Wednesday, October 29, 2008 The Workers of the World The global working class has grown over the past decade, says a new report from the International Labour Organisation Stock markets across the world plunged last week as financial institutions began to face up to the reality of a new global downturn. Revenues, profits and economic growth are all going to plunge as the recession begins to bite. But what does this mean for the people whose work creates those profits in the first place? Many mainstream commentators have simply written off the global working class as a dying force, eclipsed by a rising "middle class" in developed nations and by casualised workers in the Global South. But a new report from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) paints a very different picture. It shows in detail that the working class -- those people who make their livelihood by working in return for wages -- is still a force to be reckoned with. There are around one billion people across the world that are classified as part of the labour force by the ILO. This figure excludes peasant farmers and other people who make a living by working on their own land. This global workforce was once concentrated in the Western nations, but today it is becoming ever more global. The richest economies account for just over 15 percent of total employment. This share has declined over the past decade. In contrast the regions of Asia, the Pacific, Latin America and the