West Meets East: The International Labor Organization from Geneva to the Pacific Rim:
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University of California, Santa Barbara, February 3-5, 2011
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West Meets East: The International Labor Organization from Geneva to the Pacific Rim is an Interdisciplinary Conference to be held at the University of California, Santa Barbara from February 3-5, 2011
Sponsored by the ILO Century Project, Geneva; and the Center for the Study of Work, Labor, and Democracy; the Department of Global and International Studies; and the Hull Chair in Feminist Studies, all at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
This conference brings together scholars from various national settings
and disciplines to explore the historical role of the ILO and its
relationship to other standard setting institutions in North America,
East Asia, India, and Latin America during the post-World War II period.
This is the region which we today call the "Pacific Rim," plus the
Indian subcontinent. An ideological as well as geographic construction,
this vast region has been economically integrated as never before,
linked by trans-Pacific supply chains, financial exchanges, and a
soaring number of joint enterprises.
By the end of the 20th century the nations of the Pacific Rim had become
the world's most important site of capitalist growth and social
transformation, the global center of low-wage manufacturing,
transoceanic trade, and economic rivalry. As the ILO approaches its
hundredth anniversary, this conference seeks to explore key aspects of
its theory and praxis contextualized by the social, economic, and
political transformation of both the colonies and nation-states in which
this organization, initially set up in Geneva, operated.
For information on the work of the ILO Century Project, including current affiliated research, see www.ilocentury.org.
Conference Schedule
Thursday, February 3, 2011
3 p.m. Conference Opening
McCune Conference Room, 6th Floor, HSSB
Introductions by UCSB Dean David Marshall, Nelson Lichtenstein, and ILO Century Project Director, Emmanuel Reynaud
3:30 p.m.
Panel on Postwar development and technical assistance
Chair: Jan Nederveen Pieterse (Global & International Studies, UCSB)
Eileen Boris (Hull Distinguished Professor, Department of Feminist Studies and History, UCSB)
“Difference's Others: The ILO and 'Women in Developing Countries,' From Margin to Center”
Jason Guthrie (Ph.D. Candidate, Department of History, University of Maryland)
“The International Labor Organization and the Politics of Rural Development in Bolivia”
Daniel Roger Maul (Assistant Professor of History, University of Giessen, Germany)
“The ILO, Asia, and the Beginnings of Technical Assistance, 1945-1960”
5:00 p.m. Reception and Dinner in UCSB Alumni House on campus
6:30 p.m. Keynote Speaker: Leon Fink (Distinguished Professor of History, University of Illinois, Chicago)
Friday, February 4, 2011
10:00 a.m. Conference Reconvenes in the McCune Conference Room, 6th Floor, HSSB
The ILO and legal and trade models throughout Latin America
Chair: Chris Tilly (Institute for Research in Labor and Employment, UCLA)
Andrew Schrank (Professor of Sociology, University of New Mexico)
“The ILO and Development: The Diffusion of Beneficial Constraints in Latin America”
Jill Jensen (Ph.D. Candidate, Department of History, UCSB)
“The ‘Havana Charter’ and the Postwar Debate over Employment, Trade, and Labor Standards: The ILO versus the ITO”
Norberto Ferreras (Professor of Latin American History, Fluminense Federal University, Brazil)
“The International Labor Organization and its Relationship with Latin America: The Question of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples”
12:00 p.m. lunch
1:30 p.m.
The ILO and legal models for industrialization in Asia
Chair: Richard Appelbaum (Global and International Studies, UCSB)
Shin-ichi Ago (Professor of Law and Int’l Affairs, Kyushu University, Japan)
“The Role of International Labour Standards in Asia and the Emergence of New ‘Legal’ Instruments”
Haley Wrinkle (Graduate Student, Global and International Studies Program, UCSB)
“Worker Rights in the International Labor Organization’s Better Factories Cambodia Program”
Jian Qiao (Director, Employment Relations, China Institute of Labour Relations, Beijing)
“Tripartite Systems with the Chinese Characteristics: The First Step to Tripartite Consultation and Social Dialogue?”
3:00 p.m. coffee break
3:10 p.m.
International political economy and the question of labor standards
Chair: Richard Falk (Global & International Studies, UCSB)
Lorenzo Mechi (Senior Researcher, History of International Relations, University of Padua, Italy)
“Economic Regionalism and Social Stabilization: The ILO and Western Europe during the Early Cold War Years”
Carmen De Michele (Academic Research Assistant, Economics, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich)
“ILO Core Labour Standards in Export Processing Zones in Asia since the 1970s”
4:45 p.m.
5:00 p.m. Reception and Dinner in UCSB Faculty Club on campus
6:30 pm: Keynote Speaker: Anita Chan (China Research Centre of the University of Technology, Sydney)
Saturday, February 5
9 a.m. Conference Reconvenes in the McCune Conference Room, 6th Floor, HSSB
Human rights and social welfare protections through the ILO
Chair: Dorothy Sue Cobble (History, Rutgers University)
Marley Weiss (Professor of Law, University of Maryland School of Law)
“Labor Rights, Human Rights, and Empowering Collective Interest Representation of Workers: Examining the Ledger of the ILO”
Changzheng Zhou (Associate Professor of Law, Nanjing University, China)
“Legal Protection of the Right to Old-Age Insurance for Migrant Workers from Rural Areas in China: An Assessment in light of ILO Standards”
Patricia Kurczyn Villalobos (Coordinator of Research, National Autonomous University of Mexico)
“Human Rights, Social Security, and the ILO’s Convention 102 on Minimum Standards of Social Security in Mexican Law”
10:30 a.m. coffee break
10:40 a.m.
Gendering and racializing international labor standards
Chair: Dana Frank (History, University of California, Santa Cruz)
Jennifer Fish (Chair, Women's Studies, Old Dominion University, Virginia)
"Mapping 'Decent Work for Domestic Workers': Engaging Transnational Gender Activism in the ILO"
Annie Delaney (Lecturer, School of Management & Information Systems, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia)
“Homeworker Initiatives: Gaining Recognition and Rights as Workers through Organising, National and International Standards,” co-authored with Rosaria Burchielli (La Trobe University) and Jane Tate (Homeworkers Worldwide)
Marilyn Lake (President, Australian Historical Association, Professor in History and Associate Dean of Research, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, LaTrobe University) “Australian Ambitions at the ILO: The Issue of Asian Labour”
12:15 p.m. lunch
1:15 p.m.
The ILO and its meanings for organized labor and workers' rights
Chair: Nelson Lichtenstein (History, UCSB)
César F. Rosado Marzán (Assistant Professor of Law, Chicago-Kent College of Law)
“The Power to Frame: The Human Rights Turn on Labor Rights in Chile and the Role of State Power”
John Logan (Director, Labor Center, San Francisco State University)
“US Unions and the ILO's Committee on Freedom of Association: An Effective Means of Combating Domestic Anti-Unionism?”
Mary Margaret Fonow (Director, School of Social Transformation and Professor of Women and Gender Studies, Arizona State University)
“The Role of the ILO in Building and Sustaining Women’s Transnational Labor Activism”
2:30 p.m.
Special labor roundtable on the current state of labor standards in China, throughout Asia, and beyond
Anita Chan, China Research Centre of the University of Technology, Sydney
Jeff Ballinger, Director of Press for Change
4:00 Conference Closes, concluding remarks