The Struggle of Powers: Empire versus Multitude

More than a hundred years ago, Marx had already wondered and asked that at the height of industrialization, how come there are still so many poor people? I then ask this question in the same line of his thinking: At height of globalized capitalist production how come these major capitalist institutions downsize, lay-off their employees and opt for outsourcing with ease even if they have already reached billions of dollars of profits and cash reserves? How come the government affirm these downsizing activities by major corporations and criticize the protests of workers? How come even the justice system and legislations heavily favour these corporations? I wonder why labor issues between capitalist institutions and the workers around the world are still very rampant, here and there when these corporations already have billions of dollars in terms of profits and cash reserves. With the aid of current events and recent history, I shall demonstrate the power of this new form of global sovereignty called Empire, a new form of global sovereignty that subjects the Multitude to alienation, exploitation and subordination. At the same time on the other hand, I shall be demonstrating as well how powerful the Multitude could be. They could be in fact more powerful than all these capitalist institutions. While Empire has already been materializing right before our very eyes, the concept of Multitude and the becoming common of labor is still an ongoing project, a work in progress.

Last August 2011, the Philippine Airlines had declared to close down three of its departments – its call centre reservations, in-flight catering and airport services having opted to outsource employees. This would mean that they would instead be contracting with agencies that specialize and provide catering and call centre services so they would be maximizing profits. With this move, the Philippine Airlines will be able to annually save from 10 to 15 million dollars which they said will be used in the rehabilitation of their old units or perhaps the money will be used in purchasing new aircraft units. PAL then decided to lay-off 2600 workers but as a consolation prize they’re offered to be rehired by third-party service providers companies such as Sky Logistics, Sky Kitchen, and SPi Global Holdings. The workers who will be laid off will also be receiving separation benefits. Consequently being employed in a third-party agency would definitely mean that these employees would receive reduced salaries. These employees would only be probationary in status. The office of the President had already approved the outsourcing proposal that the Philippine Airlines will be implementing.

In connection to these developments, the Philippine Airlines Employees Association (PALEA) had a series of protests last September. Three days before the onslaught of the outsourcing typhoon, PALEA conducted its mother protest against lay-off and contractualization. The members of PALEA reported to work in Ninoy Aquino International Terminal II which is exclusively for Philippine Airlines but would stop moving cargo, refuelling planes, manning check in counters and all other jobs, leaving thousands of passengers stranded amid the wrath brought by typhoon Pedring as numerous flights were cancelled and the operations were disrupted. Besides the protests held, PALEA also beforehand filed a petition for certiorari at the Court of Appeals questioning the Office of the President ruling on the legality of the outsourcing plan at Philippine Airlines.

These are the key facts that I shall be diagnosing with the aid of Hardt and Negri’s Empire and Multitude as my theoretical and conceptual framework. The labor issue between Philippine Airlines and its employees clearly manifest the power of Empire and Multitude. To start, I shall at this point demonstrate how powerful the concept of Empire can potentially be.

At the time of post modernity, the economic activities of these capitalist institutions have become more autonomous from political control and government intervention such as the regulation of prices, downsizing and outsourcing activities, etc. Thus I’d say that the concept of command or planned economy is dead and consequently political sovereignty had increasingly declined. The tables have been turned and it is these major capitalist institutions such as SM, 7-Eleven Philippine Airlines, etc that are dictating and controlling the production and other economic activities. As Hardt and Negri mentioned in the preface of Empire, “The factors of production and exchange – money, technology, people and goods – move with increasing ease across national boundaries.” At the time of Empire therefore, the nation-state has less and less power to regulate these flows and impose authority over the economic affairs of these capitalist institutions. The nation-states have become merely instruments of these capitalist institutions such as the Philippine Airlines in their economic activities and they are not even in the position to control even they’re downsizing and outsourcing plans and activities. Every economic efforts done by the government of nation-states is directed not towards a national purpose but is directed globally. Even the sovereignty of nation-states had declined. This decline however implies that sovereignty is taking another form, subsumed into a global sovereignty and this is the very concept of Empire.

