BONUS FOR FAILURE

Boohoo backtracks on plan to pay bosses £1m bonuses


Sarah Butler
Tue, 28 May 2024

Boohoo directors Mahmud Kamani and Carol Kane, and the Boohoo chief executive, John Lyttle.Photograph: James Gourley/Getty Images for Boohoo

The online fashion specialist Boohoo has backtracked on a plan to pay three top executives £1m each in bonuses after reporting widening losses and falling into debt.

The move comes after shareholders complained that bonuses were going to be awarded to directors despite the chief executive, John Lyttle, and Boohoo’s co-founders, Mahmud Kamani and Carol Kane, missing bonus targets on sales, profits and cashflow as well as environmental and IT aims.

Investors had been due to vote on 20 June on whether to approve the remuneration plan, which was announced last week in Boohoo’s annual report.

It showed the retail group, which owns Debenhams, Warehouse, Dorothy Perkins and Pretty Little Thing, built up net debts of £95m in the year to the end of February – down from almost £6m of net cash a year before – after losses widened 76% to £160m and sales fell to £1.8bn.

The difficult year meant the three bosses were set to receive no bonus but the group’s remuneration committee said in the annual report that it had awarded them a one-off bonus of £1m each, 30% of which would have been in cash and the rest in shares.

The committee said it wanted to make the award because a zero bonus “is not an accurate reflection of the excellent work carried out during the year to set the business up for future success” and that it would not “ensure that the management team is motivated and retained throughout the next financial year which will be pivotal for the group’s long-term success”.

However, in a short statement released on Tuesday, Boohoo revealed it was backtracking and had “decided not to implement the incentive plan at this time” after it had “engaged with certain shareholders”.

That came after a report in the Times that one major shareholder was “furious” about the change to the bonus scheme while another said it was “outrageous” that proposals for the one-off bonus been released in the annual report without consulting investors first.

The loss of the awards means Kamani’s pay for the year will be just under £503,000, Kane’s just under £524,000 and Lyttle’s £713,175. Both Kamani and Lyttle earned more than £1m in the year before and Kane earned £986,984.

The latest upset comes after a string of wrangles between Boohoo’s founders and shareholders over bonus payouts. Last year, shareholders narrowly approved a new “growth share plan” under which Lyttle could receive a maximum of £50m in Boohoo shares, part of a total £175m payout to executives, if the company’s share price reaches 395p – and remains there within a 90-day average window within five years.

Boohoo executives would start to receive initial payouts once the share price returned to 95p, close to the level it was at in February 2022. It currently stands at less than 35p.

Kane, who co-founded Boohoo in 2006 along with the executive chairman Kamani, would also receive a bonus under the scheme.

Millions living through nightmare as Sudan’s civil war brings killings, torture, famine

May 28, 2024
By —Lindsey Hilsum
PBS NEWSHOUR 
Transcript

Sudan's civil war has left tens of thousands dead, and displaced millions over the nearly 14 months since the Sudanese military and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces plunged the country into a devastating war. Lindsey Hilsum of Independent Television News reports from the city of Omdurman.
Read the Full Transcript

Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.

Geoff Bennett:

Sudan's civil war has left tens of thousands dead and displaced millions over the nearly 14 months since the Sudanese military and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces plunged the country into a devastating war.

The capital, Khartoum, is a battleground, as is its neighboring city of Omdurman.

And it's from there that Lindsey Hilsum of Independent Television News reports.


Lindsey Hilsum:

They want to show they're on top, soldiers and police of the Sudan Armed Forces in the center of Omdurman doing the sign of the falcon: We have seized our prey.

The aim is to demonstrate to us that they're back in control and that the people are happy to see them. But such triumphalism is premature. They may have driven the Rapid Support Force militia out of this part of Omdurman in March, but their enemy still occupies Omdurman's twin city, the capital, Khartoum, and much of the rest of Sudan.

We drive through a city of ruins. Imagine the shopkeepers, the people who lived here, the lives destroyed by this futile war. Families rescue a few belongings from looters. Every hundred meters or so, new local recruits have erected another checkpoint. Everyone's nervous.

General Abdel Fattah Burhan presides over devastation, over a country that's coming apart, the legitimacy of his leadership open to question. The last battle for this part of Omdurman was fought here in the middle of March. This area was absolutely littered with bodies. The Ministry of Health came and removed hundreds.

But the RSF is still just about four kilometers up the road. The battle for the capital of Sudan is not over yet. Walls that remain intact hide the greatest horrors. This house was owned by a poet who fled to Saudi Arabia. The RSF took it over, but they didn't just trash the place as they did elsewhere, but turned it into a torture or maybe execution chamber.

