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NEW BOOK: INTERN NATION: How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy By Ross Perlin Published May 2011 ***********IMAGINE A DAY WITHOUT INTERNS on 8 June – more information below*********** ----------------------------- EVENTS Saturday 4 June 2011, 2:30 pm At Stoke Newington Literary Festival, Abney Public Hall, 73a Stoke Newington Church Street, London N16 0AS ‘Ross Perlin, Ed Howker and Shiv Malik: The Betrayal of Britain's Youth’ We may all envy youth, but society is giving young people an increasingly rough ride. Ross Perlin's Intern Nation is a myth-busting exposé of the murky world of unpaid work, a witty yet serious investigation of internships that, on its release at the end of May, is even more topical than its author could have dreamed of. In Jilted Generation, Ed Howker & Shiv Malik show that internship is merely one aspect of how Britain truly is broken if you were born after 1979. In stark contrast to their parents' generation, millions of young Britons today face the most uncertain future since the early 1930s. For more information and to book tickets visit: http://www.versobooks.com/events/163-ross-perlin-ed-howker-and-shiv-malik-the-betrayal-of-britains-youth Tuesday 7 June, 2011, 6.30pm – 8pm At the Trades Union Congress, Congress House, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3LS ‘Intern Nation and the Future of Work: How to earn nothing and learn little in the brave new economy’ With Jeremy Dear, Frances O'Grady and Lisa Nandy Ross Perlin discusses precarity and the future of work with Jeremy Dear, General Secretary of the National Union of Journalists, Frances O'Grady, TUC Deputy General Secretary and Lisa Nandy, Labour MP for Wigan. Interns no longer inhabit the halls of Westminster alone, but their use and abuse has spread to all sectors of the economy. This has consequences not only for the interns themselves but for government policy, for the quality of journalism, for the role of trade unions in organising labour that has no rights and for access to whole areas of the world of work. The Unite Parliamentary Staff Branch has campaigned for years for interns to be given a minimum, if not living, wage and now the issue is in the media spotlight, there has never been a more pressing time to tackle the issue, not only in Parliament but right across the economy. In association with Unite, Parliamentary Staff Branch. Free entry; followed by wine reception. For more information visit: http://www.versobooks.com/events/147-intern-nation-and-the-future-of-work-how-to-earn-nothing-and-learn-little-in-the-brave-new-economy Wednesday 8 June, 2011,12:00pm - 2:00pm Outside the House of Commons IMAGINE A DAY WITHOUT INTERNS Wednesday 8 June will see the launch of the speaker's parliamentary placement scheme - a cross-party initiative to create a number of paid internship positions in Parliament for people from disadvantaged backgrounds. We welcome the new scheme to open up parliament, but we must recognise that urgent action is needed by Government to tackle the ever growing problem of unpaid and underpaid internships, where hundreds of thousands of young people work are exploited in roles that often breaking the law and should be paid. Join the NUS, ULU, Unite, Intern Aware, Internocracy, Interns Anonymous, The Intergenerational Foundation, and Ross Perlin, author of Intern Nation, in calling on politicians from all parties to urgently address the issue of exploitative internships not only within parliament but in all sectors. For more information and to show your support visit: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=204627032911905 Wednesday 8 June, 2011, 7:00pm At Frontline Club, 13 Norfolk Place, London W2 1QJ ‘Internships: opportunity or cheap labour? Panel discussion on the culture of work with Ross Perlin, Fiona O’Cleirigh, Andrew Scherer and more tbc’ The explosion of the internship in the past 10 years has begun to raise some serious questions about the implications for a generation expected to work wage-free in order to move onto the career ladder. Ross Perlin, an ex intern himself and the author of Intern Nation will be at the Frontline Club to take part in a panel discussion about internships and his investigation into a trend which, he argues, is destroying “what's left of the ordered world of training, hard work and fair compensation”. This issue was highlighted in early February when it was reported that a selection of prestigious internships at major City firms, media outlets and PR companies were auctioned off to party donors at the Conservatives' annual Black and White Party. Are internships for the privileged, and to what extent are those professions where intern experience is compulsory now closed off young people from lower income families? Or with no framework in place to protect their rights, is the internship a money-saving system for businesses, formalising the exploitation of young people by requiring them to do jobs that would otherwise be paid positions and work long hours without pay? For more information and to book tickets visit: http://www.versobooks.com/events/166-internships-opportunity-or-cheap-labour ----------------------------------- PRAISE FOR INTERN NATION: HOW TO EARN NOTHING AND LEARN LITTLE IN THE BRAVE NEW ECONOMY “A portrait of how white-collar work is changing ... thought-provoking and at times jaw-dropping—almost a companion volume to Naomi Klein's celebrated 2000 exposé of modern sweatshops, NO LOGO.” – Andy Beckett, GUARDIAN “A compelling investigation of a trend that threatens to destroy “what's left of the ordered world of training, hard work and fair compensation” ... Full of restrained force and wit, this is a valuable book on a subject that demands attention.” – OBSERVER “A book that offers landmark coverage of its topic.”