Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Urgent support needed for solidarity campaign
FOURTH INTERNATIONAL NEWSLETTER:
Urgent Support Need for Solidarity Campaign with the Honda Workers in Foshan (China):
(June 12, 2010)
1/ You will find below the Appeal by Louisa Hanoune and Daniel Gluckstein aimed at developing a wide solidarity campaign with the Honda workers in China, in the framework of the preparation of the Algiers Open World Conference (Nov. 27-29, 2010) and with its special insistence on the reinstatement of the representatives elected by the workers, who were fired for striking.
2/ The Fourth International maintains that the fate of the social ownership in China is not sealed, that, ultimately, its future depends on the action of the working class. As the working class is defending its very existence, in the same move, it also defends the bulk of the 1949 revolution gains that it is organically linked to. It is in this movement that the working class is moved to raise the question of its power, of its control over those gains, which means concretely engaging on the way to political revolution.
From that point of view, the strike at Honda -- and the movements that go with it or follow in its footsteps -- mean that a new phase of that movement has now been reached.
The action of the workers who, through their strike, demand pay raises and the right to organise, deepens the crisis within the Chinese bureaucracy. The top layers of the bureaucracy are faced with both the need to fully demolish social ownership -- notwithstanding what it means for their power as a social layer -- and also with the deadly threat that a social eruption would entail for all their components; the consequence is a deep chasm within their ranks.
When the founding programme of the Fourth International deals with the political revolution, it notes that: "The struggle for the freedom of the trade unions and the factory committees, for the right of assembly and freedom of the press, will unfold in the struggle for the regeneration and development of Soviet democracy." It goes on to affirm that those struggles are connected to the fight against the privileges of the bureaucrats and for "Greater equality of wages for all forms of labor!"
Those are the issues raised by the strike at Honda with the election of representatives and the appeal to "restructure the shop floor Trade Union."
3/ Indeed, on reading the documents and the story of the strike (see the supporting documents below), one realises that the core issue that emerges is what connects the movement of the working class trying to form its own organisation, to the demand of the "restructuring" of the trade union, to elect its representatives and impose that the negotiations take place with those representatives against bureaucratic control. After they elected their 30 representatives, the workers imposed that those representatives should be the ones who should sit at the negotiation table. The bureaucrats of the All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), the official trade union, urged the workers and interns to go back to work. This led to a clash between the workers and the apparatus of the official trade union. At the end of this conflict, the workers maintained their demands and added the point of the defence of the dismissed representatives and the demand that the union be restructured. The official trade union itself even presented its apologies and circulated a letter to that effect: "We did not give adequate explanations, which led to misunderstanding."
We insist on this point for the reason that it can be said that it was the first time that the ACFTU was, to such an extent, losing control of a movement of that magnitude and that its monopoly representation of the workers was publicly being challenged.
What this means is that the bureaucratic power itself had to own up to the fact that it did not represent workers, it had to accept the fact that it was the representatives elected by the workers -- delegates that were maintained despite all the pressures -- who negotiated with Honda multinational company.
4/ Another specific feature of this strike that should be underscored from the start, is that the various strata of the Chinese proletariat tend to unify. We analyse this factor in the lead article of Informations Ouvrières (see attachment, article published by the Independent Workers Party of France, POI, within which the Fourth International has an organized political current: the Communist Internationalist Current). The Chinese "economic miracle" was connected to the alliance between the bureaucracy and imperialism. This had forced masses of migrant workers to travel from rural areas to the Special Economic Zones. A younger proletariat was formed, deprived of the labour rights existing in State firms. But the class struggle has its own laws. The concentration of the exploited generates the resistance to exploitation, a drive to form class organisations. Here is another very significant fact: during the strike, General Assemblies three times turned down a "differentiation formula" of wage raise for interns as workers demanded the same wage raise for all.
Of course, we are not here making predictions as to the time it will take or the events that will take place. What we are insisting on is the political meaning of the movement.
5/ Let us also underline the importance of the fact that the Appeal of Honda workers, published on May 31st at Honda, translated by activists linked to the International Liaison Committee, was immediately forwarded to us together with a request for a specific ILC campaign, on its own field of activity and directly linked to the Algiers Conference.
This gives its full meaning to the development of the campaign, to the effort to collect responses in the labour movement world wide, in the organisations and to centralise them to both addresses: the ILC's and China Labour Action's because those responses are directly forwarded to the Honda workers and therefore, are a component of their fightback.
This is larger than a solidarity campaign. What is at stake is to facilitate the junction between the Fourth International and those groups of workers who have started organising in the fightback against the bureaucracy and the multinationals.
* * * * *
Informations ouvrieres, editorial article
Long live the Workers of China!
Is it the end of the « miracle »?
On the one hand, the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party: who, in defiance of the working class, forbade the right to independent union organisation, took the right to strike out of the Constitution and, for over 30 years now, have opened the country to capitalist "modernization".
