And again ...

Four dead and fifty trapped in a fresh mining disaster in the PRC.

Bloody business as usual

Okay, so some brave soldiers were killed in Afghanistan today.

This is tragic for them, for their families and friends, and for the people of Aghanistan as it's going to speed the withdrawal from that unhappy country, and leave it to blunder back into the dark ages of Taliban-Warlord Hell. We mourn these deaths, because soldiers were sent there to fight a barbaric regime and it's terrorist acolytes. Whatever terribel things have been done by colaition soldiers in Afghanistan, whatever blunders there have been, and however it ends up (I'm betting; badly) there was a moral case to be made for them and that their deaths were in pursuit of some good end.

But also today, another 29 miners were killed in an explosion in China.

The connection might not be immediately obvious. But think about it. These men were working in the ramshackle, corrupt and deadly mining industry in China. Chinese mines drive the Chinese industrial boom, which in turn produces the apparently endless quantities of consumer baubles we're so hungry for. Without those baubles, our quality of life will take a hit; so I suppose you could say these miners also died in pursuit of - from our self interested point of view - some good end.

Last year, over 2,400 people died in mining accidents in the PRC - this is considered an 'improvement' on 2009. Never mind the other deaths related to mining, but which didn't actually happen in mining accidents, and the maimings and sickness associated with the industry.

Only I don't think you'll hear their deaths being discussed or mourned with quite the same intensity. After all, admitting our life style is based on driving people into death trap mines isn't something we're entirely happy thinking about too much.

Nothing to be proud of

So it's very nice that the Chinese government have decided to release Ai Weiwei. It's even nicer to think that pressure from the west might have had something to do with his realease, though this seems to be wistful thinking. When a regime brags that a newly released prisoner has shown a "good attitude in confessing his crimes," it probably isn't caving in. Ai Weiwei's silence on release speaks volumes, as they say. He's not triumphed over the viciousness of the regime; he's been broken by it and, like Winston Smith in 1984, is drinking at The Chestnut Tree.

Nor is it enough to note, as the Independent does, that Ai Weiwei was just one of over a thousand political prisoners in the PRC, and they remain imprisoned (1). That's better than celebrating a single release; but it's still missing the point. In fact, it seems to me to be a deliberate diversion.

By focusing on this or that celebrity prisoner, we can conveniently excuse our blindness to how we exploit Chinese labour, take advantage of the PRC's totalitarian tendency when it is convenient to us - we like those baubles and trinkets, but we don't like have to pay too much for them. We deliberately ignore the oppression of Tibetans and Uighurs, the arrest of workers who try to form independent trade unions, the thousands killed and injured in Chinese mines where cornoers are cut because of the desperate need to keep costs down, the brutal working conditions imposed by employers who are churning out toys for us to play with. We salve our cosciences by making a token fuss about people like Ai Weiwei, but purposefully ignore our own massive, hypocritical convenient connivance in oppression and state brutality.

1 - "Ai Weiwei is free; another 1,426 are not," unattributed editorial. Published in The Independent, 24th of June, 2011. (http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-ai-weiwei-is-free-another-1426-are-not-2301849.html)

Random bit of Marxism

From Capital:

Hence there is immanent in capital an inclination and constant tendency, to heighten the productiveness of labour, in order to cheapen commodities, and by such cheapening to cheapen the labourer himself. (1)

That is to say, a capitalist strives to increase the amount of surplus value (profit) he makes.

This surplus value is the excess hours worked beyond the point where a worker has created enough value to maintain himself. The capitalist thrives either by extending the working day, or, if that is not possible, by reducing the cost of living which the worker must recoup before creating surplus value. This is done by driving down the value of the commodities the worker needs to maintain themselves.

Hence, the delight of cheap imports. They reduce the cost of living for those still working in more developed economies, exerting downward pressure on wages.

1 - From Capital, by Karl Marx. The quoted passage occurs in Chapter 12, 'The Concept of Relative Surplus Value.'(http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/ch12.htm)

Explosion at Foxconn plant

From the Guardian:

A spokesman for the company said people had been injured in a fire at the plant but that it had no details. The company is best-known for producing iPhones and iPads for Apple, but other clients include Nokia, Motorola, Hewlett-Packard and Dell. Employing up to 900,000 people in all, Foxconn has repeatedly been the subject of controversy over working conditions at its vast plants. The affected one is believed to employ up to 100,000 people.

A report on Chinese news portal Sina said the area had been sealed off after a blast ripped through the plant at around the time workers changed shifts. Police in Gaoxin district said they were called to the scene at 7.18pm and that the explosion seemed to have been caused by materials within the factory. A report on the China National Radio website said two were killed and 16 injured, three seriously. (1)

This is just another tragedy resulting from our hypocritical exploitation of the PRC's laissez faire attitude towards worker's rights, wages, representation and safety.

