Extractivism and Labour in the Caribbean

Book excerpt: This book explores the impact of resource extraction and the dynamics of great powers competing for natural resources in the Caribbean. The book analyzes labour–capital relations between China, the United States, the European Union, and Russia in the Caribbean, as competition increases with the arrival of non-traditional sources of foreign investments in infrastructure from the East. Chapters assess these dynamics through varying historical and current forms of worker, community, and organization resistance in the Caribbean’s extractive industries from the 1970s to the present. In doing so, the book critically analyzes the interplay of extractive capital with labour unions, community organizations, management, and the state, particularly regarding the struggle for higher wages, improved working conditions, and the broader issues of extractive capitalism and underdevelopment, dispossession, social exclusion, and environmental degradation. The first book on extractivism and labour in the Caribbean and a major contribution to critical development studies literature, it will appeal to policymakers as well as students and scholars in the fields of development studies, development economics, sociology, politics, and international relations.