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Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0009-0008-8568-4996

Date Available

5-1-2026

Year of Publication

2026

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

College

Arts and Sciences

Department/School/Program

Geography

Faculty

Andrew Wood

Faculty

Nick Lally

Abstract

The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), the union of dock workers on the East Coast of the United States, saw a dramatic change in form and fortune in the middle of the 20th century as the shipping industry and global labor underwent an immense reorganization. In the context of this reorganization, I argue that due to internal conservatism and racism alongside external state pressure, the ILA moved from an unruly, mafia-ruled union to a highly organized, professionalized, well-paid core of workers that served to support the United States’ capitalist-imperialist project.

Through archival material spanning over three decades, I analyze the complex class relations of the ILA, capital, and the state, and how the possibility of a radical rejection of a globalized logistical economy was foreclosed. The ILA operated with significant political and economic power due to their control of East Coast ports yet were unable or unwilling to mobilize this power in broader projects of labor solidarity. I show that throughout the period of study, the union operationalizes its strength to bring its workers closer to the hegemonic power of US capital rather than further away.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2026.217

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Archival

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