Foreign companies setting up in China should be required - or, better yet, insist on - basic standards of decency, in terms of wages, worker conditions and union recognition. We insist on these things for ourselves, it's absurd that we're happy to ignore them when it comes to the Chinese labour that makes the stuff that lets us enjoy a preposterous standard of living.

Of course, the whole thing's a shoddy trick to get us thinking we've still got it good based on cheap imports and never mind we've got no jobs, so perhaps I'm the one who is absurd for even making the point.

Liberty, equality and fraternity, or cheap vanity-baubles made by Morlock labour in China, who occasionally get blown up? Workers of all lands unite? Or workers of the developed world live like kings on the backs of the third world? It wasn't much of a contest.

1 - "Workers killed in blast at China plant of iPad maker Foxconn," by Tania Brannigan. Published in The guardian, 20th of May, 2011. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/may/20/foxconn-apple-blast-china)

More foulness

Courtesy of The Guardian:

A former Vietnamese Communist Party official was sentenced to eight years in jail Wednesday for posting articles on the Internet calling for a multiparty system and democracy, his lawyer said.

Vi Duc Hoi, 54, was convicted of spreading anti-government propaganda, defense lawyer Tran Lam said. The court in northern Lang Son province also sentenced Hoi to five years of house arrest after he finishes his jail term.

Hoi was accused of violating Vietnam's national security laws by using the Internet to promote a multiparty system and democracy.

"The sentence was too harsh," Lam said by telephone. "Many people who did the same should also have been arrested and imprisoned."

Hoi joined the Communist Party in 1980 and quickly rose to a high-ranking position that involved overseeing the education of upcoming local party leaders. But he started calling for democratic reforms in 2006 and was expelled from the party a year later. (1)

Clearly, the policy of 'engagement' with these totalitarian crackpots is bearing fruit. Still, who cares about Veitnamese democracy when we need cheap trainers? Hell, if the Veitnamese really wanted democracy, they'd take it! They must love working in sweatshops, that's what they do ...

Veitnam has plenty of form for totalitarian repression acting against critics and workers trying to improve their conditions (2). But it's in our economic interest to pretend this isn't happening, or is totally unconnected with our economic involvement in the country, or is 'improving.'

Because other wise, we'd have to face up to the reality of our involvement in repression, totalitarianism and brutal exploitation that would have made ante-bellum slaveowners queasy. They had an economic stake in their property, after all.

1 - "Vietnamese dissident sentenced to 8 years in jail," unattributed article. Published by AP Foreign. Reproduced in The Guardian, 26th of January, 2011. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/9469266)

2 - "Clinton arriving, Vietnam arrests bloggers, sentences activists," by John Pomfret. Published in The Washington Post, 29th of October, 2010. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/28/AR2010102806797.html)

First Foxconn suicide of 2011

I checked on a whim and, sadly, it seems the 'rightswash' carried out by Foxconn last year, following a spate of suicides, was just that - a phony exercise to quieten down media interest, so business as usual could carry on.

Certainly, it doesn't seem to have stopped workers killing themselves through desperation:

The unnamed employee, who had worked for Foxconn since 2005, had "been on sick leave" at the time of her death after factory officials rebuked her for an unknown reason and told her she would lose her job. Taiwan media further reported that the worker was mentally troubled. (1)

Of course, it's in all our interests, as Westerners, that business as usual carries on. Imagine having to pay a fair price for an Ipad?

1 - "New Foxconn employee commits suicide in Shenzhen," unattributed article. Published in The Global Times, 15th of January, 2011. (http://china.globaltimes.cn/society/2011-01/612970.html)

Double tragedy in the PRC

Two further industrial tragedies have been reported, one in a fireworks factory and another one on a construction site:

The death toll from a massive explosion at a fireworks factory in north-east China has risen to at least 19 workers, with five still missing.

Up to 50 people were working at the fireworks factory in the Heilongjiang province city of Yichun when it was rocked by the explosion on Monday, damaging nearby buildings and sparking secondary blasts.

Xinhua News Agency reported the new death toll.

A total of 153 people were injured by the blast, which could be felt up to 2 miles away and smashed windows in the local government offices and other buildings, Xinhua said.

The tally appeared to include workers at the factory as well as people in the surrounding area.

Safety is lax at Chinese fireworks plants and accidents are common. Dozens of people also die each year from unsafe handling of fireworks while celebrating weddings and traditional holidays.

In another industrial accident on Monday, an elevator plunged on a construction site, killing 11 workers. Investigators were looking into the cause of the accident in the city of Mihekou in the north-eastern province of Jilin. (1)

Total of thirty dead, plus a huge number of injured.

The article goes on to note that safety standards have been improving, with some 4000 fewer deaths in 2009, compared to 2002. That's arguable; while it is likely there have been some improvements, it is also likely that deaths are not being reported, or are being intentionally misreported to avoid consequences.