On the other hand, the multinationals, which are eager to take advantage of these exceptional conditions for gross exploitation.
The "Chinese miracle" born of this alliance has torn millions of young farmers from their villages, transferred them thousands of kilometres from their homes and deprived them of any rights.
This "miracle" has accelerated delocation - particularly in Europe and North America - with the workers of those countries summoned to give up their "exorbitant privileges". But the laws of the class struggle are immutable. The consciousness of the intolerable conditions of exploitation that they are subjected to has unceasingly ripened among the workers of China during all this period. The number of strikes has multiplied by tens of thousands each year.
Last May 17, a strike began in the Honda factory of the town of Foshan (1800 employees), with the workers setting up a platform of 108 demands in a general assembly, electing 30 delegates.
On the 23rd of May, two delegates were fired. The workers gathered on the basketball court and sang the Internationale. The strike expanded. The platform concentrated on 4 essential demands: a salary increase of 800 yuans, reinstatement of the fired workers, and reorganisation of the union with the election of leadership.
On the 31st of May, after having been physically assaulted by the official union, the workers distributed an open letter denouncing the "so-called union members" who used violence "instead of defending the collective interests of the workers".
On the 5th of June, compelled to negotiate with the elected delegates, the management gave in to salary increases, increasing wages between 500 to 634 yuans (from a 32.5 % to 70.2 % increase). Back to work, the worker delegates made it clear that "for many of them, the reorganisation of the union remains the main pre-occupation" on the basis of elected delegates and "that they will continue to act in order to obtain it".
In their address of several days earlier, they declared: "We will fight not only for the rights of the 1800 workers at Honda, but also for the rights of all the workers in all of China." In reality: for the rights of all the workers of the entire world. Formerly enthusiastic on the subject of the alleged Chinese miracle, the Financial Times now frets "The brute escalation in Chinese salaries is threatening the recourse to cheap labour."
This strike marks a turning point in the class struggle in China. By fighting for salaries and the right to union organisation, the Chinese working class is taking its fate -- and that of the whole society -- into its own hands. That includes the preservation of social ownership established in 1949.
This fight for the independence of workers organisations and against integrated trade unionism is at the centre of the Open World Conference that will be held in Algeria next November. Called on by Chinese workers, the International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples has answered "present" to their request for an international campaign of support:
- Reinstatement of the fired delegates!
- A general increase in salaries!
- For the right of the workers to freely organize their unions themselves!
Urgent Support Need for Solidarity Campaign with the Honda Workers in Foshan (China):
(June 12, 2010)
1/ You will find below the Appeal by Louisa Hanoune and Daniel Gluckstein aimed at developing a wide solidarity campaign with the Honda workers in China, in the framework of the preparation of the Algiers Open World Conference (Nov. 27-29, 2010) and with its special insistence on the reinstatement of the representatives elected by the workers, who were fired for striking.
2/ The Fourth International maintains that the fate of the social ownership in China is not sealed, that, ultimately, its future depends on the action of the working class. As the working class is defending its very existence, in the same move, it also defends the bulk of the 1949 revolution gains that it is organically linked to. It is in this movement that the working class is moved to raise the question of its power, of its control over those gains, which means concretely engaging on the way to political revolution.
From that point of view, the strike at Honda -- and the movements that go with it or follow in its footsteps -- mean that a new phase of that movement has now been reached.
The action of the workers who, through their strike, demand pay raises and the right to organise, deepens the crisis within the Chinese bureaucracy. The top layers of the bureaucracy are faced with both the need to fully demolish social ownership -- notwithstanding what it means for their power as a social layer -- and also with the deadly threat that a social eruption would entail for all their components; the consequence is a deep chasm within their ranks.
When the founding programme of the Fourth International deals with the political revolution, it notes that: "The struggle for the freedom of the trade unions and the factory committees, for the right of assembly and freedom of the press, will unfold in the struggle for the regeneration and development of Soviet democracy." It goes on to affirm that those struggles are connected to the fight against the privileges of the bureaucrats and for "Greater equality of wages for all forms of labor!"
Those are the issues raised by the strike at Honda with the election of representatives and the appeal to "restructure the shop floor Trade Union."
3/ Indeed, on reading the documents and the story of the strike (see the supporting documents below), one realises that the core issue that emerges is what connects the movement of the working class trying to form its own organisation, to the demand of the "restructuring" of the trade union, to elect its representatives and impose that the negotiations take place with those representatives against bureaucratic control. After they elected their 30 representatives, the workers imposed that those representatives should be the ones who should sit at the negotiation table. The bureaucrats of the All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), the official trade union, urged the workers and interns to go back to work. This led to a clash between the workers and the apparatus of the official trade union. At the end of this conflict, the workers maintained their demands and added the point of the defence of the dismissed representatives and the demand that the union be restructured. The official trade union itself even presented its apologies and circulated a letter to that effect: "We did not give adequate explanations, which led to misunderstanding."
