Informal Cultures of Resistance and Worker Mobilization: The Case of Migrant Workers in the Italian Logistics Sector

Abstract

In the context of the rising power of capital over labour, research on labour mobilization is important. From the research literature, we know that labour mobilizations might be initiated by trade unions or via workers’ self-organization. Yet, we know little about the cultural and social processes through which individual workers come to self-organize in the first place. To address this gap, we present ethnographic research on precarious migrant workers mobilizing with the support of an Italian independent union called SICobas. Our study highlights three processes of self-organizing: formulating shared meanings of discontent, identifying as a group using symbols of inequality and exclusion, and forming communities of struggle. Drawing on Scott’s understanding of resistance, we theorize these three processes as ‘informal cultures of resistance’. This concept contributes to emergent research on workers’ self-organization, showing the significance of the cultural and social processes that can often underpin formal labour mobilizations.

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