American Capitalism cries unfair to Chinese Capitalism: AGAIN!

SOYMB, 6 April, posted American Capitalism cries unfair to Chinese Capitalism.

https://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2024/04/american-capitalism-cries-unfair-to.html

What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Taken from the book of fairy stories, Ecclesiastes 1:9, but an appropriate quote under the circumstances.

American airlines capitalists are bemoaning the fact that because Chinese airline capitalists can route flights through Russian airspace they will increase their profits at the expense of American ones.

American capitalism is arguably one of the proponents of the most naked capitalism in a capitalist world begging the Executive which runs American capitalism on their behalf, to stop the Chinese from making further inroads into US airline profits. Boo, bwah, it’s so unfair they cry stamping their little feet. Global capitalism is an unfair social system where its beneficiaries will take every opportunity it can to get one over on its competitors. Their appeal to protect US aviation workers is one oozing crocodile tears as American capitalism will take every opportunity available to exploit the American producing working class at every chance it can.

‘US airlines have tried to fend off increased competition from Chinese rivals by appealing to the administration of President Joe Biden for help, arguing that Beijing has given its carriers unfair advantages through “anti-competitive” policies and by routing flights through Russian airspace.

Trade groups for the airlines and their employee unions have urged the Biden administration to halt approvals of additional flights to the US from China. Beijing halted inbound flights from overseas during the Covid-19 pandemic and imposed new requirements that continue to affect US carriers.

The Chinese government also provides “certain protections” to the country’s airlines, the US airline groups said on Thursday in a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. “These actions demonstrated the clear need for the US government to establish a policy that protects US aviation workers, industry and air travellers.”

Air traffic between the countries remains far below pre-pandemic levels, even after the Biden administration increased the number of round trips that Chinese airlines can fly each week to 50 from 35, effective at the end of March. US carriers were given the same number of flights to and from China, but they are reportedly using only part of that approved capacity.

“If the growth of the Chinese aviation market is allowed to continue unchecked and without concern for equality of access in the market, flights will continue to be relinquished to Chinese carriers at the expense of US workers and businesses,” the airline groups said in their letter.

Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed during a summit last November in San Francisco to increase the number of direct flights between the countries, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said. Boosting air traffic “will help the two peoples strengthen exchanges and enhance mutual understanding.”

The US carriers argued that their Chinese rivals have gained an “artificial” competitive advantage by continuing to fly through Russian airspace, which gives them shorter routes. US airlines stopped using Russian airspace after the Ukraine crisis escalated in February 2022.

An anti-China committee formed by the US House of Representatives also has urged Biden to stop giving Chinese airlines more flights. Like US airlines, the lawmakers lamented China’s Russia advantage in a letter to Blinken and Buttigieg this week.

Any approvals of new routes should require Chinese carriers to steer clear of Russia, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (sic) said in its letter. “US citizens travelling between the US and China should not unknowingly be subject to the risks associated with traveling through Russian airspace, and this practice should end,” the lawmakers argued.

Turkish Textile and Garment Workers suffer from earthquake and capitalism

 

 ‘A textile factory in the western Turkish city of İzmir. Turkey is one of the world’s top garment and textile producers, with factories in its south-east amongst those supplying to major European and US brands. But workers in that region were largely left to fend for themselves after devastating February 2023 earthquakes and experienced the widespread violation of their rights, according to a new Clean Clothes Campaign report.’

'Turkey is one of the world’s top countries for garment and textile production, with US$16.2 billion in exports in 2021, according to a Turkish Ministry of Trade report cited in the Clean Clothes Campaign report, mostly to countries in the European Union and the United States. Suppliers in the earthquake-hit provinces played a significant role in the sector, producing goods for prominent global buyers including Benetton, H&M, Primark and Zara as well as large domestic brands such as LC Waikiki.

‘The provinces affected by the earthquake accounted for 15 per cent of Turkey’s garment and textile industry, with an estimated 350,000 workers at approximately 2,900 companies prior to the disaster.

