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.

  • Ithorian [comrade/them, null/void]
    ·
    3 years ago

    I've been thinking about this with the whole "made in america" thing, like is it better to keep the exploitation at home or maybe help economies in the global south. The latter seems like is neo-clonialisum but is it actually worse then the extreme exploitation of "local" labor?

    • ssjmarx [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      maybe help economies in the global south

      This assumption is wrong. Outsourcing doesn't help economies in the global south, it in fact traps them in a relationship of interdependence not unlike the explicitly colonial relationships that modern capitalism mirrors. What would help economies in the global south would be protectionist policies in global south countries, but leaders who do that tend to get assassinated.

    • HamManBad [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      The assumption is usually that local labor is unionized, though that doesn't apply as much anymore