Labor Activism, Sweatshops, Slavery, and the Categories of Class Analysis: Introduction

Jack Amariglio

On March 15, 2008, members of Rethinking Marxism and AESA were informed about an article entitled "Fairness, Consumer Consciousness and the Welfare of Less Developed Countries" by Giovanni Immordino. This article appeared in the most recent issue of the Global Economy Journal. Upon reading the following sentence in the article's abstract--"An increase in activism deteriorates labour practices and decreases welfare"--one of our horrorstruck friends exclaimed (online), "OH MY GOD!"

Both the sentence and the exclamation set off a flurry of reaction and discussion.

Partly in response, and as a way of expanding the discussion, I contributed the following post, which included a link to an article, published on March 15 by Newsweek, with the title "Millions of Asian workers producing goods sold here are trapped in servitude." To quote myself:

"This article from this week's Newsweek has all the problems associated with its genre. If read and acted upon, it will surely, in the eyes of Bhagwati and his free market acolytes and ideologues "decrease welfare." and it definitely suffers from orientalism (why Malaysia, Bangladesh, et al.? Isn't there anything similar in Europe and America?) and a lack of class understanding.

Yet, it still serves a purpose, I think. Perhaps it allows for such terms as "forced labor" and "slavery," however used, to become part of the current common lexicon or discourse in discussing the economic effects of globalization and the spread and existence of "free markets." That is, it makes it possible to claim that free markets are conditioned by forced labor/slavery, and vice versa.. This isn't class analysis per se, and maybe it blocks it, but it also may make the terms of class processes, etc. less shocking and more attractive to some readers. Maybe."

In reply, and focusing on the question of the particular type of class analysis that is being provided these days in the discussions over forced labor, slavery, and the conditions of work in mostly non-Western sweatshops, S. Charusheela has written the following post, which we are publishing as the first installment of a series on the topic. We hope other AESA members and visitors to the website will follow suit. (Please send your submissions to Stephen Healy at stephen.healy@gmail.com).