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The defining characteristic of the
neoliberal crusade around the world,

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I would argue, is the rise of precariousness.
The exclusion of large sectors of people

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from the official economy, just shocked
out of the roles.

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What I do in this alternative history of
neoliberalism, is look at the key junctures

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where countries were prescribed what's
called economic shock therapy,

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where the whole set of these policies were
imposed all at once.

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Like Russia in the mid-'90s, is the
classic example.

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Or Poland in 1989.

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What we know about these key junctures


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is that society has been much, 
much more unequal.

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This rapid fire selling off of the state
creates an oligarchic class.

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It also just throws millions of people out,
not just out of work.

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But out of the organized economy.

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And precariousness is the signature
experience of the neoliberal project.

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Displacement, from mega dams, from export
processing zones, the rise of casual labor

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as opposed to steady protected work, 
protected by trade unions.

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And that's why, mobility, and when you add
climate change

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and mass displacement because of climate.
A collision between weak public infrastructure

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which is also a legacy of the neoliberal
project,

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which sees investing in the public sphere,
in that kind of public infrastructure

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as antithetical to the goals,
you have this collision between

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weak infrastructure and heavy weather,
like we saw in New Orleans.

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So you have, millions of people

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displaced by extreme weather.

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The precariousness, 
the mobility,

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these are the signature policies
of neoliberalism.

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Now, I've talked a little bit about how
this ecomic project

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is adaptable enough to be able to

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be able to profit from cracking down
on those mobile people, right.

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That in a way, the market has very much
been created by neoliberalism,

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the mass displacement, the need to look 
for better work,

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whether in cities, moving from
countryside to cities,

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or country to country, looking for
more work.

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Then, you come up against the privatized
infrastructure,

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like Bowing's 2.5 billion dollar
virtual fence

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that is being built on the border
between the U.S. and Mexico,

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the largest homeland security
contract issued to any company.

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Whether it works or not
is beside the point.

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It is an economy,
and this is such a resilient model,

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that it can both displace the people,
can't find jobs for them

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but it can profit from containing them.

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And Halliburton, of course, one of their
more recent contracts,

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was a contract to build detention centers,
in the case of, a vaguely worded

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unexpected immigration influx.

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Which I think is probably a reference
to mass displacement because

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of some sort of natural disaster,
probably is what the reference is.

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So precariousness is the signature
affect of neoliberalism.

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And what we're starting to see
are more and more, very interesting

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social movements that are organizing 
around the idea of precariousness.

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And because the women's movement has such
a long history of organizing in sectors

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that were ignored by a predominantly 
male labor movement.

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It makes sense, that what we're seeing

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is that are women are at the forefront
of these new organizing models.

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Because the organizing of home workers, 
for instance,


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the organizing of sex workers,

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the drive to get housework counted,
the work of Marilyn Waring, for instance.

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All of this groundwork, that feminists

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have been laying is suddenly
I think being noticed, finally,

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although, not enough, by some
leftwing male economic thinkers

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and writers, who are recognizing now,
that this organizing of the precarious

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is our future.