Category Archives: political economy

Golden Dawn recruited by shipping magnates to break unions

‘[Golden Dawn] created battalions against their political opponents, and then they rented them out, to whoever wanted to rent them,” he told Channel 4 News. In one of the most important cases, a network of businessmen active in the shipping industry … Continue reading

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The blue banana

Last week, huge protests took place in Brussels, with the trade unions reporting some 130,000-150,000 people showing up; and major clashes with the police.  The protests in fact have been going on for some time now.  And in the April … Continue reading

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Carbon Capital in Motion

I have already written about ships as workplaces, and of workers held captive on ships.  Now, the NY Times reports on a massive floating refinery which is going to look for fossil fuels in the Indian Ocean.   The ship is … Continue reading

Posted in capital accumulation, environment, infrastructure, oil, political economy, ships | Leave a comment

The Deadly Life of Logistics

My review of Deb Cowen’s wonderful new book, The Deadly Life of Logistics, is now out.  I write The Deadly Life of Logisticsis organised around a series of themes whose interconnections are clear throughout: the integral conjuncture between the discourses of … Continue reading

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Oil and logistics

Fascinating piece from Guernica magazine about how more and more ex-soldiers and military logistics firms are going into the oil business: This concentration of former service members owes partly to the fact that military training makes many uniquely suited for … Continue reading

Posted in capital accumulation, infrastructure, logistics, militaries, oil, political economy, transport | Leave a comment

The Leisure of Transport

I have had -broadly speaking- four large and interconnected set of research interests thus far: Palestinian commemoration of political violence -massacres and battles, heroes and martyrs; the counterinsurgency work of US, Israel and colonial militaries; the politics and political economy … Continue reading

Posted in capital accumulation, construction, empire, imperialism & colonialism, infrastructure, logistics, political economy, transport | Leave a comment

East India Company Routes

Excellent video animating East India Company 1798-1834… http://vimeo.com/43884291

Posted in capital accumulation, empire, imperialism & colonialism, political economy, ports, shipping conditions | Leave a comment

Mohammad Al Fayed and the ports business

It seems like Mohammad al-Fayed (of Harrod’s fame – and obviously many other ventures) was also in the port business.   In 1964, he entered a deal with Papa Doc Duvalier of Haiti, whereby he invested $5 million in the … Continue reading

Posted in capital accumulation, construction, finance and insurance, infrastructure, logistics, Middle East, political economy, ports | Leave a comment

Shipping Alliances

The world’s top three shipping lines are, in order, Maersk (Denmark’s second largest company after Lego), MSC (a privately-held Italian firm), and CMA CGM (a French firm).  Some time ago, they decided that they were going to start up an alliance, … Continue reading

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Logistical Chokepoints

Charmaine Chua writes on the politics of logistical chokepoints: Sped along by transport deregulation and an associated wave of firm competition and consolidation, the containerization of bulk goods now allows a single dockworker to do what it took an army … Continue reading

Posted in bureacuracy, capital accumulation, logistics, political economy, transport | Leave a comment