Readers Write In #789: Understanding the Story of Human Development through a T-Shirt

By Jeeva P

I was reading a book called Travels of a T-Shirt in The Global Economy by Pietra Rivoli. The author had wanted to know the origins of her newly procured, cheap yet so professionally made T-shirt the likes of which were occupying cloth stores in almost every corner of her country, the United States of America. She finds that her T-shirt was made in China, imported into her country by a local fabric importer based somewhere in her own state. She grabs the trail, follows it meticulously, lands in China, visits factories where her T-shirt was made and manages even to learn the economics behind the textile industry that had been on a boom in China during the 2000s.

She soon learns that though the T-shirt was made in China, the raw materials for the same were exported to the Asian country from nowhere but her own backyard, the United States of America, probably one of the largest exporters of cotton in the world. She soon finds herself in Texas, one of the largest cotton producing states in the US to learn how cotton is grown, how a co-operative formed by the union of cotton-producing farmers in the state is coordinating the various processes involved in the production and processing of cotton – the ginning process where the cotton seed is separated from the lint (cotton fibres), the process of spinning of cotton into yarn and finally the weaving of the yarn into cotton cloth, etc. 

The cotton cooperatives run by the farmers also take care of converting the by-products of cotton farming into cottonseed meal, oils, peanut butter, etc. All these products in turn form part of yet another lucrative business feeding various other branches of the American industry. The author also describes in painstaking detail on how cotton farming originated in the US, how farmers through their efforts at unionising and formation of co-operatives were able to generate sufficient political power as to influence policy decisions of the government, obtaining generous subsidies along with other forms of governmental support to finally become one of the world’s largest exporters of cotton despite stiff competition from various other countries across the globe.

There were two main takeaways for me from the book – the power of collective bargaining exercised by the farmers to make governments work for them, a model that could be adopted in India by farmers cutting across religion, caste and language and finally, the ways Third World countries have become factories for the First World and the attendant dynamics that drive businesses, livelihoods and economics over there.

Since we have already a fair idea on how cooperatives work, how profitable they are and how they are the most egalitarian models of wealth creation and distribution currently on earth, I would like to dwell in this essay on the aforementioned second aspect – the T-shirt factories that populate the poor regions of the world like those in China, Bangladesh, Vietnam and even India. 

When the author talks to some of the factory workers in China, the picture that emerges is right out of the stories we have read about slavery in the 17th and 18th centuries in the US and Europe. Workers today, mostly women, are engaged in sweatshops that mandate 15-hour workdays, tiny restroom breaks and terrible working environments for mere subsistence wages. The cheap labour, the pliability of the workforce and support offered by local governments for the establishment of such factories are some of the factors that attract Western textile companies to places like China, Bangladesh, India and Vietnam. The low wages coupled with high productivity is a lip-smacking combination for large textile corporations which make enormous profits through sale of these T-shirts in the First World and almost every textile brand we know has been directly involved in this orgy of exploitation and profiteering.

However, the author is quick to add a silver lining to this cloud as she details on how a combination of local trade union activities and student activism in the United States to boycott textiles manufactured in sweatshops located in the Third World have slowly yet steadily managed to force corporations to offer manufacturing contracts only to factories that treat their workers fairly. As a result, the last few years have witnessed at least a marginal improvement in the working conditions for thousands of workers involved in these production processes. But surprisingly the author doesn’t restrict herself only to the current day trends, striking conversations with the lady employees trying all the time to obtain a much larger picture of their lives. Many of the workers, according to the author, appear to have been, interestingly, happy and content for having been employed in sweatshops such as these despite the mind-numbing drudgery and stultifying routines imposed by the factory management.

Most of the workers it appears, seem to have hated the centuries-old feudal conditions that have accompanied agriculture in almost every Third World country and were reportedly waiting to unfetter themselves from the toil, the scorching heat, the sweat and the economic uncertainty that agriculture had inseparably been entwined with. The arrival of capitalism through textile industries seems to have given women financial independence, something that family-owned farms and traditional agriculture had failed to offer for centuries together. Along with financial independence, came social status and respect and women seem to have actually been grateful to the sweatshops for having ushered them into this new, unprecedented era. The relentless work of trade unions and labour activists have in addition, in fact helped them to gain some time for leisure too – though too paltry or modest by the standards of the West – and some ambitious women seem to have lapped them up with alacrity to devote their spare time towards education or vocational learning as to equip themselves for diverse and newer career choices that have tagged along with the emergence of capitalism.

