Censored 2014

by Mickey Huff

  Until Apple makes systemic changes in its economic and managerial relations with its suppliers, these targeted efforts will be nothing more than symbolic management of the company’s public relations problem. The third NGO report stated that it would like Apple to do systemic and in-depth environmental audits throughout its supply chain, not just at the sites identified in the previous reports.50 They also call for Apple to take responsibility for checking China’s Pollution Map Database for its suppliers who are in violation, to urge suppliers to publish discharge data regularly, and manage materials suppliers. In other words, they want Apple to be proactive instead of reactive in managing its supply chain. We add to this a call for systemic audits of labor conditions and Chinese labor law violations, and register our dismay that changes in this regard seem to have only been made at one Foxconn site, while abuses have been reported throughout the Chinese supply base. We applaud Apple for taking some baby steps in the last year to improve its deeply problematic supply chain, but we urge the company to give these long-term and systemic problems the committed and critical attention they deserve, and to recognize the company’s role as the driver of these problems.

  CONCLUSIONS

  Through a comparison of US corporate media coverage and Chinese news, scholarly research, and NGO reporting, we found that the story of labor and environmental abuses happening at Apple suppliers in China has not been fully or truly told. The Western-centric and narrow focus of US coverage has done a disservice to Chinese workers and citizens, and to American consumers who still do not know the extent of the problems generated by our demand for Apple products. The collective sweeping-under-the-rug by corporate media of Mike Daisey’s account, and the New York Times’ celebration of recent changes at one Foxconn site suggest that Apple consumers have nothing to be concerned about. Ira Glass even went so far as to suggest in the This American Life retraction that difficult labor conditions are to be expected in “industrializing” economies, and that ultimately all of this is benefitting the Chinese.51 However, when the Chinese perspective is considered, it is clear that the benefits, if any at all, are few—and when the profits from iPhones and iPads are examined, we see that only the slimmest margin of economic benefit goes to the Chinese.52

  Labor abuses in Apple’s supply chain, and the social and psychological distress that follow, are not isolated to just one Foxconn facility, but are systemic, significant, and ongoing, and include enslavement of Chinese college students. China’s migrant workers and their families are far from content with this situation, in which there is sometimes not even enough work to go around for all those who flock to the factory zones.53 They regularly express their dismay through resistance in the workplace, strikes, and broad-based labor rights campaigns, and in some cases, even express their dissent through suicide.54 And beyond the impacts on workers themselves, Chinese accounts illuminate the community-wide social impacts of the forced relocation of villages, the economic impacts of the razing of agricultural land, and the widespread and systematic destruction of the environment, which produce serious health problems and compromise the well-being of many.

  As sociologists, we recognize that these problems in Apple’s supply chain are typical of globalized production, and so too are Apple’s targeted and mostly symbolic responses to critics.55 Symbolic response has historically proven to be a successful tactic when those in power seek to retain their power. For this reason, we urge readers to sustain the criticism of Apple and its suppliers, and to continue to press the company to make meaningful change in its supply chain. The fight for rights cannot be left to workers, because as has proven to be true in the garment industry,56 among others, Chinese workers can only push so hard for their rights in a globalized system in which factories can leave their country for cheaper labor pools elsewhere.57

  In addition to the focused effects of Apple’s globalized production system in China, we encourage readers to consider the chasm of global wealth inequality that these relations of production and trade yield. As we write this conclusion, news of Apple’s massive tax avoidance scheme has just come to light.58 Not only does Apple vastly undervalue the labor of those who make its products, thus ripping off the Chinese, the company also rips off American citizens to the tune of $74 billion dollars in avoided tax liability between 2009 and 2012.59 Most recently, as Isaiah J. Poole wrote for Truthout, Apple’s cleverly financed $55 billion payout to shareholders was executed in order to avoid paying $9.2 billion in taxes for this year. Poole noted that had Apple paid that bill, all of the recent cuts to the federal budget known as “the sequester” would have been unnecessary.60 The way Apple does business is not just bad for the Chinese, it is bad for us and our nation.

  We encourage readers who wish to stay up to date on these issues to follow the work of Fiona Tam at the South China Morning Post, who offers consistent, critical, English-language coverage based on firsthand accounts of workers and citizens.

  NICKI LISA COLE, PHD, is a visiting assistant professor of sociology at Pomona College in Claremont, California. She earned a PhD in sociology at the University of California-Santa Barbara in 2011, and since then has been committed to the practice of a critical, public sociology. With a general focus on consumer culture and global production and trade, she is currently researching the brand power, supply chain, and financial structure of Apple, Inc. She is the founder and head writer of the blog 21 Century Nomad, where she has written extensively on fair trade and ethical consumption.

