Connie K.

Chen

BIS 332

Dr. Min Tang

02/25/2020

Reaction Paper

In the context of slavery in the Atlantic triangle trade, this article applies the

overall framework of slavery to the comparison of slavery and digital labor conditions

in the 21st century. In general, the article takes Foxconn, the world's largest

electronics manufacturer, as an example to critically discuss the dominance and

exploitation of digital media manufacturing. This exploitation was defined by a new

term: iSlavery.

From the term iSlavery, we can see that the traditional meaning of slavery has been

upgraded, and the biggest producing environment is “I”, that is, “manufacturing

factory” in the high-tech information society. The factory literally comes from the

slave trade's transit point, and it's not hard to see that Foxconn has these

characteristics.

This article reminds me of something I read at Goffman’s Asylums. In the book,

Goffman describes that mental patients are forced to live in a despotic institution, cut

off all connections with the outside world, and finally lose their autonomy (Goffman,

1971). In some ways, Foxconn workers’ mental state is similar to the psychopaths

mentioned in the book. They were experiencing social isolation and separation,

deprived of many freedoms and rights by the companies of the ruling class. In
addition, the topic of the Foxconn case is also related to lecture discussions on the

slave ship and the slave trade. People were seen as cheap labor, workers became a

traded commodity, their feelings and health were not important, they were just a

working machine that never stopped working. Labor slavery became a means of trade,

resulting in many factories set up in remote areas. This migration was a form of

trafficking, because Foxconn can maximize its use of low-cost labor to profit from

Apple. Similarly, whether it was a slave ship four centuries ago or a Foxconn factory

today, the suicide was the result of extreme existential despair. More ironically,

Foxconn has installed more than 3 million square meters of "prevention and

protection nets," similar to the "suicide prevention net" on slave ships. Unfortunately,

the net is designed not to protect lives, but to protect business revenues.

The author criticizes the brutal working mode of Foxconn and recognizes it as a

new system of exploitation and slavery. The author provided a evidence form entitled

with "list of Foxconn workers who jumped or fell to death from high places in the

first five months of 2010", which details showed 15 workers who suicided or

attempted to suicide, 13 of them died and two were injured, one of them will be

permanently paralyzed. What a terrible statistic. In my opinion, the relationship

between a company and its employees should be mutually beneficial. To be sure,

companies are not charities. But the operation principle should be the company and

the employees work together to make money, and then the company takes some of the

profits as a salary ， give back to the employees. But in the case of Foxconn, the

company acts as an exploitative ruling class, and the employees are slaves of the
ruling class, without any so-called human rights. There is no doubt that the way of

obtaining profits does not have to sacrifice the lives of its employees, and also,

forcing employees to work long hours is absolutely a form of maltreat. For example, a

2014 report by a group of 20 universities showed that Foxconn’s overtime hours far

exceeded China's legal limit of 36 hours per month. What is more serious is that in the

peak season of 2014, assembly line workers were found to work 140 hours in

consecutive months, sometimes as much as 152 hours (Qiu, 58). Yet, even facing

these deaths of lives, the company has chosen to deny the allegations. Terry Guo

blamed the suicides on "personal relationships", "breakups" and "family disputes". On

the part of Apple Inc., Tim Cook and his executives emphasized that apple has made

great efforts to ensure labor standards (Qiu, 57).

In today's 21st century society, we appeal to human rights, we talk about freedom,

we advocate the awareness of rights protection. We define the 21st century as the 21st

century because we think a lot of things are getting better. However, the reality is that

slavery still exists in the manufacturing industry such as Foxconn, only in a different

way. Slaves are given the title of labors (Qiu, 58).

This article helps me to understand the word "iSlavery", which exists not only

under the African slave trade, but also in the labor at Foxconn and the fetishization of

digital commodities. The authors' views will also raise alarm bells in the hope that

manufacturers will recognize that it is wrong to exploit workers. But personally, I

think there are some shortcomings in the theme and argument of the article. The

article seems overstate the definition of iSlavery. Some workers lack higher education
or professional skills, so that they can only work in such manufacturing. However,

people always want to change or improve their lives, which inevitably needs the

support of money, and can only temporarily become a "work machine". It's not just

Foxconn’s bullying. The scary thing is that this temporary grievance will slowly shape

their individuals into a resigned personality. As I mentioned earlier in Goffman's

Asylums, when patients continue to live in such institutions, they quickly lose their

identity. Foxconn workers in such a living state are difficult to have a free mindset.

Apart from the long hour working and low wages, the author's argument is not strong

enough to support the idea that Foxconn's workers were treated as slaves. After

all ， in the African slave trade, slaves were beaten, handcuffed and thrown into the

sea. However，Foxconn's workers have not been so exploited.

In conclusion, it is necessary for the company to provide employees with a

favorable employment environment and a humanized working system. All profits

cannot be built on the health and life of employees. At the same time, we should also

become "a digital abolitionist" and abolish the bondage from digital commodities.

Questions for Class Discussions:

1. Do you think the long-hour working is a kind of work pattern in

manufacturing or a kind of exploitation by Foxconn?

2. How do you feel about being a digital abolitionist and what do you do? Do you

have any crazy experience with digital commodities?

3. Do you think the successive suicides at Foxconn are due to the media effect?
 Works Cited

Qiu, 2016. Goodbye iSlave, Chapter 3, “Manufacturing iSlaves.”

Goffman, E. (1971). Asylums.New York: Anchor Books.