– Andrew Ross, LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS ----------------------------------- Interns. They famously shuttle coffee in a thousand newsrooms, MP’s offices, and film sets, walk pets and, if they’re lucky, spend some quality time with the photocopier. The luckiest may even earn a presidential scandal to adorn their name – remember Monicagate? But they also deliver aid in Afghanistan, design high fashion, and build the human genome. Interns have become an indispensible part of the workforce, and are changing the face of work and education across the world. Ross Perlin’s myth-busting exposé of the brave new world of unpaid work is a witty yet serious investigation of the well-trodden part of internships. Writer, multi-linguist and former intern, Perlin takes the reader inside the private and public sectors, journalism, boutique charities and megacorporations such as Disney. Furthermore, he inspects how many thrifty universities run lucrative study-abroad “destination internship” schemes and exchange student labour for cheap academic credit where little to no learning takes place. Internships are a legal grey area: interns enjoy no fair hiring practices, no workplace protections and no standing in courts of law, let alone luxuries as a living wage. Internships are now a fixture on the CVs of thousands of young people, and unpaid internships – illegal under minimum wage law – are growing at expense of the paid. A third of internships are unpaid, and this mass exploitation saves companies – and governments – more than millions each year. A survey conducted by Interns Anonymous found that 77% of parliamentary internships required working set hours, which could mean that the employers were in breach of minimum wage legislation. In an increasingly bleak economic landscape for young people, unpaid internships can only lead to a more divided and unequal society. With the constant availability of unregulated, cheap or free labour replacing paid work, the internship phenomenon continuing as it is unchecked will prove an explosive force behind the predicted ‘generational timebomb.’ The UK has a record number of university graduates who now face a tough labour market – according to ONS figures from January 2011, graduate unemployment rate is at it’s highest since 1995 at 20%. Youth unemployment hit a record high at 20.5% in February 2011; the number of under-25s out of work worldwide is estimated at 81 million. Referring to historians about what unleashed this phenomenon, Perlin unravels the cultural and professional rhetoric surrounding internships, from its beginnings in the 19th century hospital to its next base in the political realm, on Capitol Hill. He pursues the internship’s export to Westminster, Europe and the rest of the world – to the explosion “when internships made a perfect fit with the go-go rhetoric of the dotcom bubble and the “New Economy.” ‘The Rise and Rebellion of the Global Intern’ explores the transmission and on-the-ground effects of internships over the world with a special focus on China’s enormous workforce. And as the world’s young start to rebel, Perlin takes us through some of the highlights, including San Precario, or Saint Precarious – the patron saint of precarious workers and interns. With ‘Nothing to Lose But Your Cubicles,’ Perlin ends with a call to all interns to tear down the half-built glass ceiling of internships, for “when working for free becomes the norm, everyone loses, except at the top.” He outlines what organisations can do to improve intern practices, and asserts “legal protection for interns is not a pipe dream – it’s a reality within reach, a set of rights waiting to be claimed.” Insightful and humorous, INTERN NATION will transform the way we think about the culture of work. ----------------------------------- ROSS PERLIN is a graduate of Stanford, SOAS, and Cambridge, and has written for, the NEW YORK TIMES, TIME MAGAZINE, LAPHAM’S QUARTERLY, GUARDIAN, DAILY MAIL and OPEN DEMOCRACY. He is researching disappearing languages in China. ----------------------------------- ISBN: 9781844676866 / $22.95 / £14.99 / $28.50 CAN / Hardcover / 288 pages ----------------------------------- For more information or to buy the book visit: http://www.versobooks.com/books/797-intern-nation ----------------------------------- Visit Verso’s website for information on our upcoming events, new reviews and publications and special offers: http://www.versobooks.com Become a fan of Verso on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Verso-Books/205847279448577 And get updates on Twitter too! http://twitter.com/VersoBooks