  TARA KRISHNA is currently completing her final year at Pomona College, where she is studying sociology and public policy analysis with a focus on biology. Tara is inter-ested in the impact of globalization on environmental justice, collective action, media responsibility, and public health.

  The authors wish to acknowledge Li Zhao for providing invaluable Chinese news media research and translation services, as well as localized insights into Foxconn’s presence in China. Ms. Zhao is a native of Shenzhen and a student at Pomona College. We also thank Yi Luo and Dingyun Zhang for providing insider perspectives on Apple’s presence in Shenzhen, Richard P. Appelbaum for tipping us off to Fiona Tam’s excellent coverage in the South China Morning Post, and Christine Shearer for editorial assistance on an earlier version of this essay. Finally, we thank Andy Lee Roth for dedicated guidance, support, and editorial expertise throughout the writing process.

  Notes

  1. Keith Bradsher and Charles Duhigg, “Signs of Changes Taking Hold in Electronics Factories in China,” New York Times, December 26, 2012, http://nytimes.com/2012/12/27/buisness/signs-of-changes-taking-hold-in-electronics-in-electronics-factories-in-china.html.

  2. See Censored story #16,”Sweatshops in China Are Making Your iPods While Workers Suffer,” Censored 2012: Sourcebook for the Media Revolution, Mickey Huff and Project Censored (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2011), 91–93; and follow-up coverage in Censored 2013: Dispatches from the Media Revolution, Mickey Huff and Andy Lee Roth with Project Censored (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2012), 145–147 and 168–169.

  3. Project Censored’s previous coverage, ibid., mistakenly identified This American Life as a National Public Radio program. Chicago Public Radio produces the program and Chicago Public Radio distributes it. Some NPR-affiliated stations broadcast it.

  4. For coverage of consumer protests at Apple stores following Daisey’s appearance on This American Life, see Amy Goodman, “Apple Accustomed to Profits and Praise, Faces Outcry for Labor Practices at Chinese Factories,” Democracy Now!, February 10, 2012, http://democracynow.org/2012/10/apple_accustomed_to_profits_and_praise.

  5. For more on this episode and what it entailed, see Ira Glass, “Retraction,” This American Life, Chicago Public Radio, March 16, 2012, http://podcast.thisamericanlife.org/special/TAL_460_Retraction_Transcript.pdf; and also “Who’s the Rotten Apple? This American Life Goes Daisey Crazy,” Censored 2013, 168–169.

  6. “Group Profile,” Foxconn Electronics Inc., accessed May 23, 2013, http://www.foxconn.co
m/GroupProfile_En/GroupProfile.html.

  7. For one such example, see David Sarno, “Worker from Foxconn, Apple’s Chinese Factory, Jumps to Death,” Los Angeles Times, June 14, 2012, http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jun/14/business/la-fi-tn-foxconn-worker-20120614.

  8. See, for example, Mary Walton, “Investigative Shortfall,” American Journalism Review (September 2010), http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4904; and James T. Hamilton, “Subsidizing the Watchdog: What Would It Cost to Support Investigative Journalism at a Large Metropolitan Daily Newspaper?,” Duke Conference on Nonprofit Media, May 4–5, 2009, http://sanford.duke.edu//nonprofitmedia/documents/dwchamiltonfinal.pdf.

  9. “Supplier List 2013,” Apple, Inc., http://images.apple.com/supplierresponsibility/pdf/Apple_Supplier_List_2013.pdf.

  10. For example, see David Barboza, “Workers Poisoned by Chemical at Apple Supplier in China,” New York Times, February 22, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/23/technology/23apple.html?pagewanted=all&_r=o.

  11. See, for example, Chenda Ngak, “SumOfUs Launches Apple, Foxconn Watchdog Site,” CBS News, May 21, 2012, http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162-57438213-501465/sumofus-launches-apple-foxconn-watchdog-site.

  12. Bradsher and Duhigg, “Signs of Changes.”

  13. Pun Ngai and Jenny Chan, “Global Capital, the State, and Chinese Workers: The Foxconn Experience,” Modern China 38 (2012): 383—410.

  14. Ibid, 397. On Los Angeles Times coverage, see Sarno, “Worker from Foxconn, Apple’s Chinese Factory, Jumps to Death,” cited in note 7, above.

