Solidarity with Asian Workers

On Saturday another fire in a garment factory in Bangladesh killed 120 workers. (Workers in this factory often sew clothes for Walmart, where retail workers are also actively organizing.) Bangladeshi garment workers have some of the lowest wages in the world and are also engaged in militant struggle for better wages and working conditions and against management’s harassment and abuse.

Proletarians (workers and unemployed folks) across Asia are fighting some of the most advanced class struggle in the world right now. We want to share a few links to articles and analysis of that struggle. Please feel free to add more in the comments!

– In June, garment workers in Bangladesh shut down 350 factories in a wave of militant strikes and acts of sabotage. At the time, BOC member Mamos raised this in the context of ongoing debates about militant tactics in Seattle.

– Across East Asia this summer, workers struck and protested over wages (including unpaid wages), working conditions, and management abuse.

– In September, workers at a Foxconn plant in Taiyuan, China rioted and closed down their plant. The riot was a response to abusive security guards.

– Also in September, workers across India went on a one-day strike against increased diesel prices and increased investment from foreign supermarket chains.

– Finally, in New York City, the Chinese Staff and Workers Association supports worker organizing in multiple industries.

– Struggles aren’t just happening in workplaces, either. Chinese folks are militantly fighting — and sometimes stopping — construction of industrial facilities that pollute their water, air, and land. Some of the construction plans that have been called off include a waste-water discharge plant in Quidong and a copper refinery in Shifang. Protesters also forced the closing of a chemical plant in Dalian and rioted against an incinerator in Beishan.

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