They dug a pit and placed a pulley on an iron bar on the ceiling to hoist people up and suspend them. Rumors of what happened here spread. After the RSF was driven out, the homeowners asked a neighbor to come and check.


Waleed Ahmed, Neighbor:

When I came here, I was shocked at what I saw in front of me. What could possibly have gone on here? Afterwards, I told other people in the neighborhood there was something strange in this house. I mean, from the side of the iron bar and the holes in the ground, it's obvious that something terrible happened here.


Lindsey Hilsum:

We found a document listing names, 31-year-old Omar Ahmed Adam (ph), a 30-year-old woman, Manal Hassan (ph), 12 names in total, all accused of great betrayal, in other words, not supporting the RSF.

And amongst the debris, mementos of the happy family who once lived here, who can never in their worst imaginings have predicted what would happen in their home.

So there were really big battles here, yes?


Rasheed Ahmed, Sudan:

Yes.


Lindsey Hilsum:

I walked a few yards around the corner with Rasheed Ahmed, who stayed at home here in old Omdurman for four months until the fighting became too intense.

Outside his house, we can smell death. The piles of earth are makeshift graves. RSF slogans have been graffitied on the walls.


Rasheed Ahmed:

It's my car.


Lindsey Hilsum:

Is this your car?


Rasheed Ahmed:

It's my car, yes.


Lindsey Hilsum:

It was your car?


Rasheed Ahmed:

It was, yes.

(Laughter)


Lindsey Hilsum:

His house was badly damaged. A rocket hit after he left.

But the cornicing, with which his grandfather adorned the walls when he built the house in the 1940s, remains.


Rasheed Ahmed:

We don't expect it to happen to us. In all our dreams, we can't imagine this. Always, we hear about wars outside Khartoum and outside Omdurman, not in Omdurman, not in Khartoum. Very bad. Very bad.


Lindsey Hilsum:

Do you think you will live here again?


Rasheed Ahmed:

Sure. Sure. It's my house. It's my home. We will build here again, inshallah.


Lindsey Hilsum:

The children still play, even if they fled their homes and are living in a school that doubles as a center for the displaced. Their mothers, of course, can't forget what brought them here.


Inann, Sudan (through interpreter):

The RSF attacked our homes and tried to rape our girls. We managed to hide them upstairs, but the RSF men killed the girls' aunt and two uncles who were trying to defend them. Now our situation is difficult. Of course, our men can't find jobs.


Lindsey Hilsum:

In the absence of international aid, neighborhood groups are pitching in.

Do you think that the international community has let you down?


Mohammed Yahyia, Sudan Social Development Organization:

Yes, yes. Unfortunately, I think so. I think that people's eyes now on Ukraine and Gaza, but we got not a lot of help here in Sudan. Basically, people need food and medicine, basically, OK?


Lindsey Hilsum:

Food and medicine, as simple as that?


Mohammed Yahyia:

As simple as that.


Lindsey Hilsum:

Because, in war, you see the best, as well as the worst of humankind, the best being people like Dr. Mohammed Banaga, who started a soup kitchen for displaced people funded by local shops and friends in the Sudanese diaspora.

And you stayed here throughout the war. Were you not afraid?


Dr. Mohammed Banaga, Medical Doctor:

No, no, no, I'm not afraid. Afraid of what?


Lindsey Hilsum:

Afraid of being killed?


Dr. Mohammed Banaga:

Man will kill — will die once, no, not twice, once.

(Laughter)


Lindsey Hilsum:

This family just escaped Wad Madani to the southeast of Omdurman, where the RSF recently seized control.

All over Sudan, people are going hungry because they have lost everything, the economy has collapsed, and armed men frequently steal what little aid is available.


Ahmed Suleiman, Sudan (through interpreter):

The situation is very bad. They're killing civilians, looting them and throwing them out of their homes. They took their livelihoods, their crops and everything they have.


Lindsey Hilsum:

Ruin upon ruin, rout on rout, not a paradise lost, but a country.

Neighboring powers are fueling this war, the United Arab Emirates arming the RSF, Iran and Egypt backing the Sudan Armed Forces. If the parties aren't forced to negotiate, what will be left of Sudan? Nothing that can be reassembled, but a failed state in a forever war, its people dispersed and destitute.


GEOFF BENNETT:

That report was from Lindsey Hilsum of Independent Television News.

