Capital Moves

Cowie argues that capital mobility is not a new phenomenon, that corporations (specifically and perhaps especially RCA because of being in competitive consumer electronics industry) sought sources of cheap labor they could control throughout the 20th century, even if "the pace and scope of events may have increased" with globalization. The book "focuses on the relationship between industrial investment and social change, and it is only peripherally concerned with the well-studied impact of 'deindustrialization'" (p. 6). It traces RCA from its beginning in Camden, NJ, to moves to Bloomington, IN, Memphis, TN, and Juarez, Mexico (though it also had factories in many other places). In all of these places, RCA relied on gendered division of labor, seeking out young women for the majority of initial employment. The experience of industrialization had similar effects on workforces of all these places. Each attempted to gain more dignity and control over lives by unionizing and resisting in day-to-day activities, and as they did, RCA began to seek more pliant workforces elsewhere. He questions the labor/management peace that supposedly existed during the middle of the 20th century, and also the idea that plant location decisions are based on static variables. Argues that community is both a strength and a weakness - need to expand solidarity and regulations transnationally in order to combat ill effects of capital's mobility.

Cowie argues that capital mobility is not a new phenomenon, that corporations (specifically and perhaps especially RCA because of being in competitive consumer electronics industry) sought sources of cheap labor they could control throughout the 20th century, even if "the pace and scope of events may have increased" with globalization. The book "focuses on the relationship between industrial investment and social change, and it is only peripherally concerned with the well-studied impact of 'deindustrialization'" (p. 6). It traces RCA from its beginning in Camden, NJ, to moves to Bloomington, IN, Memphis, TN, and Juarez, Mexico (though it also had factories in many other places). In all of these places, RCA relied on gendered division of labor, seeking out young women for the majority of initial employment. The experience of industrialization had similar effects on workforces of all these places. Each attempted to gain more dignity and control over lives by unionizing and resisting in day-to-day activities, and as they did, RCA began to seek more pliant workforces elsewhere. He questions the labor/management peace that supposedly existed during the middle of the 20th century, and also the idea that plant location decisions are based on static variables. Argues that community is both a strength and a weakness - need to expand solidarity and regulations transnationally in order to combat ill effects of capital's mobility.