1 "Fireworks blast toll rises to 19," unattributed article. Published by UKPA, 17th of August, 2010. Hosted by Google news. (http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5jARHE6NUHPu_IcqjE8kp4yHKDfgQ)

What a despicable person

Courtesy of the Wall Street Journal:

It’s been clear over the past few months that labor costs are going up in China. That’s now rippling to other manufacturing economies in Asia.

So says Bruce Rockowitz, president of Li & Fung Ltd., the bellwether Hong Kong-based trading and logistics giant that is a major buyer of toys and clothes for the likes of Wal-Mart and Target.

“Prices have gone up for us and our customers,” Mr. Rockowitz said while presenting Li & Fung’s semi-annual earnings results in Hong Kong Thursday. “We’ve mitigated it by looking at Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia,” he said. (1)

The fact that Chinese workers are getting paid a little bit more for their labour should be a cause for celebration. We're still enjoying the benefits of a grossly exploitative economic arrangement with a totalitarian regime, and the hapless near-slaves working 20 hour shifts making cheap baubles for our delectation are being rewarded with a very slight increase in pay and improvement in living conditions.

in other words, everyone wins (though we win most, and the near slaves, in truth, just don't lose as badly) and we can all relax and feel an iota less guilty because we can see that reform and change is coming. Engagement has worked. it is making things better.

But Mr Rockowitz's response to this good news? Look for some cheaper morlocks to exploit.

That isn't a human being talking, just a despicable little Eichmann doing his inhuman duty.

1 - "China Labor Cost Increases, Setting the Bar for Others," by Alex Frangos. Published in the Wall Street Journal, 12th of August, 2010. (http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2010/08/12/china-labor-cost-increases-setting-the-bar-for-other-economies/)

Possible 14th Foxconn suicide

Courtesy of the Telegraph:

The 22-year old woman died on Wednesday after falling from a dormitary building at its Kunshan plant in eastern Jiangsu province, the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer said on Friday.

Thirteen Chinese employees have committed suicide this year at Foxconn plants and an affiliate by jumping from buildings, including 10 in the southern city of Shenzhen.

It was unclear whether the latest death was a sucide. The company said it was working with local authorities to investigate. (1)

And while we're about it, the toll for the recent mining tragedies in Henan and Guizhou provinces now stands at 32 (2).

1 - "Foxconn faces fresh suicide fears as 14th worker dies," unattributed article. Published in the Telegraph, 6th of August, 2010. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/china-business/7929938/Foxconn-faces-fresh-suicide-fears-as-14th-worker-dies.html)
2 - "Chinese Mining Accidents Kill 32 This Week," unbattributed article. Published by News Time, 6th of August, 2010. (http://www.newstime.co.za/WorldNews/Chinese_Mining_Accidents_Kill_32_This_Week/8856/)

Mattel grovels to China

Mattel has issued a mea culpa and apologized to Bejing (1) for suggesting China produced shoddy, dangerous toys. It turns out - apparently - that the fault lay with Mattel all along:

"Mattel takes full responsibility for these recalls and apologizes personally to you, the Chinese people, and all of our customers who received the toys," Thomas A. Debrowski, Mattel's executive vice president for worldwide operations, told Li. (2)

This isn't quite the same as saying China doesn't produce shoddy, dangerous toys, of course, rather it suggests that the shoddy, dangerous toys aren't in breach of Mattel's safety standards, as suggested previously.

The vast majority of the toys recalled were due to design flaws - the tiny, swallowable magnets that can tear children's stomachs to pieces (3) - but there were some two million units (4) recalled because of use of lead based paint. Though Mattel said the recall of the latter had been "overly inclusive" (5) (murdered English for "too many") they didn't say how many were dangerous and how many weren't. Meanwhile, the role-call of products being recalled continues: "On Friday, the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced it is recalling 1 million cribs made in China and marketed under American brand names, due to a potentially lethal safety problem." (6)

A cynical voice in my head wonders if - now that the PRC has been found Not Guilty by Mattel, will the new safety standards the company promised be quietly forgotten? An even more cynical voice wonders if the safety standards will be forgotten because someone in Bejing pointed out that Mattel needs China far more than China needs Mattel.

The bottom line is this. Whether or not Chinese manufactured goods violated safety standards in this instance, there have been innumerable instances when they have been in breach, sometimes fatally. There will be more breaches in the future as contracors stuggle to deliver orders as cheaply as possible -they want to make money on the deals as much as the brand name companies placing the orders do. You can not care about the human rights of peons making consumer good dirt cheap so you can enjoy a higher standard of living in the West, but if your toothpaste is going to kill you, it is more piquant.

