The way the populations of Third World countries have become dependent
on wage labor as a source of livelihood parallels what occurred in the
Industrial Revolution in Europe when the creation of a dependent working
class arose along with the disappearance of traditional means of livelihood.
Exactly the same process is occurring in the Third World today. The
introduction of multinational enterprise tends to eliminate local agriculture
and traditional craft and industry, creating a dispossessed labor force
and a market for unskilled labor. Skilled artisans and farmers go to work
on plantations and in factories for subsistence wages exactly as they did
in Europe and North America centuries before. And just like the factory
owners in the Industrial Revolution who exploited this workforce, corpo- ·
rations continue to do so in the Third World today.