the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Oct 17, 2011
The death of Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple (the richest company in the world today with a market capitalization of 352 billion dollars) was an opportunity for one head of state after another to pay tribute to this “visionary” and “captain of industry.”
Steve Jobs may have had brilliant insights–but they were primarily business insights. The iPhone or iPad inventions are obviously due to the collective work of those who work at Apple. Steve Jobs of course played his role–as the marketing chief.
Steve Jobs made a fortune for himself–but not due to his computer genius. Like all bosses who succeed, Jobs had a “genius” for exploitation.
This businessman was without scruples, manufacturing his products in China with the company Foxconn–which employs 900,000 workers and which made front page news when 13 of its employees committed suicide because of the extremely harsh working conditions. Also in China, the touch screens for the iPhone are produced by the company Wintek, where the solvent used to clean the screens contained n-hexane, despite the fact that its dangers have been known since the 1960s. This solvent attacks the nervous system, and has resulted in the known deaths of 137 workers.
Apple, like other companies, outsources work to achieve the lowest possible manufacturing cost. Steve Jobs could not have been ignorant of the fact that his production took place in factories that are run like prisons, in which the workers face a slow death.
This is the type of “visionary” that capitalist society produces–and praises!