Brenda Barrientos on Naomi Klein's "The Discarded Factory"

While compiling research for her essay No Space No Choice No Jobs No Logo, Canadian author and social activist Naomi Klein managed to find her way inside one of the free-trade zones in the Philippines. Astounded by what she found, Klein reveals theof factories and workers within Rosario's free-trade zone, one of the numerous that had spawned as a result of the global corporate economy. 

When Klein first entered the Rosario's Cavite Export Processing Zone, she was initially forbidden from visiting any of the factories on site; but with the assistance of one laid off eighteen-year-old worker, she managed to go back on site a second time and describes a factory that had stood out to her. "...the white rectangular building said 'Philips,' but through its surrounding fence I could see mountains of Nike shoes piled high" (Klein 203). The site of the factory is the pillar example to Klein that reflects global corporate's thoughts on the factories and people they subcontract: they are, in her words, "unbrandable and unswooshworthy." They are, Klein argues, considered better left unseen, unheard, and an unmarketable image in the lifestyle corporations want to sell and showcase in their branding campaigns that would sooner cause stocks to plummet than rise. This attitude, to Klein, reflects itself upon the factory workers' conditions, where a vast majority of women are forced to work 12-16 hours a day with below-the-minimum wages, under constant threat of being fired. 

While there's much in Klein's book that's hard to follow due to my limited understanding of economics, Klein's analysis makes a lot of sense to me. From what Klein describes of the worker and the factory buildings, there's certainly a diminished appreciation for either the factories or the workers inside them. Brand-name corporations present themselves as so self-conscious about their image that they are willing to sacrifice even the well-being of the people that work for the companies they subcontract, and it shows in the hidden nature of the factories. Even if this lack of care could reflect badly on them, they can't be held liable; it's always, "they don't work for us!" or "we don't own the factories and it's the fault of the subcontractors." So long as these places are not legally associated to them, they are immune to scandal. What few seem to be asking aloud is: shouldn't these corporations have known the likelihood of abuse? Couldn't they stipulate or take steps to ensure fair conditions for the factory workers in exchange for their products?  

All around the world today there's a factory or another that's being protested against, and organizations are working hard to call out corporate secrets, whether its - often - the abuse of factory workers or other corporate malpractices. There are people working to bring to light any breach of ethics they can, even in the free trade-zones, where writer Padmini Weerasuriya covers the conditions experienced by workers in Sri Lanka , the corporate actions purposely imposing preventions against protests, and the subsequent consequences of ill-health and poor lifestyles for this people.

If there's anything I'd love to discuss more in class discussions, it would be the methods that can be taken to not only bring awareness and priority to the conditions experienced within these free-trade zones, but push for policies that could regulate or reform them, at least.