Globalization and Informationalization as Countermeasures to Overall Crises
Globalization and Informationalization are never a new and recent phenomena nor trends, though they are generally said to be the recent ones. As Paul M. Sweezy said recently, they are the processes that have been going on for a long time, in fact ever since capitalism came into the world as a viable form of society. As capitalism is in its innermost essence an expanding system both internally and externally, it, once rooted, both grows and spreads.(林1) And, in the process the capitalism grows and spreads, the means of information and communication, together with those of traffic and transportation play an absolute role.
However, when we talk of Globalization or Informationalization, we are talking of a special phenomenon. They mean the vigorous and offensive activities of the Transnational Corporations (TNCs) which have been intensified since the middle of 1970s, if we go back farthest to the past, and especially since the late 1980s, and they mean the so-called Information and Communication Revolution -- as a major outcome of the Scientific-Technological Revolution -- and the capitalistic use thereof which have been unfolded in full-scale since 1970s and have been accelerated recently. Especially, with the settlement of the prolonged Uruguay Round and the launch of the World Trade Organization (WTO) became the Globalization a strong stream, making the so-called Free Trade of all kinds of Commodities -- that is, of currencies, capitals and even the so-called intellectual property as well as of the conventional commodities -- a new international norm. Furthermore, the rapid proliferation in these years of the personal computers and personal wireless communication appliances is also adding a new and realistic sense to the Informationalization.
By the way, what is the impetus which accelerate these Globalization and Informationalization?
It is the intensification of competition, and the deterioration of trade terms in the world market. It is the overproduction which has been aggravated since the middle of 1970s and has been rapidly culminated since the late 1980s. In a word, it is the constant, chronic and overall crisis of capitalistic production which reemerged in the middle of 1970s and is being rapidly intensified recently. The Globalization and the Informationalization are the countermeasures to the deep-seated crisis of the monopoly capitals. In that sense, the proud discourses of the bosses and their ideologues are an expression of the crisis they are facing with, and are their desperate efforts to cover up the crisis.
As everyone knows, this overall crisis is a natural and inevitable consequence of the contradictions inherent to the capitalistic production. In the capitalistic production has the production the strong trend to increase, for it is ceaselessly stimulated by competition and greed for profits. By the way, the same stimulations, that is, the competition and greed for profit press down the wage of workers. Thus, the ever-expanding production necessarily comes into conflict with the narrowly-limited consumption of the working class. It is why the capitalistic crises are called to be 'overproduction crises', quite contrary to the 'underproduction crises' in the pre-capitalistic and/or non-capitalistic societies.
In 19th century when the capitalistic labor productivity achieved a great development, the contradiction between the expanded production and the narrowly-limited consumption exploded periodically as crises. Further, in 1930s when capitalistic production secured far greater productivity, and when the contradiction became deepened because of the reinforcement of the monopoly capital, the contradiction exploded as a constant and overall crisis of the capitalistic production.
The 1930s overall crisis could be overcome by no emergency policies nor methods including New Deal. It could be overcome only through the Second World War which slaughtered tens of millions of people and resulted in tremendous destruction. And, even the Long Prosperity after the War, which continued till around the end of the 1960s with a few and small fluctuations, was in many aspects indebted to the slaughter and destruction. By the way, the Long Prosperity inevitably made the overall crisis reemerge in 1970s.
Anyhow, to survive this overall crisis the monopoly capitals are offensively reinforcing their activities in home and abroad. As a consequence, the independent commodity producers such as farmers are rapidly diminishing, polarizing the social class structure to a few rich capitalists and to the absolute majority of destitute working class. As a result, the capitalistic production is spreading and permeating into every corner of the globe, dividing the world, on the one hand, into a few rich imperialist countries and a number of poor areas and/or countries, and on the other hand, into a thin tier of prosperous capitalist class and a huge number of impoverished working class.
In proportion to the intensification and acceleration of the overproduction, so do the competitions among the capitals, and the exploitation of the capital by the capital escalates. Here, aside from the compulsion and/or plundering by the imperialistic states, the speed-up, increase of labor productivity, and especially the adoption of new production facilities with innovated efficiency are the main methods of competition among the capitals. This explains why the Scientific-Technological revolution is being rapidly accomplished in full-scale these days. The Scientific-Technological revolution and the Information Age as a fruit of the Scientific-Technological revolution are the derivatives of the overall crisis of the capitalistic production.
Globalization and Informationalization as Offensives on the Labor
As the Globalization and Informationalization are the countermeasures of the monopoly capital to the overall crisis, offensives on the labor naturally become one of the important contents of them. These offensives are presenting themselves as Neo-liberalism.
One of the mildest forms of these offensives are the export of jobs, or the moving capitals and production bases to abroad, especially to low-wage areas such as Southeast Asia and Latin America. The wage in the factories in the Export Processing Zones (EPZ) in, for examples, China and Vietnam is merely $35.- - $45.- per month, and that in the maquiladora in Mexico is only around $3.50 - $4.- a day.(林2) This shift of capitals and production bases is in itself a direct form of Globalization, and it is supported by the so-called Informationalization revolution, or the development of the tele-communication techniques. Thanks to the highly developed tele-communication, a Korean company in Pusan, for example, can subcontract the sports shoes newly designed in the design-room in America, and produce them in a factory located in the Cavite EPZ near Manila, of course, compelling long-hour working on the workers with very low wages.
