ABSTRACT
This chapter starts with the assumption that U.S.-based transnational corporations (TNCs) continue to play a dominant role in the world economy, so that both national and class hegemony are connected. It focuses on what happens to the imports, especially containerized imports, when they are brought back into the United States by these TNCs. The central argument of this chapter is that the sweatshop dynamic is also happening in parts of the global distribution system. It examines capitalist efforts to control labor in the global logistics sector, as represented by the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, and briefly considers the potential for challenging this domination. There are two longshore unions in the United States: the International Longshore Association (ILA) on the East Coast and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) on the West Coast. The ILA is known for its racketeering, while the ILWU became a red union that was evicted from the CIO.
