An often overlooked aspect¶

An often overlooked aspect of world imperialism is the disempowering conveyor belt of international logistics. Its purpose is to alienate to the extent possible, the natural source of raw materials from the various steps of production, and to distance production from consumption. The vaunted Supply Chains™️ of these commodities are a product, not of the "efficiency of the free market," but rather its unique ability to extract profit from ever-shrinking gaps. It abstracts and obfuscates production, separating each stage into opportunities for exploitation. Global logistics is a 9 trillion dollar industry, expanding at a rate much faster than the rest of the global economy. It is projected to double in value over the next ten years, largely due to advances in automation and computing power. The strength of the logistics industry comes from its ability to displace inputs and outputs of each stage of production, driving down the prices of resources and labor for every new capitalist that wants a piece of the pie. It physically alienates workers from their products. The end result is that workers at each stage are disempowered, forced to act as producers of intermediate commodities, rather than retaining even a shadow of agency. They cannot easily seize economic control over production, because the majority of production is an ocean away. Take vanilla as an example. The vanilla plant is native to Mexico, where a certain bee species co-evolved with it to act as its sole natural pollinator. However, the vast majority of vanilla is grown in Madagascar, where labor-intensive hand pollination must be employed. Once harvested, the vanilla beans typically undergo only one step of the production process -- drying -- before being packaged and shipped off. Local farmers sell their product for a few dollars per pound to logistics companies, forced to accept wildly fluctuating prices. These beans are sometimes shipped to NA and Euro markets for direct consumption as a luxury commodity. However, this niche consumer bean market is FAR surpassed by the market for further processing: natural vanilla extract, as well as the various products that use it. The production of natural vanilla extract requires the beans to be aged for months, which often cannot be done by farmers in Madagascar. Although they could demand a higher price for a more-processed commodity, those large shippers only operate and buy during harvest season. Beans are shipped to new facilities for aging and then sometimes transported again for processing into extract (sometimes these are the same facility). The largest exporter of vanilla extract is SE Asia, where the climate is incompatible for commercial-scale vanilla cultivation. Just like the beans themselves, there is a consumer market for vanilla extract at this stage -- again, largely wealthy consumers in "the West." However, the plurality of vanilla consumption is commercially, in the manufacture of ice cream. Yet again, this stage of production typically takes place far away from the source of its input commodities. Most of the largest manufacturers of ice cream for the US market are actually in the US itself, although their products are still shipped thousands of miles domestically. Although the consumer market for ice cream is pretty large, once again, the lion's share of consumption is commercial; fast food companies in particular are huge ice cream consumers. This final stage of production is typically performed on-site, to be consumed immediately. At every stage of this productive process, from seed to McFlurry, profit is extracted. Every worker is exploited as more and more labor is embodied in each successive intermediate. Every stage requires precise transport and coordination of multiple supply/distribution contracts. Each step involves further intensification of constant capital, with technology being integrated in stages: vanilla extraction, ice cream mix production, retail soft serve preparation, etc. Each stage also incorporates more diverse inputs: ethanol, dairy and sugar, containers. Commodities from multiple producers are brought together at each stage, further diluting the power commanded by labor. Then, the capitalists distribute their share of the supply chain to multiple different successor capitalists to diversify and intermingle their production. In this way, modern capitalism has simultaneously driven escalating layers of exploitation and profit extraction while also attempting to make itself immune to the threat of local seizures of lynchpins of production -- by simply eliminating the need for lynchpins altogether. The extraction of value from the global south accelerates with every unequal exchange along the way. The imperial core's working class is set to work topping off profit extraction, divested from both the natural sources of materials and the vast labor embodied within them. This exposes the truth of why pure economism is a nonstarter for socialist organizing within the imperial core. "Labor organizing" cannot be separated from the hours and hours of embodied labor ripped from the imperial periphery to provide the inputs for a single hour of our own. To imagine a "socialist US" is to ignore the imperial relations crucial to our "way of life." To even begin to bring about a socialist society, empire must be completely eradicated. Decolonization on every front -- land, labor, and logistics -- is a prerequisite for liberation.