Canada and the Developing World -A comparative framework Thesis on children/youth:

1. Canada and the Developing World -A comparative framework • Thesis on children/youth: • Increasing global corporatization has integrated children/ youth in the Core and Peripheral countries into a global commodity chain. • Most children/youth in the Core help extract a major share of surpluses (corporate profits) through their consumption within a stable political economy. Thus, a majority of the children/youth in the affluent Canada (Core) have been transformed into conspicuous consumersor service sector commodities, whilea minority of them (1 in 10 (circa 2010)) live in poverty

2. Thesis (cont’d) • In contrast, through poorly paid or unpaid household labour children/youth in the Peripheries are exploited through surplus extraction for profit for and consumption in the Core. In the Periphery, those children/youth who are from the rich and middle classes, become comprador consumers. But most of the peripheral countries’ children are absolutely poor and must work for their livelihood. Thus they become labour commodities

3. Comparative arguments using WST: • Global corporatization has integrated children/ youth in the Core and Peripheral countries into a global commodity chain. • Most children/youth in the Core help extract a major share of surpluses (corporate profits) through their consumption within a stable political economy. Thus, a majority of the children/youth in the affluent Canada (Core) have been transformed into conspicuous consumersor service sector commodities, whilea minority of them (1 in 10 (circa 2010)) live in poverty • In contrast, through poorly paid or unpaid household labour children/youth in the Peripheries are exploited through surplus extraction for profit for and consumption in the Core. In the Periphery, those children/youth who are from the rich and middle classes become comprador consumers. But most of the DWs’ children are absolutely poor and must work for their livelihood. Thus they become labour commodities

4. WST concepts that explain the reasons for the increase in child poverty in the Core and in the Peripheries: • Neoliberalism: • Declining role of the State • Deregulation results in Financial Meltdown (2008) • Global Commodity Chain (GCC)

5. Neoliberalism & its result: GCC in Core: • Declining role of the State • Financial Deregulation • Dismantling of Social Welfare • Privatization of child care • Youth integration into GCC • Weakening of social policy towards children • State is unable to compensate the impact on • child poverty generated by the shocks • Declining funding for youth programs & educ. • Youth unemployment

6. WST concepts that explain the reasons for the increase in child poverty in the Core and in the Peripheries: • Neoliberalism: • Declining role of the State • Deregulation resulted in Financial Meltdown (2008) • Global Commodity Chain (GCC)

7. Global corporatization has integrated children/ youth in the Core and Peripheral countries into a global commodity chain. • CHILD LABOR/SLAVERY: NIKE, APPLE, GAP, MICROSOFT -- CHINA, INDIA, PAK • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57v_v6oSGZI 2010 4min

8. Single division of labor: core accumulates capital as periphery supplies labour

9. WST & Global Commodity Chain (GCC): • Commodity Chain Research HD • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs65dIcRKXE • Core: Capital rich • MNCs’ corporate Head Office: • R&D • Product design • Customization • Market distribution • Products • Retail • Ads

10. Inequitable Impacts of global Commodity Chains on workers in Canada (Core): Wilma A. Dunaway, Wealth & Capital Concentration In Commodity Production, lower wages for the workers Low Remuneration for Non-Wage Labor (e.g. household work) Economic Costs Conspicuous Consumption Devaluation of Arts & Humanities Commodification of Youth, child, women as Ads, Logo Educational & cultural costs Health Civic freedoms Discrimination: gender & Age Human rights Law & Order (prejudice against the poor) Critical individual costs

11. GCC • Peripheries: Labour surplus • Production process: • Vertically integrated • GCC

12. Vertically integrated Model: MNCs’ GCC Foreign subsidiary or Subcontracting local company Manufacturing factories or Sweatshops Extract raw materials from resource rich areas Extract surplus from labour Household labour of the poor (low/no wage or slavery): Men, Women, Youth & Children

13. GCC (contd.) • Peripheries: Labour surplus • Production process: • Vertically integrated • GCC

14. Hidden Inputs of the Peripheries’ child & women in the global Commodity Chain Typical Production Node of a Capitalist Commodity Chain Cheap Labor Capitalist Costs that are Externalized to Households Working class child & women subsidize the Production Process Inequitable Impacts on children & women Economic Costs to the Periphery Surplus extraction from labour: No-wage, Unpaid & Low-wage subsidize commodity production State Subsidies: in providing societal Infrastructure of maintaining stable social order State Subsidies to Capitalist Enterprises External costs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yC5R9WPId0s (7.39min)

15. Inequitable Impacts of global Commodity Chains on Children/youth workers: in the Periphery: Wilma A. Dunaway, • Economic costs: • Negative impact of loss of education years on a country’s development • Country loses skill development in its future population • Health costs • Children in hazardous work: Life span, health and welfare irrecoverably affected • Social costs • Cycle of Poverty – destitution becomes endemic