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When I completed the book, I could see that a clear pattern was emerging. Whichever country was ready to offer cheap labour and governmental backing, capital was ready to fly and land over there. It thrived under exploitative labour conditions such as zero employment protection, zero benefits and assured governmental action against collective bargaining by workers. Within a few years when the lure of capitalism started waning for the hitherto backward workers, the exploitative practices were slowly being called out and fought against, driving workers towards informal or formal unionising. The factories in turn tried to maneuver governments into offering resistance against worker actions and push and pull seem to have happened on both sides for a few more years. International attention soon fell on the issue leading to governments pulling the plug and factories backing down. Corporations offering contracts subsequently acquiesced and there was a marginal or sometimes modest improvement in the conditions of workers as a result. A new status quo was achieved, the wages rose and the profit margins of the corporations saw a proportionate drop.

By the time within years, when the workers began to breathe a little easier, capital prepared itself for looking elsewhere. It scouted for places where poverty was even more grinding, societies even more primitive and governments even more pliant and servile. Soon negotiations were initiated, governments were bought through money or maneuver, contracts were forged and factories were installed in these politically and economically backward places. Profits went up once again, capital shone brightly and the cycle continued to repeat.

If you look at this pattern closely, this would describe not just the story of one branch of commodity production and exchange, case in point here – textiles. Every single branch of capitalist industry – coal, iron, steel, electronics, automobiles, fuel, minerals – has historically followed the same broad path of development and expansion as that of textiles described here. Post 17th century, whenever a point of saturation had been reached for a largely agricultural society in history leading to low wages and low productivity, industrial capitalism has taken root, pauperised the already poor and disenfranchised agricultural workers and forced them to become industrial workers. They have toiled for hours and weeks together and enjoyed the rudimentary benefits of the new system for a while. Soon the pinch of the oppressive conditions is felt while capital has managed to make humongous profits and expanded. Workers have been forced to unionize while corporations with technological and political backing have tried to hit back. Lives and livelihoods were lost, external and internal pressures emerged and governments finally backed down. Industries were forced to compromise on certain aspects and a new status quo was attained with temporary, yet crucial victories won by the workers. Capital either tried to flee the place in a few decades or sprouted simultaneously in newer states or countries reducing dependency on a single location for production. Workers in the meantime availed and leveraged benefits offered by new workplace protections and concessions, political rights won through struggles and tried to climb the social and economic ladder. The subsequent generations inherited and capitalised on the hitherto acquired social mobility achieved by their fathers, engaged in formal education and equipped themselves for specialised or academic or executive functions that emerge with advanced capitalism and tried to move even forward. Very broadly, this is my perception of the story of the progress of human development as it has happened during the last few centuries in various important places on earth.

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The most crucial point of my essay is only this – why does human development always have to happen on the back of ruthless and indiscriminate exploitation of the majority by a very tiny minority? For the whole of humanity to attain even its most basic and indispensable freedoms and rights, why does it have to toil for decades together and wait till a very chosen few have enriched themselves to a dizzying degree? Why do the masses, in addition to having sweated their lives out at the insufferable factory floor, have to dedicate their already meagre leisure towards unionising and re-equipping themselves for the struggle against their exploiters? Why do every single right, concession and freedom won by the workers ask for the tears, sweat and blood of at least a few in return? How many more generations of humanity we may have to sacrifice to the maniacal rapacity of capitalists until the succeeding generations of masses manage to attain a slightly better standard of living? Why is the path to overall human development and well-being so treacherous, tiring, long-winded and strewn with grime and blood all along? With the knowledge acquired by studying the struggles of our forefathers, can we not imagine a newer and a much more humane path to human development that does not ask for the blood and sweat of the fathers in exchange for offering better lives to their sons and grand-sons?