22374: Vilaire: Re: 22360: Durban: Responding on Grupo M Closure (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Vilaire@aol.com

Lance Durban writes:


<<Simidor and Marx-Vilaire continue to berate the assembly sector and the
Grupo M project in particular without offering much of

an alternative. >>

Mr. Durban, it's not the case that an alternative has not been offered.
Nobody seems interested in an alternative that does not subscribe to the ideology
of turning Haiti into a massive sweatshop. The group PAPDA (Haitian Advocacy
Platform for an Alternative Development) has consulted and worked with Haitians
from all walks of life to develop that very alternative. You can find the
blueprint of that proposal in an information packet which the Washington Office on
Haiti published (in English) back in 1996: "Haiti Economic Justice
Information Packet." I'm certain PAPDA still has plenty of copies left. I still have a
few rotten copies around. The problem is that Haitian authorities have for a
long time abdicated their responsibilities regarding the country's development.
They have instead given neoliberal ideologues and so-called NGOs carte blanche
to do as they please.

Mr. Durban writes:
<<But what alternatives can be offered to employ large numbers of uneducated
people?"

The idea of a dynamic assembly industry in Haiti putting lots of uneducated
(and hungry) Haitians to work is misleading. In its heyday, the assembly
industry employed no more than 50,000 people. Nothing to sneeze at most would say.
And certainly the families getting the assembly wages would agree. And so do I.
But from the perspective of NATIONAL economic development in a country of
some 8 million souls, sweatshops ain't gonna do it. Again I repeat, these
sweatshop operations add very little value and growth to the national economy.
Please, don't misread me: I'm not talking about the pockets of individual families.
I'm referring to the dynamic process of forward and backward linkages to other
activities in the local economy where growth and value occur. Export-driven
sweatshops just don't do that.

Mr. Durban continues:
"Finally, Marx-Vilaire's contention (22352) that the assembly sector is a
poor tool in the struggle to develop misses the point that the assembly business
is merely one part of industrialization.  Would he then suggest that Haiti
fore-go industrialization entirely and perhaps concentrate on planting more mango
trees?"

Mr. Durban, no industrialization will ever take place with an assembly sector
that is driven only to exploit local labor for foreign consumption.
Industrialization would take place if there were a plan to transfer technology. This is
never the case. The company comes in. It does its business. It makes its
money. When it decides to shut down, it does so and leaves none, zilch, zero, nada
of its technology behind. What industrialization can possibly occur in such
scenario? To say nothing of the zero skills transfer...

Finally, here's my challenge to anyone on the list: Please name one
underdeveloped country, just one, that has successfully developed its economy on the
basis of export-driven assembly sweatshops. I eagerly await your response.

Marx-Vilaire