It seems like there's a contradiction between protecting labour in one's own country and having solidarity between the working class.
This was inspired by this fast food chain outsourcing their cashiers to be Zoomed in digitally from Nicaragua for $3.75/hr CDN.
Canadian labour is against this, but $3.75 is an incredible wage in Nicaragua and surely this is a net benefit for labour?
I know there are often environmental issues with internationally shipping outsourced goods, and exploitation opportunities to put global south workers in dangerous positions or to pay them even less (taking into account PPP) because of lax labour laws in said country, but for now I'd like to set those aside. They are important, but even if they can be resolved there is still a central contradiction I think.
Also obviously a major problem is that all this does is increase usurped surplus value by the capitalist class, these gains are not distributed among the population of workers who are now unemployed.
But sometimes we have to take positions on things being better or worse assuming capitalism will remain in place. Assuming global capitalism is held constant, is it a net good if a Canadian worker loses a job that doesn't pay a living wage so a Nicaraguan worker can do the job and make a decent living?
I'm sure there's a lot written about this dichotomy of labour support and internationalism, I just don't know where to start thinking about this.
It's only a contradiction if you think wage relationships are some boon given by capitalists to their employees, or some kind of redistribution of wealth. The international bourgeoisie are making money off of this arrangement, at the expense of those third world workers.
This is no different from neoliberals saying sweatshops are good for the global poor, or that Uber is good because it employs lots of POC.
Sweatshops are dangerous not the case for a job over zoom
Sweatshops being potentially dangerous is not the reason why they're bad.
To be clear I am not asking if this is good, I know it is not. I am asking if it is a net good for workers.
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