The dark side of Taiwan's globalization success story

Government regulators and researchers in Taiwan (Republic of China) express optimism about their country's economic success in its transition from a t raditional society to a first world, industrialized nation. But this econom ic success, as measured by the standards and ideology of globalization, als o has a dark side for many ordinary workers, especially Taiwan's 300,000 fo reign workers. The promise of growth and future prosperity is conditional u pon global economic practices and an adherence to a science-technology ideo logical perspective that shapes political content. Multiple centers of oppo sition and critical thinking have no public presence in Taiwan; nor do orga nizational defiance and resistance by trade unions. Instead, individuals an d small human rights groups seek to reveal areas of human degradation and s uffering in a response to poverty and the American dream. Meanwhile, the do minant ideological perspective as articulated by globalism seeps into and d irects all public policy on the work environment so that it is coherent wit h the neoliberal political agenda of multinational corporations. This direc tion is being questioned by students of the work environment and by labor a ctivists in North America, who report the deterioration of working conditio ns and worsening of government regulatory instruments for protecting worker s from physical, mental, and social risk and harm in the workplace.