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Forced labour in Cuba and free trade
Gerard Jackson
A reader has raised question of forced labour in relation to free trade. In other words, can trade by fully free where labour has been coerced in to producing the goods? (The reader means coercion in the proper use of the word and not the absurd one that Marxists use).
This is not as straightforward as it seems. The situation where people are kidnapped and then whipped in to labouring is obviously a clear case of slavery. Where this occurs every decent person should refrain from knowingly buying goods from this source. Additionally, they should do what they can to force their governments to take action against the slave owners.
But there is the not so clear case of what should properly be called state serfdom, of which Cuba is a graphic example.
Under Castro's benevolent totalitarian reign individuals work wherever the Party directs them and under whatever conditions the Party dictates at pay rates set by the Party. Irrespective of what Castro's many admirers in the media and academia would have the rest of us believe this situation is far worse than medieval serfdom. In Cuba the worker is basically the property of Fidel Castro.
The disgraceful deal that multinationals made with Castro confirms my conclusion. Although workers are officially paid in US dollars the money is actually paid to Castro who then gives those who earned it about 10 per cent which is paid in Cuban money.
Now what should be done about this? If the world refuses to buy Cuban goods they hurt the Cuban people. Moreover, Western academics and most journalists see nothing wrong with Castro's behaviour and would strongly resist any attempts to punish him. To them, this is socialism in action and helps pay the Cuban people's mythical free medical services.
I focused on the Cuban state not only because it is the only country I know of that robs its workers in this way but to also expose the political difficulties of dealing with this kind of gangsterism.
This brings us to China who has been accused of using forced labour to produce goods for exports. Considering the size of the Chinese labour force it is obvious that only a small proportion of Chinese output could be accounted for by forced labour. This means that it is probably impossible to distinguish between goods made by forced labour and those made by free labour.
(Compared with Castro's Cuba workers in China are virtually free to work wherever they like and at whatever pay rates they can get. They also get to keep what they earn, even when they work for multinational companies).
The other question concerned theft. The case of diamonds stolen by various "rebels" in Africa to finance their wars was used as an example. Unfortunately, I fear nothing can really be done about this. Even if one could identify the stolen diamonds it would make no difference. They would be sold on the black-market and the cash used to buy weapons. I am perfectly sure that the likes of Chirac and Putin would be only too pleased to accommodate them.
In fact, the question of theft brings us back to Castro. He steals from his serfs and uses the hard currency to buy foreign goods. As countries like Canada, France and German clearly have no objections to this behaviour then it is highly unlikely that they will bother themselves about forced labour elsewhere, let alone diamonds stolen by African war lords.
Gerard Jackson is Brookes'economics editor
BrookesNews.Com
Tuesday 1 April 2003