Since the 1980s, Western and European multinational corporations, notably clothing and fashion brands, have shifted their production to developing nations, particularly in the ready-made garments (RMG)-producing countries like Bangladesh. This shift, driven by the dominant economic and political doctrines of globalisation and neoliberalism, has led to the deliberate targeting of developing nations to exploit their abundant labour forces and strengthen global capitalism. The RMG industry in Bangladesh, a prime example, pays its workers meagre wages. However, it is the global brands, (...) through their outsourcing practices, that hold significant power and contribute to the exploitation of RMG workers in Bangladesh while reaping substantial profits. This article highlights these issues and urgently calls for essential policy recommendations to reform the minimum wage structure for RMG workers in Bangladesh. (shrink)

This article recounts the backlash against the neoliberal constitutionalism that locked in free trade and capital rights through the multilateral treaty organizations of the 1990s. It argues that we can find important forces in the disruption of the status quo among the elite losers of the 1990s settlement. Undercut by competition from China, the US steel industry, in particular, became a vocal opponent of unconditional free trade and a red thread linking all of Trump’s primary advisers on matters of trade. (...) Steel lobbyists themselves helped frame a critique of actually existing neoliberal globalism, which Trump both adopted and acted on as part of his trade war. By searching for the contemporary attack on neoliberal constitutionalism among the disgruntled corporate elite, we find that our current crisis must be framed as a backlash from above as well as one from below. (shrink)