Labor in The Global Economy

This chapter explored why it has been so difficult for workers to resist neoliberal globalization. The neoliberal policy era did not happen in a vacuum. Instead, it needs to be explained via political economy which shows how particular economic interests triumphed in capturing political power and the world of economic ideas (i.e. economic theory), and how those ideas and policies were accepted by society. The Globalization Clock provides a metaphor for understanding that political process as it relates to globalization. It helps explain why globalization has been so politically difficult to turn back despite its injurious effects. A key reason is globalization has adverse impacts on the political solidarity of the working class, with globalization aggravating the pre-existing decline in solidarity caused by the rise of the consumer society.