Social Movements in a Changing World

We live in interesting times, and it is easy to feel hopeless or cynical about the future. When greed is the order of the day, politics lurches between horror and mediocrity, and ecological crisis looms on the horizon, fear is not an irrational reaction.

However, throughout history, all over the world, and even in our very own city, people have found ways to overcome difficult situations and limits to their flourishing which seemed insurmountable and eternal. As the late David Graeber said “the ultimate, hidden truth of the world is that it is something that we make, and could just as easily make differently”. In this talk, we are going to have a conversation about how we go about making it differently.

For much of the twentieth century Marx’s ideas not only inspired resistance to colonial rule, but also provided the backbone of other movements for social justice around the world. This talk demonstrates that Marxism is a living tradition that has been the cornerstone of revolutionary practice and theory in the global South. It shows that rather than being a rigid set of propositions, Marxism has reflected local conditions and contexts, which determined how it has travelled around the world. It debates how we can learn from global Marxism in the never-ending task to grasp the changing historical conditions of capitalism and the complex world in which we live.

Food delivery drivers in the so-called “gig economy” have led multiple waves of strike action over the last decade, most recently in several UK cities between January and March. This workforce is largely made of up of migrants who are classified as self-employed, paid per-delivery and managed by an algorithm which can sack them at any time. With this insecurity in mind, this sector may not seem like an obvious site of worker confidence and struggle, but this research explores why and how these workers go on strike and what they can teach us about the future of work and industrial relations.