(Socialism Today No 10, July 1996)
Behind the Wire – Anti-Union Repression in the Export Processing Zones. Published by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), 1996.
Reviewed by Peter Taaffe.
This booklet is a companion report to the ICFTU publication World’s Apart – Women and the Global Economy, reviewed in last month’s issue of Socialism Today.
Compiled by Jean-Paul Marthoz with Marcela Szymanski, it is an equally hard-hitting account – this time of the vicious anti-union repression common in the ‚developing‘ world, particularly in the Export Processing Zones (EPZs).
The first EPZ was established in the early 1960s around Shannon airport in Southern Ireland, to avoid a bureaucratic system of reimbursing import taxes on goods intended for export. But right from the beginning it was a special zone, with high fences to prevent untaxed goods being smuggled into the rest of the economy.
In the three decades since, EPZs have developed on a massive scale. By 1995 there were more than 230 EPZs across 70 countries, employing roughly 1.2m Latin American and Caribbean workers, 250,000 Africans and 3m Asians. In addition there are up to 40m Chinese in ‚Special Economic Zones‘ (SEZ) while some of the ‚Asian Tiger‘ countries, like Singapore and Hong Kong, in effect fall into the EPZ category. EPZs are now a by-word for ruthless economic exploitation, some of the worst working conditions in the world, and anti-union measures which hark back to the last century.
Indeed, there is nothing specifically ‚modern‘ about these zones. In China for instance, SEZs „are often located where concessions had been obtained in the Chinese empire by the great powers using gunboat diplomacy in the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century“. In other words EPZs are merely the latest manifestation under the cover of ‚globalisation‘ of the traditional role of imperialism, the super-exploitation of Africa, Asia and Latin America.
The right to super-exploit workers in these zones is openly advertised by the bosses in the ‚developing‘ countries. El Salvadoran businessmen for instance, place advertisements in US publications introducing ‚Rosa Martinez‘, a „pretty young woman sitting at her sewing machine… You can hire her for 57 cents an hour. She is not only beautiful. She and her companions are known for their industriousness, their seriousness and their ability to learn“.
A dictatorial regime holds sway within the factories. In China for instance, a worker who makes a mistake clocking in is punished by having two day’s wages deducted. Spending more than 15 fifteen minutes in the toilet means a loss of one day’s pay and „some enterprises also choose to pay their staff in kind, often in the form of unsold stock“. Summing up the attitude of workers in these zones the Pakistani National Federation of Trade Unions simply declares: „The Export Processing Zone is worse than a concentration camp“.
The EPZs are closely tied in with the super-exploitation of the ex-colonial world by the multi-nationals. An ILO report quoted in Behind the Wire states that „local entrepreneurs may be active in the EPZs, but without the multinationals there would not be any EPZs“. What this means to the multi-nationals is shown by the colossal profits, for instance on sports goods. „Nike sports shoes that sold for approximately £50 a pair in Britain in 1995, cost in wages and other social charges, 46 pence in China, £1.08 in the Philippines and £1.19 in Thailand“ – while „the president of Nike, Phil Knight, earned US$929,113 in 1994“. To earn the same amount, one of his Chinese employees would have to work nine hours per day six days per week for 15 centuries! The same applies to the other famous sports shoe firm, ‚Reebok‘ – 60% of its output now comes from China and Indonesia.
The consequence of ‚relocation‘ for workers in the advanced industrial countries is well known. France for instance, lost 200,000 jobs in 20 years as a result of ‚relocation‘ of industries, particularly to Asia. But nor is there a massive gain to the ‚host‘ countries. The argument that these countries benefit in the spin-off from new technology transferred in, is answered in the report: „The zones are physical, economic and social enclaves in which there is no real motive to associate with local producers or establish links that would result in an increase in local technological capacity“. The rate of exploitation of the labour force is such that high profits are guaranteed even with the use of obsolete technology. As to long-term benefits the report cites the case of Bangladesh which „invested $6,000 for every Bangladeshi working in the zones“ – it will take 12 years to recover this capital.
In general the diagnosis given in the report of the problems confronting workers in the zones, and for that matter in the ‚underdeveloped‘ countries as a whole, cannot be seriously faulted. But their ‚remedies‘ are faulty, to say the least. The authors for instance quote Philippe Fremeaux, editor-in-chief of Alternatives economiques (Paris) who declares: „Faced with the logistics of the economic war and the temptation for countries to turn inwards upon themselves, the real challenge is to give globalisation a positive meaning“. He further declares: „Capitalism is not a machine running out of control. It creates its own counter-balance that can limit its negative effects: wage demands that call for greater justice in both the North and the South, citizens‘ demands for better economic, social and ecological regulations“.
This accepts the ‚reality‘ of globalisation, that is, the death grip operated by the multi-nationals over the destinies of two-thirds of humankind, seeking by legislation, argument and persuasion to ameliorate its worst effects. In accepting this approach the ICFTU calls once more for a ’social clause‘ in international trading agreements, not to „impose wages and working conditions applicable across the globe, but rather to ensure respect of fundamental workers‘ rights and to prevent repression, exploitation and discrimination“.
However, as laudable as pro-union legislation is, it is no substitute for the organised strength of the working class fighting against rapacious employers. As the report points out, in Mexico „labour legislation is comparable to that of the US, if not better“. And yet some of the most brutal and ruthless repression of the trade unions exists in the EPZs on the US/Mexican border.
The ICFTU in effect appeals to the capitalists‘ ‚conscience‘. Bill Jordan, the ICFTU general secretary, for instance declares in his introduction to the pamphlet: „Hypocrisy is bad for business“. The report also declares: „The EPZs are to a certain extent a caricature of the rapid globalisation of the economy“. On the contrary they are a vital part of the process of globalisation, which is in effect an enormous extension of the power of the western-based multinationals in the so-called ‚Third World‘, under the aegis of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
Despite all the evidence that shows the class motivation of the capitalists to maximise profits, the ICFTU insists on putting forward a non-class solution to the terrible problems of the workers in the EPZs. But the solution is precisely a combined struggle of the workers of the advanced industrial countries together with those in Africa, Asia and Latin America, in a common front against common exploiters.
It would not be possible to have complete parity of wages in the first instance. But it is in the interests of the workers of the advanced industrial countries to fight, first of all, for strong, independent trade unions in these areas – with a class outlook rather than the class collaboration mentality of Bill Jordan – to fight for an immediate and massive increase in wages and improvements in conditions. Resources should be provided by the labour movement of the West to assist those making heroic efforts to organise a fightback in the EPZs – including the formation of virtual underground unions – to give the semblance of human dignity to workers who are ruthlessly exploited today.
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