One World, Ready or Not:

1
One World, Ready or Not The Manic Logic of
Global Capitalism
Chapter 15 -- "These Dark Satanic Mills"
William Greider
2
Key Issues

• Nationalistic Tendencies
• Social Context of the Global Revolution
• Plight of the Exploited Worker
• The Common Paradox
• Standards of Accountability
• Social Transformation
• Rural and Urban Worlds Clash
• Altering Capitalism in the New One World

3
Nationalistic Tendencies

• People no longer have a free choice in this
  matter of identity. Ready or not they are
  already of the world, bound to distant others
  through the complex strands of commerce and
  finance reorganizing the globe as a unified
  marketplace. p 333

4
Nationalistic Tendencies

• The nation-state faces a crisis of relevance.
  What remains of its purpose and power if
  authority over domestic social standards is
  yielded to disinterested market forces. p 334

5
The Social Imperative

• Idea is to think anew rather than retreat inward
  p334
• The challenge is not to abandon old identities
  and deeply held values but enlarge them p 334

6
The Two Realms

• The poor nation
• Repeating the past
• America and Europe
• The wealthy nation
• Social structure under assault

7
Response to Social Concerns

• The new wealth of industrialization will lead
  naturally to middle class democracy in the poorer
  countries and the barbarisms will eventually be
  eradicated p 336

8
Kader Industrial Toy Company p 337

• Located in Thailand
• Employed three thousand employees
• Manufactured stuffed toys, plastic dolls designed
  for American children

9
Kader Industrial Toy Company

• May 10, 1993
• Worst industrial fire in the history of
  capitalism
• 188 dead, 469 injured p 337

10
Kader Industrial Toy Company

• Kader fire surpasses what was previously the
  worst industrial fire in history
• Triangle Shirtwaist company fire of 1911
• Lower east side of Manhattan
• 146 immigrant women died in similar circumstances
  p 337

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Kader Industrial Toy Company

• American Reactions
• Neither citizens nor government took any interest
  in the brutal and dangerous conditions imposed on
  the people who manufactured the toys p 338
• The responsibility for those factories is in the
  hands of those who are there and managing the
  factory David Miller, President of Toy
  Manufactures of America p 338

12
Kader Industrial Toy Company p 338

• American TV exposed similar working conditions
• ABCs 20/20 reported account of Kader fire
• CNN ran disturbing footage
• CBSs 60 Minutes exposed prison labor in China
• NBCs Dateline did a piece on Wal-Marts
  production in Bangla

13
The Common Paradox

• The process of industrialization was profoundly
  liberating for millions, freeing them from
  material scarcity and limited life choices, while
  it also ensnared other millions in brutal new
  forms of domination. p. 342
• Income Disparity at Kader
• Dreadful conditions at Kader

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Income Disparity at Kader

• Workers paid 2 or 3 a day, the minimum wage was
  4 (100 baht)
• 100 of the 3000 workers legally designated
  employees
• 2900 of the 3000 workers were contract workers
• The chairman of Kader Holding Company,
  Ltd.-Dhanin Chearavanont
• Quoted by Fortune magazine to be the
  seventy-fifth richest man in the world
• Has personal assets of 2.6 billion

15
Dreadful Conditions at the Kader Plant

• Lint, fabric, dust and animal hair filled the
  air on the production floor, stated the
  International Confederation of Free Trade Unions
  based in Brussels observed in its investigative
  report. p. 342
• This created
• Respiratory problems
• Contact caused skin disease

16
Accountability Standards

• A common response to such facts, even from many
  sensitive people, was yes, that was terrible,
  but wouldnt those workers be even worse off if
  civil standards were imposed on their employers
  since they might lose their jobs as a result?
  p. 342
• It was not a coincidence that industry always
  assigned the harshest conditions and lowest pay
  to the weakest members of a society women,
  children, uprooted migrantspeople who were
  already quite powerless were less likely to
  resist, less able to demand decency from their
  employers. p. 341

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Accountability Standards

• Kader Holding Company Ltd. was considered the
  powerhouse of the global toy industry and was
  neither small nor struggling.
• Worker demonstration
• 12,000 compensation for each death in the Kader
  fire
• Once compensation was paid, activists forced to
  stop
• There was no boycott of Kader toys in America.
  The professor slumped in his chair and was
  silent, a twisted expression on his face. p.
  344

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Accountability Standards

• Thailand competes with China to attract
  investment capital for local toy production.
  With this development, Thailand has become sadly
  lax in enforcing its own legislation, ICFTU
  report. p. 345
• Company turns a blind eye to health violations
  and safety standards
• Accidents in Thailand have nearly tripled

19
Accountability Standards

• The Kader fire reflected the amorality of the
  marketplace when it was free of social
  obligations.
• Also mocked claims of three popular religions
• Buddhism
• Confucius teachings
• Christianity
• Notation of the new replacing the oldsocial
  transformation

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Social Transformation in Thailand

• Definition
• A reordering of social class structures that
  evolves along with industrialization
• Greider refers to these transformations as very
  violent
• Vast rural peasantry replaced by
• a new middle class, but
• mostly a poor working class

21
Social Transformation

• The Poor Working Class
• Largest part of the transformation
• Peasants Cheap Labor
• Modernization caused a displacement of millions
  of small workers
• Families migrated to Bangkok
• All of these inequities and rapacious practices
  have unfolded before, in the histories of the
  wealthiest nations p. 348

22
History Repeats Itself

• Developing nations were resembling the past of
  the wealthy nations
• England and the Enclosure Movement
• Peasants were being thrown off their land
• Much like in Bangkok in the 1990s
• Revolutions began to break out, as did in many of
  todays wealthiest nations