Rafah inferno

Editorial 

DAWN

Published May 29, 2024

THE level of barbarity witnessed in Sunday’s Israeli air strike targeting a refugee camp in Rafah is shocking even by the Zionist state’s standards. Eyewitness accounts of survivors reported by media outlets make for highly disturbing reading, pointing to the fact that a war crime against defenceless civilians — not the first in this conflict — has been committed by the ‘world’s most moral’ army. If anything, Israel’s conduct in Gaza since the Oct 7 attacks has been the epitome of amorality. Tel Aviv has had no regrets about the civilians it has murdered, the children it has orphaned, the mass graves it has left, and the forced starvation it has used as a weapon in the Gaza hellscape. At least 45 people were killed in the latest atrocity, with several victims charred. Israel says it struck the camp while pursuing Hamas fighters. Yet the ferocity of the assault can be gauged from the fact that a number of victims — including children — were left dismembered after the attack. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed the Rafah outrage was a “tragic accident”; but these words are meaningless as Tel Aviv’s war machine has continued to pound Gaza even after the refugee camp tragedy.

Condemnation of this monstrous attack has been pouring in from around the world, including the UN and EU. US officials, meanwhile, have highlighted the need to “assess what happened”, while timidly asking Israel to “protect civilians”. ‘What happened’ is abundantly clear; Israel has unleashed a genocidal war in Gaza in the name of going after Hamas, and in many instances, has used American money and weapons to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian people. Therefore, those supporting Israel’s abominable war should shed the use of euphemism, as this fools no one. Moreover, the time for strong critiques of Israeli barbarism has long passed. If the world is serious about stopping the butchery in Palestine, solid action is needed. Both the brave states that initiated legal action against Israel, as well as the courageous voices in the West condemning their governments for complicity in genocidal violence, must focus their energies on isolating Tel Aviv internationally. People of conscience in the East and West must unite to economically and militarily boycott Israel for its shameless spilling of Palestinian blood. If concrete steps are not taken, then we must await the next atrocity.

Published in Dawn, May 29th, 2024

US presses for probe, says ground operation in Rafah not warranted

Anwar Iqbal

DAWN

Published May 29, 2024

WASHINGTON: Urging Israel to conduct a thorough investigation into a tent city bombing and uphold its obligations under international humanitarian law, the US on Tuesday said it didn’t believe a major ground operation in Rafah was warranted.

White House spokesperson John Kirby maintained that the Israeli strike that killed dozens of Palestinians in Rafah did not cross a “red line” set by President Joe Biden.

“We still don’t believe that a major ground operation in Rafah is warranted. We still don’t want to see the Israelis, as we say, smash into Rafah with large units over large pieces of territory. We still believe that and we haven’t seen that at this point,” he told reporters at a White House briefing.

“As a result of this strike on Sunday I have no policy changes to speak to,” he added. “It just happened. The Israelis are going to investigate it. We’re going to be taking great interest in what they find in that investigation. And we’ll see where it goes from there.”

Kirby told reporters Tuesday that there was a real danger that Israel could become further isolated from the international community with the manner in which it is conducting operations.

“So this is of concern, clearly, because it’s not in Israel’s best interest,” Kirby said. “And it’s not in our best interest for Israel to become increasingly isolated on the world stage.”

Meanwhile, in his first official briefing since the Rafah attack and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling that called on Israel to halt its offensive in the area, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller faced a barrage of questions concerning both issues.

Some reporters referred to the charred bodies discovered in the Palestinian encampment in Rafah. Miller, however, insisted on waiting for the results of a comprehensive investigation before offering further comments.

“Those images were heartbreaking, and I know the pain those families are suffering through must be unimaginable, especially for those who lost children and family members for a repeated number of times.”

Miller then reiterated the US position that “Israel has a right to go after the Hamas terrorists responsible for the cold-blooded murder of civilians”, but also reminded Israel of its “obligation to do everything possible to minimize civilian harm as it carries out its operations.”

He said that as soon as the US saw the reports of the Rafah incident, “we reached out to the government of Israel to express our deep concern over what happened, asked for more information and urged them to undertake a full investigation.”

Published in Dawn, May 29th, 2024

‘The whole of India is silent’ — Saheefa Jabbar Khattak slams Bollywood’s silence on Palestine

The list of Bollywood actors who have spoken up about Palestine is disappointingly short.

Images Staff
Updated 28 May, 2024

As people continue to block and call out Hollywood celebrities for not raising their voices about the plight of Palestinians, actor Saheefa Jabbar Khattak questioned what everyone was doing about Bollywood celebrities as they remained silent about Israel’s aggression in Gaza.

“What are we doing about Bollywood? Our neighbouring country, where we are eager to work, and where we speak so highly of them in our interviews, NONE of them have spoken against the ongoing genocide,” Khattak highlighted in an Instagram story.

The Rafta Rafta actor urged people to stop hyping up Bollywood celebrities and wishing them on their birthdays, adding that the Indian government had banned Pakistani artists from working ‘for them’. She continued that people from Pakistan were rarely offered good roles in Bollywood, and that during “this genocide, the whole of India is silent”.

