A recent Netflix documentary called "American Factory" has attracted great attention from the society. The Obamas are the producers and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. The theme of the film is about the exploitation of workers in the manufacturing industry on American soil. , and the investor of the manufacturing plant is a Chinese company. Such a subject may not be able to rise to the level of social discussion in the United States, but in China, it has attracted great attention, not only because of the smoke of the trade war, but also because of the trade war. Much discussion seems to come from the different work attitudes of capitalists and workers, and blue-collar workers in the two countries.
"American Factory" is a documentary. Perhaps first of all, we should pay attention to this film within the scope of film. The title is "American Factory". From the perspective of the producer, this is a documentary focusing on the development of domestic factories in the United States . The material starts from the 2012 Fuyao American factory in Dayton, Ohio, and ends when the labor union vote results in the dust. The development of American factories; the documentary dimension, the materials that make up the whole film are almost first-hand materials. For a documentary film that tries to express social reality, the effect presented in this way is undoubtedly naked and directly touching the heart .
Since it involves Chinese capital and American blue-collar workers, the capitalists' enthusiasm for efficiency and the workers' resistance to their unfair treatment, the attitude of the film image itself does not favor one of the two, nor does it show a swing between the two. attitude.
Capitalists pay attention to efficiency. This is a historical process. American workers pay attention to rights. Chinese workers live under the order of personal capital accumulation in the process of capital accumulation. Everything is just the content recorded by the camera, until finally when Cao Dewang, the head of Fuyao Glass, discussed with the managers. When the automation process is conceived, what the camera does is still onlookers, although the spectator, the spectator, feels that the film reveals the contradiction between workers and automatic intelligence, but it is true, the last fragment will be the previous labor union. The struggle directly translates into a larger human-machine struggle. And this is not what the image itself shows. Editing is the director's method of manipulating the image. What spreads everything behind it is actually the editor and director hidden behind the image. They create the final contradiction of the film and present it to the audience. What they want to show the audience.
But the manipulation and reality of the director of "American Factory" actually merged into one. When labor unions became the mediator on behalf of workers and capitalists, the course of history seemed to repeat the scene of the birth of Marxism, the birth of oppression and exploitation of capitalists. In the 21st century, after the third industrial revolution and even the birth of a new generation of industrial revolutions, what happened in the 21st century Is it just a 19th century repetition?
From the perspective of image presentation, nothing has changed, and something that belongs to the 21st century has been added - technology, which has evolved into an incoordination between machines and humans. Such contradictions are indeed happening in modern society, especially when artificial intelligence and virtual reality will get closer with 5G, the solution to the problem of human job security seems to be far away, especially in the manufacturing industry. .
Therefore, the director's manipulation of "American Factory" is successful. While repeating the conflict in the primitive accumulation period of capitalism, it is a turning point that firmly grasps the issue of contemporary significance - when the wave of intelligence of machines hits, human Where will it go.
As many as 375 million people are expected to need to find new jobs entirely by 2030 because of automation
The American documentary is very comprehensive. The main line of the factory, capitalists and workers are all within the scope of influence and feedback, until the ultimate question is thrown. But from the Chinese perspective, the situation may be more complicated. For the Chinese, this is not just a contradiction of historical processes.
When the U.S. government announced that it would continue to impose additional tariffs on goods exported to the United States, the friction between China and the United States was no longer just a call from the negotiating teams of the two sides, but entered a stage of substantive attack and defense. For a time, Chinese capital and American capital seemed to Under the strong political interference, they are drawing their own boundaries. The United States imposes tariffs on goods exported to the United States, and China counteracts, restricts the export of rare earths, and prohibits the purchase of American agricultural products. What are the consequences of such confrontation? From the perspective of historical process, it is nothing more than a lose-lose; The process of integration has long been unstoppable, and the interests of capital from various countries have long been bound together. When the White House proposed that US companies withdraw from their factories in China, more than 80% of the companies expressed their opposition and ignorance. As a national enterprise in the manufacturing industry, Fuyao Glass has established a factory in the United States, resisting the pressure of higher labor costs than domestic labor costs until it achieves profitability. Against the background of the Sino-US trade war, it has undoubtedly attracted the attention of a large number of Chinese people.