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History Repeats Itself

• The Questions
• Why would the people of Thailand do this to each
  other? And why did capitalism encourage this
  anarchy?
• Why was capitalism reverting to such violent
  patterns as seen in the past?
• Did the capitalist system learn nothing from
  the class warfare of the last two hundred years?
  Could the raw creative energies ever be schooled
  to follow a more humane path, one based on
  greater respect for human differences and
  dignity? p. 349
• The Answer
• What these people want is what the West already
  has. And why shouldnt they? It is a very nice
  life, isnt it? p. 349
• Merrill Wynn Davies

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The Result

• Many of the citizens of Thailand worship
  Buddhism, believing in a life of suffering
• Hatred, anger, envy, desire of material things
  the body is cremated in order to escape from
  that, but you can never be free from the good and
  bad of your past life p. 350
• Capitalism was tearing at Buddhism just as it had
  Christianity five or six centuries earlier

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The Result

• Everybody wants to get to heaven, but nobody
  wants to die.
• Albert King, American Blues Singer

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The Thai Middle Class

• Democratic Uprising in 1992
• Shifted political powers from being entirely
  controlled by the fascist military government to
  being split between them and the business elites
• Both political formations were corrupt
• Neither of them represented the popular masses of
  the citizens

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The Thai Middle Class

• Businesses felt that keeping this lower class
  where they were in society helped their business
  expansion
• They were more sensitive than the military when
  it came to the lower working class
• They understand you have to feed a cow in
  order to milk it p. 351
• Under the military regime
• the cow was regarded as a dumb animal and
  beaten with a stick p. 351

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A Revolution from Above

• The changes in Thai society were imposed by the
  new ruling class on the disorganized citizenry pg
  352
• Industrial development may proceed under such
  Auspices, but the outcome after a brief and
  unstable period of democracy has been fascism
  -Barrington Moore Jr. referring to Germany and
  Japan
• How should the rulers address the social
  consequences of industrialization?
• Englands problems in the 1800s - 150 years!!
• Labor party conflict to this day

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Addressing the Industrial Revolution

• World Bank and the Thai Government pg 352
• Eviction and relocation of farmers
• Rise in agricultural taxes and consolidation of
  small farms
• Khor Chor Forest Program and 1.5 M people
• Those who resisted were beaten and killed
• No compensation for losses
• Those who were deprived of their rights.
  displaced from their lands, were moved somewhere
  else and told they would be the first to benefit.
  Yet, five years later, they still have no
  electricity even though the power lines pass
  right over their house on the way to Bankok
  -Professor Lae
• Manipulation and Dehumanization
• World Bank - Thumbs up!!

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Societal Transformation Fallout

• Small farmers driven into debt (8000 baht/year to
  1500)
• Children in Bangkok pg 353
• Prostitution (1500 baht) or sweatshops
• No one wants to leave but we have to
• Starts a cycle among children because of the
  increased income
• Pushed by poverty (to Bankok) rather than pulled
  by opportunity
• Rise in GDP/capita but a greater inequality pg
  353
• Flow of Capital prevents change in labor
  interests
• Thailand is merely a layover for corporations
• Discontent among the people
• What are the options that they have?
• Compare to Korea and Taiwan
• Benevolent brutality?

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Thailand A Mirror Image of the West

• No advanced society has reached that lofty stage
  without enduring barbaric consequences and
  despoliation along the way -Greider pg 354
• American example
• Slave labor and exploitation of immigrants
• Environmental destruction
• Modern day income inequality
• Coming to terms with ones identity pg 355
• Historically and ethically
• Must make judgements about the present regardless
• Can capitalism itself be altered and reformed?
  Or is the world doomed to keep reliving these
  inhumanities in the name of economic progress?

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Altering the System

• Human dignity is indivisible, but not all are
  necessarily destined to be alike or content
• Princes and paupers
• We consciously make decisions everyday
• What to buy, who to talk to, what ethics to
  practice, what standards we have, etc.
• If something is distasteful, we can change it
• International standards and accountability pg 357
• Terms of trade among countries
• US and the WTO/GATT
• Alignment of incentives (Corporations and
  governing elites of poor countries)
• Boycotting companies like and associated with
  Kader

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Altering the System

• India- No child labor label on rugs pg 358
• Contemplating total eradication of child labor
• Role of Government pg 358
• Must be proactive in enforcing the standards
• Until a floor is built beneath the markets
  social behavior, there is no way that a small
  developing country like Thailand can overcome the
  downward pull of competition from other, poorer
  nations
• To prevent poor nations from going what we went
  through
• Must all countries go through the bad to get the
  good?
• Terms of trade represent implicit moral values
  and are not just commercial agreements pg 359
• Property vs. Human life which is more important?
• When a free market has no conscience, it is our
  duty as compassionate humans to give it one

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Food for Thought

• Will market forces really correct all of the
  worlds problems or should something else be
  done?
• What role should governments play in regulating
  trade and domestic markets?
• Must history continually repeat itself in
  developing countries or is there something that
  we can do?

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Pics
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Pics
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Pics
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Pics
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Notes

• Amazon.com
• Wall Street Journal
• New York Times
• The Boston Globe
• The Nation
• The ICFTU
• The Peoples Daily, January 18, 1994
• The Wall Street Journal, December 1, 1994
• Asian Labour Update, July 1993
• Bangkok Post, June 15, 1993
• Bangkok Post, May 17, 1993
• Bangkok Post, May, 29, 1993

• The Nation, February 23, 1994
• Freedom Review
• Asian Wall Street Journal
• The Nation - Thailand
• Bangkok Sunday Post
• Lae Dilokvidhyarat
• Albert Bressand
• Far Eastern Economic Review
• Barrington Moore Jr.
• Mortgaging the Earth
• Behind the Smile
• Thailand Growth
• New Delhi and Child Labor