Communist opinions on anti-sweatshop activity...

[Os Cangaceiros]

I was reading a book recently in which it was written that many people in the impoverished countries that sweatshops are commonly found in view sweatshops favorably, including the workers in said sweatshops, simply because the alternative to a waged job in a sweatshop is much worse (ie farm labor, sex work, begging, etc). Supposedly anti-sweatshop activists from the west have had some rather bewildering experiences with actual sweatshop workers, who didn't exactly like the idea of their livelyhood being taken away, meager though it was.

I had a conversation once with a girl from China, and the subject of Foxconn came up, with the "suicide nets" and such, and she had ZERO sympathy for the workers. She said that she had no idea what they were so unhappy about, because they had jobs that millions of other Chinese would be envious to have.

I guess I'm just fascinated by the extreme pro-work mindset, the mindset in which workers demand to be exploited more, demand more hours of overtime etc. Are there any good discussions about this from a communist perspective, and how to struggle against it without seeming paternalistic and substitionalist (which is how anti-sweatshop activists have always come off to me)

[Ilyich]

I haven't found any discussions about sweatshops in recent times. I think a lot of early North American and Western European socialists talked wrote about sweatshops, when sweatshops were still prevalent here. Perhaps one could apply historical discussions regarding sweatshops to the current situation.

[wunks]

Are there any good discussions about this from a communist perspective, and how to struggle against it without seeming paternalistic and substitionalist (which is how anti-sweatshop activists have always come off to me)there is no way for first world activists to struggle specifically against foreign sweatshops and have it not be paternalist and ridiculous.

[Revolution starts with U]

there is no way for first world activists to struggle specifically against foreign sweatshops and have it not be paternalist and ridiculous.

There kind of is tho... instead of advocating shutting down the factories, you advocate unionizing them. Listen to the workers when they say "jobs millions of Chinese would love to have."

Advocating the shutting down of sweatshops is much like bourgeois anti-GMO activism. How dare you, in your western abundance, come to some starving boy or girl in Ethiopia and be like "no sorry, I'd rather see you die now then eat something that may give you cancer (maybe, we don't know, there's not any actual credible evidence to suggest this is so) 50 years from now."

In the same note, how dare you, with your western worker protections, come to someone in China and be like "no sorry, I'd rather see you die now then be subject to horrible oppression."

Being alive trumps freedom (nearly) every time. This is a lesson I think leftists could stand to learn in general.