16. Comparative conceptual arguments: • Global corporatization has integrated children/ youth in the Core and Peripheral countries into a global commodity chain. • Most children/youth in the Core help extract a major share of surpluses (corporate profits) through their consumption within a stable political economy. Thus, a majority of the children/youth in the affluent Canada (Core) have been transformed into conspicuous consumersor service sector commodities, whilea minority of them (1 in 10 (circa 2010)) live in poverty • In contrast, through poorly paid or unpaid household labour children/youth in the Peripheries are exploited through surplus extraction for profit for and consumption in the Core. In the Periphery, those children/youth who are from the rich and middle classes become comprador consumers. But most of the DWs’ children are absolutely poor and must work for their livelihood. Thus they become labour commodities

17. Canada: Core country’s children/youth: • Most are higher or middle income classes (80% all children in Canada): • Children at school • Youth at school/work • Consumers: Conspicuous Consumption

18. Canada: Child/youth are transformed into: • Conspicuous consumers (endless consumption) • Service sector commodities

19. Conspicuous consumers • Rich Kids for Romney http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fit79MQwyeY 50sec 2012 • Creation of artificial wants • Persuaded to consume endlessly • Ads & Peer pressure lure the young

20. Core’s Child/ Youth conspicuous consumption: • manufactured and manipulated by: • Adult-led army of advertisers • Marketing consultants • Youth researchers

21. Child/youth in the Core transformed into: • Conspicuous consumers (endless consumption) • Commodified in the Service sector

22. Core: youth work is: • Low-end service work • Low in status, value and skill • Not “real” work • Corporations view youth work as hobby

23. Consumerism - Commodification Link: • Circularity in youth employment • Service sector employers: • Hire young workers because ‘youth’ • sells product • Youth/child often isthe real product being sold • e.g.: Ads of child/youth in jeans or t-shirts, sneakers or snowboards, soft drinks or CDs • Youth as consumers

24. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1587254,00.htmlhttp://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1587254,00.html

25. e.g.: Retail and food service companies: • Exploit the sexuality of young workers (esp. women) to attract customers and increase sales • Staff stores by hiring youth as workers with the right “look” • Hire by screening for an appearance, attitude and demeanor based on age, gender, race and class

26. The company hires “brand representatives”: • Not cashiers or clerks • Exhibiting the “A&F Look” (to experience Abercrombie & Fitch stores) • Selling an experience for customer to experience again and again through the Brand

27. Commodification of Youth • Youth workers: • wear brand name perfumes as directed. • But, in Starbucks: no colognes and perfumes – only the “romance of coffee” aroma • Faces freshly scrubbed with Body Shop Blue Corn Mask • Apartments furnished with Ikea self-assembled bookcases and coffee tables

28. Circularity in youth employment: • MNCs created mass consumerism (in post-WW II era) • Commodification of youth in mass advertising • Demand for youth as service sector workers • Canadian youth want stable economy: why? (Jobs & MNCs’ profits will remain stable)

29. Globally Integrated conspicuous consumption • Kinko’s, Starbucks and Blockbuster clerks buy their uniforms of khakis and white or blue shirts at the Gap • “Hi! Welcome to the Gap!” greeting cheer is fueled by Starbucks double espressos • Résumés that got them the jobs were designed at Kinko’s on friendly Macs, in 12-point Helvetica on MS Word.

30. Why Commodity Chains are created by global corporation? How does it work? • NDL: International division of labour (post colonial) • Endless accumulation: economic growth to maximize profits • Commodification of everything; • Global search for surplus extraction • Repeated cycles of innovation, change, and expansion

31. Nike World Headquarters in Oregon • Profits & Patents • Research Lab: tests in biomechanics, physiology, sensory • Customise to suit the interest of clients’ geography, age, gender • e.g., Runners • in the United States prefer hard surfaces • in Europe prefer trails Ads (consumerism): e.g.: 2001 the Nike Goddess outlets Profit percolates up Commodification of the Young: child & youth workers consumers

32. Extraction of Raw materials (mostly from peripheries): Rubber, leather and plastic Extracted from places located in close proximity Household labour Women Youth Children

33. Peripheral states: Subcontracts the production process: 900 contract factories Independent private contractors in China, Indonesia and Vietnam Vertically integrated model Sent to the factories or “Sweatshops” for manufacturing

34. Comparative conceptual arguments: • Global corporatization has integrated children/ youth in the Core and Peripheral countries into a global commodity chain. • Most children/youth in the Core help extract a major share of surpluses (corporate profits) through their consumption within a stable political economy. Thus, a majority of the children/youth in the affluent Canada (Core) have been transformed into conspicuous consumersor service sector commodities, whilea minority of them (1 in 10 (circa 2010)) live in poverty • In contrast, through poorly paid or unpaid household labour children/youth in the Peripheries are exploited through surplus extraction for profit for and consumption in the Core. In the Periphery, those children/youth who are from the rich and middle classes become comprador consumers. But most of the DWs’ children are absolutely poor and must work for their livelihood. Thus they become labour commodities

35. Peripheral states: • MNCs’ Subcontractors (owner class): • Upper income class (global Elite class) • luxury goods consumer household • Rich Kids Gone Wild? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW_VDMYxhvc • 4.37 min 2011 • Who made our shirt child lab in china http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2KCYsmWFP8 3min 2009 • Educated & skilled workers: • Middle income class (White or Blue collar) • Children & youth at school • Formal sector: Working men/women • Consumer household (beyond basic goods)

