Corona Crisis in the Mekong: From Extractive Imperialism to a New Bloom - Charlie Thame and Jana Rue Chin Glutting February 2021 ...

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Corona Crisis in the Mekong:
From Extractive
Imperialism to a New
Bloom

Charlie Thame and Jana Rue Chin Glutting
February 2021
TAB LE OF C O NTE NTS

 Acknowledgements                                           01

 Introduction                                               02

 Part One: The Corona Crisis in the Mekong                  03

    National Responses                                      04

    Uneven Impacts                                          06

    Export-Oriented Industries                              06

    Job Losses                                              07

    Labour Rights Abuses                                    08

    Informal Workers                                        08

    Migrant Workers                                         08

    Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons               09

    Insufficient Support                                    10

    Hunger, Hardship, and Distress for Some, Opulence and

    Profit for Others                                       11

 Part Two: Capitalist Transformation and Class Formation    14

    Capitalism’s Crisis Tendencies                          17

    The Coronavirus as a Crisis of Capitalism               18

    Pandemic as a Trigger                                   20

    The Metabolic Rift                                      20

    Extractive Imperialism in the Mekong                    21

    Extractive Capital and State Transformation             22

 Part Three: Alternatives to Extractive Imperialism         25

    Political Education                                     26

    Glimmers of Hope                                        27

    Democratic State Transformation                         27

    Conclusion                                              31

    Alternatives                                            32

    Bibliography                                            34

    Endnotes                                                44
01   ACKNOWLEDEGEMENTS
     We would like to thank My Linh Dang for
     her research assistance and contribution
     to the study team, Stephen Campbell for
     reviewing and commenting on a draft of
     this paper, and Doi Ra Lahken, Sophea
     Chrek, and Zau Tu for conversations
     that have influenced the argument.
     Appreciation is also extended to Nancy
     Chuang for accepting the challenging
     task of illustrating the accompanying
     “Expropriation, Exploitation, and Unequal
     Exchange: An Illustrated Introduction to
     Capitalist Transformation of the Mekong”
     and her patience and persistence working
     with us to produce a booklet based on
     this paper for political education purposes.
     Solidarity is extended to progressive youth
     and their allies for rekindling hope during
     a difficult year through creative, intelligent,
     determined, and courageous acts of
     resistance.

     Author: Charlie Thame (Faculty of Political
     Science, Thammasat University, Bangkok)
     Co-author: Jana Rue Chin Glutting

     Suggested citation: Thame, Charlie & Rue
     Glutting, Jana Chin “Corona Crisis in the
     Mekong: From Extractive Imperialism to
     A New Bloom” Hanoi: Rosa Luxemburg
     Foundation 2021.
I N T R OD U CTION                                                                                 02

As of January 2021, over 88 million covid-19     and inherent crisis tendencies. It connects
cases had been recorded worldwide                these to processes of class formation
leading to 1.9 million deaths. Countries in      generated through the ongoing capitalist
the Mekong subregion have managed the            transformation of the subregion, noting
health aspect of the crisis far better than      those most affected by the corona crisis
much wealthier counterparts such as the          are those societies have disempowered as
United States and United Kingdom. The            social relations and state forms have been
US has recorded 66,660 cases per million         reorganised towards expanded production
compared to 6, 15, 23, and 141 cases per         of commodities for export. It argues this
million in Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, and          has been an essentially extractive process
Thailand respectively. Having weathered          whereby natural and social wealth has been
the first wave, Myanmar became a regional        commodified, expropriated, and exploited,
outlier with 128,772 recorded cases (2358/       in pursuit of monetary wealth mostly
million) and 2,799 deaths after a mutated        accumulated elsewhere. This process is
strain (D614) first d etected i n M arch t hat   inherently imperialist, as social relations
can multiply 20 percent faster and is 10         in dominated countries across the region
times more infectious began spreading            have been restructured to meet the needs
locally.1 This may lead to a second wave         of dominant countries and class fractions,
sweeping through the subregion after             leaving subaltern class fractions especially
new infections were discovered in Laos           vulnerable to shocks and disruption.
and Thailand in December. Despite
relative success containing the virus, the       Part three argues the corona crisis has once
political,    economic,       and       social   again exposed the limitations of capitalist
implications of measures to constrain            social relations of production and presents
its spread have been devastating for             an opportunity to renew struggles towards
many and borne disproportionately by             more rational and democratic forms of
the poor. This will have long-lasting            social organisation. To this end, it highlights
effects on the livelihoods and wellbeing of      diverse social groups across the subregion,
people across the region.                        from peasants and factory workers to
This paper provides an introduction to the       progressive youth, resisting concentration
initial impacts of the corona crisis on some     of power and wealth and the demands they
the most vulnerable populations across           have made on their respective states. The
the Mekong at the end of its first year. Part    paper concludes by arguing long-lasting
one highlights uneven fortunes of different      change and genuine social transformation
social class fractions, from low paid            can only be achieved by struggles from
workers in export-oriented industries to         below led by such diverse subaltern class
those participating in informal economies,       fractions, aiming toward progressive
immigrant workers and displaced persons.         transformation of diverse state forms so
These fortunes are contrasted with those of      that we may rationally re-order our societies
salaried workers, big firms, and investors in    to better serve the interests of people and
financial markets.                               planet. This task is to be pursued through
                                                 political education and movement building.
Part two situates the corona crisis and its
impacts in the Mekong within broader global
and regional trends related to expansion
of capitalist social relations of production,
capitalism’s internal and external dynamics,
01

The Corona
Crisis in the
Mekong
National R e s po n s e s 2                                                                 04

