Thread by @Reclaim_Survive

There seems to be some confusion as to how imperialism benefits those who reside in the imperial core countries, even the exploited proletariat who reside in the imperial countries.

Self proclaimed socialists, communists, and Marxists have forgotten the connections between cheap clothes and sweat shops, tropical products and plantations, electronics and child miners, in short, goods from the Global South and exploitation of the Global South.

We will try to remind those who are confused how it is that residents of the western countries are able to have cheap clothes, tropical products (fruit, coffee, chocolate, etc) year round, electronics, and how this is tied to the super-exploitation of the Global South.

We will also show how the super-exploitation of the Global South provides tax revenue that funds government services in the imperial core. Where do western workers get their clothes? Perhaps Walmart, or Old Navy. Some may go to Gap. Others to H&M, or order online from Zara. Why?

Because it is affordable due to the conditions of workers in the Global South in sweat shops.[1][2][3] Workers in the Global South are forced to work long hours (up to 80 hours a week) for starvation wages, and in dangerous conditions such as the Rana Plaza in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Rana Plaza collapsed in 2013 one day after inspectors advised the building stay closed due to structural integrity failures. 1,133 workers died & 2,500 were wounded; forced to return the day after this warning to make garments for clothing stores throughout the imperial core.[4]

When western workers need help starting their day, perhaps they will go to grab a cup of coffee. Later, maybe they will eat a banana, or as a treat, a chocolate bar. No one would deny that any of these products are outside the reach of the average worker in the Global North.

Again know this to be the result of the super-exploitation of the workers in the Global South. When one reaches for a banana, whether Dole, Del Monte, or Chiquita, they are benefiting from the plantation economies that still exist in the tropics.

On these plantations, union members are murdered, workers only make 1-3% of the retail value of a banana, child labor is used, and the local environments that these workers live in are destroyed.[5]

Looking at the distribution of profits from the coffee industry, one finds that coffee farmers make $44 per year.[6] Child labor is ever present, as is unpaid over time and debt peonage.[7] The same applies to the cacao plantations of Hershey’s, Mars, and Nestle.[8]

Let us discuss the ubiquitous smart phone, which 81% of US-Americans own.[9] Whether an iPhone or an Android all smart phones have lithium-ion rechargeable batteries.

These batteries require cobalt, of which 60% originates from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Who mines for this cobalt? Children. Some as young as 9 years old, payed extreme poverty wages and are at constant risk of illness, injury, paralysis, and death.[10]

Let us ask, do the people of the DRC benefit from this exploitation? Of course not. Only 40% of Congolese peoples own a mobile phone, with even the wealthiest 20% of the country having to pay a third of their income for a premium phone.[11][12]

Finally, we will discuss how government services are funded in part by this super-exploitation. When some product is made or extracted from the Global South, the majority of the final price is added in the country where it will be consumed.

That is, the majority of the taxable value of any given commodity is taxed in the Global North to fund universal health care, free public education, or an imperial military that keeps this global system of domination and exploitation in place.

In 2013, US tariffs on imported Bangladeshi apparel exceeded the total wages of the Bangladeshi workers who made the goods.[13] While many focus on the US, this same relationship of exploitation equally benefits those “social-democracies” of Scandinavia and Western Europe.

When estimating drain from the global South through unequal exchange, one finds that it totaled $62 trillion over the period 1960-2018, or $152 trillion accounting for lost growth.[14]

When we say that the people within the imperial core benefit from imperialism, we are not saying that they are not exploited, or that they are sharing plates of caviar and glasses of champagne with the bourgeoisie.

We must note the fact that many of the basic goods in the imperial core are the products of imperialism, and to workers of the Global South, they are luxuries. For workers in the Global South, even the diminishing labor laws in the imperial core are a luxury.

If you are a citizen of the Global North, ask yourself this: when was the last time your elementary school age child had to work in a mine? Or work in fields where they breathe in pesticides?

Being a member of the proletariat in the global capitalist system is Hell no matter where you are, but even Dante observed that there were rings in Hell of progressively worse fate.

It is not our job, as workers in the imperial core to convince ourselves that we are all on the same rung. We must observe the facts, and do what we must to free us ALL from Hell.

Remember, it was never “Workers of the Global South”, nor was it “Workers of the Global North”. It was “Workers of the World, unite!”

Sources:
[1] laprogressive.com/walmart-sweats…
[2] goodonyou.eco/how-ethical-is…
[3] panaprium.com/blogs/i/fashio….
[4] John Smith, Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century: Globalization, Super-Exploitation, and Capitalism’s Final Crisis (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2016), 9-10

[5] foodispower.org/our-food-choic…
[6] Smith, Imperialism, 32
[7] foodispower.org/our-food-choic…
[8] foodispower.org/human-labor-sl…
[9] pewresearch.org/internet/fact-….
[10] theguardian.com/global-develop…
[11] datareportal.com/reports/digita…

[12] gsma.com/mobilefordevel…
[13] Smith, Imperialism, 13-14
[14]jasonhickel.org/s/Hickel-et-al…