest and sabotage. An urgent, essential intervention, Environmentalism from Below offers a hopeful alternative to the gridlock of UN-based climate negotiations and the narrow nationalism of some Green New Deal efforts. As Dawson reminds us, the fight against ecocide is already being waged worldwide. Building on longstanding traditions of anticolonial struggle, environmentalism from below is a model for a people’s movement for climate justice—one that demands solidarity.Trade ReviewPraise for Extinction: “An elegant, controversial thesis” —The Guardian “A welcome contribution to the growing literature on this slow-motion calamity.” —Los Angeles Review of Books “Dawson's searing report on species loss will sober up anyone who has drunk the Kool-Aid of green capitalism.” —Andrew Ross “Fusing social and ecological challenges to power is the only way forward … a long-awaited, elegant and comprehensive expression of why the time is right to make these links." —Patrick Bond “A great tool for anti-capitalists, climate change activists, and those still making sense of the intrinsic connections between the two." —Jasbir Puar “Historically grounded, densely researched, fluidly written … a powerful and painful exploration of human civilization's environmental irrationalities.” —Christian Parenti Praise for People’s Power: “For anyone wanting to understand what comes after oil and how we might get there.” —Imre Szeman, author of On Petrocultures “A gift to activists, providing a clear and accessible history of energy as well as a vision towards the publicly owned, democratically controlled, 100% renewable world we need.” —Aaron Eisenberg, the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation “A brilliant guide to building collective, equitable, and radical energy democracies in the here and now.” —Lavinia Steinfort, Transnational Institute Praise for Extreme Cities: Named One of the Top 10 Books of the Year by Publishers Weekly and Planetizen “Extreme Cities is a ground-breaking investigation of the vulnerability of our cities in an age of climate chaos. We feel safe and protected in the middle of our great urban areas, but as Sandy and Katrina made clear, and as this fine book reveals anew, the massive shifts on our earth increasingly lay bare the social inequalities that fracture our civilization.”—Bill McKibben, author and founder of 350.org

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Book SynopsisAn essential record from the Second International, expertly curated by Under the Socialist Banner editor Mike Taber.At its height, the Second International (1889-1916) represented the majority of organized workers in the world, and the largest of its affiliated parties counted over a million members. Its congresses drew delegates from across the globe, and its major victories—like the eight-hour work day—have long outlasted the organization itself. In this important collection of debates and resolutions from the Second International, Reform, Revolution, and Opportunism captures the International’s vibrancy and gives a snapshot of its strengths, weaknesses, and contradictions. Socialist militants turned to the Second International to deliberate on how best to combat the latest deprivations and excesses of capitalism, which was stretching beyond national boundaries for the first time. These new issues and the debates about how to respond to them—surging immigration; what to say about colonialism; how to relate to burgeoning struggles for women’s rights; the drive to intern-imperialist war—remain deeply contested over a hundred years later. Taken together with Under the Socialist Banner, Reform Revolution, and Opportunism offers a rounded view of the Second International and its legacy, showing it to be a living, breathing movement with crucial insights for contemporary radicals.Trade Review“Through this engaging volume, Taber has provided a tremendous resource to the socialist movement and historians of the Second International.”—Eric Blanc, author of Revolutionary Social Democracy: Working-Class Politics Across the Russian Empire, 1892-1917“Debates in the European congresses of the Second International from 1900 to 1910 might seem a long way from the Bolshevik revolution in 1917. Yet the Bolsheviks themselves self-identified very strongly as the Russian representatives of ‘revolutionary Social Democracy’ in contrast to international ‘opportunism’. They insisted that the collapse of the Second International in 1914 was (in Lenin’s words) ‘the collapse of opportunism’ – not the collapse of revolutionary Social Democracy. Mike Taber’s invaluable presentation of the clash between the two wings of the Second International on vital issues such as war, colonialism and women’s suffrage is therefore essential reading for all who seek to understand the outlook of the Bolsheviks and their revolutionary tactics in 1917.”—Lars T. Lih, author of Lenin Rediscovered “These excerpts from the debates at some of the most important congresses of the Second International allows us to see as never before how socialists of the time responded to such crucial issues as supporting anti-colonial struggles and women’s rights while opposing militarism and restrictions on immigration—the very issues being so heatedly debated today.”—Peter Hudis, general editor, The Complete Works of Rosa Luxemburg“This book is a treasure chest for every socialist seeking to understand the history of their movement. Bringing together documents from 1900 to 1910, Mike Taber shows us how socialists more than a century ago analyzed and debated key questions of their time. He also shows us that these are urgent questions for our times: war and militarism; colonialism; immigration; gender rights; and strategies for working class power. Revolution, Reform, and Opportunism is an invaluable contribution to the history of the socialist movement and Taber does a superb job of illuminating the context of these debates and showing us why they matter today.”