As of January 2021, Cambodia had              Despite an almost non-existent health
reported few cases and no deaths,             system, Laos had only reported 41 cases
leading to speculation about the              and no deaths. International travel was
reliability of the government’s testing       banned from 30 March and a national
and reporting. While the infection rate       stay at home order issued. The country
remained low, international borders           declared victory over the virus on 11 June
were closed in March and schools shut         with just 19 reported covid-19 cases. Yet
nationwide. 400 factories suspended           unemployment surged from 2 percent to
operations, leaving around 150,000            25 percent, foreign exchange reserves
workers unemployed. 3 The Tourism             were sapped, national revenue decreased,
Ministry reported in September around         and loans ballooned. The country risks
$US 5 billion in tourism revenue had been     being unable to meet external debt
lost.4 Karaoke parlours, beer gardens,        obligations and faces the possibility for a
and entertainment venues were closed in       sovereign debt crisis in the near future.10
November. The garment sector employs          The massive Mohan-Boten cross-border
the most workers after agriculture and        special economic zone under construction
suffered a significant decrease in global     on the Laos-China border was ordered to
demand during the pandemic. Overall           close for 14 days in December after two
salaries decreased by 30 percent from         cases were discovered among Chinese
January to April, with those in the           migrants transiting home from Myanmar
entertainment and sex industries hit the      via Laos.11
hardest at 84 percent.5 The government
pushed through emergency powers to            Myanmar’s case load remained low until
deal with the pandemic, criticised as “a      August. A task force was established
pretext to enact emergency measures           by the elected National League for
that stifle dissent, side-line political      Democracy government to oversee the
opposition, and consolidate power”.6 At       crisis response in mid-March 2020 but
least 30 people, including twelve linked      was soon undercut by a separate military-
to the dissolved opposition party, were       led task force established by the armed
arrested for spreading “fake news” about      forces. This was empowered to investigate
the virus.7 In March, Prime Minister Hun      covid-19 cases, conduct contact tracing,
Sen was given even greater powers to          and clamp down on the press and social
deal with the virus and between $US 800       media and did not answer to Myanmar’s
million and $US 2 billion was allocated       de facto elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.
to address economic impacts. This             The United Nations Special Rapporteur
was supposed to help small farmers            claimed the military used special powers
and workers but may have ended up             as cover to conduct war crimes against
subsidising big business instead, funds       the country’s long-suffering minorities.12
may have ended up in the pockets of big       With one of the weakest public healthcare
rice millers, agribusinesses, micro finance   systems in the world, more than 45,000
institutions, and banks. 8 According to       people, including covid-19 patients, were
the Cambodian Labour Federation, only         housed in school buildings, monasteries,
15,000 of 150,000 known suspended             government offices, and tower blocks,
garment workers had been receiving            cared for by thousands of volunteers
the monthly stipend of $40 promised to        who generally received no compensation
them in May.9                                 and were provided with little protective
                                              equipment.13 Extreme poverty at the
05   national level tripled under lockdowns,        on exports and tourism, up to 14 million
     from 16 percent in January rising to 62        people - a quarter of all working age Thais
     percent by the end of the year, posing         - could be made unemployed as a result
     huge risks for food insecurity and             of drought and the pandemic, and an
     malnutrition.14 International lenders such     additional 9.5 million made poor.18 This
     as the International Monetary Fund and the     includes 2.5 million working in tourism,
     Japan International Cooperation Agency         1.5 million in the industrial sector, and
     committed up to US$ 1.25 billion loans         4.4 million in other service sectors.19 A
     to help mitigate the economic damage,          US$ 12.7 billion stimulus package was
     and the government has distributed             approved in March after the stock market
     20,000kyat (approx. $15) cash handouts         tanked, followed by a US$ 58 billion
     to households.15                               package (10 percent of gross domestic
                                                    product) approved in April. This endowed
     Thailand had the first wave under control      Thailand’s central bank with US$ 12.1
     in May following a super-spreader              billion to stabilize financial markets by
     event at a military-owned boxing gym           purchasing corporate bonds, and enabled
     in March. Few local transmissions were         the government to provide some support
     recorded until early December 2020             for low-income workers and distribute
     when returnees from an entertainment           handouts to middle classes to boost
     venue in Myanmar skipped quarantine            domestic consumption. Around US$ 33
     and a cluster of cases were discovered         billion in public partnerships projects are
     among migrant workers in an industrial         planned for 2020 to 2027 to stimulate the
     port south of Bangkok. Several further         economy.20
     clusters emerged at the end of December
     linked to illegal entertainment venues         Vietnam had recorded 1,509 cases and
     that had not been closed by authorities.       35 deaths as of January 2021. A state of
     Borders were closed on 22 March and a          emergency and ban on all flights to and
     state of emergency declared four days          from China was declared on 1 February
     later that remains in effect. This allowed     2020. A national lockdown began on 1
     authorities to restrict domestic travel, ban   April, lifted gradually toward the end of
     gatherings, and censor the media, forcing      the month. Borders were cautiously and
     a brief hiatus on youth-led pro-democracy      selectively reopened in May and July.
     protests that had erupted nationwide           Having effectively contained the first wave,
     in January.16 Protests resumed in July         a second wave spread from the central city
     following the abduction and presumed           of Danang in July. People were evacuated
     enforced disappearance of an exiled            and a local lockdown implemented. Less
     critic of the Thai establishment in Phnom      draconian measures were employed to
     Penh. A “state of extreme emergency”           tackle this wave, emphasising economic
     was declared on 15 October following           recovery and manageable transmission
     an extraordinary day of protests directed      rates. The resilience of the socialist
     at the military and monarchy culminated        republic is reflected in the fact it is the
     in thousands marching on Government            only Southeast Asian economy forecast to
     House, encountering a royal motorcade          grow in 2020 and managed to send large
     en route. The order was ignored by             donations of medical supplies including
     protestors and rescinded a week later.         masks, test kits, and personal protective
     The economic impact on Thailand will           equipment worldwide from early April to
     be among the worst in Asia, with the           much richer nations including the United
     most globally integrated economy in the        States.21 The pandemic has nonetheless
     subregion forecast to contract by at least     negatively affected 31 million workers,
     8.3 percent in 2020.17 Highly dependent        with 900,000 out of work and nearly 18
million on reduced incomes. The services         argument in favour of national economic         06
sector has been most affected, particularly      strategies based on low-wage labour and
hospitality and tourism, followed by             outsourced manufacturing.24 Taking the
industrial   and     agricultural  sectors       garment sector as an example. The Asia-
respectively.22 A US$ 1.1 billion fiscal         Pacific region is the largest global hub for
stimulus drawn not from international            garment production, employing around 65
loans but Vietnam’s contingency budget           million workers, approximately 40 million
was announced on 3 March, including tax          of them in Southeast Asia.25 Workers and
breaks and infrastructure investments.           supplier firms have long been squeezed
Around US$ 7.6 billion tax revenues and          by subordinate positionally in hierarchical,
land rent owed to the state was deferred         exploitative global commodity chains. A
in early April for five months and plans         2019 report by Oxfam found that even before
were announced for a US$ 2.6 billion             the pandemic, 99 percent of Vietnamese
support package for those affected by the        garment workers were paid below a living
pandemic.23                                      wage and as low as 2.4 cents per piece.26
                                                 In contrast, brands headquartered in
                                                 advanced economies and tax havens
                                                 performed very well in recent years.
                                                 The CEO of Mango said 2019 was an
                                                 “extraordinarily satisfactory year,” with
Uneven Impa ct s                                 the highest sales figures in the company’s
                                                 history and the largest increase in profit
Despite relative success containing              in a single financial year.27 Zara reported a
the virus, health measures imposed to            net profit of US$ 1.3 billion over just three
constrain its spread have strained and           months at the end of 2019, up 14 percent
magnified structural dynamics, inequities,       on the previous year.28 As firms continued
and cracks existing prior to the pandemic.       to dole out dividends to shareholders, the
The socio-economic fallout for the Mekong        pandemic had a devastating effect on
subregion is proving more devastating than       workers. Brands cancelled orders, refused
the virus itself, with its impact on different   to pay for them, and demanded up to 50
social classes varying dramatically.             percent discounts on existing contracts,
                                                 forcing locally based supplier firms to cover
                                                 costs already incurred for wages and raw
                                                 materials, effectively robbing suppliers in
                                                 Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Cambodia of
Ex p ort-Ori e n t e d I n du s t r i e s        US$ 16 billion.29 As factories were closed,
                                                 the workers who toiled to produce the
                                                 clothes and footwear that brands profited
The virus has disrupted the approach             from were abruptly cast aside, suffering job
to economic development encouraged               losses and reduced incomes, often forced
by     development      partners,    financial   to wait for salaries to be paid, or laid off
institutions, and preferred by ruling classes    without proper compensation. Many of the
across the region: export-led and reliant        factories that remained open used the crisis
on deep integration into global commodity        as an excuse for union busting.
chains. Lockdowns and subsequent
halts to “business as usual” in mature/
developed markets severely impacted
industries reliant on global demand
with livelihoods and security of low-paid
workers worst affected. As Tran notes,
the pandemic has revealed flaws in the
07   Jo b L os s e s

