Challenging digital capitalism: SACOM's campaigns against Apple and Foxconn as monopoly capital. Issue 9 (29th July 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Pun, Ngai; Tse, Tommy; Ng, Kenneth
• Is Part Of: Information, communication & society. Volume 22:Issue 9(2019)
• Page Start: 1253
• Page End: 1268
• Publication Date: 2019-07-29
• Subjects: Apple and Foxconn -- digital capitalism -- labor -- trans-border activism; Information technology -- Social aspects -- Periodicals; Information technology -- Economic aspects -- Periodicals; Information technology -- Political aspects -- Periodicals; Internet -- Periodicals; World Wide Web -- Periodicals; 303.4833
• DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2017.1414290
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1369-118X

Abstract

ABSTRACT: 'Utopia or dystopia – to where will the "digital revolution" lead human society?' is a question that remains unanswered. Negotiating between two opposing standpoints, this article, looking at a form of trans-border activism originally driven by suicides and protests of Foxconn workers who produce iPhones, iPads, and many other i-gadgets for the world's consumers, is an attempt to explore a politics of online and offline resistance against anti-digital capitalism. Based in Hong Kong (HK), SACOM is a leftist student group which works to support Chinese workers in campaigning against corporate power and generating trans-border networks through media exposure, international activism, and localized organizing. Combining online and offline activism, SACOM strives to extend the reach of their worker–consumer campaign to the worldwide audience by transgressing dominance of capital and political control of the Chinese state. The most intriguing question to us is could this proactive activism be possible and, if so, how could it act at the grid of China's transformation and incorporation into global capitalism?