Extracting from the labor issue between PAL and its employees cited above, this is the piece of evidence I shall present to the claims of Hardt and Negri that the power unleashed by these capitalist institutions or by Empire had led to the decline of political sovereignty and the sovereignty of nation-states. It is very apparent that Malacañang willingly affirmed the outsourcing plan of Philippine Airlines and they also based on the statement of Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda, even criticized the protests as an insensitive move. I just don’t find it reasonable why the palace has placed themselves on the side of these capitalist when in fact they have engaged themselves previously in contractulization and now to outsourcing. This would imply that the employees that they have in the mentioned department could only work for a certain span of time and is uncertain for rehiring. These contractual employees also wouldn’t receive benefits such as retirement benefits from the Social Security System or SSS.

How could the palace affirm such activity of PAL where it would mean unemployment for 2600 people? While it is true that they were offered jobs in servicing agencies instead, this would still imply that they would receive less salary much lesser than they have received when directly employed in PAL and it would mean on the other hand millions of dollars of savings for the Philippine Airlines. How could the palace support such move by PAL? How could the workers who are fighting for the security of their jobs appear to be the antagonists of this struggle? How could the palace favour Philippine Airlines more than the workers? How come the Philippine National Police, whose primary aim is to serve and protect the people, forcibly escorted these workers out of the NAIA terminal two? Is it because of the illegality of the protests conducted by the workers? If we have legislations concerning labour to whose interest is it in favour? These questions remain to be subjected to my suspicion.

This only goes to show that even if the palace had released statements approving the outsourcing of Philippine Airlines, it was the least they could do because they do not have the autonomy to regulate and command the economic activities of PAL. It is actually the other way around. In fact, the outsourcing plans of PAL would definitely be advantageous to the government especially to the Bureau Internal Revenue because the more profit and income generated by PAL would definitely mean a higher amount of business taxes that will come in which they could use for future projects presuming that these businessmen would file and pay their taxes properly. Another advantage for the government lies in their tourism department. Since the added savings was said to be allocated for the purchase of new aircraft units, this would definitely project to boost up tourism in the Philippines as PAL is the flag carrier airlines of the country. Lastly, having more contractual and outsourced workers in major capitalist institutions would definitely imply that the Social Security System will be able to save up funds instead of insuring benefits to these workers. The problem however is that these advantages were worth unemployment for 2600 workers. This only proves that because of the increased and globalized capitalist production, the nation-state and its government no longer holds the autonomy that will command, regulate and control the activities of these multinational companies because these MNCs such as PAL are highly essential in boosting up the economy. Thus, to this therefore I conclude that the command economy is dead. At the time of Empire, it is the reign of these corporations. It is the reign of a free market economy in which economic intervention of the nation-state and its government is limited only to tax collection and enforcement of private ownerships and contracts.

After presenting the power that Empire holds in the labor issue between Philippine Airlines and its employees, I shall now proceed to demonstrate how more powerful the Multitude can be. Hardt and Negri defined Multitude is that which is “composed of a set of singularities, a social subject that cannot be reduced to sameness, a difference that remains different.” Though the concept is composed of differences that cannot be reduced into sameness but rather commonality, “it is not fragmented, anarchical or incoherent.” The actions of the multitude is said to be based not in unity or identity but on what they have in common. In analyzing the case cited above, I shall be using the Philippine Airlines Employees Association to represent the concept of Multitude because these workers are under the rule of capital.

We could see clearly in the struggle of PALEA that truly they are the base structure that is they are the ones that allow history to move forward. It is totally an ideological to say that it is the workers who need these capitalist institutions because without them they wouldn’t meet ends. It is rather these capitalist institutions who heavily rely on the labour of the workers for it is because of their hard work, sweat, energy, solid efforts and their toiling that provided PAL millions of dollars of revenue. As we’ve seen, there were hundreds of domestic and international flights were cancelled the previous weeks due to the protests slash boycott of the workers. In the protests, the workers reported to work but never refuelled the planes, never entertained the passengers, and ceased moving cargos that had caused inconvenience to the travelling public and disruptions in PAL’s operations. PAL consequently may have lost millions and even billions of dollars in the cancelled flights. They have to rebook the passengers and because they were stranded, PAL even paid for their lodging in hotels while waiting for the flight and these losses were all brought about by the workers. The boycott and protests has the power to totally paralyze Philippine Airlines or any other hegemonic capitalist institution. That is just how powerful the workers can be.