“It’s time that we focus on our craft, make better films and dramas, and stop seeking validation from them or anyone.”






Khattak’s statement comes after Gaza’s health ministry announced that nearly 36,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s offensive. Despite worsening conditions in the Gaza Strip, including an Israeli airstrike which triggered a massive blaze killing 45 people in a tent camp in Rafah, Bollywood bigwigs have largely remained silent.

The list of those who have spoken up is rather short. In October 2023, actor Sonam Kapoor was one of the first A-list Bollywood celebrities to reshare pro-Palestine content on her Instagram story.











Shortly after, Priyanka Chopra, who is an ambassador for the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), also posted a story about the impact of Israeli aggression on children.






Tanu Weds Manu actor Swara Bhaskar also posted in 2023, stating, “Bombing kids is not self-defence. Stop the genocide” and urged people to stand up and speak out for Palestine.






Emerging Indian actor Reem Sameer Shaikh also posted an image of the Palestinian flag, captioned “Save Palestine”.






Unfortunately, this is where the list ends. Not many other prominent Bollywood names have posted so much as a story even alluding to the brutalities Palestinians continue to face

Algeria to propose UN Security Council resolution to 'stop killing' in Rafah

Draft resolution seen by Anadolu calls on Israel to 'immediately halt its military offensive and any other action in Rafah'

Rabia Iclal Turan and Serife Cetin |29.05.2024 - 



NEW YORK

Algeria is circulating a draft UN Security Council resolution to "stop the killing" in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah as Israel intensifies its attacks in the densely populated area.

"Algeria will circulate this afternoon a draft resolution on Rafah. It will be a short text, a decisive text, to stop the killing in Rafah," Algeria’s Ambassador to the UN, Amar Bendjama, told reporters after a Security Council meeting.

It is not immediately clear when the voting on the draft resolution will take place.

The draft resolution seen by Anadolu calls on Israel to "immediately halt its military offensive and any other action in Rafah.”

It demands an immediate cease-fire respected by all parties and the "immediate and unconditional" release of all hostages while demanding that the parties "comply with their obligations under international law in relation to all persons they detain.”

The draft resolution also demands the “full implementation” of previous UN Security Council resolutions, such as a Nov. 1, 2023 resolution calling for "extended humanitarian pauses and corridors" in Gaza, a Dec. 22, 2023 resolution calling for "safe, unhindered and expanded" humanitarian access to Gaza and a March 25, 2024 resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

All three UN Security Council resolutions also demanded the release of hostages held by the Palestinian group Hamas.

The draft resolution also expresses "grave concern" over the catastrophic humanitarian situation with a famine spreading throughout the Gaza Strip and condemns the "indiscriminate targeting" of civilians and civilian infrastructure.

The US has vetoed three previous UN Security Council resolutions calling for a cease-fire in Gaza since Oct. 7 and called the March 25 cease-fire resolution, which was adopted with the US abstaining, "non-binding."

Algeria’s move comes after at least 45 people were killed, mostly women and children, and nearly 250 injured in an Israeli strike on a displaced persons camp in the southern Gaza city of Rafah on Sunday. It occurred near the logistics base of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) in Tal al-Sultan, said the Gaza-based Government Media Office.

Israel has killed more than 36,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7 last year.

Hamas's cross-border attack against Israel killed around 1,200 people

 (600 WERE IDF)

 according to Israeli figures, while around 250 were taken to Gaza as hostages.

World’s Largest Humanitarian Network Calls for Gaza Ceasefire

A beam of light is seen in northern Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, near the Israel-Gaza border, as seen from Israel, May 28, 2024. (Reuters)

\29 May 2024 AD ـ 21 Thul-Qi’dah 1445 AH

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) called on Wednesday for a ceasefire and unimpeded humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip, where millions of people face worsening hunger.

The war-torn enclave is suffering from a humanitarian catastrophe nearly seven months after Israel launched a devastating offensive in response to the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks that killed 1,200 people in Israel.

"We desperately need a political solution that will allow us to have a ceasefire to get aid in," IFRC President Kate Forbes told Reuters in an interview in the capital, Manila.

"We're ready to make a difference. We have to have access, and to have access there has to have a ceasefire," said Forbes, who in December became the second woman to ever hold the top job at the world's largest humanitarian network.

The IFRC president is a volunteer position and oversees a network that unites 191 organizations working during and after disasters and wars, such as the Palestine Red Crescent Society, which has ambulance crews in Gaza.

Forbes said she had seen the "atrocious" situation in Rafah during a visit in February, months before Israel launched a military assault on the southern Gaza city, which had been sheltering more than a million Palestinians who fled assaults on other parts of the enclave.

