#bafa

[notfatweeb]

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The unexpected upside of global monopoly capitalism

I'm touring my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me TODAY (Apr 10) at UCLA, then Chicago (Apr 17), Torino (Apr 21) Marin County (Apr 27), Winnipeg (May 2), Calgary (May 3), Vancouver (May 4), and beyond!

Here's a silver lining to global monopoly capitalism: it means we're all fighting the same enemy, who is using the same tactics everywhere. The same coordination tools that allow corporations to extend their tendrils to every corner of the Earth allows regulators and labor organizers to coordinate their resistance.

That's a lesson Mercedes is learning. In 2023, Germany's Supply Chain Act went into effect, which bans large corporations with a German presence from using child labor, violating health and safety standards, and (critically) interfering with union organizers:

https://www.bafa.de/EN/Supply_Chain_Act/Overview/overview_node.html

Across the ocean, in the USA, Mercedes has a preference for building its cars in the American South, the so-called "right to work" states where US labor law is routinely flouted and unions are thin on the ground. As The American Prospect's Harold Meyerson writes, the only non-union Mercedes factories in the world are in the US:

https://prospect.org/labor/2024-04-08-american-workers-german-law-uaw-unions/

But American workers – especially southern workers – are on an organizing tear, unionizing their workplaces at a rate not seen in generations. Their unprecedented success is down to their commitment, solidarity and shrewd tactics – all buoyed by a refreshingly pro-worker NLRB, who have workers' backs in ways also not seen since the Carter administration:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/14/prop-22-never-again/#norms-code-laws-markets

Workers at Mercedes' factory in Vance, Alabama are trying to join the UAW, and Mercedes is playing dirty, using the tried-and-true union-busting tactics that have held workplace democracy at bay for decades. The UAW has lodged a complaint with the NLRB, naturally:

https://www.commondreams.org/news/alabama-mercedes-benz

But the UAW has also filed a complaint with BAFA, the German regulator in charge of the Supply Chain Act, seeking penalties against Mercedes-Benz Group AG:

https://uaw.org/uaw-files-charges-in-germany-against-mercedes-benz-companys-anti-union-campaign-against-u-s-autoworkers-violates-new-german-law-on-global-supply-chain-practices/

That's a huge deal, because the German Supply Chain Act goes hard. If Mercedes is convicted of union-busting in Alabama, its German parent-company faces a fine of 2% of its global total revenue, and will no longer be eligible to sell products to the German government. Chomp.

Now, the German Supply Chain Act is new, and this is the first petition filed by a non-German union with BAFA, so it's not a slam dunk. But supermajorities of Mercedes workers at the Alabama factory have signed UAW cards, and the election is going to happen in May or June. And the UAW – under new leadership, thanks to a revolution that overthrew the corrupt old guard – has its sights set on all the auto-makers in the American south.

As Meyerson writes, the south is America's onshore offshore, a regulatory haven where corporations pay minimal or no tax and are free to abuse their workers, pollute, and corrupt local governments with a free hand (no wonder American industry is flocking to these states). Meyerson: "The economic impact of unionizing the South, in other words, could almost be placed in the same category as reshoring work that had gone to China."

The German Supply Chain Act was passed with the help of Germany's powerful labor unions, in an act of solidarity with workers employed by German companies all over the world. This is that unexpected benefit to globalism: the fact that Mercedes has extrusions into both the American and German political spheres means that both American and German workers can collaborate to bring it to heel.

The same is true for antitrust regulators. The multinational corporations that are in regulators' crosshairs in the US, the EU, the UK, Australia, Japan, South Korea and beyond use the same playbook in every country. That's doubly true of Big Tech companies, who literally run the same code – embodying the same illegal practices – on servers in every country.

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority has led the pack on convening summits where antitrust enforcers from all over the world gather to compare notes and collaborate on enforcement strategies:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/cma-data-technology-and-analytics-conference-2022-registration-308678625077

And the CMA's Digital Markets Unit – which boasts the the largest tech staff of any competition regulator in the world – produces detailed market studies that turn out to be roadmaps for other territories' enforces to follow – like this mobile market study:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/63f61bc0d3bf7f62e8c34a02/Mobile_Ecosystems_Final_Report_amended_2.pdf

Which was extensively referenced in the EU during the planning of the Digital Markets Act, and in the US Congress for similar legislation:

https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/2710

It also helped enforcers in Japan:

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Technology/Japan-to-crack-down-on-Apple-and-Google-app-store-monopolies

And South Korea:

https://www.reuters.com/technology/skorea-considers-505-mln-fine-against-google-apple-over-app-market-practices-2023-10-06/

Just as Mercedes workers in Germany and the USA share a common enemy, allowing for coordinated action that takes advantage of vulnerable flanks wherever they are found, anti-monopoly enforcers are sharing notes, evidence, and tactics to strike at multinationals that are bigger than most countries – but not when those countries combine.