Even if Empire’s prowess are its decentralization and deterritorialization, the Multitude must realize that this concept it is self-defeating – that a simple false move could be the demise of a certain capitalist institution. The Multitude can be that powerful in defeating Empire.

Although Empire has a superior power that restricts the government and the nation-states to regulate and intervene in their economic activities, the Multitude can be in fact way more powerful than Empire. However, this is not only the struggle of PALEA in this case but what should present into our consciousness is that it is the struggle of each and every worker albeit dissimilar but common. We could also participate in their struggle by not forgetting our sense of passion, anger, and boycott as well. If the Multitude participates in the boycott for instance of all these abusive capitalist institutions who outsource and lay-off employees at will, surely the workers will triumph over the subjugation of capital. Although we cannot escape capital, we could always leave a sting to this black hole, we could always be insubordinate to capital in so many ways. For instance, if then we have to buy CDs of our favourite artists in record bars that costs around half a thousand pesos, now we could freely download any song we desire to hear as we already have these P2P file sharing software and websites. We could be insubordinate as well to Philippine Airlines in order for us to render justice to the workers who were outsourced and laid-off at will by not supporting and patronizing their travel services. We could instead patronize Cebu Pacific for domestic flights and Thai and US Airways for international flights. If the entire Multitude actively and passionately participates in this move, surely Philippine Airlines would find its demise. The power of the Multitude whose attacks to Empire remains arbitrary and target-less is the realization of the common, the awakening of the consciousness that we are in a common struggle with capital.

The struggle of PALEA is the struggle of every worker from different walks of life who in one way or another are subjected to the rule of capital – teachers, pilots of aircrafts, saleslady, counsellors, lawyers, flight attendants, actors and actresses, farmers, street vendors, fishermen, fast food crew members, and even employees who do nothing all day but press the elevator button, etc.

We can now visibly see the workers of the world that Marx had been summoning more than a hundred years back is has been even made more possible at the time of the mobility, fluidity and flexibility of postmodernity for we already have the technology that would permit us to unreservedly establish connections to the world when labor has become already common.

Workers of the World unite!


References:

Hardt, Michael and Antonio Negri. Empire. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000.

Hardt, Michael and Antonio Negri. Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com
http://www.interaksyon.com
http://business.inquirer.net

The Birth of South Sudan at the Time of Empire

After decades of endless civil dispute of people from the same nation, the disagreement between the black Christians and animists from the South and the Arab Muslims from the north, after all the bloodshed and the millions of lives spared, the South Sudanese people are free at last.


A new sovereign nation-state, South Sudan was born.

CNN reported the historic event, Saturday that the South Sudanese people are finally liberated from the north, ending decades of civil war which took away the lives of almost 2 million people. They emotionally wept and explicitly celebrated their independence, cheering, dancing and whistling down the streets, while some chanted “we are free at last!” with the South Sudanese Flag draped in his shoulders while there was also a man on his knees and kisses the ground, this was such a glorious day for the South Sudanese people. During the momentous day, the new born nation’s flag of red white and green was raised over the capital city of the world’s newly-born nation, Juba. Amid all the people’s celebration, they also paid tribute to all those who spared their lives and died for their country’s independence. The residents gave tribute to all members of the family who died within the course of the decades of civil war. It was indeed a glorious yet an emotional day for the South Sudanese people.

The sovereignty of South Sudan then legitimately broke Africa’s largest nation, in terms of land area into two. This was the overwhelming result of the referendum which was conducted last January 2011 significantly approved by the Sudanese voters ending the decades of civil conflict. This referendum was part of the 2005 peace deal which was negotiated by the then United States president, George W. Bush, but despite the said negotiations with the justified intervention of America, the clash between the forces of the north and south Sudan still was relentless.
The newly-born nation is under the leadership of their president, Salva Kiir Mayardit, who was a former rebel. He remarked that his people cannot forget all the years and decades but must now forgive and move forward. He also promised his people that they would never be marginalized again. Al Bashir, stood up to his former enemies and congratulated them on the liberation. While he believed, that a united Sudan was the best option, he however supported the vision of the South Sudanese people.

In the midst of celebrations of triumph and liberation of the South Sudanese people from decades of bloody dispute between them and the north of Sudan, United States President Barack O’bama issued a statement in Washington D.C. regarding and recognizing South Sudan’s sovereignty.

