LAUSR

J ennifer Fish’s engaging new book Domestic Workers of the World Unite! offers a close-up, on-the-ground analysis of the global domestic workers’ movement. Rather than trying to provide an overview of the entire domestic workers’ movement, including their working conditions, union organizing efforts, and relationship with other actors, Professor Fish smartly focuses on the efforts by large domestic workers’ organizations such as the International Domestic Workers Network to garner recognition by the International Labor Organization (ILO). She draws upon extensive participation observations to detail how the workers used a variety of different strategies, including the way in which domestic labor was framed; the mobilization of outside NGOs interested in issues related to domestic labor, like immigration; and allies within the ILO to secure the passage of Convention 189, which provides a set of standards for how domestic workers should be treated. While the particular case of securing recognition of domestic workers’ rights by the ILO is only part of the broader struggle by the movement to challenge oppressive working conditions, Professor Fish uses this specific effort to highlight both the strategic capacity of the movement to overcome obstacles and the challenges it still faces. This movement is composed primarily of poor, migrant, marginalized, and (mostly) women, yet their ability to push the ILO into recognizing them is remarkable. The tactics the movement employed were multi-pronged and diverse. For example, activists sought to frame the movement as more than domestic labor. Specifically, they were very effective at linking domestic labor to other issues that enjoyed broad international support, such as global migration, women’s issues, and child labor. By expanding the framework used to talk about domestic labor within the contact of the ILO, supporters were also able to mobilize a wide range of influential NGOs. These groups possessed the resources and know-how to maneuver the complexities of the ILO process. Of course a real danger when partnering with elite allies is ceding control of the campaign to other actors and losing the grassroots dimension of the movement. Yet, as Fish describes, the coalition of domestic workers’ organizations was able to place rank-and-file activists in leadership roles. Indeed, their ability to