Asia
`Development', capitalism, NGOs and people's movements in Bangladesh: an interview with Anu Muhammad
China: Workers' strikes -- what did they win?
By Boy Lüthje
South Korea: `Just the first round' by `irregular workers' at Hyundai Motors
Hyundai Motors workers' sit-in at Hyundai's plant in Ulsan.
reports on strikes and factory occupations at Hyundai Motor Company in South Korea, which is building solidarity among regular and irregular workers, and among workers internationally.
December 16, 2010 -- Socialist Worker (US) -- "Even a worm will squirm when it is being stepped on" is an old Korean idiom that basically means that even the most powerless creature reacts against an aggressor. However, when such a worm is transformed into a fearful dragon, it will do a lot more than just squirm, to the point that you had better think twice about stepping on it.
That's what happened at one of South Korea's most profitable companies, Hyundai Motors, when the company's irregular workers mobilised with strikes and factory occupations during the middle of November, after decades of being "stepped on". Before we start with that fateful day of November 15, we need to take a look at how it progressed.
Philippines: Successful Asian regional conference discusses socialist strategy
Delegates and international participants. Photo by Macario Sakay.
By Partido Lakas ng Masa international desk
December 11, 2010 -- A successful "socialism conference" was held in Manila from November 27 to 28. The conference was organised by the socialist Partido Lakas ng Masa (PLM, Party of the Labouring Masses) and the socialist-feminist regional network, Transform Asia. The conference was attended by 100 delegates, leaders of the PLM from Metro Manila and other leading socialists of the Philippine left, as well as 13 international guests.
The international organisations represented were the Malaysian Socialist Party (PSM); People’s Democratic Party (PRD-Indonesia); Working People’s Association (PRP-Indonesia); Political Committee of the Poor-People’s Democratic Party (KPRM-PRD-Indonesia); Left Turn Thailand; Socialist Alliance (Australia); the Left Party (Sweden); the General Confederation of Nepalese Trade Unions (Gefont); the Vietnamese Union of Friendship Organisations; and the Centre for Environment and Community Asset Development (Vietnam).
Speech by general secretary of the Nava Sama Samaja Party (NSSP) Vickramabahu Karunaratne ("Bahu") at the Tamil National Remembrance Day, November 28, 2010, in London.
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I am thankful for the organisation of this event for giving me the opportunity to shed my tears in memory of those who gave their life to the liberation of Tamil homeland.Tamils have been killed by successive Sinhala-chauvinist governments in Sri lanka, last but not the least by the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime. Not only Tamils, but also thousands of Sinhala youth who were sent for aggression in the Tamil homeland and to attack Tamils. Thousands of these young Sinhalese died in an alien land.
Rani Rasiah
2010-12-05 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal/lewica.pl -- 1 maja 1996 Jawatankuasa Sokongan Masyarakat Ladang (JSML), sojusz pracowników plantacji należący do Jeringan Rakyat Tertindas [Sieć Opresjonowanych (JERIT, akronim oznaczający ‘krzyk’), malezyjskie zrzeszenie grup obywatelskich], rozpoczął kampanię na rzecz wprowadzenia minimalnego miesięcznego wynagrodzenia dla robotników. Wzywał on do całkowitego zerwania z opartym na skrajnym wyzysku, kolonialnym systemem wynagrodzeń, w którym robotnikom wypłacano dniówki o wysokości zależnej od rynkowej ceny oleju, pogody i zbiorów - czynników całkowicie niezależnych od pracowników.
Poparcie opinii publicznej dla płacy minimalnej w wysokości 750 ringgitów wzrosło, kiedy w trakcie kampanii rzucono światło na skandaliczny kontrast pomiędzy zamożnymi, acz bezwzględnymi potentatami, a żyjącymi w biedzie i zacofaniu 300 tysiącami pracowników. Co więcej, ujawniono, że największym udziałowcem we wszystkich większych firmach plantacyjnych był rząd, pod przykrywką agencji w rodzaju Permodalan Nasional Berhad i Amanah Saham Nasional.
ก้าวต่อไปของเสื้อแดงใจ อึ๊งภากรณ์
ปัญหาเฉพาะหน้า
ปัญหาสำคัญเฉพาะหน้าที่คนเสื้อแดงต้องร่วมกันวิเคราะห์ ร่วมกันคิด ในความเห็นผม มีห้าประเด็น ผมจะขอร่วมแสดงความคิดในเรื่องนี้...... ปัญหาเฉพาะหน้าคือ
Thailand: Challenges facing the Red Shirt movement today
On November 19, 2010, thousands of Red Shirts remembered those killed six months earlier. Photo by Lee Yu Kyung.
[Read more about the democracy struggle in Thailand HERE.]
By Giles Ji Ungpakorn
December 1, 2010 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- As we approach the end of 2010, the pro-democracy movement, the Red Shirts, is at a crossroads. On the other side, the military junta and the royalists have not even begun to solve the political crisis or to stabilise their power. Since the royalist PAD protests and the military coup in 2006, the junta and the royalists have not only destroyed democracy, they have also destroyed the legitimacy of the monarchy, the military and the judiciary in the eyes of millions of Thais.
Sombat Boonngamangong (left), the leader of the Red Sunday group and long-time activist, has renewed the Red Shirts' campaign in public, such as this "red aerobics". Photo by Lee Yu Kyung.
By Lee Yu Kyung, Bangkok
The left cannot ignore China’s achievements, but neither can it be too celebratory
Rural poverty in China is much higher than urban poverty.
Thailand: Red Shirts flood centre of Bangkok again
Ratchaprasong is a sea of Red Shirts again. Photos by Khun Kamberg CBN Press.
[Read more articles about Thailand HERE.]
By Peter Boyle, photos by CBN Press
November 19, 2010 – Thousands of supporters of the Thailand’s Red Shirt (the popular name for supporters of the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship) movement once again turned Bangkok’s busy Ratchaprasong Intersection into a sea of red.They turned out in their thousands (see video of the crowd posted by Richard Barrow to Twitter here) to mark six months since the Thai military bloodily attacked and dispersed a mass protest camp that occupied the area in April and May this year. More than 90 people were killed, thousands injured and hundreds or protesters are still imprisoned.