  15. See, for example, Fiona Tam and Danny Mok, “New Foxconn Suicide after Boss Visits Shenzhen Plant,” South China Morning Post, May 27, 2010, http://www.scmp.com/print/article/715408/new-foxconn-suicide-after-boss-visits-shenzhen-plant; and Fiona Tam, “Foxconn Rallies Urge 800,000 to ‘Treasure Life,’” South China Morning Post, August 18, 2010, http://www.scmp.com/print/article/722411/foxconn-rallies-urge-800000-treasure-life.

  16. Tam, “Only a Third of Migrant Workers Given Contracts,” South China Morning Post, January 22, 2010, http://www.scmp.com/print/article/704346/only-third-migrant-workers-given-contracts.

  17. Mike Kolbe, “Sweatshops in China Are Making Your iPods While Workers Suffer,” Censored 2013, 145–147.

  18. Friends of Nature, IPE, Green Beagle, The Other Side of Apple, January 20, 2011, http://www.business-humanrights.org/media/documents/it_report_phase_iv-the_other_side_of_apple-final.pdf.

  19. Pun and Chan, “Global Capital, the State, and Chinese Workers,” 397.

  20. Chris King-Chi Chan and Pun Ngai, “The Making of a New Working Class? A Study of Collective Actions of Migrant Workers in South China,” China Quarterly 198 (2009): 287–303.

  21. For a detailed breakdown of how profits from iPhones and iPads are distributed primarily to Apple and not to its suppliers, see Kenneth L. Kraemer, Greg Linden, and Jason Dedrick, “Cap-turing Value in Global Networks: Apple’s iPad and iPhone,” paper, Personal Computing Industry Center, July 2011, http://pcic.merage.uci.edu/papers/2011/Value_iPad_iPhone.pdf.

  22. The Other Side of Apple.

  23. Friends of Nature, IPE, Green Beagle, Envirofriends, Green Stone Environmental Action Network, The Other Side of Apple II: Pollution Spreads Through Apple’s Supply Chain, August 31, 2011, http://www.greenbiz.com/sites/default/files/63637255-Apple-II-Final-20-14.pdf

  24. Ibid., 4.

  25. The Other Side of Apple, iy.

  26. Xiaotian Ma, “‘Interns’ Behind the iPhone 5,” Nanfang People Weekly, September 21, 2012, http://www.nfpeople.com/News-detail-item-3661.html.

  27. Pun and Chan, “Global Capital, the State, and Chinese Workers,” 393.

  28. Xiaotian, “‘Interns’ Behind the iPhone 5.”

  29. Ibid.

  30. Fang Qixiong, “Traits of Nanfang Weekend’s Coverage on the Topic of Migrant Workers,” Henan Social Sciences, no. 4 (2011) (Huazhong University of Science and Technology, School of News and Communications).

  31. Fiona Tam, “Delta Short of Workers Even as Migrants Return,” South China Morning Post, February 23, 2008, http://www.scmp.com/print/article/627273/delta-short-workers-even-mi-grants-return.

  32. Fiona Tam, “Migrants Left No Choice after Falling Victim to the Global Economic Downturn,” South China Morning Post, January 5, 2009, http://www.scmp.com/article/665862/migrants-left-no-choice-after-falling-victim-global-economic-downturn.

  33. Fiona Tam, “Moves to Help Migrants Fail to Convince Critics,” South China Morning Post, April 8, 2008, http://www.scmp.com/print/article/632918/moves-help-migrants-fail-convince-crit-ics.

  34. Fiona Tam, “Migrant Workers Get Chance for Urban Residency,” South China Morning Post, June 9, 2010, http://www.scmp.com/print/article/716615/migrant-workers-get-chance-urban-residency.

  35. “Five Primary School Students Made Pact to Suicide by Drinking Agricultural Chemical; Most Left-Behind Kids,” China Business News, July 5, 2010.

  36. Jin Ran, “Foxconn and the Ten-Year-Old ‘Nail,’” Nanfang Weekend, December 13, 2010, http://www.infzm.com/content/53351.

  37. Ibid.

  38. Fiona Tam, “Chongqing to Raise Migrant, Rural Incomes,” South China Morning Post, January 3, 2009, http://www.scmp.com/print/article/665654/chongqing-raise-migrant-rural-incomes.

  39. The Other Side of Apple, 25.

  40. The Other Side of Apple II.

  41. “Apple Supplier Responsibility 2011 Progress Report,” Apple Inc., http://images.apple.com/supplierresponsiblity/pdf/Apple SR 20111 Progress Report.pdf.

