My question to those on this site who are well informed about the topic(s) is if you could please post for myself and others (I will reach about 300 people total on this and other groups/mailing lists, as well as those viewing the babble site) the most reliable information on these topics that you know of. I am sure many others here will also find solid and compact research helpfull in educating people on the facts as they currently exist.

I am thinking specifically of overall (as opposed to specific (and therefore perhaps isolated)) statistics, idependent first hand reports, and commentary from the most respectable and well researched sources, perhaps groups such as the UN, Amnesty international, (solid) government sources, etc. I think a listing all in one place (ie. here) could go a reasonably long way in helping to educate people and getting fairer buying/manufacturing practices adopted.

The relevant portion of my e-mail is immediately below, followed by the response I recieved today...

Thanks in advance;
r

(My post)
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Might I also respectfully suggest that those recieving this e-mail also consider reducing your purchases of Chinese made goods? The long shipping distances cause tremendous polution (I recall someone saying 60-90% of the worlds oceans are essentially now dead, according to the person due to pollution), most of the labour is essentially slave labour, the money supports a corrupt and brutal fascist regeime which has humiliated, tortured and killed (tibetan) monks and nuns tried to commit cultural genocide by mass killings and migration of chinese citizens into tibet, looted and destroyed their places of worship, and dumped thier toxic waste in tibet. The money is sucked away from the economies of democratic countries which previously produces similar goods, resulting in increases in poverty and social problems (which in turn result in economic costs) in these countries. Furthermore, the wages are so small for the factory (read: sweatshop) workers that many are malnourished (ie. they can't even afford 3 basic meals), and the conditions in the factories are appauling on many levels. The toxic environment inside these factories and external pollution resulting from many of the by-products undoubtedly will have great costs long into the future, although the top 1% or so will gain, which is probably why these conditions continue.
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(Reply)
>I recall someone saying 60-90% of the worlds oceans are essentially now dead, (according to the person due to pollution),

I recall a lot of stupid undocumented things people have said.

> most of the labour is essentially slave labour,

Not any more. In Shanghai, the income level of the middle class now approaches that of the US.

> dumped thier toxic waste in tibet.

Sorry, they are too cheap to haul it to Tibet, the dump it locally.

> The money is sucked away from the economies of democratic countries which previously produces similar goods, resulting in increases in poverty and social problems (which in turn result in economic costs) in these countries.

Didn't "they" say this about Japan, when "made in Japan" was a joke about quality?

> Furthermore, the wages are so small for the factory (read: sweatshop) workers that many are malnourished (ie. they can't even afford 3 basic meals), and the conditions in the factories are appauling on many levels.

Not any more. Factories are new, clean and highly productive due to good working conditions. Most workers live in apartments built by the company, next door, so they can walk (or bicycle) to work. There is usually a hospital and school close by, also built by the company (the government is part of the ownership of every large company in China, often by Joint Venture).

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in effect, tolerates although does not openly discuss a de facto 10% unemployment rate.

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Originally posted by Mr. Magoo:
Really? That's no better than Capitalism. Where's the Worker's Paradise?

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You must be confusing me for someone who actually likes the Chinese government.

You also must be confusing me for a die-hard Communist.

China Labour Bulletin

Since Deng Xiaoping, China has basically been turned into a gigantic sweatshop for western multinational corporations. The "iron rice bowl" is long gone.

And yes it would be true to say that the introduction of capitalism in China has created a new yuppy middle class that is doing very well.

with the sheer amount of manufacturing that has relocated to china (plus chinese foreign exchange reserves and US debt), there is a distinct chance that they will soon have the bargaining power against transnational capital to unionise much of the country. whether the communist government will allow that is a different matter.

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Factories are new, clean and highly productive due to good working conditions. There is usually a hospital and school close by, also built by the company

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good thing that there are hospitals near by ...

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Accidents in mines and factories killed 11,449 people in the first nine months of 2003, despite a nationwide safety crackdown. The number of deaths in non-mining industries rose by 19.1 percent, to 5,203.

Some analysts blame the rise in accidents on China's shift to a market-style economy.

"Workers are working longer hours since state owned industries were privatised, and they have no knowledge of health and safety issues," said Han Dongfang, director of the China Labour Bulletin, based in Hong Kong.

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I had the good fortune to be called a 'stupid foreign boy' by a factory owner in China, right after I recieved a tour of his factory. During the tour, I was not allowed into certain areas which were marked as 'unhealthy', however, there were lots of unprotected workers in there.
The factory owner told me that his people are going through the same industrial, social, and economic changes that North Americans went through 2-3 generations ago, when our grandfathers died of black lung, improper safety precautions and other work related illness. He said I should not judge China by North American standards, until China has reached a comparable level of technology that North America enjoys now. I would also add that North Americans shouldn't be too judgemental until they have come up with effective systems of governance for running a country of a billion people. You maybe surprised to find that the Canada you know today may look nothing like a Canada that has a population of a billion.

Another factory owner I spoke to, said that he once gave his employess 5 days off for Chinese New Years - two-thirds of his employees went out and got other jobs rather than take the holidays, many of his employees did not come back.

While China is run by a communist party, it definitly not the communism I was expecting (read: it didn't jive with the Cold War propaganda I was fed all through my youth), certainly not while I was ordering Pizza Hut in Guangjao.

The politicians in China are just like the politicians here, some are in for the good of the people, some are in it for themselves. The members of Communist party that I met honestly believed that if they filled the party with the best and brightest the party will do a good job of governing. They were not thinking of, how can I exploit the peseants? They were wondering, how can I make my country better.

It seems to me that if those working in low-level positions in these factories are making only enough to live on, and sometimes not even that (enough for two small meals a day, but not three), that any benefit accrued is going solely to the wealthy factory owners and a few management personelle native to the country in question. If the money is being sucked away from those losing their jobs in more industrialized nations to this 1% of people, how much is it actually helping the people of the country/world as a whole, especially if pollution and disease results from unsafe conditions? How many goods/services will this 1% or so of people buy, how much of this will "trickle down" in any country, and how much of the rest will end up in Swiss bank accounts, doing no good for anyone? For more on this, check these threads here: http://www.rabble.ca/babble/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic&f=3&t=001073 (on the real main cause of unemployment) and here http://www.rabble.ca/babble/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic&f=3&t=001074 (on the real main cause of inflation, closely linked to unemployment in the IMHO warped understanding of our esteemed Federal govt.

It seems to me that it would be simple enough to buy goods and materials only from countries that ensured safe conditions and a decent wage (relative to the individual country in question), if only we had the will to do so, either on a personal or national level. Perhaps education is the key?

I have to apologize, I went back and looked at my notes and I shouldn't have put Cdn behind the wage figures.

From my notes:

Legend Computer starting staff: 350RMB ($70Cdn per month)
Clothing factory: 1000RMB ($200Cdn)

A Coca-cola was 3RMB.