The article I found for his weeks Marx Blog Post is titled Disney toys made in ‘sweatshops’. This article basically outlines the issue of Disney using sweatshops to produce their toys and other merchandise. It has been long argued that many companies outsource jobs over seas, and some have been accused of hiring sweatshop labor. When we think of sweatshops our moral radar automatically goes off and we assume the worst. Well in this article it only confirms our worst fears. The biggest highlights and key phrases that jump out to alarm me are the horrible standards in which these human being must work in order to stay alive. The article describes workers working up to 18 continuous hours sometimes from 7am until 2am the next morning with barley any time for bathroom breaks unless they want to be penalized. These workers sustain these long hours for little pay that amounts to about 47-68 lira a month! From this wage workers must PAY their employers for their forced housing conditions and for their food, which can amount to about 9 lira a month.
This articles issue on sweatshop labor directly correlates with Marx point of view on labor. Marx claims that you sell your labor power. For these people they just obviously under valued their labor power and got stuck in the on going circle of poverty similar to the folks in Harlan County. In Both circumstances the capitalist is making it impossible for employees to rise up and find something better for them. The capitalist (Disney) is only paying its labors a wage that will sustain their biological life and reproduction. I think Marx would be unhappy with this picture but it does not go against his theory of wage labor.
Wow , this is really sad. I haven't heard of people working long hours like that since reading about the start of industrial revolution. You would think that things would change with time, but it's obvious that it hasn't. Everything is all about greed and finding shortcuts to get around not doing what's right. I agree that Marx would totally be against this form of labor. At the same time you have to take into account that many of these people have nothing else to look forward to and are already living in poverty so they take what they can get. This sound simliar to the Pullman train strike. Those workers were doing forced labor. They had to live in the housing that Pullman provided and give money back to the company. It's the same thing here and it's sad that this form of labor/slavery hasn't ended yet.
ReplyDeleteMan, this post is so depressing. But sadly, this is the harsh reality that we like to ignore everytime we lace up our Nike shoes or sip our favorite starbucks coffee. Many major companies including Disney, Nike, and Starbucks produce their products in sweatshops or in horrible work conditions. Marx would not approve of this at all because of the extreme degree of estranged labor that these workers expereience. They not only fail to have a relationship with the products they are producing, but they fail to even make a decent wage from their added labor value. This just solidifies Marx' ideas that capitalist are only interested in their own good and do all they can to increase their personal profit. This is a sad situation. Who would ever think that disney would be commiting this action? Aren't they the company that makes dreams come true? I guess not.
ReplyDeleteI believe this is an ongoing crisis that’s going to keep going like a free train till there is no more labor power to exploit. For those people that work in sweatshops, they do not have a choice but to work well below the cost of living, or they can starve to death. You nailed it on the head about how it is similar to the Harlan County case. People are trapped in the situation, there is no escaping when they turn around; which they can choose to work the long hour, low wage, horrible working conditions and with no additional benefits, because if they do not, there will always be someone willing to.
ReplyDeleteThis is intense! You would never think that Disney would be doing such a horrible thing, but apparently things like this happen just to make a profit which is ridicules. It is important people put out articles like this, so people really know whats going on and where our current products are coming from. I agree that Marx would not condone such behavior,but he does state that we are the creatures of labor, and that the The capitalist is only paying its labors a wage that will sustain only their immediate, needs and nothing else.
ReplyDeleteThis doesn't surprise me coming from disney. Sweatshop labor being the cheapest of all labor above from slavery is common in poor contries. The fact of the matter is that families are not being paid enough to live. Nearly every member of the family must work in order to sustain life. Disney needs to keep earning money so therefor needs to constantly be fnding sources of cheaper and cheaper ways of producing their useless trinkets. Disney owns the starving people they employ and house. Walt would be so proud.
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