In the year since the earthquake, employment in the ready-made clothing sector dropped by 40 per cent and production by 50 per cent, according to a press statement sent to Equal Times by the Turkish Clothing Manufacturers Association (TGSD) issued for the anniversary of the disaster. TGSD President Ramazan Kaya said in the statement that recovery has been hampered by a “loss of qualified employment” in the region and difficulties accessing finance and loans. Shortly after the disaster, the Turkish government instituted a temporary ban on layoffs across the stricken region.’

...’Turkey has consistently ranked amongst the world’s ten worst countries for workers’ rights in the  International Trade Union Confederation’s Global Rights Index with the repression of strikes and systematic union busting listed amongst the violations.

With both freedom of association and the right to strike restricted in Turkey, 89 per cent of workers in the earthquake region’s textile and garment industry – even those who are unionised – do not have a collective bargaining agreement, according to the Clean Clothes Campaign report. In this climate, the layoff ban may have actually worsened the situation for some workers, as they would not receive severance or other benefits if they are forced out rather than officially laid off.

“A year after the earthquakes, we can see that employment in the region has not yet recovered,” says Haluk Deniz Medet, a spokesperson for the Turkish textile workers union DİSK Tekstil. “There is a serious contraction in exports and European brands, our most important customers, are shifting their orders to Asian countries.”

This kind of opportunism is all too common in the global garment and textile industry, according to Mayisha Begum, a researcher with the London-based Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC). “What we have seen during the Covid-19 pandemic and other crises is that brands can change their purchasing practices very quickly when it benefits them,” says Begum.

Only 4 per cent of textile and garment suppliers in south-eastern Turkey were able to resume production as usual after the earthquakes, according to a separate survey of regional suppliers that Göçer and a colleague carried out in June 2023. Yet only a handful said the brands they supply offered any support in the aftermath of the disaster; 69 per cent of respondents said they received no contact at all from buyers or brands.’

https://www.equaltimes.org/our-lives-are-very-worthless?lang=en

Gold. a Capitalist delusion.

As Spandau Ballet had it, ‘Gold, you’re indestructible.’ It’s reported that the price of gold has reached an all-time high, moving above $2,400 per ounce.

‘Spot gold prices rose 2.4% to a record high of $2,431.52 per ounce before pairing some gains. Prices were up 4% for the week and 16% so far this year, exceeding the 13% advance registered for all of 2023.

“The positive factors for gold outweigh the negative. The heightened tensions in the Middle East are the main driver for gold’s recent surge,” Chris Gaffney, president of world markets at EverBank, was quoted as saying by Reuters.

Investors traditionally turn to gold in times of market uncertainty to hedge risks and as a store of value. For thousands of years, bullion has been seen as a safe haven during periods of economic instability, stock market crises, military conflicts, and pandemics.’

Other precious metals were also on the rise, with silver going up 4% to $29.60 per ounce, its highest price since early 2021. Palladium went up 2.7% to $1,075 and platinum rose above the key psychological level of $1,000 per ounce to its highest in nearly four months.’

From the The Socialist Standard, May 2007, an exposition on when gold was the money-commodity and some interesting suggestions aas to the use of gold in a socialist society:

“Gold prices could pass $850 record” read a headline in the Financial Times(5 April), reporting a forecast by a metals consultancy of what might happen over the next 12 months. As gold is currently selling at around $670-80 an ounce, this would be a huge increase. If something like this had happened a hundred years ago, it would have brought about financial and economic chaos by causing a huge fall in the general price level.

This was because at that time gold was still the money-commodity, as the product of labour having its own value in which the values of all other commodities were expressed. Prices were expressed in units of currency, but these were defined as a given weight of gold. A pound, for instance, was defined as about ¼ oz of gold. This meant that anything taking the same amount of socially necessary labour time to produce as an ounce of gold would have a price of £4.

If the amount of socially necessary labour needed to produce an ounce of gold fell, a rise in the general price level would result since other commodities, containing more value, would exchange for more gold. If, on the other hand, the labour-time cost of producing gold increased, the result was the opposite: a fall in the general price level. Which is why an increase of the order of from $680 to $850 an ounce would have caused chaos a hundred years ago.

The reason it won’t do so today is that gold is no longer the money-commodity. Up to WW1 gold was used to settle international payments. Also, there were gold coins in circulation, along with paper notes that were convertible into gold at a fixed rate. This system collapsed with the outbreak of war in 1914 and, despite attempts to revive it between the wars, never really worked again. Nearly all currencies became “inconvertible”, i.e. no longer exchangeable on demand into a given amount of gold, which has remained the case ever since.

