Breaks in the chain : what immigrant workers can teach America about democracy / Paul Apostolidis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Apostolidis, Paul, 1965-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Foreign workers--United States--Attitudes.

Foreign workers.

Foreign workers--Political activity--United States.

United States--Emigration and immigration--Political aspects.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (340 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, c2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In Breaks in the Chain , Paul Apostolidis investigates the personal life stories of a group of Mexican immigrant meatpackers who are at once typical and extraordinary. After crossing the border clandestinely and navigating the treacherous world of the undocumented, they waged a campaign to democratize their union and their workplace in the most hazardous industry in the United States. Breaks in the Chain shows how immigrant workers-individually and sometimes collectively-both reinforce and contest a tacit but lethal form of biopolitics that differentiates the life chances of racial groups. Exa

Contents:

Immigration, power, and politics in America today

Political narratives, common sense, and theories of hegemony

Hegemony in hindsight : immigrant workers' stories of power in Mexico

Stories of fate and agency in the zone of illegality

Labor, injury, and self-preservation in the slaughterhouse

Nosotros somos la unión! immigrant worker organizing and the disciplines of the law

Immigrant workers and counterhegemony.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-8166-7484-1

OCLC:

659579826