     More than one million of 4.3 million workers
     in Vietnam’s garment industry lost their jobs
     while remaining employees were forced to
     accept 50 percent fewer hours and a 40
     percent reduction in income.30 Women
     make up approximately 80 percent of the
     industry, most of whom young internal
     migrants from rural areas.31 More than
     130,000 Cambodian garment workers lost
     their jobs by June, with unionists among
     the first dismissed.32 Many of Myanmar’s
     1.1 million garment workers, around 90
     percent of whom are women, were laid off
     while factory owners fled without paying
     salaries for work already completed.33 By
     July, around 300,000 had lost their jobs, with
     many more at risk as a second wave sweeps
     the country.34 In Thailand, companies used
     the pandemic as an excuse to close down
     businesses, fire workers and union leaders
     without compensation or taking steps
     required by law.35 An estimated 750,000
     workers could be laid off in the automotive
     sector due to the pandemic, exceeding
     the number during the 1997-1998 Asian
     Financial Crisis.36 Farmers, fishers, and
     traders have also suffered considerable
     disruption. Close to 1 million jobs are at
     risk in Myanmar’s fishery industry as major
     buyers in the United States and China
     cancelled orders and $US 750 million export
     earnings vanished. Producers were unable
     to sell produce locally because seafood had
     been processed for export, which locals
     could not afford to pay for.37 Over US$
     581 million worth of cattle were officially
     exported from Myanmar to China through
     the Muse border from financial year 2017-
     18, but restrictions on livestock imports left
     10,000 cattle stranded, burdening traders
     who became responsible for mounting
     wages, feedstuff, and healthcare costs.
     Monetary value of official exports plunged
     to $US 40.5 million in financial year 2019-
     20 and US$ 13 million in financial year
     2020-2021 as of 27 November.38
L ab our R i gh t s A bu s e s                   economy, amounting to approximately 18            08
                                                 million people.44 Another 18 million can be
                                                 found toiling in Myanmar’s informal sector,
Workers in factories that remained               approximately 83 percent of the country’s
open faced wage cuts, unsafe working             workforce.45
conditions, and union busting. Management
has dismissed unionised workers while            As the formal sector continues to contract
retaining non-unionised workers, and             through layoffs and a slow recovery,
unionists have been arrested, charged,           the informal economy will balloon,
and imprisoned, leading to accusations           exerting further downward pressure on
by unions against employers of collusion         labour income, working conditions, and
with authorities to purge activist workers.39    households across the region. Lockdowns
Workers rely on overtime to make ends            in Cambodia meant 80,000 nightlife
meet because of extremely low wages but          industry workers, including bartenders,
most factories can no longer provide this        cleaners, waitresses, and hostesses, went
option. Others have had wages withheld by        months without a stable income.46 The
factory managers.40 Arrest warrants were         2019-20 drought meant farmers in Laos
issued for eight union leaders in Myanmar        were unable to produce enough rice to
in February 2021 who took to the streets to      cover even household consumption and
lead resistance to a military coup.              lack the option of off-farm employment due
                                                 to the crisis. Short of money for food, some
                                                 have been forced to forage to survive.47 In
                                                 Vietnam, parents have been forced to send
                                                 their children to home provinces to be raised
Inform al wo rke rs                              by their parents because it is too costly to
                                                 raise them themselves. A similar plight
Approximately 78 percent of the total            is faced in Karen State Myanmar, where
working population in Southeast Asia             most of the young travel to Thailand for
remain in the informal economy, among            work, resulting in broken family structures
the hardest hit and least supported.41 This      and communities where only the old and
includes the self-employed, those reliant        children are left to care for one another.48
on irregular daily wages, taxi and tuk tuk
drivers, subcontractors, waste recyclers,
street vendors, domestic workers, and
sex workers.42 They enjoy neither regular
salaries nor social protections and often fall
                                                 M i g ra nt Wo r ke rs
through the cracks of modest government
support mechanisms, making them                  Migrant workers are a sub-group of
especially vulnerable to shocks. Many are        informalised labour, comprising a significant
women and migrants who face additional           portion of the region’s workforce and among
discrimination and hurdles. Even in              the worst affected of all the diverse fractions
Thailand, the most developed economy in          of the Mekong’s working class. Thailand
the subregion, 54 percent of the workforce       is a major destination country and Laos,
remained in informal employment in 2017.         Myanmar, and Cambodia are major origin
70 percent of the Thai workforce has seen        countries. Partial lockdown of Bangkok and
falling incomes during the pandemic, a           orders to close 18 border points in March
shockwave that is pulsing through sectors        23 resulted in a mass exodus of hundreds
well beyond exports and tourism.43 In            of thousands of migrant workers.49 Many
Vietnam, 57.2 percent of workers outside the     of those who remained had little allowance
agricultural sector are found in the informal    made for the pandemic, stuck in cramped
09   housing with limited access to healthcare.50      went hungry.57 Meanwhile, on Myanmar’s
     Others had wages and identity documents           border with China, not far from 172 internally
     withheld, often afraid to approach                displaced person camps housing 106,000