"There was not enough housing. There was no water, there weren't enough sanitation toilets. We had a hospital with no equipment... and unfortunately what I was afraid of has happened, and that there wasn't going to be enough food," Forbes said.

Prospects for a resumption of mediated Gaza ceasefire talks grew over the weekend, even as Israel pressed on with its offensive in Gaza to eliminate the Palestinian armed group Hamas after the top United Nations court ordered Israel on Friday to stop attacking Rafah.

Hamas has denied reports that talks would resume earlier this week. Both sides have blamed the other for the deadlock. Israel has said it cannot accept Hamas' demand to end the war, while the Palestinians want Palestinian prisoners to be released.

"I plead with the governments on all sides to negotiate a ceasefire so that we can get aid in," Forbes said.

"My job is to ensure that when it (ceasefire) happens, we can give the aid that's necessary. And so they need to do their jobs so I can do my job," she added.

FLASHBACK

The New Fordism in Canada: Capital's Offensive, Labour's Opportunity

Authors

Daniel Drache
Harry J. Glasbeek, Osgoode Hall Law School of York University

Keywords

Fordism; Industrial relations; Canada

Document Type

Article

Abstract

The breakdown in the links of mass production and mass consumption poses problems throughout the advanced industrial world. In each nation-state the ensuing struggles will take different forms. In postwar Canada, the link between mass consumption and mass production did not lead to the same kind of trade union participation in decision-making as it did in much of Europe. Workers were unable to establish embedded rights of worker participation. What was known as the fordist model in Europe did not have deep roots in Canada. Canadian workers are now being attacked by employers whose bargaining powers were never seriously blunted, aided by a state which has never had to accord even a junior partnership role to organized labour. The arrival of the new technologies is not likely to lead to more enriching work or better pay conditions for much of the workforce given the logic of the imperatives of an export-led growth economy in which state planning takes the form of encouraging private ordering. This paper concludes by looking at some ways by which Canadian workers may be able to resist the downward pressure on wages and working conditions created by employers seeking to take advantage of their newfound power.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Citation Information

Drache, Daniel and Glasbeek, Harry J.. "The New Fordism in Canada: Capital's Offensive, Labour's Opportunity." Osgoode Hall Law Journal 27.3 (1989) : 517-560.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.60082/2817-5069.1786
https://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/ohlj/vol27/iss3/3

POST FORDISM - THE TRANSITION FROM MASS SCALE PRODUCTION TO SMALL SCALE CUSTOMIZATION.

Rachel Ann Rodrigues

Co-op Student, Orientation & Transitions at Camosun|| Business Administration- Marketing at Camosun College, Victoria

3

December 14, 2017

Post Fordism is the successor of the Fordist era, which was charecterised by large scale production of standardized homogenous commodities and rightly named after Henry Ford, who introduced the assembly line mode of production. Though the wages and quality of life of the factory workers improved considerably, the fordist mode of production was rigid, expensive and wasteful. Due to high levels of supervision, monotony and lack of autonomy of the workers, they suffered from low self esteem and despised the work they did, leading to growth of trade unionism and frequent lockouts and strikes. From the 1970’s onwards, economic crises in the west, new technologies and the opening up of the world market made it difficult to sustain Fordism, giving rise to the post Fordist model of work.

Post Fordism is characterized by group production or quality circles, where groups of five to fifteen highly skilled and professional workers (core workers) meet regularly and decide on matters of design and production. The positive effects of group production can be the acquisition of new skills, use of creativity and innovation, reduced managerial supervision, greater autonomy and sense of pride in the goods one produces. However, studies have shown a number of negative consequences such an increase in supervision by peers, competition among workers leading to stress and working over time.

Flexible production and mass customization are important changes in the worldwide production processes. While Fordism concentrated on mass scale production of standardized goods, they were unable to produce small orders of good let alone goods specifically made for individual customers. Mass customization has changed the way firms and companies operate.There is a greater dependence on information and technology and computer based knowledged. Now many companies wait for the order, then assemble it and finally dispatch it. This is called ‘Just in time’ production, where production takes place only when the order is placed. This is very good for the economy because it encourages consumption, as the customer is now spoilt for choice and never content. The worker feels a sense of control and creative satisfaction but simultaneously works under great pressure resulting from the need to coordinate the complex production processes carefully and produce results quickly.

