[A-List] iPhone 4: Capitalism, inbuilt obsolescence and `blood' phones | Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal

[glparramatta]

Such gadgets are assembled in factories in China and other “developing” 
countries under conditions of super-exploitation that would make the 
owner of an Industrial Revolution-era workhouse blush.

The May 27 Telegraph.co.uk reported on a factory in Longhua, China that 
makes products for Apple. Conditions were so horrific, 16 workers had 
killed themselves since the start of the year.

Nets have been erected around the Longhua factory buildings to stop 
workers jumping to their deaths.

Worse, a key mineral used to produce many consumer goods, including 
mobile phones, is the highly valuable coltan. The high demand for coltan 
is helping fuel the bloody civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo 
as rival armies fight over reserves.

Full article at http://links.org.au/node/1828

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