Globalisation
"Why is it that the word 'globalization' has recently entered into our discourse in the way it has? Who put it there and why? ... words like 'imperialism', 'colonialism' and 'neo-colonialism' have increasingly taken a back seat to 'globalization' as a way to organise thoughts and chart political possibilities" (Harvey 1995:1).
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Chinese Electronics Factoryhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ck4XUnsfBuQ
The Foxconn factory in China, where the iphone and ipad are built, has become notorious for a spate of suicides by the workers. Most recently 148 workers climbed onto the roof of the building and threatened a mass suicide. What is driving them to such desperate acts? The power of the market combined with technology has allowed the supply chain for consumer products to become truly global. The collective bargaining and strength of the trade unions in the West has led to an increase in wages leaving Western workers too expensive for basic manufacturing jobs. China has become the destination of choice for many organisations whose products fill the shelves of shopping malls in the West. Despite our alleged belonging to a post-Fordist era, this report from the Foxconn factory in China shows how the Fordist mass-production assembly line is still very much alive and well, although largely out of sight. Workers labour for 12 hour shifts repeating the same tasks again and again to satisfy the latest consumer craze in the West. Although Foxconn is one of the highest payers in the manufacturing zones of China, the hourly wage is still a pittance. The profound sense of alienation that comes from such work and living conditions is made clear in this clip. Features of globalisation include the rise to near-monopoly status of various organisations, and the interconnections between many seemingly separate businesses. At the beginning of this clip, the ABC news anchor explains some of these interconnections. ABC is owned by Disney, Disney is part owned by Apple, and so on. With so many of the major organisations in the world interconnected in this way, have the opportunities for resistance diminished? |
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Sweatshops: A positive working opportunity?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxBzKkWo0mo
This presentation in defense of sweatshop employment by Professor Matt Zwolinski of San Diego university claims that, while sweatshops are not perfect, they offer the best opportunity to lift oneself out of poverty in many areas of the developing world. Using the example of a South African sweatshop worker, paid half the legal minimum wage, he asserts that sweatshop employment is better than the other options open to her. Khan et al. (2007) use an example where opportunites became more limited for women workers as a result of a public outcry in the West over what appeared as forced child labour and sweatshop conditions in Pakistan, highlighting the unintentional consequences of a seemingly good act. However, can this still justify the exploitation involved in sweatshop manufacture to produce cheap consumer goods for the West? |