     authorities for assistance due to punitive        people sheltering from civil war, farmers
     immigration policies in host states.51 Loss       dumped spoiled crops in the Shweli River
     of income for tens of thousands left many         due to export restrictions.58
     destitute.52 Many were routinely paid below
     the minimum wage and indebted even
     before the pandemic. A pre-covid survey
     found 70 percent of Cambodian migrant
     workers in Thailand suffered symptoms             Ins uffi c i e nt S up p o r t
     of depression due to economic pressure
     and poor housing linked to insufficient
     income.53 Those returning home often              Loss of income for the most vulnerable
     faced discrimination as local communities         workers across the region forced many to
     feared they may spread the virus. In some         find ways to become even more resilient in
     areas, such as Shan State and Wa region           the absence of social safety nets. Official
     in Myanmar, returnees were compelled to           support has been uneven, insufficient, and
     spend 14 days quarantine in ramshackle            constrained by lack of resources available
     huts as authorities improvised with the little    to states.
     resources available to them.54
                                                       Workers in Myanmar received 40 percent
                                                       of their salary, rather than 60 percent as
                                                       promised, arriving late or not at all for those
                                                       not included in the social welfare system.59
     Refugees a n d I n t e rn a l l y                 In Cambodia, government support has
     Disp lace d Pe rs o n s                           been “neither equal nor fair,” because
                                                       assistance was not provided to all, mostly
                                                       available only to bigger companies with
     As hundreds of thousands of migrants              thousands of workers.60 Cash handouts to
     returned home, others remained trapped            informal workers in Thailand were massively
     by lockdowns. Immigration detention               oversubscribed, chaotic, and linked to
     centres became hotspots for transmission,         suicides among economically distressed
     where refugees and irregular migrants are         people.61
     routinely detained in overcrowded and
     squalid conditions, sometimes indefinitely.55     Many workers were forced to return to the
     350,00     internally    displaced     persons    land to survive, putting additional pressure
     throughout Myanmar’s ethnic states and            on already stretched rural communities
     90,000 refugees along Thailand’s border with      who face obstacles imposed on their ability
     Myanmar faced even greater restrictions on        to access society’s resources in pursuit
     mobility and access to livelihoods, leaving       of economic growth. Remittances are a
     them solely dependent on humanitarian             crucial lifeline for the poor, comprising
     assistance, contributing to unhealthy coping      a significant portion of gross domestic
     mechanisms including drugs, alcohol, and          product in Vietnam, Cambodia, and
     in some cases suicide, as well as increased       Myanmar. More than 200,000 migrant
     incidence of domestic violence.56 Displaced       workers returned to Laos from factories in
     persons on the Myanmar side of the Thai           Thailand, disrupting remittance flow that
     border rely on cross-border trade for basic       could push as many as 214,000 people into
     necessities including rice, salt, and medicine.   poverty.62 Despite low wages, Cambodian
     With borders closed, over 500 children            workers in Thailand managed to send an
average of $1,225 home to their families              have previously suffered land grabbing,         10
per year pre-pandemic, funds that were                who now lack even this meagre means of
“crucial in maintaining or improving living           subsistence. As one Cambodian farmer
conditions”.63 Yet farmers across the region          put it “the disease we suffer during this
are now supporting family members upon                pandemic period is not covid-19 but
whom they may have previously depended                landlessness”.67
for financial support. As remittances dried
up, farmers were starved of capital needed            The corona crisis has compounded existing
to re-start production, exacerbated by a              financial distress of the poor. Cambodia
drop in demand for cash-crops such as                 had 2.6 million micro loan borrowers
rubber and sugarcane. Thai workers were               owing a total of US$ 10 billion before the
able to return to the land during the Asian           pandemic. The average micro loan size is
Financial Crisis, but uneven industrialisation,       $3,804, the highest in the world and more
drought, and declining commodity prices               than double the average annual household
wrought this safety net from them, leaving            income of $1,376 in 2017.68 72.8 percent
14 million on the brink of survival.64                of 104 Cambodian small and medium scale
                                                      farmers were already in debt pre-pandemic
Commodification of land and expansion                 and 29.2 percent were forced to take out
of massive infrastructure investments                 loans from micro-finance institutions and
including hydropower dams have left                   commercial banks as a result of it. Around
fisherfolk in Cambodia, Thailand, and the             50 percent reported difficulties repaying
southern Vietnam Mekong Delta region                  loans, 60 percent reported cases of land
struggling with record low water levels               grabbing.69 Distressed farmers and garment
and freshwater shortages.65 Many farmers              workers have been forced to sell the few
face food insecurity and rising food prices.          assets they still have - chickens, pigs, and
A survey of 104 small and medium scale                cows - to avoid having their land taken away.
farmers in Cambodia found 59.8 percent                As indigenous Khmer farming communities
did not even have enough food to eat.66               sheltered from the virus, they suffered land
This plight is exacerbated for those who              grabbing for rubber plantations.70

