Why N.Korea’s factory workers love going to work

Trajan

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The DPRK enthusiastically boasts to external and internal audiences alike about the complete and utter satisfaction of its people (including its “rosy human rights record”).

It boasts participation rates in elections as being near 100%, the support of its people for state policies being unanimously positive in a manner that no government could or should dream of rivalling, and last but not least, the excellent job-attendance rates of the North Korean workforce.

Such claims are rightly ridiculed by those who know that such extraordinary uniformity of consensus and actions requires coercive mobilization.

Nevertheless, there are places in North Korea where job-attendance rates are near perfect not so much due to coercive mobilisation, but the voluntary will of the individual. Among these are factories that remain in operation and continue to produce goods.

Although the state does not provide factory workers with compensation even in the form of rations required for the most basic survival needs, labourers assigned to such factories choose not to miss a day of work if they can help it.

It’s not necessarily fervent loyalty that is responsible for this phenomenon; it’s that these assignments provide workers with a chance at stealing what the factory produces.

‘Factories producing goods that are popular in the private marketplaces tend to have the best attendance rates. Factory workers sell their stolen goods to obtain corn or rice. They voluntarily and eagerly show up to work in order to continue stealing goods,’ testifies North Korean refugee Nah*.

He continues, ‘Factory workers don’t manage to steal every single day, because monitoring and surveillance by security agents is vigilant. But because everyone does it, the punishment for theft is not severe.’

‘But workers are discreet when they steal because if is done too obviously, they may become the one put in the spotlight during the weekly group-criticism sessions, where someone will be singled out for humiliation and targeted character insults,’ he explains.

One of the reasons why North Korean workers steal goods from factories without feeling any guilt is because it is justified as a petty misdeed by those struggling to put bread on the table.

Factory workers reason that they steal in order that their families may survive another day, while managerial cadres above them are just bigger and better thieves, who can even use cars to help them steal larger quantities of goods and reap bigger profits.

On top of that, cadres can steal goods systematically by colluding with security agents. No matter how much extra targeted surveillance is introduced, there will be cadres who won’t be affected. From the perspective of factory workers who steal small amounts of goods with fear, the cadres are merely licensed to thieve on a larger-scale.

But even “hard-earned” goods stolen from factories by workers desperate to feed themselves and their families do not always put food on the table.

For example, in the case of a factory in Danchun that sits far from trading areas, there have been cases of workers dying from exhaustion while making the journey to the private marketplaces, even after successfully completing their shift and coming out with stolen goods.

‘When I had nothing to sell, I climbed up to dangerous mountainous places to get bark off trees and dig for grass roots. I often fell and injured myself. But even for those who become ecstatic after being lucky enough to acquire decent goods to sell, the marketplaces can be so far away. I have seen old people drop dead on the road from exhaustion during such journeys,’ testifies North Korean refugee Ko*.

‘Excellent attendance rates at a factory do not guarantee an excellent survival rate for its workers. For ordinary people, excellent attendance at private marketplaces is what guarantees higher survival rates,’ she describes.

http://newfocusintl.com/n-koreas-factory-workers-love-going-work/
 
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blackzeus

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The thread title is :mjlol: Might as well make a thread about how Jews loved going to death camps in Nazi Germany :mjlol:
 

wheywhey

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The people who live in the capital, Pyongyang, live semi-decent lives. The people in other areas simply struggle.
 

Sensitive Blake Griffin

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I'm so jealous of them, it must be so fun/fufilling to be able to go to work everyday knowing you can steal a few of the goods so you have some rice to eat that night.
 
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