politics for the 99%

Published on The Economist, Oct 4, 2014: The model of development through industrialisation is on its way out.

THIRTY-FIVE YEARS ago Shenzhen was a tiny fishing village just over the river from British Hong Kong. Its inhabitants, like most Chinese, lived in poverty. In 1978 the average income in America was about 21 times that in China. But in 1979 China’s leader, Deng Xiaoping, chose Shenzhen as the country’s first special economic zone, free to experiment with market activity and trade with the outside world. Shenzhen quickly found itself at the leading edge of Chinese economic development, using the same model as Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong itself had done at earlier stages.  

In the late 1970s China was bursting with cheap, unskilled labour. It opened its doors (a crack, in lucky places like Shenzhen) to foreign manufacturers waiting to take advantage of these low labour costs. Even though wages were at rock bottom, both productivity and pay in urban factories were dramatically higher than in agriculture, so China’s fledgling industrialisation attracted a steady flow of migrants from the countryside.

Over time local production became more sophisticated and wages went up. Industrial cities served as escalators for development, linking the Chinese economy with global markets and allowing incomes to rise steadily. The fruits of this process are clearly visible. As visitors approach the checkpoints between Hong Kong and the mainland, a modern skyline rises on the horizon. Great glass-sheathed skyscrapers reach upwards in central Shenzhen, which boasts some of the world’s tallest buildings. At street level Chinese workers stroll past shopfronts displaying Western luxury brands: Ferrari, Bulgari, Louis Vuitton … //

… (full long article).

Labour Related Links:

• The privileged few: to those that have shall be given, Labour is steadily losing out to capital, on The Economist, Oct 4, 2014;
• LCID’s submission to the International Development Select Committee, on ICID.org.uk, by Icidblog, Oct 2, 2014.
  This month LCID made a submission to the UK Parliament’s International Development Select Committee on “Beyond Aid: The Future UK Approach to Development” … (Labour Campaign for International Development LCID.org.uk is a group for all those committed to a world without poverty & injustice. LCID is a socialist society affiliated to the Labour Party);
• The short overview of the labour process perspective and history of the International Labour Process Conference, on Ilpc.org.uk, by Chris Smith, School of Management, Royal Holloway, University of London, 2010;
• Labour announces new homes corporations to boost development, on Inside Housing, by Carl Brown, Sept 20, 2014;
• Modern-day slavery rife in Malaysia’s electronics industry, on The Guardian, by Annie Kelly, Sept 17, 2014: Report says a third of migrant workers in industry are trapped in debt bondage and have their passports illegally withheld …;
• Book: Perspectives on Labour Economics for Development, by Sandrine Cazes and Sher Verick, on International Labour Organization ILO, March 1, 2013; download the 282 pdf pages;
• Book: The Problem with Work, Feminism, Marxism, Antiwork Politics, and Postwork Imaginaries (a John Hope Franklin Center Book) Paperback – September 9, 2011, by Kathi Weeks, on amazon;
• The capitalist labour process: Concepts and connections, by Paul Thompson, in Capital & Class February 2010 vol. 34 no. 1 7-14, review on cnc.SagePub;
• Scholarly articles for capitalist labour process, on Google Scholar-search;
• Part III: The Production of Absolute Surplus-Value – Chapter Seven: The Labour-Process and the Process of Producing Surplus-Value, by Karl Marx, in Capital – Volume One, on Marxist.org/Archive;
• labour process, on Ecyclopédia, a Dictionary of Sociology, by GORDON MARSHALL, 1998;
• Labor process theory;
• Solidarity Center.org, our mission is to help build a global labor movement by strengthening the economic and political power of workers around the world through effective, independent and democratic unions … (American Center for International Labor Solidarity ACILS, better known as the Solidarity Center, … is a non-profit organization affiliated with the AFL-CIO labor federation that serves as a conduit for US foreign aid … see on en.wikipedia);
• (Study of) MSc Labour, Social Movements and Development, on SOAS.ac.uk;
• (Study of) Master in Applied Labour Economics for Development MALED.org;
• Skills Development Scotland; /Labour Market Intelligence: Skills Development Scotland’s Labour Market Information and Intelligence (LMI) reports and resources are designed around the requirements of our colleagues …;
• Economic Development with Unlim.ited Supplies of Labour, on The Manchester School, Vol. 22/Issue 2, by W. ARTHUR LEWIS, April 21, 2008, download the 191 pdf pages;
• on en.wikipedia: Refusal of work is behavior which refuses to adapt to regular employment …; /See also; /External Links;

Other Links:

Can Civilization Survive Really Existing Capitalism? on ZNet (Source: Truthout), Interview with Noam Chomsky, by C. J. Polychroniou, Oct 2, 2014;

Putin: Russia will remain open economy, on CNBC, by Catherine Boyle and Patrick Allen, Sept 2, 2014;

3D printer for creating untraceable AR-15 rifles hits market, on Russia Today RT, Oct 3, 2014;

US: House extends ban on plastic guns without tightening rules against 3D-printed weapons, on Russia Today RT, Oct 3, 2014;

The Merkel Effect: What Today’s Germany Owes to Its Once-Communist East, on Spiegel Online International, by Dirk Kurbjuweit, Oct 2, 2014 (Photo Gallery): East Germany ceased to exist following the 1989 revolution and the fall of the Berlin Wall. But did the former communist country help shape today’s Germany? The answer is yes, and Chancellor Merkel is a big reason why … (Legend to Photo 5/5: a dictatorship fears open discourse and conflict, and it thrives on the fiction of unity. The ruler or the ruling party claims that it is executing the will of the people, and because that will is supposed to be uniform, everyone is under forced consensus. Silence in the country is treated as approval - my comment: … oh, just a well known, conservtive, small family behavior, isn’t it);

Die Anstalt vom 23.September: Volksaufklärung, 53.45 min, von uncutnews.ch am 23. September 2014 hochgeladen;

Tory plan to leave ECHR contains ‘howlers’ and is factually inaccurate – ex-Attorney General, on The Telegraph, by Ben Riley-Smith, Sept 3, 2014: Dominic Grieve says proposal outlined by Chris Grayling is riddled with basic errors and will leave 99 per cent of legal decisions on British human rights unchanged;

Making Of 3D Printed Skateboard Design Challenge, 2.24 min, uploaded on YouTube by Solid Concenpts Inc., Aug 14, 2014;

Die Anstalt vom 29. April wird verklagt, weil Die Kabarettisten die Wahrheit sagen, 14.34 min, von MAK PhotoArT am 30. Juli 2014 hochgeladen;

3D Printed Metal Gun 500 Round Endurance Test, 3.38 min, uploaded on YouTube by Solid Concenpts Inc., Nov 12, 2013;

World’s first 3D printed metal gun unveiled (VIDEO, 2.15 min), on Russia Today RT, Nov 8, 2013;

… and this:

• John E Mack: the Dalai Lama on why aliens / UFOs came to earth, 2.35 min, uploaded by Khashyar, June 24, 2008;

… und noch das:

• Tore zur Unterwelt, von Quer-Denken.TV am 6. September 2014 hochgeladen: Teil I, 50.11 min; Teil II, 52.54 min: … eine Dokumentation mit Heinrich und Ingrid Kusch, von Michael Friedrich Vogt … die Entdeckung des riesigen Systems uralter, unterirdischer Gänge wirft viele Fragen auf und läßt sogar die bisherige Vorgeschichtsschreibung gehörig ins Wanken kommen.