                             Personal remittances, received (% of GDP)
    10

     8

     6

     4

     2

     0
         1993            1998            2003                 2008               2013    2018

             KHM       MMR       VNM         LAO          THA            GSM Average

                                  Source: World Development Indicators
11   Hunger, Ha rds h i p, a n d D i s -               nine months of 2020.73 Institutions lending
                                                       to distressed farmers also did very well. A
     tres s for So me , O pu l e n c e                 major Cambodian micro-finance institution
     and P rofi t f o r O t h e rs                     posted net profits exceeding $US 21 million
                                                       in the first half of 2020, up from $US 17.6
                                                       million. It’s parent company agreed to sell
     As millions face hunger, hardship, and            it’s 70 percent share in Cambodia’s biggest
     destitution, others saw out the lockdown in       micro lender in 2019 for $US 603 million,
     comfort. United Nations Secretary General         booking a large profit. Another made $US
     Antonio Guterres said the pandemic: “has          25 million profit in 2016, $US 27 million
     been likened to an x-ray, revealing fractures     in 2017, and $US22 million in 2018. This
     in the fragile skeleton of the societies we       reportedly allowed it to pay $US 5 million in
     have built.”71 These are most apparent along      dividends to shareholders, many of which
     class-based lines. Classes are relational and     are development agencies supposed to
     multifaceted social and cultural formations       help poor Cambodians.74 As an academic
     rooted in exploitative relations of production,   was quoted as saying:
     formed, interacting, and reproducing
     through relations with other classes across
     global, national, regional, and local scales.
     Class formation revolves around the
     capital-labour relation, which influences            The main beneficiaries of microcredit
     the relative material power of different             in Cambodia are quite clear. They are
     groups in society. The working class as a            the chief executive officers and senior
     whole is further segmented into fractions            managers of leading microfinance
     of labour differentiated by the type of work,        institutions and their core shareholders
     form of employment, gender, ethnicity,               and wealthy foreign investors, who …
     and a variety of other social factors. Class         have been making out like bandits.75
     fractions extend beyond just the production
     of commodities on the farm or in the factory
     to the whole world of work, including often
     unpaid labour of domestic work necessary
     for social and societal reproduction, such        As Lao migrant workers returned home,
     as cleaning homes, nurturing children,            remittances dried up and farmers forged
     nourishing bodies, and caring for the sick.72     for food, the stocks of a Malaysian holding
     The people our societies have empowered,          company with investments in the country
     such as fractions of capital and privileged       hit record highs, up 230 percent from June
     fractions of labour, were able to weather         2019 after it’s “cash cow” Laos dam came
     the crisis with minimal disruption. Some          online. The project is expected to yield
     even luxuriated and profited from it. While       investors net profit of $US 60-70 million
     those our societies have disempowered,            per year for 25 years, or dividends of
     predominantly fractions of labour, have           around 16 percent.76 Meanwhile, the $US
     borne the brunt.                                  27 per month allowance paid to thousands
                                                       of destitute Laotians living in relocation
     In the agribusiness sector for instance, as       centres displaced by the collapse of another
     small and medium sized farmers struggled          dam in 2019 dried up.77
     with food insecurity and land grabbing,
     earnings of a subsidiary of Thailand’s
     largest company and one of the world’s
     largest conglomerates jumped 87 percent:
     the highest in the company’s history. Profits
     grew 36% to $US 593 million in the first
A whole range of essential but low paid         of $US 42 billion from so-called emerging         12
frontline workers, healthcare professionals,    markets, double the rate of capital flight
those who could not work from home, or          during the Global Financial Crisis.82 The shock
rely on extra income to pay the bills, faced    was compounded by a crash in commodity
occupational health and safety risks and        prices, upon which many developing states
discrimination. Those better paid, able         depend. Central banks around the world
to work from home, or with alternative          such as Thailand’s responded by shovelling
sources of income such as rental income or      money into financial markets at the cost
savings, remained ensconced in comfort.         of budget sector deficits and public debt,
For instance, dozens of brave young             improving access to credit for large firms
nursing students volunteered to travel to       and allowing overvalued financial assets to
the front line to care for suspected virus      continue appreciating. This will contribute
patients among returnees on the Thailand        to even greater extremes of capital
- Myanmar border.78 Meanwhile, their            concentration and centralisation, as cashed
fellow nurses and doctors in Yangon and         up conglomerates and the super-wealthy
Mandalay were shunned and treated like          pick up distressed assets recycled on the
“dirty monsters” by private landlords, with     market at discount prices from struggling
some forced to stay in monasteries while        small and medium sized enterprises.83
they battled the virus.79
                                                Volatility in financial markets catapulted
Many sheltering at home ordered takeout         total billionaire wealth to $US 10.2 trillion
food via mobile applications delivered by       in July 2020, up around 500 percent
informal employees via online platforms. As     since 2008 and 19.1 percent since 2018.
demand grew, foreign companies extracted        Between April and July 2020 combined
increasing revenues generated by local          billionaire wealth ballooned 27.5 percent
businesses and workers. Restaurants using       following central bank interventions. An
a popular food delivery app in Thailand         employee of Swiss investment bank UBS
were charged 30 percent commission,             credited this to the super-rich “having the
with drivers also paying 15-25 percent          stomach” to buy shares as markets were
of their income to the Singapore based          crashing; as if billionaires were the ones to
company. Despite laying off employees           be commended for bravery and risk taking
during the pandemic, the firm’s valuation       during a pandemic.84
rose 27 percent: from US$ 11 billion in
2018 to $US 14.9 billion in 2020, attracting
new institutional investors from across the
globe grasping for a piece of the pie.80 Up
in the stratosphere of the wealthy elite,
some luxuriated in opulence. During the
pandemic millionaires in Bangkok could
order Wagyu beef, seafood, and dim sum
delivered and served by white-gloved
butlers from luxury hotels and Michelin
Guide restaurants, real estate valued at $US
1-5 million continued to sell well, and high-
end vehicle manufacturers such as Ferrari,
Rolls-Royce, and Lamborghini launched
top-end models.81

The pandemic punctured global financial
markets, leading to a massive withdrawal
Capitution on emerging markets
13           Accumlated non-residential flow to/from EM debt and equities from start date, $bn

