“Big trouble in big China.”
The novel coronavirus has brought the world’s second biggest economy to a virtual standstill. That’s because China is the workhouse of the west where cars, computers, iPhones, clothes, and a wealth of other items gets constructed. China’s labor force is the key to capitalist production of almost everything.
And when it stops as it has during the emergence of the coronavirus, almost everything stops as it ripples through economies worldwide. The U.S. economy lost trillions in one week on the stock market. After NAFTA in the 90s, U.S. corporations fled abroad in search of ever cheaper labor: Mexico, Vietnam, China. China has a vast labor force and did a slew of deals that resulted in factories sprouting like mushrooms in the dark.
The emergence of a novel coronavirus shows how closely we all work together in this new neoliberal world. And guess what, it ain’t over.
From imprisoned nation, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal.
[Sound of prison door clanking open.]
These commentaries are recorded by Noelle Hanrahan of Prison Radio.
[Sound of prison door slamming shut.]
