Book description
Globalisation has created a whole new working class - and they are
reliving stories that were first played out a century ago. In Live
Working or Die Fighting, Paul Mason tells the story of this new
working class alongside the epic history of the global labour
movement, from its formation in the factories of the 1800s through its
near destruction by fascism in the 1930s and up to today's
anti-globalisation movement.
Blending exhilarating historical narrative with reportage from
today's front line, he links the lives of 19th-century factory girls
with the lives of teenagers in a giant Chinese mobile phone factory;
he tells the story of how mass trade unions were born in London's
Docklands - and how they're being reinvented by the migrant cleaners
in skyscrapers that stand on the very same spot.
It is a story of urban slums, self-help co-operatives, choirs and
brass bands, free love and self-education by candlelight. And, as the
author shows, in the developing industrial economies of the world it
is still with us. Live Working or Die Fighting celebrates a
common history of defiance, idealism and self-sacrifice, one as alive
and active today as it was two hundred years ago. It is a unique and
inspirational book.
Paul Mason was born in 1960 in Leigh, Greater Manchester. He is
BBC Newsnight
's business and industry correspondent. He won the 2003 Wincott Award
for business journalism and was named Workworld Broadcast Journalist of
the Year in 2004 . He lives in London.
