The laborer is as essential in the culture of capitalism as the consumer and the capitalist. It is the laborer who produces things for the consumer to buy and for the capitalist to profit from. The existence of a large class of people who must survive from the sale of their labor is historically unique. Until a few hundred years ago people produced their own food or owned tools from which they manufactured things to use or sell in local markets. Today, however, billions must sell their labor or starve.
The readings in this section all address the issue of labor and the place of the laborer in the culture of capitalism. They address the following questions: first, historically, when did the laborer emerge as a distinct category of person; second, what is the role of the laborer in today’s global economy; finally, what are the positions of women and children in the global labor force.
A. The History of the Laborer
Knowledge of the role of labor is essential to understanding the economics of the culture of capitalism. In Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism we portray the workings of capitalism as a black box into which investors or capitalists (and we all are, in one way or another, capitalists) put money, and from which they expect to receive more money. The black box can be anything from a bank account or an insurance policy to a stock portfolio or a multinational corporation. For the investor, the way that the amount of money is increased in the black box matters little. All he or she knows is that one sum of money returns a greater sum. However, it is the workings of the black box that we must understand, and the organization and exploitation of labor is often what determines how much greater that sum is. The question is what is the human cost of turning money into more money?
Reading 1. The Manifesto of the Communist Party http://www.workers.org/cm/cm.html
Reading original texts, as opposed to second or third hand descriptions of them, is invaluable, and Karl Marx and Friederick Engels’ Manifesto of 1848 is one of the most influential texts ever written. It can be said to mark a critical stage in the awareness of workers that they represented a special and unique class, and that the economy of which they were a part depended on their exploitation. Ironically few people, in spite of its historical importance, have actually read it. You can skip the various prefaces (although they are generally brief), but read the Opening (as familiar in some countries as the Gettysburg Address is to us), and the section on Bourgeoisie and Proletarians. Feel free, of course, to continue and read the whole thing.
Exercise 1. An Eclectic List of Events in U.S. Labor History http://www.lutins.org/labor.html
A quick view of U.S. labor history from 1806 when the union of Philadelphia Journeymen Cordwainers was convicted of and bankrupted by charges of criminal conspiracy to the 1989 coal strike against the Pittston Coal Company.
Exercise 2. Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Sweatshops in America http://americanhistory.si.edu/sweatshops/index.htm
Marx and Engels’ view of the laborer was formed, in part, by the working conditions they witnessed in the textile mills of Manchester, England in the first half of the nineteenth century. But “sweatshops” seem always to be a feature of industrialization. The Smithsonian Institution features a Web tour of the history of sweatshops in America, beginning in the 1820s, and taking it right to the present. Take the tour, and later you will get an opportunity to determine how you contribute to the development of sweatshops
B. The Role of Labor in the Global Economy
In Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism we discuss the expansion of multinational corporations to countries all over the world. Generally the expansion marked the continuing effort of businesses to seek out the cheapest source of labor. There is nothing intrinsically wrong in this; after all, the role of the capitalist is to make money (as those of us with bank accounts, insurance policies, and pension funds fully appreciate), and one of the best ways to do that is to reduce the cost of production and service. This tends to be more important for some industries than for others; industries (such as textiles, shoes, electronics, and toys) that are highly competitive, in which styles change rapidly, and in which profit margins are small, depend for their profits on cheap sources of labor. The question, of course, is how does this search for cheaper sources of labor impact on people?
Reading 2: Designer Jeans and Moral Dilemma http://printarchive.epochtimes.com/a1/en/ca/yvr/2009/03-Mar/12/p05_mar12_226.pdf
Heide Malhotra discusses the moral disengagement of the consumer who purchases products like jeans knowing that they are made by poor women in sweatshops and the companies who produce them.
Reading 3. The Prison Industrial Complex and the World Economy
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-prison-industry-in-the-united-states-big-business-or-a-new-form-of-slavery/8289
This article by Eve Goldberg and Linda Evans is a general attack on the growth of the prison industry, particularly in the United States. There are more people per capita in U.S. prisons than in any other country of the world. They argue that prisons have become big business, and that there is a vested interest in ensuring that there are enough prisoners to fill them. Furthermore, they argue, prisons have become major sources of cheap labor for industry
Exercise 3. How Much Do You Contribute to the Growth of Sweatshops? http://americanhistory.si.edu/sweatshops/ffchain/game.htm
One of aims of the book Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism is to help readers understand how entangled we all are in the global economy, and how our actions contribute to many of the problems that seem so distant from us. To illustrate, play this game from the Smithsonian Institution’s Web exhibit on sweatshops.
Reading 4: Moral Disengagement and the Perpetration of Inhumanities at http://www.uky.edu/~eushe2/Bandura/Bandura1999PSPR.pdf
The consumer’s quest for low prices leads to the corporation seeking the least expensive form of labor and in doing so often results in job loss to those who seek low priced goods (the consumer); thus, our consumer side conflicts with our laborer side or those of our friends and neighbors. How to we resolve that conflict. Bandura’s theory of moral disengagement as discussed in this article may help to explain.
C. The Roles of Women and Children in the Global Economy
An important characteristic of labor is the fact that it is segmented. That is, it is divided into relatively highly skilled and well-paying jobs, and supposedly less skilled, low paying jobs. The implication of this of often missed by people who speak about “eliminating poverty”; if this division always exists (and it will as long as there are industries that depend on cheap labor for their survival), then there must always be an underpaid and overexploited group. The identity of this class of workers may change, as it did in the United States. But regardless of the identity of these workers, as long as there is a need for cheap and overworked labor, and as long as there are more people than jobs, the unemployed and underemployed will always be with us. Furthermore, social discrimination, whether it is an outgrowth of the culture of capitalism or not, will make certain groups–largely women, children, and disenfranchised minorities–more susceptible than others to economic exploitation
Reading 4: Global Sweatshop Wage Slavery: Worker Exploitation in America and Globally
http://www.reimaginerpe.org/node/5247
None of us are removed from the exploitation of labor. This article by Stephen Lendman of the Centre for Research on Globalization describes the plight of women in the United States and Mexico who produce most of the clothing sold all over the world.
Reading 5. Do You Know Who Made Your T-Shirt https://laborawareness.wordpress.com/child-labor-today/
As economic conditions decline children must work for lower and lower wages. Furthermore, the breakdown of social units, such as families, requires more people to seek employment. Thus children are often thrust into the workforce for the survival of the family. Millions of children are involved in economic activity
Reading 6. The Cruel Economics of Human Trafficking in India
http://www.asianphilanthropyforum.org/cruel-economics-human-trafficking-india/
Laborers must subsist on the sale of their labor–there is little else they have to sell in the market. For women, the sex industry is often their only opportunity for wages. As this report from Asian Philanthropy Forum indicates, the sex industry is one of the few growth areas for poor women in India
Reading 7.Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap http://www.aauw.org/research/the-simple-truth-about-the-gender-pay-gap/
Not only must some segments of the population accept less desirable jobs, they often must accept lower wages than more favored segments of the population for the same work. Thus, as this article from AAUW indicates, women earn for equivalent jobs, on the average, .80 for every $1.00 earned by men
Reading 8 Modern Slavery Estimated to Traps= 45 Million People Worldwide http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/01/world/asia/global-slavery-index.html?_r=0
Most people believe that slavery is a thing of the past. However, as this from the New York Times reveals, slavery thrives in many parts of the world. You can also get get information about where modern slavery exists from The Atlantic article at http://www.theatlantic.com/news/archive/2016/05/where-the-worlds-slaves-live/484994/
