Strategy and Tactics

We have seen the superbrands and multinational corporations. They are everywhere, from Gap, to Walmart, to Nike. With big corporations come big revenues, which yields power, and big production, which yields suffering. A lot of times we look at brand names, logos, and the discount prices, and we forget about what went into the products. It is no secret now, that what goes into the products of multinational corporations are unsafe, unfair factories, with numbers of underpaid and mistreated workers. As Walter Landon says in Naomi Klein's chapter The Discarded Family, in her book No Logo, "Products are made in the factory but brands are made in the mind" (195). It is unfortunate that these multicorporate products are made in such hostile factories. It is also unfortunate that there are those who do not have access to this information. And it is even more unfortunate that there are those who are aware of this information and don't believe it.

I remember watching a film in English class that illustrated the workshop conditions in Bangladesh. Mostly young workers (mostly women) were overworked in making clothing for Walmart and Disney. Sometimes, the workers weren't paid for the hard labor they put out. The hours were long, at times 23-24 hours, only getting 3 hours of sleep. Breaks were limited to only a few minutes. And with the conditions of the facility and machines they were working with, any form of health regulations or safety was thrown out the window. At times, the managers would abuse the workers. The workers are paid very little, not even enough to scrape by. Yet, they are providing for children and families at home. These facilities are everwhere around the globe, in third world countries and even China. Naomi Klein also gives an example in the chapter The Discarded Factory, in which Carmelita Alonzo died from 'overwork' in Cavite. Carmelita, along with other workers, were working a lot of overnights during a peak season for the V.T. Fashions factory. Carmelita was ill one night, and the manager refused to let her go to the hospital. Carmelita was eventually admitted to a hospital where she died.

This issue is undoubtedly unfair and unjust. But approaching the issue has proved difficult, even creating rifts amongst activists with different interests in approaching the problem. Some have approached the issue with the idea of not supporting the corporations that have such factories or attempting to run those companies out of business. For some, the strategy is to hurt these companies or run them out of business. Some of the tacticts that activists or unions have used is violence. The problem with this tactic, is that companies threaten to shut their productions down and follow through with their threats, as mentioned in the "Migrant Factories" section in The Discarded Factory chapter. Even though this result may be desired by some activists, it has more dire consequences in other places of the world. Poorer countries need the factories for jobs.

Rather, I think that the strategy should be to keep the corporations and factories, but improving the health and safety conditions of the workers, the policies, their work environment, pay, and holding corporate boss's responsible for severely unfair treatment. This is not an easy strategy, since its tactics involve politics, a very large number of people, heavy influence, and a lot of time.