Pakistan’s Coercive Sweatshop Capitalism

Excerpts

Political parties’ coercive activities make their support essential to doing business as their members maintain discipline in the factories.

Pakistan’s textile industry, which employs 15 million people and contributes 8.5% of its GDP, has emerged stronger from the [pandemic] crisis; foreign sales, which represent more than 60% of Pakistan’s total exports, broke all records in 2021-22 ($19bn).

Pakistan’s brand of industrial capitalism is likely to mount a strong immune response to any trouble ahead. Its ability to overcome crises throughout its history is not just down to its adaptability or even state subsidies. It’s mainly due to an extensive repressive apparatus, and civil and military authorities’ tolerance of employers’ illegal practices.

[In the textile sector] ‘modernisation’ includes the feminisation of the workforce, which for cultural reasons is less advanced than in other Asian countries such as Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand. Pakistani women, supposedly ‘more conscientious and compliant’ than men, are paid on average 40% less for the same work.

While by law the working day is limited to 12 hours, including overtime, we met workers who had been forced to work 24 or even 36 hours straight, apart from a few short toilet or food breaks. Moreover, overtime is rarely paid at double the standard rate, a legal requirement; sometimes it’s not paid at all.

A Korangi-based firm, founded in 2005, employed 8,500 people until it sacked half its workforce this July. It makes jeans for major international brands such as H&M, C&A, Zara, Mango and Walmart, and cultivates an image for ethical values, environmental responsibility and state-of-the-art equipment. However, Khashkheli and his friends are critical of its oppressive working environment, where the workforce is managed by a former army officer, who uses notorious thugs to enforce discipline.

The culture of state terror now affects even the most everyday labour disputes.

When pressuring individuals isn’t enough, as in the case of collective mobilisation, the police presence around and even inside factories is stepped up. Footage shot in 2021 by Denim Clothing workers shows police officers charging and beating workers inside one of the group’s factories.

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