Workers' Liberty

Over 500 Thai textile workers defied the military junta’s ban on public protests to demonstrate in a dispute at their factory.

By Paul Hampton

Students and workers have taken to the streets of Bangkok in protest at the military coup on 19 September, despite universal indifference from “democratic” bourgeois governments around the world.

This is an unpublished review I wrote in 2002, with some background to the Thai coup.

Thailand has developed into a modern independent capitalist country, where capitalist relations of production dominate both the cities and the countryside, and where the class struggle is played out between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. Fifty-six per cent of assets of the 100 largest companies are Thai owned; domestic commerce and industry are dominated by 300 conglomerates; and the CP group have emerged as the first Thai multinational. Of decisive significance is the social weight of the working class. In 1996 out of a total population of 58 million, 13 million were workers (41%) and 13.8 million were peasants – it will not be long before workers are the majority class in the country.

South Africa

Hundreds of thousands of workers in South Africa supported a one-day general strike in protest against job losses on 18 May.

Since the beginning of the year Thailand has witnessed growing protests. This article, written by Danielle Sabai and Jean Sanukon on 20 March in Bangkok and abridged from International Viewpoint, explains the background.

Thai Labour Solidarity Committee (TLSC), made up of 26 labor organisations including trade unions, labour federations and congresses and NGOs, is receiving donations from its members and the public to help affected workers from the tsunami in Thailand.

Unions at Wal-Mart!

After years of dogged attempts to organise unions in Wal-Mart, workers in Canada are starting to make some gains at this, the world’s largest retailer.

In August, the Quebec Labour Relations Board certified a union at the Wal-Mart store in Jonquière, Quebec after more than half of its 145 workers signed cards to become members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW). A mandatory contract will soon have to be agreed — and that would create the first union branch at Wal-Mart anywhere in North America.

• Zanón factory - two years under workers' control

• Anti-privatisation protest in Thailand
• Korean workers win wider union rights

Zanón factory - two years under workers' control

By Mark Osborn

CAFOD (Catholic campaigning organisation) have produced a a useful, detailed, expose of the terrible working conditions, harassment and poverty pay faced by electronics workers, making computer parts, in Mexico, Thailand and China.

Workers in Thailand have commemorated the 10th anniversary of the world’s worst factory fire. On 10 May 1993 the Kader fire killed 189 people, mostly young women workers and seriously injured over 500. The Kader factory was a Thai- Hong Kong-Taiwanese joint venture, making toys such as the Barbie doll. The factory collapsed after a fire on the ground floor spread to solvents and paints stacked in narrow corridors.

A factory in Thailand which supplied Nike, Reebok and Adidas closed down, without warning, in October 2002. It owed its 350 workers $400,000 in back wages and redundancy pay.

An international campaign began, calling on the Thai government to bring the owners of the factory to justice and to ensure that workers were paid all that they were owed.