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                     14

Capitalist
Transformation and
Class Formation
15   The previous section provided an overview of      the growth of surplus populations lacking          15
     the impacts of the corona crisis on some of       access to formal waged employment”.85
     the most vulnerable groups in the Mekong,
     contrasted with the fortunes of the more          Those who have shown resilience and
     powerful. The current section offers a critical   even opportunism during the crisis are
     analysis of the crisis, situating it in broader   those able to snaffle the surplus workers
     structural trends related to the expansion of     created during this transformation. They
     capitalist social relations.                      managed to do so by being well placed
                                                       to capitalise on the process, able to assert
     It is important to recognise the people           social and economic power over the means
     who have struggled the most during                of violence and societal control, and the
     the current crisis are those that have            production, circulation, and consumption
     been disempowered by their societies in           of commodities. Many of these actors are
     the course of the subregion’s capitalist          located outside the subregion, but those
     transformation. Encouraged by multilateral        inside it include militaries and militias;
     financial institutions including the World        bureaucrats, state officials, well connected
     Bank and Asian Development Bank, nature           elites; land owners, industrialists, traders
     has been commodified and investments              and merchants; brokers, compradors, and
     directed toward infrastructure, economic          emergent middle classes. They managed
     corridors, and industrial zones. People have      to assert claims over living and non-living
     been driven from the land and means of            labour: people, populations, and political
     subsistence and into low-paid wage-labour in      posts; land, natural resources, and new
     labour intensive industries including natural     technologies. Their privileged positions
     resource extraction, contract farming, urban      enabled them to accumulate wealth and
     manufacturing, and myriad informal jobs           prestige as capital was set into motion,
     to keep society functioning: construction,        especially during the boom years, in turn
     domestic labour, street hawking, day labour,      allowing them to shape processes of state
     and sex work.                                     formation and transformation: writing laws
                                                       and building and bending institutions to
     Uneven         geographical     development       protect their power and interests. As a result,
     compelled people to migrate to towns,             a variety of diverse ruling class coalitions
     cities, and special economic zones,               are ensconced in the upper echelons of
     occasionally across international borders,        societies across the region. While distinctive
     subjecting them to further discrimination         to each society, they are predominantly
     and labour segmentation by local                  comprised of rich old men and draw on
     governance regimes. Informal employment           networks of business elites and tycoons,
     is often is the unintended outcome for many       old aristocracies and lingering patronage
     migrant workers unable to find work in the        structures, security forces, and emergent
     manufacturing sector, which often first           networks of politicians, using wealth to
     attracts them to cities. Those who promoted       consolidate power and resist struggles for
     this approach claimed moving peasant              progressive reform.
     smallholders from farms to factories would
     be accompanied by industrial upgrading and        This is the process of class formation that
     gradual transition from informal to formal        accompanies the inauguration and expansion
     labour, stable employment and incomes             of capitalism, a process through which our
     adequate to satisfy workers’ livelihood and       societies allow some to become rich and
     consumption needs. Instead, transitions have      powerful while others are marginalised and
     stalled leaving the subregion’s economies         impoverished. Capital is wealth that grows
     trapped in “patterns of jobless growth,           through the process of circulation over time.
     ‘saturated’ industrial labour markets, the        It is not a thing but a dynamic living relation,
     informalisation of industrial production and      a social relationship between individuals
and groups that provides a foundation for          society needs and wants, diverse fractions       16
more complex social structures. Capital gets       of labour share certain experiences and
transformed, from ecological, to money, to         develop common interests through this
fictitious/finance capital, and codified into      process and their collective subjugation to
laws and other structural features of society:     the daily drudgery of work. Farmers and
formal and informal institutions, the state,       factory workers may share the experience
its organs, and other political, social, and       of being pushed off land they once lived on
economic arrangements which we are all             and cultivated for sustenance; agricultural
collectively subjected to. Class is not a static   labourers and seamstresses may share
and pre-determined social formation, rather        the experience of being exposed to toxic
an experience and a process revolving              chemicals, pesticides, or dyes. All breathe
around the capital-labour relation. As capital     air that has been polluted in the process
is set in motion, society’s natural wealth is      of capitalist transformation, perhaps
commodified and people are pushed into             compelled to wash in water befouled by
wage-labour. Social relations are reorganised      it. Many will share the experience of being
toward production of commodities to                mistreated by their bosses; of having pay
exchange for money: industrialisation of           deducted for unexpected reasons, of
agriculture for food crops, for example, or        having employment terminated at short
expansion of labour intensive manufacturing        notice. Many young women will share the
of consumer goods. Commodities produced            experience of trying to avoid unwanted
in the Mekong are exchanged in markets to          advances; those with different skin tones, of
be consumed locally, nationally, and globally,     racial prejudice and discrimination. Migrant
making it a process with distinctive local         workers engaged in all kinds of work will
effects but increasingly international and         share the experience of being extorted
global dimensions. Local workers and states        by officials, of being fearful when they
manage to capture some of the surplus              encounter checkpoints, or when they must
workers create through wages, rents,               entrust important documents to employers
