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Hidden human costs of being in thrall of capital
By Wan Lixin |
August 30, 2012, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
RECENTLY, hundreds of Motorola Mobility employees in Beijing and Nanjing in Jiangsu Province vented their anger through protests against mass layoffs.
According to certain media estimates, at least 468 employees in Beijing and 450 in Nanjing will lose their jobs as part of Google's plan to lay off around 4,000 workers, globally. Google bought the cellphone manufacturer last year for US$12.5 billion.
Both Google and Motorola are big names associated with money, chic, technology and employee pride. Motorola was once rated one of the best employers in the world.
If anything, such ruthless corporate layoffs can help educate people about the essence of capitalism.
There was a time when virtually every conceivable kind of foreign capital was eagerly wooed in China, for its potential to create jobs, for technology, or just for growth. But multinational companies do not exist for the sake of creating jobs.
They are psychopathic organizations that exist solely for the purpose of making money. Which means when employees have outlived their usefulness, they are sacrificed.
At the beginning of China's market-oriented reforms in the 1980s, millions of employees of what were former state-own enterprises (SOE) were encouraged to give up their jobs to improve the efficiency of SOEs. To a degree, residual socialist sentiments may have helped many survive such a sacrifice stoically.
Since then, the state has become wary of mass layoffs. For instance, four years after the financial crisis in America, some commentators are still singing the praises of Chinese SOEs in not initiating any mass layoffs during that difficult time.
It is irrational to expect such humanitarian sentiments from pure capitalists, even though their owners often espouse humanitarian causes, prattling on about corporate social responsibility. Some become icons, like Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and Apple's Steve Jobs.
In the years of hectic growth, China has been a heady story of success. There has been little occasion for sobering examination of the hidden fractures and dislocations.
But there is a limit to any growth. So recently we have been hearing quite a bit about redundancies and factory closures.
In Shanghai this month, there were confrontations over mass layoffs at CIMIC, a sino-British joint ceramics maker founded in 1993. The company is moving to the west of China, where labor is cheaper. And in July, the abrupt decision by German sportswear giant Adidas to close its factory in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, caught many local suppliers by surprise. It was reported that Adidas would instead source from southeast Asia, where costs are cheaper.
In these cases, despite workers' anger and protests, employers can usually expect to execute layoffs and closures with an ease that corporate bosses in Europe and America would envy.
Labor rights
An article on Monday by Xinhua News Agency explains why.
Commenting on Motorola's recent mass layoffs, the article speculates on how the labor, trade unions and government can step in to help protect labor rights.
For instance, Motorola is located in a development zone in Nanjing, but according to the publicity department of the zone administration, layoffs are a corporate practice that do not justify any intervention from the administration.
Nor can the Federation of Trade Unions in Nanjing do anything. It said that as the trade union in Motorola has never established any ties with the federation, the Motorola trade union in Nanjing should technically report only to the union at Motorola headquarters in Beijing.
Although there is little sense in trying to prevent these multinationals from relocating or leaving, local governments should require them to undergo some procedures.
When foreign capital was first introduced into China's economy, there were calls to suspend ideological controversies in favor of can-do, pragmatic fervor.
Urbanization
For a long time, economic growth and unconditional introduction of foreign capital has been a top priority for government at all levels.
To optimize investment conditions, many governments have spared no effort in facilitating a process euphemistically known as "urbanization." Under this, huge tracts of farm land are turned into development zones and former peasants encouraged to migrate to cities as cheap labor.
As Karl Marx observed: "The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the entire surface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connections everywhere."
While capital is being globalized, labor tends to be localized and dependent; and redundant when deemed too "expensive." While a piece of land can be a source of subsistence for generations and generations, assembly lines come and go.
Marx observed that within the capitalist mode of production workers invariably lose determination of their lives and destinies.
To extract maximum surplus value from the workers, and to ensure steady supply of cheap labor, the capitalist simply must maintain the labor in a perpetual state of poverty.
The ideal of common prosperity in a world where capital rules is illusory.
This situation is deeply destabilizing, whether for countries of labor or countries of capital.
