The lie of sweatshops.

'Sell yourself at a slave-wage or starve' is how this dumb debate is pitched to you. The centuries of violent enclosures, evictions and gag orders on unions that preceded sweatshops—never once considered. This article explains it all.

'Sweatshops are the best available opportunity.' Sure, and I stick the muzzle of a .45 against your stomach, handing me that wallet is your next-best option compared to the worst alternative.

The capitalist argument effectively boils down to 'Yes, we fenced off your fields, outlawed your unions, patented every dual-use tool you might use to compete, then shoved you into 14-hour factory shifts—but c'mon, be grateful.'

'You should be lucky for crumbs after we torched all your bread.'

Their states seize and service their expropriated land with public money, gift industrial parks duty-free inputs & decade-long tax holidays, then impose steep tariffs on the machinery locals need to climb the value-chain.

Two decades into Honduras' EPZs, workers leave by old age with no savings, no land, and no real upskilling beyond the zone. The locals inherit quite literally anything—only a stripped shell, toxic runoff & municipal debt for every export-corridor/dumping service.

Give workers their fucking land back + union rights, and the same workforce will earn far more locally than the $26 sweatshop wage extracted on expropriated land, under union bans, where profits are all expatriated.