and taxes, but most has been captured              or officials. All fractions of labour are made
by commodity traders and transnational             vulnerable to economic shocks and rising
corporations. This is an essentially extractive    prices for housing and food, and share
process,      whereby      accumulation       of   interests in better social protections and
monetary wealth in faraway places depends          access to basic services like education for
on the generation of socio-economic                their children and decent healthcare when
and environmental consequences at the              they get sick. Many will know the feeling
point of extraction here in the Mekong,            of being ignored by the rich and powerful,
including       enclosure,      dispossession,     their voices deemed unimportant to those
poverty, environmental despoilation, labour        running their countries, and of being
exploitation, and ill-health.86                    intimidated and suppressed when they
                                                   mobilise to struggle for better lives.
Classes are created during this process, with
aggregate capital influencing the formation        Each these formative experiences are
of social groups as a means towards the            deeply personal but inescapably social,
realisation of profit through the labour           arising in the course of interaction between
process. Contract farmers, agricultural            fractions of labour and fractions of capital.
labourers, seamstresses, entrepreneurs and         The latter comprising, for instance, those
traders, have all been sent to work to earn        able to assert property claims over the land
an income to pay for food to eat, a roof over      on which crops are grown and the homes
their head, raise their children, and care         workers live in, technology involved in the
for their families. Although they play very        seeds planted, machinery used to harvest
different roles in the production of what          and process produce, designs of t-shirts
17   that young women toil to make. Private           might fetch the highest prices in the future,
     property claims allow fractions of capital       advertising and marketing commodities,
     to appropriate most of the value created by      providing security for warehouses and
     workers in the process of production and         supermarkets, form filling in bureaucracies,
     circulation, through rent paid to landlords,     and protecting the interests of ruling classes.
     protection money paid to officials; incomes      Some may be socially necessary activities but
     captured by managers and factory owners          labour time expended must nonetheless be
     allowing them to live comfortable lives,         compensated for by surplus first generated
     along with the claims of others based in the     elsewhere. Crises ultimately occur as a result
     region and beyond on the final sale price of     of a falling rate of profit in productive sectors,
     commodities: such as transportation fees,        itself caused by insufficient production of
     dividends, and taxes. Under capitalism, this     surplus value and the expansion of claims
     fluid, dialectical, interactive process is all   upon it by non-productive sectors of the
     directed toward one thing: making profit. It     economy. This is a long term structural trend
     is a process animated by struggles between       under capitalism, consequent of the process
     various class fractions over the who gets to     of capital accumulation itself. Increased
     claim the lion’s share.                          accumulation (more land, more machinery,
                                                      more money, more knowledge) leads to
                                                      increased productivity as fractions of capital
                                                      produce more commodities with less
                                                      labour. This in turn means fewer workers are
                                                      needed in the labour process, which leads
     C ap italis m’ s C ri s i s                      to less surplus value being produced. Crises
     Tend encie s                                     are therefore unavoidable under capitalism,
                                                      a structural feature of relations of production
                                                      predicated on the private ownership of the
     Crises are an intrinsic feature of capitalism,   means of production and the wage-labour
     rooted in the productive sphere of the           relation, where workers are forced to labour
     economy. Productive labour transforms            for longer than they need to in order to
     existing use values into new use values,         reproduce their labour power.88
     which, under capitalism, is geared toward
     realising a profit when commodities are          Over the years numerous attempts have
     exchanged for money. Clearing land to plant      been made by people and states to
     crops, to be harvested and sold in markets       promote the interests of fractions of capital
     for a price higher than the combined costs       and maintain profitability by squeezing out
     incurred producing them. This requires           more surplus for less. These commonly
     renting land, buying seeds and other inputs,     involve social and spatial restructuring,
     paying workers to plant and harvest, and         leading to concentration of capital,
     transporting goods. The difference between       intensified exploitation of labour and non-
     the cost to produce the commodity and            human nature, and outward expansion
     the value that commodity is exchanged            to access new production inputs such as
     for is the surplus, usually appropriated         land, labour, and natural resources at low
     by the capitalist to use as she sees fit: for    prices. The roots of the crises of 2008/9
     personal consumption or for reinvestment         and 1997 for instance may be traced back
     in expanded reproduction. In developed           to earlier capitalist crises in the Global
     economies a huge amount of social labour         North between 1973-1982 when fractions
     time has been moved into non-productive          of capital sought to return profitability
     sectors of the economy, which David Graeber      through intense restructuring at home and
     has provocatively called “bullshit jobs”.87      abroad. Crises in Japan and Thailand in the
     Time and energy devoted to buying and            1980s and 1990s linked to falling rates of
     selling produce, speculating which crops
profit encouraged fractions of capital to       production process, over time capital            18
pursue efforts to expand capitalist relations   becomes increasingly reliant for its survival
of production from relatively advanced          on state intervention, accumulation by
capitalist centres to less developed            dispossession, and imperialism in each
economies across the Mekong. A relative         epoch of decay.
latecomer, China has joined this push to
keep its economy expanding.

