Putting capital in its place: globalization and the prospects for labor

Abstract

The fate of workers in the face of globalization has been much decried and debated, but usually from the wrong angle. The focus of conventional discussion is almost always on labor markets and the woes of international wage competition. In critical approaches, the miracle of global capital mobility and the power of transnational corporations come in for the most attention, for their presumed role in the offshoring of industry from the advanced economies and build-up of cheap-labor platforms in the newly industrializing countries. In contrast, the argument presented here points the finger of blame away from the economic failings of workers and successes of capital to the worldwide political defeat of the working class and global economic failures of capitalism.