Why did he go to the United States to build a factory? Cao Dewang said clearly in an interview before that major American customers such as Chrysler and GM needed American-made automotive glass, so Fuyao chose to build a factory on the ruins of the economic crisis, and by the way pulled the local area. employment. Interest dictates, capital is in power.
As a result, Fuyao’s American factory was established in the small town of Dayton. The star-spangled flag at the entrance suggested that this was just an ordinary factory on American soil. After the short honeymoon period, the surging of the undercurrent gradually turned into an open surging. There are two major contradictions. The capitalists and workers are tit-for-tat through discussions on the establishment of trade unions, and the Chinese work model is completely deviated from the American democratic spirit. As a result, the factory has fallen into a loss-making situation and the enthusiasm of the workers has been greatly reduced.
When the factory was established, Cao Dewang mentioned that the labor union would affect the efficiency of the factory. If a labor union was established, Fuyao would withdraw. When the workers chose to use various methods to promote the labor union, people's views were vaguely divided. For the sake of living of young people worry that if a union is formed, they will lose their jobs and lose benefits for their rights. Does it make sense? Therefore, the result of the vote on trade unions is very clear. The absence of trade unions allows workers to keep their jobs, and factories achieve the desired efficiency. Everything is under the operation of capital, and everyone performs their own responsibilities. During the primitive accumulation period of capitalism, Capital is in order. Here, the assertion of human rights is actually a failure, just like those capitalist factories during the Industrial Revolution and the Second Industrial Revolution.
But the attempts of contemporary Americans are indeed quite positive. They have their own laws and can publicize their corresponding demands through various channels. After countless protests by workers against democracy, the ideas of American freedom and democracy have long been engraved into their minds. In their bones, they are the forerunners of modern capitalism, exploring the possibility of democratizing capitalism, but sometimes the deeper they go, the more they deviate from the essence of things. Movements such as Me Too have set off a wave around the world, and the denunciations have risen. Let the movement become more slogan and superficial. Although the original intention of the movement represents the voice, struggle, and equality for those who are discriminated against, people sometimes cannot see the optimal solution in reality. "My generation has failed in some important ways," he said. "We spend too much time debating, we keep focusing on the fight and not enough on progress."
We can't see exactly how far the development of human rights in modern capitalism has come, but at least, the current American defense has moved towards a paranoia that leaves the optimal solution in reality.
The contradiction between primitive accumulation of capitalism and modern capitalist democracy and human rights in "American Factory" is the main point of contradiction throughout the film before the final automation is proposed, but it is clear that the development of modern capitalist culture is powerless in the face of pure capital. will eventually be defeated by capital.
On the contrary, Chinese workers in the period of primitive accumulation of capital have not gone through much ideological emancipation movement. They have the simplest and crudest thirst for capital, so that the operation of society and the composition of the family are all based on capital. At this time, enterprises The power-holders and the working class have formed a unified value orientation, and the two are combined into one, and the efficiency is undoubtedly terrifying.
Of course, the film does not delve into the reasons for the differences in the attitudes of workers in the two countries towards work, but the universal value connecting the people of the two countries still contributes to the warmth of humanity under the operation of capital—Wong’s friendship with American workers sparkles with the purest humanity time.
"American Factory", which has always been relatively objective, has given enough close-ups to this friendship, and the confession of the two is deep enough, but leaving the emotional side and finally returning to the cold reality, the reason why "American Factory" remains neutral until the end Only then did we understand that the contradiction between automated production and workers has long transcended the cultural barriers within workers, and the film cannot take sides. Trade unions, American workers, Chinese workers, and Chinese capitalists have their own reasons and responsibilities.
Automation and mechanization will be part of the historical process of capitalist society. The film will finally unify all the problems and accommodate the previous contradictions in a big pattern. The vertical direction is the continuation of capitalist history, and the horizontal direction is the development of economic globalization, capital and technology. A miniature of the times.
And how does the historical process of capitalism evolve in the face of automation and mechanization, at least from the perspective of workers, whether it is the efficiency of Chinese workers is king or the American workers are arguing for their rights are useless, and the director and our audience are even more unable to provide solutions. , Vocational skills training may be a method, but are capitalists seeking to maximize profits willing to sacrifice certain efficiency and costs in exchange for workers’ long-term contributions?
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