"Challenging the Chip" by Ted Smith, David Sonnenfeld and David Naguib Pellow (editors) is a collection of essays on the labor and environmental problems of the electronics industry. The thirty-plus contributors to the book were connected through a series of symposiums wherein this ambitious project was conceptualized. By describing their shared experiences, the authors succeed in articulating why the public must demand corporate accountability in order to gain economic and environmental sustainability.
The editors merit praise. The book contains over 25 articles but contains no weak material. The writers seem to have expressed a high degree of collegiality by voluntarily subjecting their work to extensive peer review, criticism and revision. The result is a remarkably even and high-quality series of essays that are characterized by ample research, insight and analysis. The editors also supply excellent introductions and expertly frame the key issues that are discussed in each section of the book.
The first section is titled, 'Global Electronics'. Seven articles describe how the production and distribution of electronics are organized on a global scale. We learn that multinational corporations tend to avoid social responsibility by exploiting workers in poor nations with either lax or non-enforced labor and environmental laws such as China, India, Thailand and more recently, countries in Eastern Europe. Oftentimes, the most vulnerable workers are subjected to subsistence wage relations without union representation and exposure to occupational health hazards without protection or compensation when illness ensues. This grim reality is in stark contrast to the manipulated media images that are projected to consumers by the relatively small number of major corporations who control the supply chains that tie these far-flung operations together.
The second section is 'Environmental Justice and Labor Rights'. Nine articles written by local activists and scholars drill in-depth into environmental and labor issues at the local level. We learn that the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition first brought widespread attention to the e-waste problem and the widespread use of toxic chemicals in the semiconductor manufacturing process, subsequently blowing the lid off the self-serving but deceptive image of this supposedly 'clean' industry. Other noteworthy stories include how IBM hid data from workers about known cancer risks at their factories; the activist community of Silicon Glen in Scotland and its struggle to protect worker health; the deleterious effects of the NAFTA agreement on pollution and degraded working conditions in Mexico; worker struggle and environmental exploitation in Taiwan; and more. Among many insights offered, these articles suggest that profitability is built upon a strategy of state protection that allows the industry to shed responsibility and externalize many unwanted costs onto others.
The final section is on the topic of 'Electronic Waste and Extended Producer Responsibility'. Eight articles discuss the factors driving the increase in e-waste and how the costs of disposal are increasingly borne by the poor. The authors inform us that while nations within the EU and Japan have taken steps to regulate e-waste and thereby encourage smarter product design and recycling programs, the U.S. has lagged far behind, often preferring to dump its garbage in landfills or export to poor countries where obsolete equipment is dismantled under hazardous conditions. However, the inspiring story about the 'toxic dude' campaign organized against Dell illustrates that public pressure can succeed in changing the behavior of some U.S. corporations, however modestly.
I highly recommend this insightful and timely book to activists, students and everyone else interested in learning more about an increasingly urgent problem.
