You are invited to Prof. Dr. Peter Cole’s talk, “Dockworkers, Activism, and Transnationalism: Durban, San Francisco, and Beyond,” to be held at Boğaziçi University’s Atatürk Institute on Friday, February 28, 2025, at 13:00. Those wishing to attend the seminar from outside the university should send an email to emir.kucuk@bogazici.edu.tr by the end of office hours on Thursday, February 27, 2025.

Abstract

Dockworkers have power. Often missed in commentary on today's globalizing economy, workers in the world's ports can harness their role, at a strategic choke point, to promote their labor rights and social justice causes. Peter Cole brings such overlooked experiences to light in an eye-opening comparative study of Durban, South Africa, and the San Francisco Bay Area, California. Pathbreaking research reveals how unions effected lasting change in some of the most far-reaching struggles of modern times. First, dockworkers in each city drew on longstanding radical traditions to promote racial equality. Second, they persevered when a new technology--container ships--sent a shockwave of layoffs through the industry. Finally, their commitment to black internationalism and leftist politics sparked transnational work stoppages to protest apartheid and authoritarianism. Cole brings to light surprising parallels in the experiences of dockers half a world away from each other. It also offers a new perspective on how workers can change their conditions and world. This presentation will focus on the first and third themes of Cole's award-winning book, Dockworker Power.

CV

Peter Cole is a Professor of History at Western Illinois University (USA) and a Research Associate in the Society, Work and Politics Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa). He wrote Dockworker Power: Race and Activism in Durban and the San Francisco Bay Area (2018), winner of the Philip Taft Labor History Book Prize, and Wobblies on the Waterfront: Interracial Unionism in Progressive-Era Philadelphia (2007). He edited Ben Fletcher: The Life & Times of a Black Wobbly (revised 2nd edition, 2021) and co-edited Wobblies of the World: A Global History of the IWW (2017). He co-edited and brought the novel, Presente: A Dockworker Story (2024), written by the deceased Herb Mills, to publication. He founded and co-directs the Chicago Race Riot of 1919 Commemoration Project.