ABSTRACT
Drawing on a new database of newspaper articles on social and labor movements from 1991 to 2011, we examine the contemporary wave of social unrest for what it tells us about the changing contours of class and capitalism during the current crisis of historical capitalism. We argue that protests of workers are an important and underrecognized feature of the current wave of social unrest. These include offensive protests of workers advancing new demands as well as protests of workers defending previously won gains. Alongside these two types of labor unrest, which have accompanied the spread of historical capitalism, we also detect rising class-based protest by those whom Marx 185labeled as stagnant relative surplus population. The rise of this type of class-based protest suggests that, although the cyclical process of capitalism making and unmaking livelihoods continues, there is also a secular trend where capitalism destroys more livelihoods than it creates over time.