1 - "Mattel apologizes to China over recalls," unattributed Associated Press article on MSNBC, 21s September, 2007. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20903731/)
2- ibid.
3 - "Additional Reports of Magnets Detaching from Polly Pocket Play Sets Prompts Expanded Recall by Mattel," product recall notice from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, 14th of August, 2007. (http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml07/07273.html)
4 - "Mattel and China Differ on Apology," by Renae Merle and Ylan Q. Mui in the Washington Post, 22nd of September, 2007. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/21/AR2007092100330.html?hpid=topnews)
5 - ibid.
6 - "Why Mattel Must Save Face With China," by Daniel Gross, in Forbes, 24th of September, 2007. (http://www.forbes.com/home/manufacturing/2007/09/21/china-trade-mattel-biz-manufacturing-cx_newsweek_0921gross.html)

Mattel ...

Guess what, yup, Mattel are recalling yet more toys (1). This is the third major recall in a month. This begs the question - why aren't the other toy companies doing the same? Are they squeaky clean (I feel a Tui billboard moment coming on ...) or are they simply hoping no-one will look their way?

Mattel, Inc. announced today that, as a result of the company's ongoing investigation of its toys manufactured by vendors in China, the company has voluntarily recalled 11 toys globally, including eight pet and furniture playsets sold under the Barbie(R) brand and three Fisher-Price(R) toys, due to impermissible levels of lead. No Barbie(R) dolls are included within the recall. In total, there are 522,000 affected toys in the U.S., and 322,000 affected toys outside of the U.S. Mattel has completed the testing program for the majority of its toys, including all of its toys currently sourced from vendors. (2)

Astonishingly, Mattel might come out of this mess looking like the good guys, because of much mea culpa-ing, breast beating and pledges of putting child safety first. Which is a bit like lionising a burgular for saying he was sorry after he was caught. Mattel doesn't deserve praise for dragging its safety standards up to a barely acceptable minimum. It deserves to be excorciated for not having them all along.

Bottom line, predictably is that Mattel showed a cavalier attitude to labour rights and human rights by decanting their operations to the third world. Unions making it too difficult by demmanding (Damn them!) a reasonable wage and decent working conditions? No problem. There are peons in China who'll do the job for a fraction, and their used to be beaten and exploited, and their government doesn't regard that sort of thing as a naughty. But in doing that, Mattel - and the rest of them - also played fast and loose with our safety as consumers.

It is an measure of our selfishness and disregard that it is only when our safety was endangered that the issue of third world manufacture became important. But now that people are wking up to it, they have to accept that the issues that have lead to these recalls are inextricably linked with the factors that prompted the relocation of manufacturing to the third world. For all the abject apologies and promises of good behaviour in the future, the fundeamental dynamic hasn't changed. At some point, the need to maximise profit will erode whatever standards and checks Mattel have put in place, and the cycle will repeat.

1 - "Mattel Announces Recall of 11 Toys as a Result of Extensive Ongoing Investigation and Product Testing," unattributed PR Newswire article, on cnnmoney.com, 4th of September, 2007. (http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/LATU17804092007-1.htm)
2 - ibid.

Mattel recall yet more toys ...

... but still miss the point.

This time, the recall is even bigger than before (1). Again, they are manufactured in China. Again, Mattel says it is seeknig to improve safety standards. This won't make any difference.

The problem is that Mattel is constantly looking for ways to increase profitability. This is why it is in China, because labour is cheaper. Their contracts are awarded to vendors that can fulfill them as cheaply as possible. This ensures that, soemwhere along the line, corners are going to be cut and there are only two areas where this can realistically happen.

Mattel isn't going to award the contract to someone who charges more. The competing vendors aren't going to take a cut int heir own profits - Hell, they are in this to make money, just like Mattel is. The only areas where real savings can be made is labour costs and quality. For the former, read human rights, for the lateter, read our children's safety.

So the vendor pays lip service to safety standards demanded by Mattel. Mattel pretends to believe that they are being met. Then, when some egregious failure forces Mattel to take action - a mass of magnets tearing through a child's stomach, for example (2) - the company can pass off responsibility to the Chinese vendor, and make fine sounding pledges to put children first.

Point is, this will happen again, because in a short while Mattel, driven by the need to remain competitive and profitable, will forget the promises to be made in the wake of this latest recall. It will be decided that such-and-such a vendor is now trusted, and inspections or tests will be forgotten. After all, these tests cost money. Then the vendor, in turn, will source cheaper components. Then there will be another shock recall, more mealy mouthed professions of horror and disbelief, more claims that "absolutely nothing is more important than the safety and well-being of our children" (3), and so the cycle repeats.

1 - "Mattel Does Damage Control After New Recall," by Nichoas Casey and Nicholas Zamiska, in The Wall Street Journal, 15th of August, 2007. (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118709567221897168.html?mod=googlenews_wsj)
2 - As happened to Kenny Sweet, described in the article.
3 -ibid.