Commodity Fetishism Analysis
Karl Marx is famous for putting forward the postulate of commodity fetishism, the meaning behind Marx’s postulate is that commodities are produced by labour, labour back before globalization people could buy and sell local and people knew the labourer who made the commodity when they bought it. (Marx 1867, p. 164-165). However, in todays society that personal connection has been lost through globalization and capitalism. Two clear examples that show commodity fetishism are the documentaries of Blood Coltan and A Coke controversy: Indian soft-drink sweatshops. These two documentaries highlight just how oblivious people are outside of the western culture. Through the greed of the west we are making the lives of many people unliveable.
Blood …show more content…
Many of the mines are controlled by guerrilla fighters, the threat of being killed by fighters is high, once you are to tired to work you are useless and will be killed. This again comes back to Marx idea of commodity fetishism, these people are digging the coltan out not for themselves to sell and live off but to to be able to survive with what minuscule amount they are paid along with digging to survive and help their families they are also digging to not be killed by the guerrilla fighters. So how does coltan get from the Democratic Republic of the Congo into our phones. Coltan firstly is mined in Sud- Kivu near the Rwanda boarder. After the coltan has been collected is then stored in a nearby village called runah, from here it is sold to local coltan buyers. Seeing as there are no roads to get to villages air travel is the main way that coltan is delivered, Bukavu airport is the hub of the mineral trade. On one trip back from from a mining town the plane was carrying 829kg of coltan, the worth of which come to 80,000 dollars. From Bukavu there are small air crate business that ship the coltan off to the western world and the “whites” set the prices as we are the ones making the telephones. …show more content…
Marx, K 1867, Capital: A Critique of Political Economy Volume One, Penguin Books.
Tsing, A 2009, Supply Chains and the Human Condition, Rethinking Marxism: A Journal of Economics, Culture &
Blood …show more content…
Many of the mines are controlled by guerrilla fighters, the threat of being killed by fighters is high, once you are to tired to work you are useless and will be killed. This again comes back to Marx idea of commodity fetishism, these people are digging the coltan out not for themselves to sell and live off but to to be able to survive with what minuscule amount they are paid along with digging to survive and help their families they are also digging to not be killed by the guerrilla fighters. So how does coltan get from the Democratic Republic of the Congo into our phones. Coltan firstly is mined in Sud- Kivu near the Rwanda boarder. After the coltan has been collected is then stored in a nearby village called runah, from here it is sold to local coltan buyers. Seeing as there are no roads to get to villages air travel is the main way that coltan is delivered, Bukavu airport is the hub of the mineral trade. On one trip back from from a mining town the plane was carrying 829kg of coltan, the worth of which come to 80,000 dollars. From Bukavu there are small air crate business that ship the coltan off to the western world and the “whites” set the prices as we are the ones making the telephones. …show more content…
Marx, K 1867, Capital: A Critique of Political Economy Volume One, Penguin Books.
Tsing, A 2009, Supply Chains and the Human Condition, Rethinking Marxism: A Journal of Economics, Culture &