MACHO ALERT: Women and World-System

Re:  JUNK ALERT: Disney Sweatshops.

 

you wrote  20 January 2001

 

"This one is sadly typical for those `junk message' or the `useless
information overload' of which this list is presently suffering and where
Gunder and others are rightly complaining about. So let's dissect this one
by way of example:

 

First: if they are accurate why should these facts be of special interest
rather than millions of other titbits of information ?"

...>snip

 

COMMENT:

 

If the sender of the information on Disney Sweatshops etc. had been Rosa Luxemburg, how would one have interpreted the message?

One would probably have seen a point of special interest in the message - namely, the point that (a) women are exploited in most parts of the world-system, (b) this fact needs to be brought to attention, (c) if there is an exploited class somewhere, the women of that class are usually even more exploited than the men of that class. (d) the world-system is mostly run by men, (e) world(-)system(s) analysis is mostly done by men who tend to pay no attention to women's problems, (f) there are more women in the world than there are socialists - exploited women thus constitute a greater potential for world-system change than well-paid male socialists, basing this judgment on consideration of material interests. I am sure Rosa Luxemburg would have stated this more elegantly.

 

Gert