Protesting on a crane: Interrogating meanings

On Thursday, 6/12/12, two Chinese workers workers perched themselves on a tower crane to protest outstanding wages that were owed to them by their employer Zhong Jiang (S) international:

http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/singapore/story/two-workers-china-charged-criminal-trespass-after-crane-protest-201212

The workers were charged with criminal tresspass for their crane protest.

From the preliminary findings from the Ministry of Manpower, it is apparent that the two workers Zhu Guilei and Wu Xiaolin had approached customer relations of MOM on Wednesday, 5/12/12 over the outstanding salaries but did not have any supporting documents.

In my fieldwork with migrant workers, listening to their voices, I have often heard anecdotal accounts of unpaid wages.

From a communicative standpoint, the question that relates to the complaint registered by the MOM focuses on "What supporting documents were needed by the ministry?" "How are these supporting documents communicated to the workers?" "How do workers come to know the supporting documents they would need to register a complaint about an employer or an agent?"

Structural inequities are often perpetuated through communicative inequities.

What then are the opportunities for migrant workers to address structural inequities?

The notion that there are policies in place is a welcome notion. But the challenge really comes from the translation of these policies? The challenge comes in the interpretive frames amid the intersections of culture, structure, and agency?

How do those that are disenfranchised come to know about opportunities for participation in mainstream spaces that would hold accountable the structures that disenfranchise them?

Even more, what are the risks of participation for the disenfranchised? Are these risks equitably distributed in discursive frames? What are the opportunities of participation for the disenfranchised?

The workers were jailed for protesting because they trespassed.

What are the consequences for employers that don't pay wages? What evidence is needed to hold employers accountable? Upon whom is the onus of providing such evidence?

Information lies at the heart of structural inequities. Information inequities perpetuate material inaccess, and therefore, policies at holding employers accountable need to work hand-in-hand with building information access in culturally meaningful ways and ensuring that appropriate implementation of policies takes place.

The whiteness of binaries that erase the Global South: On Communicative Inversions and the invitation to Vijay Prashad in Aotearoa

When I learned through my activist networks that the public intellectual Vijay Prashad was coming to Aotearoa, I was filled with joy. In my early years in the U.S., when learning the basics of the struggle against the fascist forces of Hindutva, I came in conversation with Vijay's work. Two of his critical interventions, the book, The Karma of Brown Folk , and the journal article " The protean forms of Yankee Hindutva " co-authored with Biju Matthew and published in Ethnic and Racial Studies shaped my early activism. These pieces of work are core readings in understanding the workings of Hindutva fascism and how it mobilizes cultural tropes to serve fascist agendas. Much later, I felt overjoyed learning about his West Bengal roots and his actual commitment to the politics of the Left, reflected in the organising of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), a political register that shaped much of my earliest lessons around Global South resistance, collectivization, and orga...

Libertarianism, the Free Speech Union, and the Life of Disinformation

The rise of the far-right globally is intertwined with the globally networked power of libertarian think tanks, funded at the base by the global extractive industries . In this blog post, through an analysis of the disinformation-based campaign I have personally experienced since October 2023 mobilised by the communicative ecosystem of the Free Speech Union (FSU), I will attend to the lifecycle of disinformation in libertarian networks, arguing that the disinformation ecosystem is invested in upholding both white supremacy and extractive capital. The FSU’s investment in disinformation I argue that the FSU is invested in producing and circulating disinformation. In response to my analysis of the hypocrisy of the Free Speech Union (FSU) that positions itself as a champion of free speech in Aotearoa while one of its co-founders, council members and spokespersons David Cumin (who is also one of the key actors representing Israel Institute of New Zealand) actively targets the freedom of a...

Zionist hate mongering, the race/terror trope, and the Free Speech Union: Part 1

March 15, 2019. It was a day of terror. Unleashed by a white supremacist far-right terrorist. Driven by hate for brown people. Driven by Islamophobic hate. Earlier in the day, I had come across a hate-based hit piece targeting me, alongside other academics, the University of Auckland academic Professor Nicholas Rowe , Professor Richard Jackson at Otago University, Professor Kevin P Clements at Otago University, Dr. Rose Martin from University of Auckland and Dr. Nigel Parsons at Massey University. Titled, "More extremists in New Zealand Universities," the article threw in the labels "terror sympathisers" and "extremist views." Written by one David Cumin and hosted on the website of the Israel Institute of New Zealand, the article sought to create outrage that academics critical of Israeli settler colonialism and apartheid are actually employed by universities in New Zealand. Figure 1: The web post written by David Cumin on the site of Israel Institute ...

Mohan Dutta: Culture-Centered Approach

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