Censorship as a Non-Tariff Barrier to Trade
Finance, Subcommittee on International Trade, Customs, and Global Competitiveness; Censorship as a Non-Tariff Barrier to Trade, June 30, 2020
Limiting information is the most important element of restraining free markets and competition. When western capitalists do this, it is called public relations. When Chinese state capitalists and the Communist Party of China does it, it is called censorship. In both environments, it is a difference in intensity, but not in kind.
Product faults, wage and salary conditions, internal security matters (both whether law enforcement is involved or a part of the conspiracy) product pricing and other “trade secrets.” Show that Capitalism is toxic everywhere it is tried.
The question of Tibet and the Yugurs, the treatment of families on our southern border, workers in the fields and food plants (and their children) whether documented or not, in congressional offices and on the casting couch all show how rampant censoring reality can be.
The sad fact of the matter is that while there are some owners and executives who are not aware of what is behind the veil, it is more common that executives and co-workers know what is happening in their organizations, companies and societies, as well as those of their competition (both corporate and international). It is only the public that is in the dark, or worse, who look the other way.
What keeps all of this in play is shame. It is cultural in China and Asia, but it is also so in all parts of America. With shame as a societal agreement, censorship is self-enforcing. This is why progressives embrace diversity and openness. With these, shame and censorship are impossible.
Economic empowerment makes shame easier to defeat, although workers and their organizers can be coopted. It is part of the human condition.
The best disinfectant is empowering the individual, from whistleblowers in the Intelligence Community to a protestor challenging a tank in Tiananmen Square. Individuals change cultures. With the conviction of Harvey Weinstein, we know that the darkness can never win.
Another inevitable development is more democracy and ownership in the American workplace. Mutual empowerment leads to open information, the end of both shame and the cover that shame brings. What starts here must spread.
To protect themselves from job loss from their own supply chain and subsidiaries, employee-owned firms and cooperatives will assure that overseas workers have the same standard of living and workplace democracy that they enjoy, thus subverting authoritarianism in the Global South and East. Change in American companies cannot come from governmental action.
While there will always be organizations that hide their dirty linen, this usually comes from less democracy, not more.
American workers must seek the change they want but are afraid to ask for. The existing cooperative and employee owned sector is the best place to start, but it will only come from below. Management never likes change. As Frederick Douglass once said, power concedes nothing without a struggle. It is courage which ends both shame and censorship.
Limiting information is the most important element of restraining free markets and competition. When western capitalists do this, it is called public relations. When Chinese state capitalists and the Communist Party of China does it, it is called censorship. In both environments, it is a difference in intensity, but not in kind.
Product faults, wage and salary conditions, internal security matters (both whether law enforcement is involved or a part of the conspiracy) product pricing and other “trade secrets.” Show that Capitalism is toxic everywhere it is tried.
The question of Tibet and the Yugurs, the treatment of families on our southern border, workers in the fields and food plants (and their children) whether documented or not, in congressional offices and on the casting couch all show how rampant censoring reality can be.
The sad fact of the matter is that while there are some owners and executives who are not aware of what is behind the veil, it is more common that executives and co-workers know what is happening in their organizations, companies and societies, as well as those of their competition (both corporate and international). It is only the public that is in the dark, or worse, who look the other way.
What keeps all of this in play is shame. It is cultural in China and Asia, but it is also so in all parts of America. With shame as a societal agreement, censorship is self-enforcing. This is why progressives embrace diversity and openness. With these, shame and censorship are impossible.
Economic empowerment makes shame easier to defeat, although workers and their organizers can be coopted. It is part of the human condition.
The best disinfectant is empowering the individual, from whistleblowers in the Intelligence Community to a protestor challenging a tank in Tiananmen Square. Individuals change cultures. With the conviction of Harvey Weinstein, we know that the darkness can never win.
Another inevitable development is more democracy and ownership in the American workplace. Mutual empowerment leads to open information, the end of both shame and the cover that shame brings. What starts here must spread.
To protect themselves from job loss from their own supply chain and subsidiaries, employee-owned firms and cooperatives will assure that overseas workers have the same standard of living and workplace democracy that they enjoy, thus subverting authoritarianism in the Global South and East. Change in American companies cannot come from governmental action.
While there will always be organizations that hide their dirty linen, this usually comes from less democracy, not more.
American workers must seek the change they want but are afraid to ask for. The existing cooperative and employee owned sector is the best place to start, but it will only come from below. Management never likes change. As Frederick Douglass once said, power concedes nothing without a struggle. It is courage which ends both shame and censorship.
posted by Michael Bindner at 2:30 PM
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