Changes in industrial production include not only how the goods are produced but also where these good are produced. The creation of giant super powers such as multinational companies (MNC’s) has exemplified the ugly side of post Fordism. Production is now dominated by giant retailers such as American retailer Wal-Mart, which buys products from manufacturers who in turn arrange to have their products made by independently owned factories. In clothing manufacturing, for example, most manufactures do not employ any garment workers at all. Instead, they rely on factories around the world to make their clothing, which they sell in departmental stores and retail outlets. Clothing manufacturers do not own any of these factories and therefore are not responsible for the conditions under which work is done. The retailers and manufacturers are only interested in paying the lowest wage possible. Two third of all the clothing made in the USA is made in countries such as India, Bangladesh and China where the workers are paid a fraction of the US wages under the most inhumane and harshest of work conditions(Applebaum and Bonacich,2000)

Post Fordism has led to inequalities within the firms between the core workers, who are highly skilled, well paid and enjoy job security and other benefits and the peripheral workers who are usually part time casual workers who are poorly paid and enjoy very few benefits. Large scale firms only transfer the production to small scale firms when the production load is high, leading to lack of work in the smaller firms when the load of production is less. Trade unionism and worker rights have weakened as the workers feel less integrated and united. People usually start off their career by working in paid or unpaid part time or full time internships and the age at which one gets a stable, full time job is much higher than it used to be. One has to be properly trained and qualified to get a job. MNC’s invest in only those countries that sell cheap labour. If a country has nothing to sell, it does not exist in the world market.

Though a number of flaws of the Fordist era were eliminated by the emergence of post Fordism,we can see that this mode of production too came with its set of drawbacks. This new set of transformations, which has to do with the establishment of global markets, new technology and the incorporation into the world economy of new areas and the increasing competitiveness of the firms within and across nations, is impacting and overturning existing patterns of division of labour, power and inequalities and markets.

Surveillance Capital and Post-Fordist Accumulation: Towards a Critical Political Economy of Surveillance-for-Profit

Article Sidebar

PDF

Published: Mar 26, 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24908/ss.v20i1.14235

Main Article Content

Markus Kienscherf

Freie Universität Berlin

Abstract

This article presents a critical political economy of contemporary surveillance-for-profit. The article makes the central argument that surveillance capital emerged out of the contradictions of capitalist accumulation and remains subject to the imperative of accumulation for the sake of ever more accumulation. Platforms constitute the infrastructure and surveillance provides the instrument for the expropriation-accumulation-commodification of user-generated data. Firstly, the article maps how surveillance capital valorizes. Surveillance capital derives surplus value from expropriation rather than exploitation in a strict Marxian sense. Secondly, the article shows that surveillance capital is far from unique in its expropriation of both resources and labor. Indeed, capitalist accumulation has always entailed both expropriation and exploitation. Thirdly, the article argues that while surveillance has always been a key tool for shaping capital-labor relations, surveillance capital as such first emerged under Fordism and has now become an integral part of a Post-Fordist mode of flexible accumulation that is based on the expansion and intensification of forms of surveillance that arose in response to the requirements and contradictions of earlier modes of capitalist accumulation. The article concludes that Post-Fordist flexible accumulation in general and surveillance capital’s valorization in particular may end up producing a crisis of effective demand, as workers who are subject to increasing precariousness and disposability may no longer have the income to consume the commodities on whose sale surveillance capital ultimately depends.

Article Details

Issue

Vol. 20 No. 1 (2022): Open Issue

POST-FORDISM PAKISTAN

Auto assemblers demand level playing field

Kalbe Ali 

DAWN

Published May 29, 2024 

ISLAMABAD: The auto sector has demanded that the government implement measures to curb the rising imports of used cars, which are not only undermining local production but also instrumental in transferring forex through the grey channel.

In its budget proposals to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), the auto sector said that during 2022-23, the industry imported parts amounting to $1.57 billion and all the payments were made through the banking channel.

It added that payments to import used cars were made through the ‘grey channel’ for transferring foreign exchange.

Cheaper used car imports hurting local industry

Indus Motor Company Chief Executive Ali Asghar Jamali said that 13 brands currently produce over 40 models in the country, and their combined capacity is 500,000 units annually.

However, the influx of imported used cars continues to pose sustainability challenges for the local industry.

“The automotive industry, including vendors, provides up to 5 million direct and indirect jobs, whereas the number of jobs provided by the importers of used cars was negligible,” Mr Jamali added.

The auto sector has also questioned the misuse of gift schemes to import second-hand vehicles, which end up in the showrooms of commercial importers.

Talking to Dawn Mr Jamali said, “We have even asked the government to allow commercial imports of used cars, so that we too will become importers and shut down the local auto industry.”

He said the Additional Customs Duty (ACD) on used car was reduced from 35 per cent to 7pc while the regulatory duty (RD) was reversed from 100pc to 15pc for up to 1800cc and to 70pc for vehicles above 1800cc on April 1, 2023.

On the other hand, the sales tax was increased from 18pc to 25pc on locally assembled vehicles above 1400cc. Other duties and taxes were also increased on the local industry.

