Gender and Global Capitalism: World Market Factories and Plantations International Perspectives on Gender

Week 19

Structure of lecture Introduction The Old International Division of Labour The New International Division of Labour Free Trade Zones & Export Processing

Zones Chittagong Export Development Zone The story of a shirt Video: Industrialization in Malaysia

Old International Division of Labour Raw materials, cheap labour and secure markets flow from colonies to colonizer and capital and manufactured goods flow back the other way

Colonies get monopsonistic terms for their raw materials

Not a negotiated division of labour, typically backed up by colonizer state power

National capital carved up the world in the age of empire

Relatively small number of countries in north extracted ‘surplus value’ from majority of countries in south

‘It is not necessary that the older civilised countries should build up manufacturing rivals in the undeveloped countries. They will undoubtedly do this to some extent but the logical path to be pursued is that of the development of the natural riches of the tropical countries. These countries are now peopled by races incapable on their own initiative of extracting its full riches from the own soil.... What is involved... (for the present) is not a revolution in the habits and capacities of the peoples of the tropics, but only their equipment with the best means of rendering their territory productive. This will be attained in some cases by the mere stimulus of government and direction by men of the temperate zones; but it will be attained also by the application of modern machinery and methods of culture to the agricultural and mineral resources of the undeveloped countries’.

Source: The United States Investor 1901, cited in Kofi Buenor Hadjor (1992) The Penguin Dictionary of Third World Terms, London: Penguin

 

The ‘Case’ for Imperialism

New International Division of Labour Follows decolonization

Import Substitution Industrialisation (ISI) Concentration by former colonies on the manufacture of

goods previously imported, in order to reduce dependence on imports. Predominantly 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s

Focus on heavy industry (mining, steel production, ship-building)

Forex and technological difficulties, also opposed by US as seen as socialist/communist

Privileged male labour, excluding women: production shifted from cottage industry to factory, hard for women to combine productive and reproductive work

male labour preferred as better educated and seen as more suitable

Export Oriented Industrialisation (EOI) Production for export. From late 1970s onwards. Relocation

of multinationals First textiles and clothing, then electricals and electronics,

then IT industries Backed up by US, IMF, World Bank. Global north provides

the capital, global south the labour Incentives provided to multinationals: eg factory sites and

services for low rent, tax breaks, labour subsidies, freedom from labour legislation, easy repatriation of profits

EOI is based on employment of women Minority of men in technical /supervisory/ managerial roles

FTZs and EPZs Free Trade Zones - designated area to and from which

unrestricted trade is allowed with rest of world Export Processing Zones - a variant which provides

buildings, services and other incentives for foreign firms Countries which have industrialized through EOI are known

as NICs - Newly Industrializing Countries:

Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan

Thailand, Malaysia, China, Brazil, Turkey, Mexico, South Africa, inter alia.

Burma, Vietnam, Bangladesh First NICs now driving EOI in later entrants, eg. Korean

firms now investing in manufacturing in Bangladesh

Chittagong Export Development Zone, Bangladesh Capital of globalisation: 137 factories exporting goods worth $1.6bn a year

Nike, Wrangler, North Face, Timberland, Raleigh, Philip Morris, Walmart, Mothercare, Tesco, Reebok brands

In one factory 3500 workers make 14000 pairs of shoes a day, 5 million a year

Claims to have cheapest labour in world: $250/month minimum wage in EPZs in China $125 in Indonesia $80 in Pakistan $48 in Chittagong, $1.50 per day, apprentices earn less

No Unions allowed Source: Guardian, 30 April 2012

The Story of a Shirt An imaginary but typical story Designed in UK with aid of computer technology (male and

female skilled work) Design e-mailed to contractor in Hong Kong Contractor orders cloth from mainland China Cloth is cut in Hong Kong (skilled generally male work) Cloth sent to sub-contractor in Bangladesh where sewn (part

factory, part home-work, female, unskilled) Returned to UK where ironed, packed (female, often

homeworking, unskilled work) and sent to retailer Combination of factory working and home-working, formal and

informal What do we know of this story if we buy the shirt?

NIDL is Dynamic Process Coates Viyella: on an 80 year quest for cheap labour (retails

as Jaeger clothing). Production shifted from UK to Hong Kong and now to Hungary, Poland and China

Safa: ‘Runaway Shops’, footloose Microsoft Xbox – first manufactured in Hungary and Mexico,

then China, now also Brazil Apple iPad – assembled in China: 7 day weeks; 16 hours a

day; swollen legs; loss of use of hands; neurological damage; suicides; low wages (New York times, January 25 2012)

Mainly female, migrant workers Foxconn Technology Group, Taiwanese multinational

electronics contract manufacturing company: BlackBerry, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Kindle, Xbox, Playstation, Wii

Video: Industrialisation in Malaysia1. What has industrialisation achieved in Malaysia?

What problems has it brought?

2. How is industrial employment in Malaysia gendered? 

3. How has incorporation into industrial work in Malaysia changed women’s lives?

Has it had a positive or a negative effect?

4. How is female labour disciplined in Malaysia and what strategies are used by companies to increase productivity?

Source: The Open University (1991) ‘ Industrialisation in Malaysia’, The Developing World Videos, Milton Keynes: The Open University