Solidarity 023, 6 February 2003

USAS: making California dreams come true

Mick Duncan reports from the conference of United Students Against Sweatshops in Los Angeles Four hundred campus activists from all over the US—and two members of No Sweat from the Britain—gathered in the South California sunshine over the weekend of 1-2 February to plan activity, swap ideas and hear from workers and union activists in the forefront of the fight against sweatshops. Workers from the US, El Salvador and Mexico told their stories of how they have fought, often against some of the most famous high street names, facing violence and intimidation, but still, remarkably, often coming...

Honduran maquila activists to tour the UK

Soyapa Melgar and Maria Luisa Regalado of the Honduran Women’s Collective, CODEMUH, will visit Britain in March. Until 1992 Soyapa worked in a maquila—garment for export—factory. Since 2000 she has been involved in the Honduran Independent Monitoring Group, monitoring factories in northern Honduras that supply GAP. Maria Luisa co-ordinates women’s campaigning. More details from the Central American Women’s Network: cawn@gn.apc.org

No to 'anti-subversive' law in Hong Kong!

A protest is planned on Saturday 8 February against new "anti-subversion" legislation-Article 23-in Hong Kong. Meet 12am, Chinese Embassy, Portland Place in London, for a march to Trafalgar Square. More at www.nosweat.org.uk Chinese labour activists are fighting for their lives! On Sunday 2 February No Sweat activists gave out 1,000 leaflets in London’s Chinatown during the New Year celebrations. We were informing people about the trial of two labour leaders from Liaoyang city in China, accused of subversion for leading protests demanding payment of unpaid wages. If convicted the two—Yao Fuxin...

Korean strike leader kills himself over anti-union sequestrations

On 10 January a trade unionist at Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction, a shipbuilding firm, burned himself to death. He commited suicide in protest against the company’s suppression of union members. Bae Dal-ho, a 50-year-old team leader of the boilers section, was found burned to death near the cooling tower. Bae had worked for Doosan for 21 years. Doosan had demanded that Bae take financial responsibility for his involvement in a 47-day strike in May last year. The company convinced the court to hold his wage and restrict his bank access. Bae left a memo, found in his car: “Due to the...

As Puma runs out on Mexican workers:

Your letters can help By the Workers’ Organising Centre (CAT), Puebla, Mexico On Monday 13 January, after repeated violations of labour and human rights, 200 of the 250 workers employed by the Matamoros Garment factory decided to take a stand. The workers, employed by a US-owned factory in the south-central Mexican state of Puebla complained: “We are forced to work mandatory overtime, the guard was given orders to lock the door, [and] wages are less than the [legal] minimum wage for the region. For example, the lowest wage is 39 pesos per day [approximately US$3.90]. When the customers do...

The SWP and political Islam: lending support to anti-worker movement

by Sami Mohammad The leadership of the Stop the War Coalition organised a massive conference [11 January] in preparation for the 15 February demonstration against war on Iraq. In the conference there were many political parties, organisations, and famous individuals. I am a member of the Worker-communist Party of Iraq. As an Iraqi dissident, I felt it important to pay a visit to the conference. It was important to see those people who speak on behalf of Iraqi people, and what analysis, explanation and alternative the conference has for the conflict between Iraq and the USA. From the very...

Students link up against the war

By Jim Bywater Students all across the country are mobilising against the Bush/Blair war drive. This week Essex university students were holding a ‘Don’t Go! peace camp outside Colchester barracks. Sussex students are planning a walk-outs at 3pm on the day the war starts; Hereford, civil disobedience from 9am. There will be an occupation in the School of Oriental and African Studies (London) the day night before the anti-war demo on the 15th. Students at the University of East Anglia are holding a teach-in on Fri 7th, and five ‘Weapons Inspectors’ from Cambridge University broke into RAF...

Regime change? We say it's not Bush's job, but...

Can the workers defeat the regime? If any regime deserves to have war waged against it, it is Saddam Hussein’s. Nevertheless, war by the United States and whatever allies it can pull behind it will not advance the cause of democracy and freedom in Iraq. It did not in 1991, and there is no reason to believe it will now. Last time we were quite lucky, in terms of the spread of the war, the involvement of Israel and so on. It seems possible that Ariel Sharon in Israel will use war this time as a cover to carry out the mass deportation of Palestinians they euphemistically call “transfer”. In the...

Solidarity briefing on Iraq

Since 1997 the USA’s military spending has exceeded the total of the next nine powers War for oil versus fight for democracy Why is the US administration going to war? Because they want to make the Gulf’s huge oilfields, which have over half the world’s total oil reserves, safe for global capital. They do not mind Saddam being a dictator. They mind him being a maverick dictator. They want to establish the USA as “globocop” of the new, IMFed, WTOed, world-market-oriented globe. What about Saddam’s “weapons of mass destruction”? The USA didn’t mind when Saddam was using weapons of mass...

The firefighters' long battle against 'new management'

In the first of two articles about the firefighters' dispute Chris Jones, former Merseyside FBU brigade chair and a member of the Revolutionary Democratic Group, looks at the background to the dispute. In the next issue of Solidarity Chris will examine the questions of leadership raised by the dispute. The Fire Brigades Union dispute has moved decisively into a new phase in the first month of 2003. The offensive led by the FBU executive against the erosion of firefighters' and control staff's pay has now become a defensive battle. Quietly the 40% claim has been allowed to fall out of sight...

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