On International Workers’ Day (aka May Day in certain regions), ASAUK Next Generation 2020+ hosts a conversation around representations of workers in popular culture and the media. The conversation will take place online between 10 and 12 midday London and Lagos time. Across Africa, 1 May is recognised as Workers’ Day or Labour Day, and in many locations workers gather to celebrate their labour unions, labour organisations often wearing uniforms identifying their trades or occupations.  Recently scholarship on labour has prominently featured ideas around boredom, waithood, and lack of opportunities to enter the labour market. In this session we invite participants to discuss projects that aim to celebrate (or complicate) and document labour and labourers, across media and modes. What forms are taken by the popular culture of labour movements and labour unions across occupations as diverse as barbershop workers, domestic labourers and market seamstresses, and what are the expressive forms deployed by labour movements and trade union associations?
If you are interested in being part of this conversation, please contact Carli Coetzee cc76@soas.ac.uk for the zoom code.