“Today is a reminder that after the darkness of war, the light of a new dawn is possible," Obama said. "A proud flag flies over Juba and the map of the world has been redrawn."

As South Sudan has gained the sovereignty and the independence they desired long before, it doesn’t spare them at all from the challenges and the existing situation in their nation. Many believed that this would also entail a continued difficult and a long journey to take. Many challenges await them. South Sudan is still among the world’s poorest nation, a region of the Sudan nation that hasn’t changed much over the past years. The infrastructure is still lacking in the region which is deemed to be the same of the size of the America’s state of Texas. There are little paved roads posing a difficulty in mobility and transportation. Most villages of the country still have no electric and/or supply of running water. Most people relied on stagnant water resulting to cause a myriad of diseases.

According to the United Nations, the new nation-state also sits at the bottom of most of the HDI or human development indices categories. South Sudan has the highest maternal mortality and female illiteracy rates implying that the country still also lacks health support institutions and education.

The new countries, the North and South Sudan are merely set to divorce only by name. They have yet to settle and reached the agreement of the distribution and shares of the precious resources of the once Sudan nation-state. They have also yet to agree on the territorial, at least the terrestrial and fluvial boundaries and as well as the status of their respective citizens has yet to be settled.

The birth of South Sudan is within the span of time where Empire is materializing before our very eyes according to Hardt and Negri. South Sudan is then born at the time of globalization, at the new era or safe to say a return to the very era of being ‘nomads’, wanderers in a sense that we return to being mobile, fluid and flexible from being fixed and settled in respective sovereign nation-states. South Sudan was born at a post-civil condition where the boundaries and the demarcations between the social institutions of the civil society and even between nation-states are slowly collapsing. As Gilles Deleuze would posit this condition, we live in a society as if it were a snake with infinite undulations.

Diagnosing this issue in the same line of thinking with Hardt and Negri and the framework of the preface of their work Empire, even if the South Sudanese nation-state has gained the sovereignty the yearned for decades already, this sovereignty is not at all absolute. In fact, no country is absolutely sovereign at the time of Empire. The sovereignty they have in their hands is that which is already declining. However, it does not necessarily mean that the sovereignty as such of their nation-state has diminished. Rather, the decline in sovereignty is merely taking a new form, a new phase, a new shape, composed of a network of national and supranational organisms unified under a single rule. This is the new global form of sovereignty, which Hardt and Negri posits as Empire. This was the very sovereignty the nation-state, South Sudan has acquired in its liberation from the north – a sovereignty that has taken a new shape, an innovative form of global sovereignty recognized as Empire. This new nation-state that has been born would no longer have the autonomy to control and regulate the economic affairs of capitalist multinational corporations as political sovereignty has as well declined.

Even if the South Sudan nation-state has declared independence from the North, and the two clashing parties have yet to agree on the territorial boundaries, at the time of globalization and Empire, there would be no boundaries and territories as such. Hardt and Negri’s conceptualization of Empire is characterized by a lack or even an absence of territorial boundaries, that Empire’s rule has no limits. Thus, for the case of the South Sudan nation-state, surely they were liberated from the North, but certainly they would not be able to liberate themselves from globalization and they cannot even escape the rule of Empire – which admits no territorial boundaries that can serve as parameters of its reign. The said nation-state would not be able to escape the new form of sovereignty and regime that efficiently include the whole spatial totality of the “civilized” world. Even if South Sudan has gained the independence, it doesn’t provide any guarantee at all that they would be free from the rule of Empire. This global regime admits not even temporal boundaries.
Thus, South Sudan is still governed, governed not in the European imperialist sense during the age of colonization, but governed by Empire in the post-modern, post-civil and globalized conditions.

Certainly, the world would be recognizing the South Sudanese people, but this would entirely remain as a construction of their situation – being liberated from the North Sudan which has been their nemesis the past decades. Regardless of their liberation from the North, South Sudan is still not sovereign and independent. It is however in another form. They’re still global citizens submitting and governed by Empire. Certainly they would be engaging in foreign affairs with other nation-states, they would be having negotiations with the North regarding the distribution of wealth and natural resources and certainly they cannot as well escape the “Mcdonaldization” and “Coca-colalization” of their society – that is very much capitalist and very much American.