At the end of WW2 a new system for settling international payments was established based on the dollar. The exchange rate between other currencies and the dollar (and so between the other currencies) was fixed, but, since the dollar was defined as 1/35 oz of gold, gold still played an indirect role as the money-commodity as a standard of price.

This system, with its repeated devaluations of the different currencies, came to an end in 1971 when the US government abandoned its commitment to pay $35 for an ounce of gold. After that, all currencies floated and, though central banks still retained gold reserves for a while, gold became an ordinary commodity, another precious metal alongside silver and platinum, whose price fluctuations have no effect, either way, on the general price level.

The price of gold is still expressed in dollars but, nowadays, rather than a change in the price of gold leading to a change in the value of the dollar, it’s the other way round. One of the reasons for the expected rise in the price of gold is the current weakness of the dollar. Another is perceived future economic insecurity in that gold, as a product of labour, is still a store of value which, if the fears are realised, is better to be left holding than a mere piece of paper.

When socialism, where of course money will be redundant, has been established, there will be a long-standing proposal as to what to do with gold waiting to be considered. In his book Utopia in 1516 Thomas More proposed it be used for making chamber pots. Some 400 years later Lenin moved an amendment to replace the words “chamber pots” by “urinals”. In the end, we’ll probably just use it for jewellery and other ornaments.'

’https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2020/05/just-yellow-metal-2007.html

 

FGM in Gambia:

Comment is superfluous.

‘An attempt to repeal a 2015 ban on female genital cutting in Gambia was sent for further committee discussions by lawmakers on Monday. Gambian activists fear the passage of the bill would overturn years of work to better protect girls and women.

The legislation was referred to a national committee for further debate and could return to a vote in the weeks and months ahead.

Activists in the largely Muslim country had warned that lifting the ban would hurt years of work against a procedure often performed on girls under age five in the mistaken belief that it would control their sexuality.

The procedure, which also has been called female genital mutilation, includes the partial or full removal of external genitalia, often by traditional community practitioners with tools such as razor blades or at times by health workers.

It can cause serious bleeding, death and childbirth complications but remains a widespread practice in parts of Africa.

Jaha Dukureh, the founder of Safe Hands for Girls, a local group that aims to end the practice, told The Associated Press she worried that other laws safeguarding women’s rights could be repealed next.

Dukureh underwent the procedure and watched her sister bleed to death.

“If they succeed with this repeal, we know that they might come after the child marriage law and even the domestic violence law. This is not about religion but the cycle of controlling women and their bodies,” she said.

The United Nations has estimated that more than half of women and girls ages 15 to 49 in Gambia have undergone the procedure.

The bill is backed by religious conservatives in the nation of less than 3 million people.

Its text says that “it seeks to uphold religious purity and safeguard cultural norms and values.”

The country’s top Islamic body has called the practice “one of the virtues of Islam.’

”https://www.africanews.com/2024/03/19/gambian-lawmakers-debate-to-overturn-fgm-ban-postponed/

North Macedonian Textile Workers and Capitalism

EqualTimes.Org has a piece about the textile industry, in North Macedonia and capitalists doing what capitalists do.

‘For 70 years, Shtip has been the stronghold of the textile industry in North Macedonia. The sector is in decline, but it still employs nearly 30,000 people, a considerable number in this country of two million inhabitants.

Every morning, thousands of women workers are bussed to the many factories on the outskirts of North Macedonia’s towns and cities.

Ampeva herself worked as a seamstress in one of these factories for nine years. “There was no one to explain your rights or your working conditions, how much you should be paid, how many hours you have to work and how much overtime is paid, or who is supposed to help you if your rights are violated. Nothing was explained to us. That’s why we launched Glasen Tekstilec, to fight for the rights of women textile workers.”

In North Macedonia, hundreds of factories make clothes and shoes for Europe’s big brands. It is no secret how harsh the working conditions are in these factories, but the widespread violations of the labour law have long gone unchallenged.

