Episode 29 - The Political Economy of Global Shipping w/ Laleh Khalili
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In this episode, I’m joined by Laleh Khalili, Professor of Gulf Studies at the University of Exeter and author of Sinews of War and Trade: Shipping and Capitalism in the Arabian Peninsula (Verso, 2020), to discuss the incredibly important but often-overlooked role of international shipping and logistics in the capitalist-imperialist world system. We discuss how the global shipping industry relates to everything from transnational labor exploitation to environmental devastation to the genocide in Palestine, as well as the power of organized labor in this crucial industry to bring the capitalist system to a grinding halt.
About the show:
Return to Bandung is hosted by Pranay Somayajula, an Indian-American writer, researcher, and organizer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His work explores themes of diaspora, (inter)nationalism, anticolonial politics, and the many lives and afterlives of empire. You can learn more about Pranay and read his writing on his website, as well as on his Substack blog, culture shock.
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Sources and helpful links:
Laleh Khalili — Sinews of War and Trade: Shipping and Capitalism in the Arabian Peninsula (Verso, 2020)
Deborah Cohen — The Deadly Life of Logistics: Mapping Violence in Global Trade (University of Minnesota Press, 2014)
Johan Mathew — Margins of the Market: Trafficking and Capitalism across the Arabian Sea (University of California Press, 2016)
Jatin Dua — Captured at Sea: Piracy and Protection in the Indian Ocean (University of California Press, 2019)
Laleh Khalili — The Suez Canal Is a Lifeline for Global Capitalism (interview with Jacobin, March 2021)
Peter Cole — Building Worker Power on the Docks (interview with Jacobin, December 2019)
Ashok Kumar — How Yemen’s Houthis Brought Maritime Capitalism to a Halt (Jacobin, May 2025)
Laura Montanari — We Said “We Will Block Everything” and We Did: Inside Italy’s Strike for Gaza (Truthout, September 2025)
Peter Cole — Dockworker strikes in solidarity with Gaza have a long legacy (Waging Nonviolence, October 2025)
Katie Fox-Hodess — Global Solidarity on the Docks (New Labor Forum, January 2022)
Walter Rodney — How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (Bogle-L’Ouverture Publications, 1972)
Social links:
Return to Bandung:
Twitter: twitter.com/returntobandung
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/returntobandung/
Pranay Somayajula:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/p_somayajula
Website: https://www.pranaysomayajula.com/
Substack: https://www.culture-shock.xyz/
Laleh Khalili:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LalehKhalili