Dan Read's Blog
Posted by Dan Read
Over five hundred textile employees went on strike in Bangkok in spirited defiance of the ban on public and political protests.
The workers in question are employed by the Gina Form Bra Company which manufactures lingerie for companies such as Gap. The dispute in question stems from the companies desire to shut down the factory and relocate to China, probably to obtain access to cheaper labour. The company also claimed it would not comply with Thai labour law in paying redundant workers six months severance pay in the event of the factory closing, but has since buckled under pressure and agreed to make the payments.
Today there is an endless drive by big business search to obtain access to the cheapest labour possible in order to reap the greatest profit. Workers in many eastern nations such as Thailand and China often find themselves in the unenviable position of being put at the disposal of foreign capital seeking to take advantage of lax or non-existent labour laws. They are thus are at the mercy of businesses seeking to produce cheap, affordable consumer goods for sale in western markets, which in the process serves to raise the living standards of western workers without a corresponding increase in wages.
The practice of alleviating social unrest by investing in cheap labour markets abroad to reap super profits to “buy off” workers and provide easy access to affordable consumer goods has been a standard practice for much of the later half of the 20th century. It has created an illusion that each nation exists in isolation in some kind of economic bubble and that extreme poverty, oppression, and starvation in the rest of the world are “not our problem”, thus hiding the reality of a truly connected global economy and global working class.
Posted by Dan Read
Wal-Mart has recently come under pressure in China over the issue of trade’s unionism. After some initial resistance from the multi-national, Wal-Mart eventually gave in to government requests to allow the unionisation of its workforce via the All China Federation of Trade Unions.
Over six thousand Chinese Wal-Mart employees working in the sixty six national stores are now unionised, which has been branded as a victory by Chinese union and government authorities.
However, whether this “victory” really amounts to a genuine ability on the part of workers to organise in defence of their interests is doubtful. Chinese trade unions are notorious for being little more than keepers of industrial peace on behalf of ruling state bodies, fulfilling similar functions as the old Soviet trade unions did during the days of the USSR.
Such state endorsed unions play a valuable role on behalf of the Chinese state in policing the workforce and maintaining industrial discipline, so whether such moves lead to a voice for workers against their employers or simply aid the state in its dealings with foreign investors such as Wal-Mart remains to be seen.
Posted by Dan Read
Russia has run contrary to popular opinion on the recent North Korean nuclear test in that it believes it was genuine. Speaking shortly after the alleged blast, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov stated that the explosive force was the equivalent of between five to fifteen kilotons of TNT; way in excess of earlier claims from Australian and South Korean seismic studies who believe the blast was inferior to the force of the first atom bombed dropped on Hiroshima.
Russia has cause to be concerned. Sharing a short border with North Korea in the far eastern Primorye region, Russia remains alone in its claim to have detected a genuine nuclear explosion stemming from North Korean territory. President Vladimir Putin has condemned the nuclear test but stated that the controversy must be solved via diplomatic means. Whether this will entail additional sanctions or continued negotiations remains to be seen.
Posted by Dan Read
Malaria is still proving to be a persisting problem in many parts of the world. Infecting up to five hundred million people per year, and proving fatal to a million of those, it continues to bring untold grief and suffering to large tracts of both Asia and Africa.
The disease itself is carried my mosquitoes, who often thrive in the inadequate and unhygienic water sources that many poorer communities have to rely on. The burden of infection hits hardest in the most deprived nations of the Asian and African continents, whose health services struggle to cope with the yearly influx of malaria suffering patients.
This ongoing crisis has sparked a meeting between eleven different Asian nations, who have come together to discuss new ways to tackle this deadly disease. Looking to recent successes in Africa, where insecticide treated bed nets have been deployed to safeguard communities against the disease carrying insects, Asian health ministers hope to utilise such treatments in their own countries.
However, when it’s the wealthy that can afford access to clean water sources and top of the range health care, it’s the poor who find themselves in squalid conditions with limited access to clean drinking water. Such conditions, when coupled with the humid climates of southern Asia, prove to be a veritable breeding ground for infection laden insects. Therefore the ongoing discussion on malaria prevention inevitably leads to discussion on the poverty and inequality that serves to exacerbate the problem of ill health and other blights.
Posted by Dan Read
When the Prime Minister of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra, received confirmation that the army back home was moving against his government, he wasted no time in issuing a state of emergency.
Having left his native country to address the United Nations in New York, his opponents in the military saw this as the opportunity they had been waiting for. As troops poured into Bangkok, they met with no resistance and were even hailed as heroes and liberators on the streets, despite the fact they were there to remove a government the Thai people had elected not once, not twice, but three times.
The wide scale support for the overthrow of the elected government raises a number of important questions. What could have transpired in the eyes of the average citizen for Prime Minister Thaksin to go from a politician worthy of his vote, to a hateful and widely cursed oligarch, where even military rule is preferable compared to the continuation of his term in office? Granted, Thaksin only won a third term when an emergency election was called in the face of massive protests and the opposition proceeded to boycott the vote, but still the question remains.
Often immensely unpopular political parties are elected all over the world in preference to what people may view as an even worse alternative. A kind of "anyone but them" mentality sets in; with people voting strategically in order to put in power what may be considered the "lesser of two evils". Thaksin may have been seen as corrupt, he may have been seen as out of for his own business interests and he may have been seen as self absorbed and egotistical, but perhaps many viewed him as a preferable choice compared to other political factions on offer.
Just as some US citizens think they have no other choice and so vote for a democratic party they disagree with on many points just to stand against a Republican party they despise, or the British voting Labour in order to avoid a repeat of Tory rule, the practice of "strategic voting" may be common to many nations that practice universal suffrage. In that sense, a sudden and radical change such as an armed taking of power may have been exciting, perhaps even desirable. When the political climate is widely seen to have become stagnant and ineffective, a sudden change and sweeping away of the old order could be hailed as progressive by a disillusioned and cynical electorate.
Having said that, it would appear there is a definite schism between town and country in Thailand. The Prime Minister was strongly backed by the rural workers and peasantry, who approved of his populist policies. His main opponents seem to have resided in the cities, and consisted largely of intellectuals, the financial "elite" and of course many army officers.
The formal head of the armed forces, General Sonthi Boonyaratkalin, cites such a schism as one of the main reasons behind his hasty actions in seizing power, claiming to have feared that to let the political crisis afflicting the nation to last any longer would have led to violence between supporters of the government and advocates of change.
Perhaps knowing the extent of the Prime Ministers support in the countryside, the General happily accepted the approval of the nation's monarch, King Bhumibol. Having remained on the throne for sixty years, Bhumibol is widely loved by the rural populace for his alleged work in alleviating the suffering of the poor among their communities.
Indeed, the General claims that they seized power "in the name of the King" and armoured vehicles entering the capital on the night of the coup were seen displaying bright yellow ribbons, yellow being a colour associated with the Thai monarchy.
Then again, there may be yet more reasons for the common acquiescence that was displayed in the face of the military intervention. Thailand has a history of armed coups, in fact there have been 23 coup attempts by the military in the past 74 years, which may have caused such things to become ingrained in the political fabric of the nation's internal dealings.
In the west, where the existence of varying forms of democracy is considered stable, even the prospect of the military attempting to dictate government policy in any way is alarming, even repellent. Elsewhere, where universal suffrage is more of a novel concept than an enduring reality, intrigue, upheaval, and sudden transfers of power can appear more the norm.
