Abstract
A number of imponderables have always bedevilled Marxist analysis concerning the disruptive impact of computer technology on work and employment. The early phase of this technological development was accompanied by a migration of unskilled, data-entry jobs abroad from the US and Europe. There is a massive transfer of high-skilled work, and well-paid occupations, from Europe and the USA to (relatively) low-cost production first from the US Rustbelt of the US Sunbelt. Multinationals that have no national loyalty of affiliation always gravitate to the cheapest sources of labour: China, India, Taiwan, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia. This is an ongoing race to the bottom. China, once the Eldorado of cheap labour is now experiencing a similar socialisation of its market and political processes that once engulfed the ‘workshop of the world’ (the UK). Now, in China, labour is striking for decent working conditions and pollution protection. GDP is now in free-fall. China is now returning to its religious beginnings of Confucian theology. What is happening in China is merely a prelude for changes that are inevitable for its competitive upstarts: India, Taiwan, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia.
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