We insist on this point for the reason that it can be said that it was the first time that the ACFTU was, to such an extent, losing control of a movement of that magnitude and that its monopoly representation of the workers was publicly being challenged.
What this means is that the bureaucratic power itself had to own up to the fact that it did not represent workers, it had to accept the fact that it was the representatives elected by the workers -- delegates that were maintained despite all the pressures -- who negotiated with Honda multinational company.
4/ Another specific feature of this strike that should be underscored from the start, is that the various strata of the Chinese proletariat tend to unify. We analyse this factor in the lead article of Informations Ouvrières (see attachment, article published by the Independent Workers Party of France, POI, within which the Fourth International has an organized political current: the Communist Internationalist Current). The Chinese "economic miracle" was connected to the alliance between the bureaucracy and imperialism. This had forced masses of migrant workers to travel from rural areas to the Special Economic Zones. A younger proletariat was formed, deprived of the labour rights existing in State firms. But the class struggle has its own laws. The concentration of the exploited generates the resistance to exploitation, a drive to form class organisations. Here is another very significant fact: during the strike, General Assemblies three times turned down a "differentiation formula" of wage raise for interns as workers demanded the same wage raise for all.
Of course, we are not here making predictions as to the time it will take or the events that will take place. What we are insisting on is the political meaning of the movement.
5/ Let us also underline the importance of the fact that the Appeal of Honda workers, published on May 31st at Honda, translated by activists linked to the International Liaison Committee, was immediately forwarded to us together with a request for a specific ILC campaign, on its own field of activity and directly linked to the Algiers Conference.
This gives its full meaning to the development of the campaign, to the effort to collect responses in the labour movement world wide, in the organisations and to centralise them to both addresses: the ILC's and China Labour Action's because those responses are directly forwarded to the Honda workers and therefore, are a component of their fightback.
This is larger than a solidarity campaign. What is at stake is to facilitate the junction between the Fourth International and those groups of workers who have started organising in the fightback against the bureaucracy and the multinationals.
* * * * *
Informations ouvrieres, editorial article
Long live the Workers of China!
Is it the end of the « miracle »?
On the one hand, the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party: who, in defiance of the working class, forbade the right to independent union organisation, took the right to strike out of the Constitution and, for over 30 years now, have opened the country to capitalist "modernization".
On the other hand, the multinationals, which are eager to take advantage of these exceptional conditions for gross exploitation.
The "Chinese miracle" born of this alliance has torn millions of young farmers from their villages, transferred them thousands of kilometres from their homes and deprived them of any rights.
This "miracle" has accelerated delocation - particularly in Europe and North America - with the workers of those countries summoned to give up their "exorbitant privileges". But the laws of the class struggle are immutable. The consciousness of the intolerable conditions of exploitation that they are subjected to has unceasingly ripened among the workers of China during all this period. The number of strikes has multiplied by tens of thousands each year.
Last May 17, a strike began in the Honda factory of the town of Foshan (1800 employees), with the workers setting up a platform of 108 demands in a general assembly, electing 30 delegates.
On the 23rd of May, two delegates were fired. The workers gathered on the basketball court and sang the Internationale. The strike expanded. The platform concentrated on 4 essential demands: a salary increase of 800 yuans, reinstatement of the fired workers, and reorganisation of the union with the election of leadership.
On the 31st of May, after having been physically assaulted by the official union, the workers distributed an open letter denouncing the "so-called union members" who used violence "instead of defending the collective interests of the workers".
On the 5th of June, compelled to negotiate with the elected delegates, the management gave in to salary increases, increasing wages between 500 to 634 yuans (from a 32.5 % to 70.2 % increase). Back to work, the worker delegates made it clear that "for many of them, the reorganisation of the union remains the main pre-occupation" on the basis of elected delegates and "that they will continue to act in order to obtain it".
In their address of several days earlier, they declared: "We will fight not only for the rights of the 1800 workers at Honda, but also for the rights of all the workers in all of China." In reality: for the rights of all the workers of the entire world. Formerly enthusiastic on the subject of the alleged Chinese miracle, the Financial Times now frets "The brute escalation in Chinese salaries is threatening the recourse to cheap labour."
This strike marks a turning point in the class struggle in China. By fighting for salaries and the right to union organisation, the Chinese working class is taking its fate -- and that of the whole society -- into its own hands. That includes the preservation of social ownership established in 1949.
This fight for the independence of workers organisations and against integrated trade unionism is at the centre of the Open World Conference that will be held in Algeria next November. Called on by Chinese workers, the International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples has answered "present" to their request for an international campaign of support:
- Reinstatement of the fired delegates!
- A general increase in salaries!
- For the right of the workers to freely organize their unions themselves!
# posted by redlion @ 9:11 pm 
