Pynchon and global capital/corporations

[jbor]

----------
>From: Doug Millison <DMillison at ftmg.net>
>

> If multinational corporations weren't moving their manufacturing around the
> world seeking the cheapest possible labor and the least stringent operating
> conditions, China wouldn't have a market for its prison labor.

I'm not sure that the first is dependent on, a cause of, or a necessary
by-product of the second. Btw, what multinational corporation is using
prison labour in Shaanxi province?

>   This is in
> fact a hallmark of globalization.

Well, no. The hallmark of globalisation is the relaxing of trade tariffs and
protectionism in order to prevent market distortion and encourage economic
growth. After the Uruguay Round of the WTO talks delegates for the
developing nations expressed their ambivalence because they were uncertain
that the developed nations would in fact relax their trade tariffs. This is
despite the fact that the projection for economic growth in developed
countries over ten years is quite high, that for developing countries less
so, but still far in advance of current rates. In terms of the global
economy the benefits are indisputable.

> Don't take my word for sweatshop labor conditions -- there is no shortage of
> credible reports to substantiate the appalling conditions and practices that
> these companies use to maximize profits.

Better alive and working in what *Westerners* call a "sweatshop" than dead
in the street. The conditions before the factories came were far worse.

> Local laws usually don't protect
> workers because they fear that if enforced the multinational corporation
> will move elsewhere.

I think you'll find that the laws pertaining to "sexual abuse, physical
and verbal harassment, and other forms of well-documented exploitation,
oppression, abuse, and violence" will still apply, as these are criminal
rather than economic offences. They are offences committed by individuals
which are not vouchsafed by the corporate ideology as they are in military
and religious conquests.

> In China for example, in professional meetings in Beijing, Xian, and
> Shanghai last October, local health officials told me (and the delegation of
> occupational health nurse practitioners I was traveling with) story after
> story of factories that ignored China's laws and regulations regarding toxic
> waste, worker safety, worker living conditions, etc. But because they could
> grease the wheel with bribes, and for fear of losing jobs no matter how
> horrid the health consequences, local officials look the other way.

But this has been going in China for the last fifty years, if not longer.
Corruption, local officials looking the other way: these are the hallmarks
of "business" in the Chinese provinces.

snip
> But if you want to argue for a pro-globalization Pynchon who supports
> corporations and ignores the ills that they spread, go for it -- that's
> similar to arguing for a Pynchon who lets the Nazis off the hook for the
> crimes he depicts in GR, so it's no surprise to see this position emerge
> here.  All you have to do is leave out all the textual evidence to the
> contrary in his novels.

When you're done with your straw men, Doug, let me know.

best