Ian Boyne, Contributor

The appalling, gut-wrenching slave labour-type working conditions in some downtown wholesale outlets, recently highlighted in the press puts on the public agenda some things which ought to be seriously discussed.

First, it highlights the moral and social backwardness of some of our employers, who see workers as nothing more than objects of exploitation for their mercenary ends. (I did not say all employers and all capitalists. So no need for any reflexive defence from the Jamaica Employers' Federation).

For, indeed, it is a feature of backward, underdeveloped capitalism that we have the kind of 19th century working conditions which exist in some of the downtown (and even uptown) wholesales. Some of these same conditions, and worse, exist in places like India, Pakistan, Burma, Thailand and other Asian countries where slave and child labour still thrives.

Eye-opening testimony

It is not inherent in capitalism to have these types of conditions. In fact, many enlightened capitalists themselves are embarrassed and repulsed by the kinds of conditions under which human beings have been subjected by people calling themselves employers.

We are indebted to that courageous and persistent Jamaica Observer reporter for the eye-opening testimony of her one-week experience in working in one of the locations of exploitation; experiencing what defenceless, oppressed women have to endure week after week.

As expected, someone was quick to write in the press before that first-person journalistic account, saying it was a lie that the downtown wholesalers were paying below minimum wage.

At the end of the letter to the editor, you would think the press reports and university study were all a mirage and concocted.

This is why it was so important that a reporter herself went to one of these relics of slavery and endure the harshness and oppressiveness of life for poor, working-class women.

Let that letter-writer now come and say it is a lie that the reporter got only $2,800 for working more than 40 hours a week and over nine hours, without even having time to eat lunch.

Let him and others say she was lying about what she experienced all week under the guise of being another hapless, marginalised and oppressed woman.

Lack of vigilance

But another issue which comes to the fore is, how come all of these things were taking place right under the nose of the press and this was not exposed until a university student went, did the study and dropped it in the lap of the press?

This same supposedly vigilant, vigorous and vibrant press which always gloats about its championing the cause of the people?

I have written before that the press has a lot of strength and gumption for politicians but is wimpish when it comes to commercial interests. Anybody can kick around politicians these days without much fear, for if they dare try to hit back we all in the press - with substantial and vociferous support from civil society - will just gang up on them and give it to them.

Not so with commercial interests and the capitalist class. They have real power. They can pull their advertising support. They can cut off sponsorships of our radio and television programmes. They can lock us out of big bucks for the outside broadcasts and they can harm some of our public relations interests.

Oppressive conditions exist not only in the downtown wholesales and is not confined to Chinese operators there. I did not start this piece by highlighting the Chinese wholesalers, for I don't want to typecast any ethnic group. There are black employers who oppress their workers, too. And there are Chinese employers who treat their workers well and who are loved by them. So let's not push the racial factor.

It is not just the downtown wholesalers who are robbing workers and outrightly breaking or using clever means to circumvent the law. While I laud the press for shaming downtown wholesalers who are carrying out this act of illegality and cruelty, I wonder whether the press will take the investigations further.

We try to get away from class analysis in this country, and many believe that the death of communism means that Marxist perspectives on class have been totally invalidated. Absolutely not.

Marxism crashed because it was premised on faulty anthropology which led to its disastrous results in economics. But Marxist sociology offers many insights.

Classes exist and class dynamics are real. The downtown wholesalers are not a part of the cocktail circuit and are not likely to appear on the social pages of newspapers. It is easier to offend them and get away - except that racially they have powerful 'brethren' and allies in Jamaica - but they are not people you are rubbing shoulders with at the 'dos', the 'happenings' and high-society social events.

Expose any corruption

The press must now take the investigations into outlets where workers are also complaining about exploitation too.

One young woman has told me that after she finishes her shift, she has to clean up the place, which takes her way over the legal time for work - without any overtime paid. And she is paid the bare minimum wage.

Sure, the place is not without fans or cooling and is not kept in as deplorable a condition as the downtown wholesales, but that is for the comfort of the paying customers - not for the comfort of the workers who are mere cogs in the profit-making machine.

Investigative reporting cannot be just about what the politicians are doing we should certainly keep the spotlight on them, particularly the Government which wields power.

I don't want any partisan hack to say I am trying to "divert attention away from Government corruption".

No, dig out every bit of corruption there is in Government. Expose any minister of government who is to be exposed and let us know all the dirt on what the people in power are up to.

That is a part of our mandate as journalists. But investigative reporting cannot be confined to investigating the state; not when private capitalists have so much impact on our lives.

Let us have some investigative stories about pay levels and compensation for workers in the booming tourism industry. We hear about how tourism is booming, but what are the workers being paid? We also want stories about the conditions of sugar workers and their housing conditions, centuries after the abolition of slavery.

Whatever you want to say about the U.S. press, you cannot accuse those journalists of only going after Government. Some of the biggest investigative stories concern big corporations and small ones which are ripping off the public, carrying out corrupt practices and not operating in the public interest. Our press does not have the guts to take on the business sector.

Fearless press

A really fearless press, vigilant about protecting the people's interest, would not have waited for a researcher at the university to tell them what was going on in the wholesales downtown. That is the job of our reporters.

The slave drivers downtown would be merrily carrying on their abuse of human rights outside the glare of the public, had it not been for Ann-Murray Brown, who wanted something to write about for her master's degree.

The retreat of labour, the crash of socialism, the triumph of the neo-liberal agenda and the emasculation of the trade union movement mean that the 'immiserisation' of poor workers, especially women, is given free rein.

People in the information technology sector also have some horror stories to tell about arbitrary firings, callous, abrupt re-arranging of schedules, gross insensitivity to mothers, sexual exploitation and sexual harassment. (Not in all the companies. We can't broad-brush the industry. But one is saying there is a story for investigative reporters to tell). There is a lot to be done until the libel laws are changed. Don't ease up on the Government, but don't let the capitalists off the hook.

Ian Boyne is a veteran journalist who may be reached at ianboyne1@ yahoo.com.