36. Peripheral states: • Lower income and Poorer classes: • Working Men • Working Children • Working youth • Working women

37. Fourth World: • Indigenous population: • Unemployed & discriminated men • Children exploited in boarding schools • Culturally alienated youth • Working and abused women

38. Child/youth Poverty in Peripheral countries: • International Labor Organization (ILO) reports: • 2010 Global total of Children (age 5-17): 1.586 billion • 20 mil. more than in 2004 (1.3% increase) • In the Developing World (2010): • Working children. (age 5 - 17): 306 mil. • Child labour (5-17): 215 million http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@dgreports/@dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_126752.pdf Source for 2004: http://www.ilo.org/global/Themes/Child_Labour/lang--en/index.htm

39. Child labourers are defined as those: • Under the minimum age for work, or • Engaged in work that poses a threat to their health, safety or morals, or are subject to conditions of forced labour. • Source: http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@dgreports/@dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_126752.pdf • Child Labour: Breaking the Cycle of Poverty 2010 (5 min) • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1cZFgJwzYM • *Child Labour • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruh0O_mj1v0 5.20min 2006

40. Children in hazardous work: 115 million 2004 - 2010: 20% Increase in child labour in the 15-17 years age group: (from 52 million to 62 million) http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_126685.pdf

41. India: children working (pop:363 m. (31%) Age<14) (2009) https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/print/in.html) 13.6 million (Indian census) in 1981 20 million children in hazardous condition (Labour Ministry) in 1994 77 million computed on basis of # below poverty line in 1995 (Commission on Labour Standards) Mexico: children working (pop: 32m. (29%) Age <14) (2009) 8-11 million children under the age of 15 years are working in Mexico in 1994 (US Dept of Labor, Sweat and Toil of Children, 1994, citing US Dept of State, Human Rights Report, 1993) 16 % of children (age 5-14) -15% of male & 16% female - in child labour (1999-2003) http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/mexico_statistics.html

42. India (cont’d) : 60-115 million (Human Rights Watch) (1996) Child Economic Activity rate: 13.5% (Male) 10.3% (Female) Largest number of working children in the world - Child labour productivity accounts for 20% of India’s GNP L Am (Mexico) (cont’d) 40 million children (total pop. 500 mil in LAm) living or working on the streets of Latin America 20% begging to survive 24% by selling goods rest by doing subcontracting work. (Xinhua: Comtex , 2000) Working Children

43. India (cont’d) 85% of rural child laborers work in cultivation and agriculture, e.g., tea plantations, 40% of urban child laborers work in manufacturing and repair Also in carpet making, gem polishing, fireworks http://www.indianchild.in/Child_Exploitation/ (acc. April 09) L.Am (Mexico) (cont’d) (2000) L.Am children working in the streets, markets, tourist & other areas of 108 cities -70% are boys and 30% girls work as cart-pushers, kitchen help, and vendors children in the age group of 7 to 14 make up 30% of day laborers in the agriculture sector http://www.globalmarch.org/resourcecentre/world/mexico.pdf (acc. Ap 09)

44. http://www.hrw.org/children/labor.htm 2004 • Why is child labour bad for the children? • Four-year-olds tied to rug looms to keep them from running away - Working at rug looms, for example, has left children disabled with eye damage, lung disease, stunted growth, and a susceptibility to arthritis as they grow older • Work prevents the child from going to school • Work long hours, often in dangerous and unhealthy conditions, are exposed to lasting physical and psychological harm

45. … bad for children: • Children work for too many hours and too many days, for too little, or no pay • subject often to physical abuse • exposed to dangerous pesticides • work with dangerous tools • What did World Bank and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation do? • financing sericulture projects dependent on child labor • ( Human Rights Watch, 2004)

46. … bad for children: • Children making silk thread in India • dip their hands into boiling water that burns & • blisters • breathe smoke and fumes from machinery • handle dead worms that cause infections • guide twisting threads that cut their fingers • Children harvesting sugar cane in El Salvador: • use machetes to cut cane for up to nine hours a day in • the hot sun • injures their hands and legs • medical care often not available

47. 1999-2004 http://www.unicef.org/publications/index_30398.html

48. 2012: (source: http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats Number of children in the world 2.2 billion Number in poverty 1 billion (every second child)

49. Total Global/ Regional Children/Youth in ’000 (March 2012) Countries <18 <5 Africa 477,383 155,135 Middle East and North Africa 156,444 47,524 Asia 1,151,806 316,151 Latin America and Caribbean 195,713 53,461 Industrialized countries 203,008 57,212 Developing countries 1,953,940 563,545 Least developed countries 389,258 122,520 World 2,201,180 633,933 http://www.unicef.org/sowc2012/ accessed jan26,2013

50. Core: Canada & children in poverty Affluent country Child benefits Social institutions & financial support for children Poorer countries Child poverty leads to child labour Basic needs not met Concepts Comparing on Children & poverty Periphery: Mexico & India: Child Poverty