  42. Ibid.

  43. The Other Side of Apple II.

  44. Friends of Nature, The Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs, Envirofriends, Nature University, Nanjing Greenstone, Apple Opens Up: IT Industry Supply Chain Investigative Report—Phase VI, January 29, 2013, http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/lgreer/Report-IT-Phase-VI-Draft-EN.pdf.

  45. Bradsher and Duhigg, “Signs of Changes.”

  46. Steven Greenhouse, “Critics Question Record of Fair Labor Association, Apple’s Monitor,” New York Times, February 13, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/114/technology/critics-question-record-of-fair-labor-association-apples-monitor.html.

  47. Catherine Rampell and Nick Wingfield, “In Shift of Jobs, Apple Will Make Some Macs in U.S.,” New York Times, December 6, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/07/technology/apple-to-resume-us-manufacturing.html?pagewanted=all&_r=o.

  48. For Apple revenue breakdown, see “Revenue by Product (as Percentage of Revenues),” Bare Figures, http://barefigur.es.

  49. Fiona Tam, “All Work and No Play Makes It a Dull Plant,” South China Morning Post, May 27, 2010, www.scmp.com/print/article/71543o/all-work-and-no-play-makes-it-dull-plant.

  50. Apple Opens Up: IT Industry Supply Chain Investigative Report—Phase VI, 33.

  51. Ira Glass, “Retraction.”

  52. Kraemer et al., “Capturing Value in Global Networks: Apple’s iPad and iPhone.”

  53. Fiona Tam, “Number of Migrant Workers in Delta Outstrips Job Vacancies,” South China Morning Post, March 4, 2009, http://www.scmp.com/print/article/671980/number-migrant-work-ers-delta-outstrips-job-vacancies.

  54. Pun and Chan, “Global Capital, the State, and Chinese Workers: The Foxconn Experience.”

  55. See, for example, William I. Robinson, Latin America and Global Capitalism: A Critical Perspective (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2008); Mike Davis, Planet of Slums (London: Versa, 2007); and Pun Ngai, Made in China: Women Factory Workers in a Global Workplace (North Carolina: Duke University Press, 2005).

  56. Edna Bonacich and Richard P. Appelbaum, Behind the Label: Inequality in the Los Angeles Apparel Industry (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000).

  57. Fiona Tam, “Million to Be Trained to Fight Labour Shortage,” South China Morning Post, February 26, 2008, http://www.scmp.com/print/article/627636/million-be-trained-fight-labour-shortage; and Fiona Tam, “300,000 Foxconn Staff in Move to Henan,” South China Morning Post, June 30, 20
10, http://www.scmp.com/print/article/718493/300000-foxconn-staff-move-henan.

  58. Nelson D. Schwartz and Charles Duhigg, “Apple’s Web of Tax Shelters Saved It Billions, Panel Finds,” New York Times, May 20, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/21/business/apple-avoided-billions-in-taxes-congressional-panel-says.html?hp&_r=i&.

  59. Ibid.

  60. Isaiah J. Poole, “Apple Dodges Enough Taxes to Cover Much of the Sequester,” Truthout, May 5, 2013, http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/116177-apple-dodges-enough-taxtes-to-cover-much-of-the-sequester.

  CHAPTER 11

  The “New” American

  Imperialism in Africa

  Secret Sahara Wars and AFRICOM

  Brian Martin Murphy

  In January 2013, a new African conflict burst into world headlines. The French Air Force and Army invaded the Saharan nation of Mali, launching attacks on an advancing force of rebels who had occupied the north of the country and imposed Islamic sharia law.

  The official story, circulating in most international media, was that a network of jihadists had emerged from the wilds of the Sahara to sow radical Islam, led by the self-declared “Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.” French troops, supported by soldiers from the nations of West Africa grouped under the flag of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), pushed north, and the rebels slowly dispersed back into the desert, to the joy of the occupied Malians.

  In reality, what the world witnessed was a tragic new chapter in a conspiracy to create a terrorist threat in the Sahara. The main player has been Algeria, with the involvement of various arms of the United States government. Dating back to the months after the attacks on September 11, 2001, the program started as part of the US global war on terror and has since run parallel with the creation of the US military’s Africa Command (AFRICOM), in 2007–20081 Together they signal a “new” American imperialism in Africa,2 with the primary aim of securing access to oil for US corporations.3