The export of jobs naturally results in the decrease of jobs in the exporting country. To exemplify the America after the enactment of the NAFTA, the Labor Department of U. S. recognizes that 121,937 workers have been laid off because of NAFTA.(林3) Of course, the actual figures are far bigger than this.(林4)
The exports of jobs do not merely decrease the jobs but also it make almost all the requests of workers powerless, compel long working hours and low wages, and sometimes even destroy unions, by taking advantage of the workers' fear for unemployment by saying, "we will move factory to abroad."(林5)
However, if we think the shift of capital or factory would have increased the employment in the country where it goes to, it is a fallacy. As the imported factory, even if it be 'labor-intensive', is usually far more productive than the indigenous ones, it destroy employments in the country. The fact that unemployment increased by more than 1 million in Mexico in 1995 after the NAFTA may be an example.
The Scientific-Technological revolution and Informationalization are providing the technical foundation for increasing the so-called flexibility of labor or that of labor market. Increasing the flexibility of labor or that of labor market means in actuality increasing part-time and/or temporary workers, and increasing intensity of labor at the same time. Karl Marx clearly defines the part-time and/or temporary workers as a form of the Relative Surplus Population, or the Industrial Reserve Army, and indicates that the increase of them can not but deteriorate the terms of labor.(林6)
Nevertheless, it is not rare that we hear some labor leaders or Social Democratists, especially of Western European countries, claim that increasing flexibility of labor or that of labor market is an effective way to decrease the rampant unemployment. Maybe, the "Alliance for Jobs and Competitive Germany" settled in January 1996 among the German government, the business representatives and the labor representatives is the most typical and farcical one. The New Labor of Britain and the Socialist Party of France, who let a number of pundits talk of 'the leftist Europe' by winning the sweeping victories in the general elections this year, are also maintaining the similar position, which is a evidence that the Social Democracy is, contrary to the conventional wisdom, a kind of ideology, reflected upon the working class, of the monopoly capital. It can be no surprise that we hear, "Solution to unemployment by increasing the flexibility of labor!", recently here in Korea where the ideology of the monopoly capital prevails over.
The utmost ill-effect of the Scientific-Technological revolution which is usually represented by the Informationalization revolution is the ever-increasing massive unemployment. Also in the past the mechanization or automation techniques displaced the labor. However, since the mechanization or automation were partial and isolated ones, the displacement of the labor was covered up or sometimes even surpassed by the additional demand for labor coming from the enlargement of production. By the way, the new automation as a result of the Scientific-Technological revolution is systematic. Furthermore, thanks to the Digital revolution all the differences of various genres are melting down into the Digital Sea of '0' and '1', resulting in full automation, or making the so-called 'manless production' almost possible. These kinds of technological innovations, or the displacements of the living labor by the dead labor are taking placing not in the age when the social production has somewhat room for rapid enlargement but in the age when the capital is suffering from overall overproduction. Or, the innovations and the displacements are taking place because of the overall overproduction.
Necessarily the unemployment is rampant and increasing in major capitalistic countries, accelerating social conflicts and confrontations.
The Korean General Strike in the Context of Globalization and Informationalization
It was not an unintentional coincidence, I think, that all the mass media which were run by the big bosses reinforced their Information-Age propaganda in early summer last year when the bosses launched their full-scaled offensives on to the working class.
It should have been the first and direct purpose of the propaganda to enlarge the market and demand of the information and communication appliances such as personal computers. However, their logic of the Information Age that the world was, thanks to the development of the information media, being unified into one was a metamorphosis of their logic of Globalization. Therefore, I think it was one of the main purposes of the propaganda to make people think according to the logic they provided and to make the people accept their new norms in the Information Age.
The first goal of the capital was to scrap the articles in the labor laws which restrained the bosses from their arbitrariness in dismissing workers. It meant the legalization of the massive dismissal. And, this was to be supplemented by the introduction of the so-called flexible-working-hour system and the contingent working system.(林7)
In order to show their firm will, the bosses began to compel the massive dismissals from mid-summer upon the white-collar workers in relatively high position who are not organized into unions. The compulsory dismissals or early retirements were deceitfully named as the 'honorable retirements'. Furthermore, they overtly called upon the government to introduce the massive dismissals based on the managerial and/or technological reasons, the flexible-working-hour system, and the contingent working system as legal practices.
Fear for and resistance against the massive dismissals and unemployment began to prevail over the whole society from summer. It was, beyond the expectation of the capital, the actual impetus of the General Strike. And, the snatching enactment of the worsened labor laws and the fascistic National Security Planning Agency Act in the dark morning of December 26, 1996 triggered the rage of people igniting the General Strike of hundreds of thousands workers.