The recent cases of flights of capital, taken correctly, should serve as a warning about the growth model China has come to be addicted to over the past decade.
According to certain media estimates, at least 468 employees in Beijing and 450 in Nanjing will lose their jobs as part of Google's plan to lay off around 4,000 workers, globally. Google bought the cellphone manufacturer last year for US$12.5 billion.
Both Google and Motorola are big names associated with money, chic, technology and employee pride. Motorola was once rated one of the best employers in the world.
If anything, such ruthless corporate layoffs can help educate people about the essence of capitalism.
There was a time when virtually every conceivable kind of foreign capital was eagerly wooed in China, for its potential to create jobs, for technology, or just for growth. But multinational companies do not exist for the sake of creating jobs.
They are psychopathic organizations that exist solely for the purpose of making money. Which means when employees have outlived their usefulness, they are sacrificed.
At the beginning of China's market-oriented reforms in the 1980s, millions of employees of what were former state-own enterprises (SOE) were encouraged to give up their jobs to improve the efficiency of SOEs. To a degree, residual socialist sentiments may have helped many survive such a sacrifice stoically.
Since then, the state has become wary of mass layoffs. For instance, four years after the financial crisis in America, some commentators are still singing the praises of Chinese SOEs in not initiating any mass layoffs during that difficult time.
It is irrational to expect such humanitarian sentiments from pure capitalists, even though their owners often espouse humanitarian causes, prattling on about corporate social responsibility. Some become icons, like Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and Apple's Steve Jobs.
In the years of hectic growth, China has been a heady story of success. There has been little occasion for sobering examination of the hidden fractures and dislocations.
But there is a limit to any growth. So recently we have been hearing quite a bit about redundancies and factory closures.
In Shanghai this month, there were confrontations over mass layoffs at CIMIC, a sino-British joint ceramics maker founded in 1993. The company is moving to the west of China, where labor is cheaper. And in July, the abrupt decision by German sportswear giant Adidas to close its factory in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, caught many local suppliers by surprise. It was reported that Adidas would instead source from southeast Asia, where costs are cheaper.
In these cases, despite workers' anger and protests, employers can usually expect to execute layoffs and closures with an ease that corporate bosses in Europe and America would envy.
Labor rights
An article on Monday by Xinhua News Agency explains why.
Commenting on Motorola's recent mass layoffs, the article speculates on how the labor, trade unions and government can step in to help protect labor rights.
For instance, Motorola is located in a development zone in Nanjing, but according to the publicity department of the zone administration, layoffs are a corporate practice that do not justify any intervention from the administration.
Nor can the Federation of Trade Unions in Nanjing do anything. It said that as the trade union in Motorola has never established any ties with the federation, the Motorola trade union in Nanjing should technically report only to the union at Motorola headquarters in Beijing.
Although there is little sense in trying to prevent these multinationals from relocating or leaving, local governments should require them to undergo some procedures.
When foreign capital was first introduced into China's economy, there were calls to suspend ideological controversies in favor of can-do, pragmatic fervor.
Urbanization
For a long time, economic growth and unconditional introduction of foreign capital has been a top priority for government at all levels.
To optimize investment conditions, many governments have spared no effort in facilitating a process euphemistically known as "urbanization." Under this, huge tracts of farm land are turned into development zones and former peasants encouraged to migrate to cities as cheap labor.
As Karl Marx observed: "The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the entire surface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connections everywhere."
While capital is being globalized, labor tends to be localized and dependent; and redundant when deemed too "expensive." While a piece of land can be a source of subsistence for generations and generations, assembly lines come and go.
Marx observed that within the capitalist mode of production workers invariably lose determination of their lives and destinies.
To extract maximum surplus value from the workers, and to ensure steady supply of cheap labor, the capitalist simply must maintain the labor in a perpetual state of poverty.
The ideal of common prosperity in a world where capital rules is illusory.
This situation is deeply destabilizing, whether for countries of labor or countries of capital.
The recent cases of flights of capital, taken correctly, should serve as a warning about the growth model China has come to be addicted to over the past decade.
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