In its budget proposal, the auto industry has demanded equalising the RD and ACD between locally assembled vehicles and used cars.

The industry has demanded that the government reduce the depreciation rate from 1-2pc to 0.5pc, as mentioned in import policy, custom general order number 14/2005, and SRO 577(I)/2005.

It has highlighted that from 2020 to 2023, used car imports were around 10pc compared to local production. However, due to the reduction in RD and ACD in 2024, this figure sharply increased to approximately 28pc.

The auto sector has also suggested that the government should ensure that used vehicles are imported only for the use of overseas Pakistani families and not for commercial sales.

Published in Dawn, May 29th, 2024

More difficult now

SUSTAINING hegemony over the masses

Dr Niaz Murtaza 

DAWN 

Published May 28, 2024 Updated a day ago

SUSTAINING hegemony over the masses has been a key aim and challenge for our elitist state. This exercise has caused endless political instability and insecurity, given the fightback by the people and the power tussles among elite ethnicities, classes and institutions.

The top gun position shifted often in the first decade: institutionally from the Muslim League to the bureaucracy, to the military; ethnically from Mohajirs to Punjabis; and from a mixed class clique to the middle class. The coordinates of raw power soon became conservative, older, male, military, elitist, Sunni, upper class and Punjab.

Since 1958, the unelected clique has kept its hegemony via close ties with global patrons, co-opting political and state elites, rigging politics and demolishing mass dissent, with religion and Kashmir as rallying narratives. It ruled unelected via large one-window but odious US aid: money, arms, veto cover, markets, technology, and multilateral loans. Linked to US security aims, it helped keep politicians out but caused violence too.

As US aid ebbed, it courted politicians to quell dissent and ruled covertly. The elected eras kept growing given the growing internal and external binds against autocracy. The first was from 1972 to 1977 with one (free) election. The second was from 1985 to 1999 with only one of five elections deemed fair (1988) and each assembly nixed early. The third is from 2002 to now, with two free elections (2008 and 2013) out of five. Four assemblies reached term but not the prime ministers, reflecting minor democratic gains. The early dismissals were due to civilian forays into what the establishment considered its own affairs, policy tiffs and claimed misrule. They were carried out via coups, no-trust votes, presidential powers, and forced exits. The mode and strength of covert rule varied, focusing on security and external policy from 2008-18 but more intrusively politics and economics as well after 2018, erasing all democratic gains. Both eras saw big tiffs with out-of-sync civilians, with Nawaz Sharif to the establishment’s left and Imran Khan to its right on the US, India, Taliban, etc.

State elements now face a unique challenge in sustaining their hegemony.

State elements now face a unique challenge in sustaining their hegemony. Cosy ties with the US are over and other powers (China and Saudi Arabia) can’t provide large, one-window aid. Arch-enemy India is now a global power and dwarfs our geo-economic powers. Global sanctions have cut the ability to deploy jihadis. State elements have partially lost their narrative as the custodians of national piety and patriotism as Imran Khan acts as a stauncher custodian. There are hostile extremist states on three sides matching our insurgencies in KP and Balochistan. The economy is unusually bad. Yet its residual powers are formidable — arms, agents, businesses — and keep all parties subservient.

The divorce with the PTI has created an elite middle-class alliance against older parties: middle-class parties (led by the PTI), media anchors, professional classes, expats and sections of the judiciary, bureaucracy, and reportedly even the ranks. Moreover, the insurgents are largely middle class. Smaller middle-class parties had existed for long, like religious ones and the MQM. But the advent of social media has aided the rise of a pan-Pakistan middle-class party popular in all core regions: upper Punjab, Peshawar valley and Karachi and even beyond. But this party’s governance and democratic records are poor too, like the older elite parties.

These trends are forcing elements of the state to resort to desperate ways of retaining its hege­mony as its options dwindle: mutually conflicting ties with multiple global pat­rons to scavenge various bits of key aid, new docile ele­cted allies, cruder rigging and gagg­ing, not too covert co-governance in more domains and using force even in core regions against dissident ex-middle-class allies. Even so, this hybrid set-up remains divided and inept and may not survive, let alone thrive. What options will unelected forces use if they fail? More force, overt rule or technocracy? But these won’t succeed and will, in fact, upend critical Western support. So, good governance eludes all elite factions. Governance can only improve by nixing elite politics for organic pro-poor politics.

Can society tame this unelected being? It may need a joint effort to overpower the flailing behemoth. So, we enter a new phase of high turbulence: economic volatility, political instability, and high insecurity. Passengers must fasten their seat belts, if they have one, as the captain won’t turn on the signs.

