I was just perusing Daily Variety, and came across a
film review for a documentary called "China Blue".
Micha Peled's docu "China Blue" makes a stronger case against worker exploitation than any news item could, simply by showing the everyday lives of some Mainland China factory girls. That the principal figures are, not at all atypically, just teenagers -- hopeful, fun-loving, energetic, naïve --alleviates and underlines the depressing nature of lifestyles that by most Western standards would be considered harsh, even inhumane.
(snip)
Entering at the bottom of the totem pole as an excess-thread cutter, [15 year old] Jasmine makes about 6¢ an hour, and is charged by the factory for room and board. She also has to work shifts that can stretch to 20 hours.
If you've ever wondered how almost EVERYTHING you come across these days in the American economy can have a "Made in China" label on it, imagine this:
130 million workers descending upon one city. In only five years time ...
The "New Era" of economic progress in China has created a new generation of entrepreneurs like Mr. Lam, a former police chief turned owner of the bluejeans factory in southern burg Shaxi, "China's Famous Clothing Town." It's drawn an estimated 130 million workers from rural areas during its five years of operation.
That's more than half the population of the United States. (Can that be correct? )
The conditions are even worse than you might expect:
Weeks pass before [15 year old Jasmine] gets a glimpse of the city -- months before she gets her first paycheck, between the factory's cashflow-strapped payroll delays (which at one point prompt a brief workers' strike) and
the custom of withholding initial payout as insurance a worker won't jump ship.
Mr. Lam's thinks himself a relaxed manager, proud of his operation and open about letting the filmmakers shoot as they will. But when deadlines approach and employees complain about endless hours or ever-postponed pay, his real attitudes leak out: They're "uneducated, low-caliber" types sans work ethics, lazy and devious. Of course, after a 20-hour shift with no paycheck in sight, what kind of employee can you expect?
And what's particularly disgusting:
Pic's degree of access and intimacy is surprising, even more so when closing intertitles reveal Chinese authorities did try to shut down the filmmakers several times. (In anticipation of a diplomat's visit to Canada, they also later clamored to get the movie dropped from Toronto program.)
This seems like a movie to pay attention to.
I wonder how many Americans realize all their "stuff" comes from these factories.
And the sad truth: How do you not buy Chinese-made goods, when almost everything available to buy is made there??
I see this as a serious moral and economic problem facing the world, and I don't see anyone doing anything about it.
Our corporations have been allowed to circumvent 150 years of progress in this country -- regulations and laws that people and fought and DIED for -- unions, labor laws, regulations that ensure relatively clean air and water .....
Our very own corporations just said "fuck you" and moved everything to China. With the blessings of most of our governments.
This is just plain wrong.
I wanted to share this movie review here on dailykos so that people were aware of it. Maybe we can make others more aware of it as well.