The general strike of the Korean workers in last winter was a direct derivative of the Globalization of the Korean monopoly capitals (Chaebols). The establishment of the WTO system and the joining OECD as well as the over-accumulation of Chaebols or the Korean monopoly capitals made it inevitable for them to compete fiercely with the foreign TNCs in the global markets.
In order not to be defeated in the competition the Chaebols need above all to produce their commodities very cheap, which can be achieved through two ways; 1) moving factories to low-wage countries, and 2) equipping their factories with new technology and facilities of high productivity. Both ways inevitably require the massive dismissals of workers, and require the flexible-working-hour system and the contingent workers in order to meet the fluctuations and caprices of markets.
For the capital or the bosses the massive dismissals of workers and other measures needed for competition in the global markets are compulsion and necessity, not an option.
Workers, Globalization and Informationalization
The overall over-accumulation of capital in the modern capitalism, that is, the overall crisis of capitalism inevitable from the overall and immeasurable over-accumulation capital is intensifying the competition up to the extreme.
Nowadays 'the information age', 'the information society', 'the information revolution' or 'the scientific-technological revolution' are the proud discourses of capitalism. However, in actuality they are nothing but an expression of overall crisis of capitalism on the one hand, and on the other hand the preparation of the material basis of New Society of the Kingdom of Freedom where economic competitions or the exploitations no longer exist.
The Scientific-Technological revolutions including the Informationalization revolutions are being facilitated by the fierce competition in the global markets, and the competition is being intensified again by the Scientific-Technological revolutions. It is a process in which the causes bear the results and the results become causes again and again. It is a spiral process developing with accelerated velocity.
The Scientific-Technological revolutions being facilitated by the fierce competition in the global markets are displacing the live labor with dead labor in production, or are replacing the workers with automated machines or systems such as various kinds robots. Certainly the displacement of living labor with dead labor, or the Scientific-Technological revolutions converging to 'manless production' will guarantee the Kingdom of Freedom to humankind in not so far future.
However, in capitalism where the achievements of the Scientific-Technological revolutions are appropriated and used by capitalists for the production of profit, the Scientific-Technological revolution, or the displacement of living labor with dead labor is a disaster to labor class, for it facilitates the vast unemployment as we witness and experience these days.
The worldwidely ever-increasing struggles of workers including the Korean General Strike are basically the struggles against that kind of disaster or against the bosses who force the disaster.
However, despite of the desperate struggles of workers, I think, the disaster is inevitable so far as the capitalistic production continues, worldwidely stimulating and intensifying also inevitably the struggles of labor class until the labor class win the final combat against the bosses. It is our task to open up a New Society where the achievements of the Scientific-Technological revolutions and of the Informationalization revolutions are used for the need of people instead of being used for the production of profits.
Informationalization and Labor Movement
Nowadays a lot of attention and efforts are being paid to make full use of the information appliances and systems for the development of social movements as well as labor movements.
These appliances and systems have, of course, been developed by the capital to maximize the profits. Therefore, they are being used in impoverishing and oppressing the people including the working class, increasingly stimulating the people's and workers' struggles on the other hand. The so-called 'Electronic ID Cards' can be one of the most typical supervisory systems on the people.
By the way, the bosses can not help widely supplying these appliances and systems to the working class, and they can not develop nor use these appliances and systems without employing brains and hands of workers. These facts mean that these information appliances and systems can be and are being the weapons of the working class in their struggles against exploitation.
Sharing informations needed for struggles, strengthening solidarity through InterNets and other communication networks, and building up independent networks therefor are becoming increasingly important, and are actually reinforced in practices. The responses of the bosses is various forms of oppression and censorship. The censorships under excuse of violence and/or lasciviousness are very common in many countries. Only on the ground that there are some websites which supply informations on North Korea, South Korean government has recently completely blocked the access to network servers of 'geocities' where more than ten millions home pages exist. Struggling against and overcoming these kinds of censorships will be a task in opening up a genuine information age.
Surrounding the using and controlling the information appliances and systems various forms of struggles between the bosses and working class are also unfolding fiercely at every corner of the globe.
(林1) Paul M. Sweezy, "More (or Less) On Globalization," Monthly Review, Vol. 49 No. 4, September 1997, p.1.
(林2) Gloria La Liva, "NAFTA, Poverty Behind Mexican Election Results", Workers World News Service (On-line edition), July 24, 1997; George Meyers, "We can't afford more NAFTA's", People's Weekly World (On-line edition), September 20, 1997.
(林3) "NAFTA, the NAFTA index on Unemployment and its Threat to Organizing", in Labor Party, Labor Party Press (On-line edition), Vol. 2 No. 4, July 1997.
(林4) George Meyers writes in "We can't afford more NAFTA's", People's Weekly World (On-line edition), September 20, 1997 that the numbers exceed 420,000.
(林5) George Meyers, "We can't afford more NAFTA's", People's Weekly World (On-line edition), September 20, 1997.
(林6) Karl Marx, Capital, Vol. 1, Chap. XXV Sec. 3.
(林7) The Information Age propaganda are admiring these as the advanced working practices in the Information Age.