This is an unexpected upside to global monopolies: when we all share a common enemy, we've got endless opportunities for coordinated offenses and devastating pincer maneuvers.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/10/an-injury-to-one/#is-an-injury-to-all

[grun-geist]

[morphinevelvetar]

Come see our degree show on 17-22 June!🔥I’ll be showing alongside other amazing artists★彡˚✧₊⁎❝᷀ົཽ≀ˍ̮ ❝᷀ົཽ⁎⁺˳✧༚ ‘in sarcophago vivum aeri’ is a series of interconnected work I’ve been working on since last winter ❄️ St. James Hatcham (Church) Ground Floor G03 / 85 and the church courtyard (G03: seminar room with the high ceiling, you could get there by turning left after entering through the main entrance. The courtyard is on the left side of the main entrance) Goldsmiths, University of London 25 St James's, London SE14 6AD #degreeshow #goldsmiths #goldsmithsuniversity #show #bafa #sculpture #liveart #video #event #installation #fineart #degreeshow2021 (at Goldsmiths, University of London) https://www.instagram.com/p/CQMWpYXFpwc/?utm_medium=tumblr

[ukmascjock]

Well brahs my team are officially startin practice again every sunday and wednesday from 1st December..cant fuckin wait! Got a new Head Coach too!

[superbnature]

Bafa Lake by mehmet_emin_ergene

[itslandscapess]

Bafa Lake

[doodlingadventures]

So what if the burning of Teldrassil was actually an “accident”?

(yes, this is my little aportation to the conspiracy theories)

I mean, not in the way of “whoops we dropped a match now everything is on fire”, but rather that it was supposed to be a much minor explosion/thing and it got out of control, or rather whatever was used was more effective than expected.

And I’m suggesting this because even when it was confirmed that Teldrassil was first and Lordaeron second... I still get the feeling that the Horde didn’t start it? Think of it for a moment; there’s really no one in the Horde that would want to start a big scale conflict with the Alliance, and much less with an attack of that type specially after Garrosh. Not even Sylvanas. Sure, she is thinking of getting Stormwind at the begining of the new book, but at the very begining you also have Saurfang looking at her straigh in the eye with the “no bullshit allowed” stance. So I don’t think he would have been fighting beside Sylvanas in the trailer cinematic of BaFA, or any other leader of the Horde for that matter, if truly she had been behind the attack.

But these points have been made already by other people, and we have Wrathion, Greymane, this undead conclave guys, on the list of suspects, yet, I wonder... what if it was the Highelves? Because 1. I want the Alliance to fuck up big time for once, 2, as much of an asshole he is, I don’t think Greymane would have harmed the night elves after everything they did for his people (or maybe he is that much of an asshole, maybe it was a collaboration) and 3, the whole possibility that Vereesa is the other elf in those pictures of Teldrassil burning.

So this is what I think happened: As the Horde and the Alliance slowly drift into a relative peace, there are still some sectors inside the Alliance that are trying to push for a war and final anihilation of the Horde. There are small skirmishes here and there, but the young King Anduin is not going to declare war on the Horde, plus some other leaders are still advocating for peace. Obviously they need a push, a change of perspective, so it’s decided that simulating an attack of the Horde on an important Alliance city would suffice to change their minds. It won’t actually harm any Allaiance citizens, but the threat will be enough to tip the other leathers in favor of war. Obviously that is not what happened, but in the end they achieved what they wanted, War with the Horde. And if they do use the Azerite to try and incriminate the Horde even more, well there you have the source of the fire (because elves fucking up with a source of energy they don’t completely understand is definitively not a thing in WoW)

It’s a bit twisted, but honestly, it would be interesting to see the Alliance in disarray for their own fault and choices for once, not because someone else came in and corrupted one of their members and that’s really what fuckep up everything, no the Alliance has no bad guys, they’re all pure and innocent and of course the Horde always has the fault of everything -.-

(also I think it would be interesting that the Alliance finally “snaps” just to be proven that they got all of it wrong)

thoughts?