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The more capitalism develops, the greater the number of people become proletariat; this is a thesis that is often attributed to Marx. If globalization is understood to mean the global expansion of capitalism, then this should suggest that, given Marx's thesis, an increasing number of people in the world are becoming proletariat. Both Sassen and Portes deny this is the case. Sassen argues that there is the resurgence of the informal proletariat in what she calls "global cities" while Portes notes the persistence of the informal proletariat in Latin America despite its long period of continuous capitalist development. Even if the classical Marxist thesis is mistaken about the presumed growth of the proletariat, this paper will show how the informal proletariat can be accounted for in the theories of the Neo-Marxists such as Althusser and Wallerstein and demonstrate how their theories provide a more powerful conceptual framework within which we can analyze the different types of labor accompanying globalization. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on a study examining how the growth and decline of different modes of labor control is shaped by modern capitalist development in Shanghai and Hong Kong from the early 1900s to the contemporary period. The different modes of labor control includes "Self-employed direct producers," "wage-laborers," and "informal wage-laborers. " The poverty and income inequality is increased by globalization-induced downward social mobility, which will in turn generate resistance to globalization. To gauge the consequences and future direction of globalization, it is crucial to understand how global free market expansion transforms modes of labor control.

China's market reforms and the "opening" of China to the world have had major implications at home and for the global economy. In the past decade China became a leading exporter of manufactured goods, prompting some to call it the new "workshop of the world." Some social scientists hail China as a model of economic growth; others see China's export-driven growth, fueled by corporate buyers like WalMart, as essentially a "low road" strategy that not only won't benefit Chinese workers but may also undermine labor interests elsewhere. Clearly "the rise of China" has global implications, impacting countries such as the U.S. and Mexico. We attempt to contribute to the debates by applying a global commodity chain approach to China's new role in world trade: where and how these chains "touch down" has deep ramifications for labor relations, economic growth and inequality in localities and nations. We will focus on low-wage consumer goods industries, like world apparel industry. Examining data on changing patterns of international commodity trade allows us view a rapid and fundamental transformation of the world apparel industry. Immediately post-NAFTA Mexico seemed an increasingly attractive location for production for the US market, raising expectations that it would overtake East Asia as the leading center for sourcing in the 1990s. But today China is the undisputed leading apparel producer for both the US and world market. We will discuss some of the reasons this has occurred and the implications it has for producing firms, labor, and competing nations, like Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]