Some take an even longer view of
capitalist crises. Samir Amin, for instance,    The Co ronav i r us as a
argued we are in the midst of the second        Cr i s i s o f Cap i t al i s m
long crisis of capitalism, beginning with
the social and spatial restructuring of
the 1970s and 1980s, but preceded by            Some mistakenly view the covid-19 virus
the first long crisis of capitalism from        as “black swan event,” an unforeseeable
1875 to 1945. Following ten centuries of        and exogenous cause disrupting our
incubation, capitalism enjoyed just a short     economies from the outside to precipitate
century of triumphant flourishing. But by       a crisis. This is not the case.92 The corona
the end of the nineteenth century, falling      crisis must instead be recognised as the
rates of profit spurred fractions of capital    latest in a long succession of crises we
into imperialist expansion, contributing        have been collectively forced to endure. It
to inter-imperialist rivalries, particularly    is distinctive in that it confronts us with a
among the old European powers,                  twin crisis. The immediate manifestation
culminating in two immensely destructive        and proximate cause is a health crisis
world wars. Widespread devastation tilled       following the emergence of a new strain of
the ground for a new wave of capitalist         coronavirus in southern China in 2019. The
expansion led by the United States during       second is an economic crisis precipitated
the so-called “Golden Age” of capitalism        by restrictions imposed to contain its
from 1945 up to the 1973-5 recessions.          spread. This distinguishes it from recent
In each case, capitalist expansion relied       crises catalysed by bubbles bursting in the
on barbaric primitive accumulation and          financial sector of our economies. What
labour exploitation, including imperialism      they share are structural drivers related to
through colonial subjugation. Existing          the internal contradictions of the capitalist
political and economic relations in and         mode of production.
across Southeast Asia are an effect of
these processes. The crises of the 1970s        Covid-19 and other emergent diseases have
were themselves directly related to the         been linked to land-use change associated
Cold War in Southeast Asia89, one outcome       with deforestation, illegal logging, clearing,
of which was a new wave of capitalist           mining, agribusiness, and infrastructure
expansion centred on East Asia, itself          construction. This has led to the destruction
running out of steam in the late-1990s,         of natural barriers preventing spill-overs and
culminating in financial crises across the      heightened risks of transmission. Wildlife in
region.90 As Amin observed, fractions of        rural and wild areas host previously isolated
capital responded to each long crisis with      and unknown viruses and bacteria. As land
the same triple formula: “concentration         has been cleared for plantations, livestock
of capital’s control, deepening of uneven       farming, energy generation, and access
globalisation, and financialisation of          to mineral deposits, microbes infect new
the system’s management.”91 Although            hosts such as human beings and livestock.
competition may flourish for a while as         This is known as spill-over. If viruses thrive
capitalism matures and takes over the           in their new hosts they may then infect
                                                others, known as transmission.93 Spill-overs
19   and transmission have been happening for          natural limits. It is also important to note
     many years. The HIV virus spread in the mid       that neither “China” nor “the Chinese” are
     twentieth century from chimpanzees and            responsible, as racist demagogues have
     gorillas slaughtered for bushmeat. Ebola          claimed to deflect attention from their own
     outbreaks occurring since the mid 1970s           failings. As the epidemiologist Rob Wallace
     have been passed on by bats to primates           reminds us, the United States and Europe
     and humans; swine and avian flu outbreaks         have both served as ground zeros for
     occurring for decades have spread from            new influenzas such as H5N5 and H5Nx;
     pigs and birds to humans. Yet new viruses         multinationals and their proxies drove the
     have been emerging with increasing                emergence of Ebola in West Africa and Zika
     frequency. This century alone we have             in Brazil.96 These outbreaks are not driven
     encountered new strains of African swine          by our “humanity” but by market forces:
     fever, Campylobacter, Cryptosporidium,            land use change driven by expansion of
     Cyclospora, Ebola, E. coli O157:H7, foot-         global commodity chains by multinational
     and-mouth disease, hepatitis E, Listeria,         corporations expanding food production
     Nipah virus, Q fever, Salmonella, Vibrio,         systems for global markets accompanied
     Yersinia, Zika, and a variety of novel influenza   by corporate control over otherwise
     A variants, including H1N1 (2009), H1N2v,         necessary industrialisation of agriculture.
     H3N2v, H5N1, H5N2, H5Nx, H6N1, H7N1,              This has led to growing dominance of
     H7N3, H7N7, H7N9, and H9N2.94 These               problematic production techniques such
     have been linked to humanity’s increasingly       as genetic monocultures, over-reliance
     destructive relationship with nature.             on pesticides, and antibiotics, which keep
     Scientists presenting at the United Nations       costs low but at the cost of “externalities”
     Summit on Biodiversity in September 2020          that include adverse effects on public
     declared: “when we destroy and degrade            health, biodiversity, and hastening the
     biodiversity, we undermine the web of life        emergence of increasingly deadly and
     and increase the risk of disease spill-over       resistant diseases.97 As Wallace concludes,
     from wildlife to people.”95                       the cause of covid-19 and other emergent
                                                       diseases is therefore to be found “in the
     It is worth clarifying this destructive           field of ecosystems relations that capital
     relationship is not an expression of an           and other structural causes have pinned
     essentially human frailty. Human beings           back to their own advantage”. Corporate
     sustainably coexisted with the natural            profitability is secured, while damage is
     world for tens of thousands of years              externalised onto “livestock, crops, wildlife,
     until the so-called “Great Acceleration”          workers, local and national governments,
     coincided with capitalism’s “Golden Age”          public health systems, and alternative
     of expansion after World War II, which            agrosystems.”98
     sent us hurtling into ecological overshoot
     from the 1970s. Neither is it because
     there are too many people on the planet.
     Rational organisation of our societies
     based on existing resources and genuine
     human needs would help avoid dangerous
     imbalances between human beings and the
     rest of the planet. Rather, it is a symptom
     of the development of the forces of
     production under capitalism and expansion
     of productive output where the drive to
     profit overrides all else, including scientific
     warnings about social consequences and
Pand em ic a s a Tri gge r                        on “Factory Asia”. Multilateral financial          20
                                                  institutions encouraged governments to
                                                  implement policy reforms to entice inward
The covid-19 health crisis emerged in the         investments in infrastructure, power
midst of a long economic crisis. The core of      generation, agricultural commodities, and
the global capitalist system has been gripped     natural resources. More special economic
by decades of stagnation consequent of a          zones popped up, economic corridors
falling rate of profit in productive sectors.99   expanded, large hydroelectric dams and
The last expansion of the global economy          coal fired power plants were built, and the
was during a commodity price boom from            Belt and Road Initiative was launched. The
1995-2008/9. It has been trapped in a long        global capitalist system was kept on life-
recession since, marked by slow growth            support between 2009-2020 by escalating
rates and falling levels of productive            despoilation of nature and exploitation of
investment. Recovery following the 2008/9         labour. Yet despite the damage inflicted,
crisis was remarkably slow, as reflected          attempts to revive it were unsuccessful:
by the longest economic expansion on              global economic indicators were dead-
record from June 2009 to 2020.100 The 2008        lining even before the health crisis hit.103 As
profitability crisis was not resolved because     one economist put it: “covid did not cause
fractions of capital and government officials     the crisis, the crisis caused covid.”104
acting in their interests refused to permit
the huge devalorisaton of capital required
to rehabilitate the profit rate. Instead, costs
were forced onto fractions of labour. Huge
financial losses were socialised through          The M e t a b o l i c R i ft
massive expansion of public debt, followed
by imposition of austerity measures
                                                  Capitalism’s systemic crisis tendencies are
including deregulation, tax cuts, assaults on
                                                  traceable to its internal contradictions as a
working conditions, cuts to public services,
                                                  mode of production. Namely those between
and hacking away at the social wage hard
                                                  a) use values and exchange values and b)
won over generations of class struggle.101
                                                  elemental natural processes and the capital
Tearing at the social fabric of industrialised
                                                  accumulation process.105 These lie behind
societies left the populace increasingly
                                                  capitalism’s failure to maintain conditions
susceptible to right wing demagoguery
                                                  of ecological and social reproduction,
and its scapegoats, itself precipitating a
                                                  leading to spoliation, squandering, and
tragic backlash in 2020 when incompetent
                                                  robbing of the earth, workers’ bodies, and
leaders of hollowed out states proved
                                                  our societies. Central to Marx’s oeuvre is his
woefully inept at handling the health crisis.
                                                  critique of the capitalist value form based on
                                                  the distinction between real wealth or the
Fractions of capital also responded to the
                                                  “natural form” of commodities, and their
2008/9 crisis with revitalized attempts
                                                  “value form,” or exchange value associated
to deepen uneven globalisation as a
                                                  with capitalist production. Today we often
conjunction of financial, climate, and
                                                  conflate value with price, so that the value
food crises triggered renewed interest in
                                                  of a house or an apartment is equivalent to
farmland and agribusiness investments
                                                  what someone is willing to pay for it: i.e. it’s
around the world.102 Finance capital scoured
                                                  exchange. As Foster and Clark explain, this
“emerging” and “frontier” economies in
                                                  understanding of value has roots in the rise
search of higher yields. China was presented
                                                  of neoclassical economics and its rejection
as a new engine for growth, expected to
                                                  of the labour theory of value of classical
heroically drag the global economy out of
                                                  political economy in favour of marginal
the doldrums and stimulate a new wave of
                                                  utility / productivity.106 According to the
economic expansion geographically centred
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