Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Gunpoint Capitalism: Enforcing Industrial Order in Karachi

Gunpoint Capitalism: Enforcing Industrial Order in Karachi

Gayer, Laurent

Hardcover

General Political ScienceInternational Relations

ISBN10: 0197813283
ISBN13: 9780197813287
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: May 1 2025
Pages: 384
Weight: 1.43
Height: 1.49 Width: 5.87 Depth: 8.72
Language: English
On 11 September 2012, over 250 workers of Ali Enterprises, which produced jeans for the German discount retailer KiK, perished in a fire in their Karachi factory. Was this an accident or an arson attack? Straight away, the tragedy gave rise to contradictory interpretations. While some blamed the exploitative logics of fast fashion, others suspected foul play by the political parties preying on the city and its business class.

Taking as a starting point the controversy caused by this disaster, Gunpoint Capitalism plunges us into the murky waters of globalization. Exploring the back alleys of Pakistan's industrial capital city, it shows how the manufacturing economy makes order out of disorder, and profit out of conflict-to the detriment of workers. In Karachi, as elsewhere, petty criminals and ex-servicemen prove to be formidable enforcers of economic order. A comparison with Europe, the United States and Latin America confirms the central place of such henchmen in the dynamics of capitalism. These shock troops of anti-unionism are now participating in the dismantling of the social state.

This probing, sometimes shocking, book sheds new light on the power structures, organized violence and daily labor struggles underpinning the production of our consumer goods.

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