Extracting profit from labour is the foundation of capitalist economies, writes Simon Steyne
Your editorial (21 December) about Tesco’s garment supply chain is welcome, but the global garment production system of downward pressure on prices and labour costs, unreasonable lead times, subcontracting and denial of workers’ rights is neither news nor accidental. Global brands decided in the 1980s to move production from democracies that protected workers’ rights to dictatorships that didn’t.
A vast corporate social responsibility (CSR) and “social auditing” industry grew, but paternalism and snapshot workplace audits are no substitute for proper labour relations and public labour inspection, and the Rana Plaza factory disaster confirmed earlier research showing that much social auditing is technically incompetent.
