mutiny
Cargo ships are leaving China half empty. Ocean carriers are blanking sailings, meaning they are canceling port stops or routes altogether. American companies are canceling orders, unable to front the exorbitant tariffs needed to retrieve their goods.
spiral sketch no. 3 | burlap, linen, cotton thread | hand & machine stitched
I am thinking about invisible labor.
The workers in the factories where the orders have been canceled.
The seafarers on the container ships, manning half empty skyscrapers of the sea. They look like toys on screen, I know. But this is a trick of the eye. The largest one in the world today is as long as the Empire State building is tall.
Many seafarers are Filipino. I asked one of my coworkers from the Philippines if he knew anyone in the shipping industry. Everyone he said.
He told me terrible stories of friends who were at sea when they lost family members at home. I wondered if they learned of the loss via email. Most, still, do not have ready access to the internet. Imagine imagine. Learning the news with months left to go on assignment. Industry does not stop for the grieving.
Why do the loneliest jobs run our global economy?
mutiny | spiral sketch no.3
This was the last spiral I made. A year ago this month. I was thinking about the sea. about how longshoremen have been integral to struggles of resistance. have shutdown ports, literally stopping the wheels of industry. have refused to ship military cargo destined for apartheid & tyranny, in solidarity with international movements. I heard somewhere that it was sailors who first spread the word of abolition across the globe.
Today I am thinking about mutiny.