Since its launch in 2017, Glasen Tekstilec has been collecting revealing testimonies on a daily basis. “The conditions in the factory were disastrous,” says Dimitrinka, in the organisation’s office. Every day, Glasen Tekstilec’s premises, decorated with huge posters depicting seamstresses as superheroes armed with needles and thread, welcome workers who are powerless in the face of their unscrupulous employers. They receive free advice, as well as practical legal help to defend their rights. Working hours not respected, wages paid months in arrears, unpaid overtime, maternity leave not granted, and so on: the members of the organisation take care of writing up their complaints and passing them on to the relevant institutions, such as the labour inspectorate.

Although the textile sector has been in steady decline for many years, it still accounts for over 10 per cent of North Macedonia’s GDP. Almost all of its production is for export, and the factories in the Shtip region work mainly for German, Belgian and Italian brands.

Having factories in south-east Europe is particularly advantageous for these large companies. “You have cheap labour, like in Bangladesh or China, but you’re in the Western Balkans,” explains Ampeva. “In just one day, you can send your production anywhere in Germany, for example. That’s what attracts these companies who have factories in Albania, Serbia, Montenegro and North Macedonia.”

A candidate for accession to the European Union since 2005, North Macedonia has reasonably protective labour legislation on paper, but it is rarely applied on the shop floor. The small country’s institutions remain fragile, and influential employers have little difficulty defending their interests with the decision makers. According to the specialists, the state’s control mechanisms are not working.

North Macedonia’s textile, leather and footwear industry union (Синдикат на работниците од текстилната, кожарската и чевларската индустрија) STKC, says it is trying to take action. “We react to every single violation of labour rights, through the labour inspectorate, the public ombudsman or legal action,” its president, Ljupco Radovski, tells Equal Times. But it is not always effective. “Complaints lodged by employees are most often ignored by the labour inspectorate and the judicial authorities,” says Branimir Jovanovic, an economist with the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (WIIW) .]

On the strength of the expertise put at the service of women textile workers, Glasen Tekstilec has established itself as an interlocutor in social dialogue. The organisation has, for instance, contributed to a number of increases in the minimum wage, which has risen from €130 ten years ago to €320 today.

At a time when galloping inflation linked to international tensions has exacerbated inequalities and made work even more precarious for private sector employees, the issue of pay is at the heart of workers’ demands.

According to many experts, the textile industry may not survive the current turmoil. “Nearly 10 per cent of workers in North Macedonia live in poverty, one of the highest rates in Europe,” warns economist Jovanovic.

“At the same time, the richest one per cent in the country earn 14 per cent of the total national income, and these economic disparities are most manifest in the textile factories. No one wants to work in this sector when wages are so low, the work is hard, conditions are poor and the workers know that the owners are pocketing all the profits. If things don’t change soon, the textile industry will slowly die out.”

Already hard hit by the 2008 crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic, is the North Macedonian textile industry living out its final days? Working conditions in the sector are driving away young people, who would rather emigrate to Germany. And with the shortage of labour, more and more European companies are moving their businesses to North Africa.

“The sector is collapsing, because nobody is taking responsibility for all these companies that don’t pay their workers’ wages,” protests an indefatigable Ampeva. “Unfortunately, this is a criminal economic sector and our politicians support these criminal practices. It is because of this system that our young people and healthy workers are leaving the country.”’

https://www.equaltimes.org/in-north-macedonia-textile-workers?lang=en

SPGB MEETING - ZOOM- 7.30 pm (GMT+1)

 

UKRAINE AND POLAND 1918-1947 (ZOOM)

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Event Details

• Date: April 12, 2024 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm

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Friday 12 April 19.30

UKRAINE AND POLAND 1918-1947 (Zoom)

Speaker: Mark Zneiderwicz

To connect to a meeting, click https://zoom.us/j/7421974305

Just One Life

A recent piece in the i newspaper dealt with a 78-year-old widow, who retired when she was sixty after working for over forty years, but now can barely get by, living on her state pension of £203 a week. Her energy bills in winter are nearly £80 a week.

She cannot afford to go for lunch with her friends, and says that ‘Having two coffees a day is my one luxury.’ She has not had a holiday in decades. She cannot go out as much as she would like, and this damages her mental health. Of course there are many, many others in a similar predicament.

Just one worker’s life, but it says so much.

https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/