The writer is a political economist with a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley.
murtazaniaz@yahoo.com
X: @NiazMurtaza2

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2024

In defamation’s name

Such a punitive legal instrument in the hands of state authorities can only indicate coercive intention.

Umair Javed 

DAWN

Published May 27, 2024

LAST week, the Punjab Assembly hastily passed a defamation bill, despite grave concerns raised by journalist unions and rights bodies, as well as opposition legislators. The bill, which now only requires the governor’s assent before coming into force, proposes special tribunals to deal with cases of ‘fake news’ and purposeful ‘misinformation’, with punishments ranging from a fine of Rs3 million in general damages to 10 times that amount as punitive damages.

There are several reasons why the passage of this bill is a worrying development. It provides a pretext to the state to clamp down on speech in the name of fighting fake news; it opens up a new route to victimise opposition politics; and it empowers unaccountable, single-member platforms outside the existing legal apparatus to determine what constitutes defamation.

Before getting into these in detail, there is sufficient ground to wonder whether a defamation law of this nature helps in addressing its targeted problem in the first place. There is no denying that the widened use of social media outlets has created an oversupply of information, much of which is free from the burden of factual rigour or accuracy. It is also true that the proliferation of such information happens at a much faster rate now, with intended, or otherwise, effects taking place more rapidly and at a wider scale.

This premise makes it seem that a legal remedy of some sort is required, which defamation laws usually provide. But the government in this instance is monopolising the nature of the remedy, when it is not equipped or capable of determining the scale and nature of the problem. The task deserves careful deliberation by a much wider set of stakeholders that includes citizen media watchdogs, journalist associations, and rights bodies, especially those dealing with digital rights.

Such a punitive legal instrument in the hands of state authorities can only indicate coercive intention.

One primary reason for caution and scepticism regarding this latest piece of legislation stem from the particular track record of the Pakistani public authorities on issues related to speech, especially in the online domain. The impact of Peca’s passage under the PML-N government in 2015 and subsequent amendments in recent years has been detrimental to free expression, especially regarding rights activists and critical voices (such as those of the opposition). This point was ably demonstrated by representatives of the Lahore Press Club who pointed out the double standards of the current government, which sided with journalists against the Peca amendments while in opposition, but were quick to pass them once they stepped into power.

The end result has been that the grounds established for Peca, that it would protect the online rights of citizens, have been subverted by the act itself. Instead, it has turned out to be yet another example of the state using the law to empower itself against citizens. This is a natural consequence of a state that envisions itself primarily on grounds of (self-defined) national security, and sees segments of its population as a source of insecurity and risk. In turn, this vision flows from the imbalance between civilian and security apparatuses within the structure of the state itself.

A second reason for caution lies in the timing and the political context in which this bill has been drafted. The last two years have seen an escalation of rights violations, culminating in the suppression of the PTI through a variety of legal and extra-legal means. The opposition party’s use of social media is frequently cited as a key reason for its enduring popularity, which allowed it to wage an unprecedented, insurgent election campaign and emerge as the largest party in the country.

This defamation bill places the regulation of social media as one of its central objectives. In other words, it is reasonable to think of it as a key legal instrument that can be deployed against an already suppressed political entity, further limiting its ability to play its role as an effective opposition. While there is no doubt that social media disinformation has been a key plank of the PTI’s political strategy, such a punitive legal instrument in the hands of state authorities can only indicate coercive intention.

Finally, the procedural critique of setting up a parallel judicial structure, raised forcefully by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, is also worth raising here. As the rights body has stated in a recent statement, the 180-day timebound nature of proceedings, while possibly well-intentioned, undermines the quality of the legal process and may lead to large punishments being levied in relative haste. It also sidesteps the provisions of existing witness laws in the country.

Additionally, the bill authorises the government to appoint tribunal members (drawing on a pool solicited from the chief justice of the high court) and offer emoluments higher than currently being done by the judiciary. This represents a significant encroachment of executive authority on judicial functioning, leaving the door open to misuse and subversion for a wide range of political purposes.

Overall, the bill has solicited an outcry from media and rights-based civil society, along with the expected opposition from PTI-SIC members in the legislature. This alone should give the government reason to pause and evaluate the contours of this legislation.

It is an indictment of public authority in this country that punitive attempts to resolve a problem such as fake news invite significant scepticism about intentions and expected use. It reflects a deepening of mistrust between key civil society stakeholders and the state, and an erosion of democratic norms that grants rights and space for the functioning of political opposition. Simultaneously, it provides yet more proof that the undergirding logic of public authority in Pakistan is legal and extra-legal coercion rather than legitimised consent.

The writer teaches sociology at Lums.
X: @umairjav

Published in Dawn, May 27th, 2024