The civil war that had occurred for the past decades between the North and the South Sudan has caused and spared millions of lives due to the relentless violence and bloody disputes. This is Empire in its very essence – that its practice is recurrently bathed in blood, ironically a medium dedicated for peace. As the prominent Roman historian Tacitus would say, “They make slaughter and they call it peace.” For the past decades in Sudan, this has been the case and it has just been recently punctuated.

It is very observable that the celebration of the South Sudanese people wasn’t merely limited to themselves, but external factors as well had something to say about the momentous occasion. Besides the United Nations, one striking superpower that has come up with a statement even during Bush’s administration was of course, the global police, the United States of America.
The United States has been intervening with the peace negotiations between the North and South Sudan. The apparent instance was the 2005 peace deal brokered by the George W. Bush administration, which evidently manifest’s the American government’s intervention. As theorized by Hardt and Negri in chapter 1 – world order of their work Empire, the United States may have been raising the alarm AGAIN in any sense and any instance possible during the course of the disputes and civil war in Sudan in order for their intervention regarding the conflict would be justified. This civil war between the North and South Sudan until its conclusion may have been dictated and constructed by America, playing the role of the global police. The decades of relentless violence and bloody disputes are the means and are justified by what Empire holds as a universal value – world peace.

In summary, the birth of South Sudan at the time of Empire may have attached implications. One, the newest nation-state merely gained independence from Sudan but is not absolutely sovereign and free from the governance of Empire. Second, at the time of globalization, they cannot exist on their own. They may still be encompassed by external factors such as Capitalism, the civil society – such as Red Cross and UNICEF, etc. Third, South Sudanese are global citizens as well. Fourth, even if the South Sudan would certainly sooner or later admit a territorial boundary as a state, still they wouldn’t be spared from the subsumption to a higher universality called Empire. And lastly, the United States as one of the world’s superpower at the time of Empire is the one that acts as the global police. Their interventions in issues, wars, disputes of foreign nation-states are justified when they raise the alarm. Their engagement in war is merely justified by the universal concept of Empire called world peace.

In a Nutshell: The Difference Between Modern Imperialism and Hardt and Negri's Empire

Modern imperialism was a span of time in history and was at the same time the glory years and even centuries of the Spaniards having colonized the Philippines and other nation-states in Latin America and the Portuguese having colonized Brazil and Macau “propelled by Gospel, Gold and Glory.” The British were also part of the imperial world having colonized Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand and all other nation-states in Africa. At the time of modern imperialism, there was a use of military force in pacifying territories that eventually became Spanish, Portuguese, and British colonies. The colonizers at the time of imperialism defined boundaries in their captured territories. These demarcations defined the extent the colonizers could exploit their colony’s resources and no other colonizer may barge into their territories. Imperialism entails an occupation force that includes violence and thus there is resistance. Though the Spaniards then may have employed benevolent assimilation with the Filipinos, there were still revolts and resistance attributed to nationalism because of several factors - such as the influx of liberal ideas, the opening of Manila to world trade during the Spanish era which had allowed Rizal, del Pilar and the other illustrados to study overseas.

On the other hand, Hardt and Negri’s Empire is a period of heightened globalization and cultural diffusion. The United States today no longer capture territories with the use of military force. America colonizes the world ideologically through media, cultural diffusion and through capitalism. Instead of capturing countries through invasion or war, America captures the world by modifying and shaping what resides in people’s consciousness through what they see in television or in the internet. The colonizing becomes de-territorialized. It materializes over just anything, the clothes we wear, the way we express ourselves, and even in the sodas we drink. Mcdonalds, Apple and Coca-cola have already colonized the world. MTV and Hollywood movies have already in one way or another shaped our consciousness, our biases that construct our perspectives. In contrast to imperialism, America at the time of Empire doesn’t employ an occupation force. Rather, the U.S. subtlety shape the minds of the people by introducing them to what is “pleasant” such as burgers, fries, sundaes, chocolates, shampoo, whitening soaps, and even iPods, iPads and iPhones. And who among us Filipinos would not (in the words of Antonio Gramsci) consent to such things of the “good life”? There is no such resistance to Empire.