—David McNally, author of Blood and Money“Mike Taber offers clear and compelling translations of pivotal debates in the Second International around colonialism, immigration, women’s suffrage, militarism, and political tactics during the first decade of the twentieth century. The debates reflect tensions between some socialists’ racist, nationalist, and misogynistic prejudices and others’ internationalism and desire for the liberation of both working men and working women. The selections in this book illuminate the roots of the 1914 split in the Second International and are relevant to struggles in our time.” —Barbara C. Allen, editor of The Workers’ Opposition in the Russian Communist Party: Documents, 1919-30“Many activists of today face challenges bedeviling socialists a hundred years ago: What should be the relationship between reform and revolution? To what extent should socialists adapt to existing power structures in the quest to ease the impact of multiple crises – and to what extent should they instead redouble their efforts to end the system generating such crises? Mike Taber draws together transcripts of rich and sharp debates from the mass-based Socialist International from 1900 to 1910 – a clash of analyses and proposals offering insights to those of our own time who want to change the world.”—Paul Le Blanc, editorial board member, The Complete Works of Rosa Luxemburg“In bringing together the key debates of the Second International in the first decade of the 20th century, Mike Taber reveals the extraordinary nature of this movement. It is a fascinating and compelling read…Some of the challenges within the Second International are still with us today. This book gives us a chance to reappraise our history and its relevance for today.”—Anne McShane, Historian of the Soviet Women’s Movement“Mike Taber provides yet another illuminating collection of documents, adroitly introduced and carefully compiled. Reform, Revolution, and Opportunism breathes contemporary life into the seemingly timeless clash of revolutionary and reformist sensibilities. Vexing matters such as war and militarism, colonialism and immigration, women's rights and strategic engagement with bourgeois states, remain contentious today. Taber skillfully shows how a mass socialist movement once vigorously debated and disagreed about how to approach these matters.”—Bryan D. Palmer, author of James P. Cannon and the Emergence of Trotskyism in the United States, 1928-1938“This book is a must-read. It provides a long-overdue wake-up call for the Marxist left, which almost universally dismisses the experience of the Second International as inherently opportunist, with the failures, betrayals and collapse of August 1914 supposedly written into this body's DNA. This book underscores just how flawed such an understanding is. The Second International was no monolithic or immutable entity sleepwalking into support for imperialist butchery, but a hotbed of factional struggle waged by the forces of ‘revolutionary social democracy’ – Russian Bolshevism included – against the opportunist cancer that eventually killed it off. As Taber shows, the leading lights of the revolutionary Marxist tradition never renounced the best aspects of the International's political legacy, but fought for its basic principles to be upheld in the face of the renegade, careerist and nationalist 'socialists' who betrayed them.”—Ben Lewis, Founder of Marxism Translated “Over a century ago, socialists wrestled with many of the same questions and conflicts as we do today: how to understand and respond to intra-imperialist war, immigration from capitalism's periphery to core, colonialism and solidarity with and from the colonized world, women's rights and women's roles in movements for liberation. By including primary source documents as well as speeches from socialists, including Rosa Luxemburg, Clara Zetkin, August Bebel, Karl Kautsky, Daniel De Leon and others, one feels the presence of live movements being made and re-made in the crucible of fiery debate and struggle. Accompanied by Taber's lucid historical context, this selection of speeches and resolutions from the heyday of early 20th century socialism to its fracturing over World War I and re-forming during the Bolshevik Revolution is a necessary read both for activists as well as scholars of these early battles against capitalism. Taber has offered 21st century socialists – if not a guide to the present – a helpful selection of examples of what earlier generations have exclaimed aloud, as in our world – still riven by war, imperialism, sexism, racism, class exploitation – the struggles and the movements for liberation must find their own answers and paths forward.”—Benjamin Balthaser, author of Anti-Imperialist Modernism and Dedication“Mike Taber has made yet another major contribution—this time by resurrecting some of the earliest socialist debates on crucial issues that continue to challenge us today. This is a fascinating read and a valuable resource for contemporary activists.”—Tom Twiss, author of Trotsky and the Problem of Soviet Bureaucracy“The ‘experience of socialists a century ago can provide valuable lessons and examples’ for socialists today because the emergence of the revolutionary trends within the Second International before 1914 anticipated those that arose in the aftermath of the October Revolution, as expressed in the formation of the Third International, writes Mike Taber. Whether Second International debates, in fact, contain invaluable, politically relevant lessons for communist activists today – or are of purely historical interest – is itself a matter of debate. Fortunately, Taber's documentary collection will help readers decide for themselves.”—John Marot, author of The October Revolution in Prospect and Retrospect: Interventions in Russian and Soviet History

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