Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses being ‘unwell’ in relation to politics of labour in coastal shipbreaking. It reflects on how permeability can be used to conceptualise the boundary crossings of unwellness by taking into account toxic embodiments within and beyond workers’ bodies.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores the relationship between labour and health in Bangladesh’s shipbreaking industry. Unwellness extends beyond spectacular violence of maiming and deaths from explosions and falling from great heights to the slow violence and lingering effects of ill-health caused by constant toxic exposure as vessels are taken apart without adequate personal protective equipment. Toxic fumes from burning paint-coated steel, taking apart asbestos and glasswool fibres, intermingle in the humid airs with other toxicants from Chattogram region’s industrial factories – they extend far beyond place-based boundaries of employment. While workers are increasingly compensated for accidents, to what extent can trade union activism taking into account the slow onset of ill-health of workers considering the crossing/dissolution of boundaries of labour in today’s global capitalist system? Shipbreaking workers, both migrants and permanent residents, work in conditions where hazardous materials and invisible pathogens pollute the very air they inhale even after they have finished their shifts – and there are increasing cases of asbestosis and problems of chronic illness among workers and the communities surrounding shipbreaking yards. These health effects from highly profitable shipbreaking activities are unevenly distributed as the negative externalities affect working class populations the most. I reflect on how these insights from an industrialising formerly agrarian region in South Asia may help us help us theorise unwellness in ways that may help create alternate possibilities for labour politics.