Editorial

The current global class conflict is characterised by increasingly sharpening contrasts between regions or periods of boom and crisis. The fact of workers being exploited in booming or declining sectors often creates deeper immediate abysses between their struggles than does any cultural, ethnic etc. boundaries. In the ocean of the market, in the ups and downs of the economic cycles, workers are forced to react in many different ways, mirroring the general contradictions of the capitalist relations surrounding them. After a worker was shot by the police in Bangladesh in May 2006, textile workers ransacked dozens of factories and burned down several of them. The riots in Bangladesh and the mass strike wave of workers in the textile export zones in Vietnam in winter 2005/06 have to be seen in the wider context of the general situation of Asian textile workers: they are the main producers for the global market and their working and living conditions are very directly linked to its ups and downs and to changes in the market policies, such as the WTO tariff policy changes in 2005. The textile industry in Asia is very mobile; in the textile export belt around New Delhi factories close with a few weeks notice, and re-open again shortly after. In this dynamic situation workers have to take advantage of short boom periods, their actions have to be eruptive, the hire-and-fire fuels their anger.

While textile factories are torched in Bangladesh, they are occupied and run under workers control in Argentina. While the market situation compels the workers in Bangladesh to destroy the means of exploitation, the situation in Argentina compels workers to take them over. The main question will be if and how workers struggles in different situations of (under)development will be able to connect and break out of the market rat-race. The articles in this issue try to shed light on class conflicts which originate in very different circumstances, which develop certain new dynamics and due to their isolation find their limitations: a moving and inspirational article comprising detailed interviews with workers of Zanon, the occupied tile factory in Argentina; an article on the struggles of textile workers in Vietnam and Bangladesh; an analysis and interviews concerning initiatives of employees in the Philips Semiconductors plant in Hamburg, Germany; a short interview with a worker in a Special Economic Zone in Poland, a short up-date on two wildcat strikes in the European automobile sector; some suggestions for further reading on USA migrant struggles and the movement against the labour reform in France.

(Another) Paradise Lost - Strikes and Riots in the Export Zones in Vietnam and Bangladesh

Due to the very nature of industries which are based on the exploitation of a large-scale work-force, relatively little capital and machinery is involved. A sewing machine or sometimes only a brush to apply glue to a sole of a shoe - and a work-place is created. This type of industry is mobile. During the last decade textile- and shoe industries were already shifting production to Vietnam, and even more so to China. On their look-out for the currently cheapest work-force, nowadays the factories can only move inland from the coast regions. But recently it became clear: the Chinese migrant workers are not on the lowest rungs of the wage scale any more. Today Vietnam is a top destination, mainly because in the even cheaper regions (e.g. North Korea, Laos, parts of Africa) the infrastructure is insufficient, or the political situation unstable, or the workers have already proved their ability to struggle, as for example in Cambodia. The history of struggles in the textile sector from 1870 to 1950 (see Silver, Forces of Labor, 2003) show many struggles forcing capital to move round the world, from United States and Europe to India, China and Japan. But the easy mobility and relatively low capital costs also mean a certain lack of workplace bargaining power. However, we can still see the real effects of their struggles. The boss of the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam claimed that one of Vietnam´s major advantages compared to Indonesia, the former investment paradise, is "the fact that the workforce is not prone to industrial action". The strike waves in winter 2005/06 proved him wrong. Some sources indicate that due to the rapid industrial development in the south and its consequent labour migration and unrest the gender relations are also undergoing significant changes. So does the role of the state as a mediator: In the aftermaths of the riots in Bangladesh in May 2006, the government, the employers association and union representatives voiced their disapproval of the riots and agreed on forming a 'minimum wage board' exclusively for the garment sector. Here lies another parallel to the reaction of the government after the strike wave in Vietnam, trying to curb future unrest by increasing the official minimum wage.

“On Saturdays the company belongs to Daddy” - Weekend-shifts and Collective Contract Conflict at Philips Semiconductors (PSH) in Hamburg, Germany

“The popular conception of IT associates the sector with highly paid computer programmers, thereby turning a blind eye on the fact that the major share of the work is done in micro-electronic industries where the means of work, e.g. the materials for the software developers, are manufactured. The production of semi-conductors is part of this industry. The fact that the semi-conductor industry is a normal industry ridden by 'normal' industrial disputes became obvious in autumn 2005, when (mainly migrant) workers at Infineon in Munich struck for eight days and police were deployed against them. Up to the 70s in the production at Philips in Hamburg, mainly female workers (mostly from Yugoslavia) were employed. At the beginning of the 80s a lot of workers from Vietnam were hired, since the end of the 80s mainly German skilled workers found jobs at Philips. This history still has impacts today”. The article and interviews display a typical situation of conflict in Germany today. On the background of their particular relationships amongst each other and their position in the factory, a relatively small group of workers take the initiative within a relatively modern plant which is threatened with re-structuring. They make some self-organised activities, they make use of modern means of communication (an internet forum) and later on try to functionalise the existing bodies of workers representation (the works council). Due to their self-activities they get in conflict with the official union body, in the end the conflict with both union and management was solved in a way that no-one is actually happy with.

Workers Illegally fired in Poland's Special Zone of Exploitation

The interview with a worker from a SEZ in Poland, sacked for attempting to form a union, gives us an insight into the conditions attached to the wave of investment there, attacks on attempts to unionise, and very low wages. The western European workers are threatened with their jobs moving east, but the Polish workers find the investments bring very few new jobs. “Hasn’t Kostrzyn-Slubiece Special Economic Zone, improved workers’ conditions? Thanks to the zone, unemployment in the area has slightly declined, but the stir made around it before has turned out to be highly exaggerated. Few workplaces have been created (according to data from 2004 there was 1750 new workplaces); ICT (an Italian corporation) employs 200 people, Podravka Poland - 100, and there are plants that employ not more than 20 people. All companies have been given high tax allowances, but there is no real effect of that on the local market. .. The salaries are starvation ones, slightly above minimal wage, what means 650 zloty (165 Euro) take-home. But the company observes basic rules of employment, for instance an 8 hour workday. There is no overtime, so there is no rights abuse in this field. The wage was usually on time. The biggest problem are low wages and that is the reason why the turnover of people is so fast - some give up one job and are immediately employed elsewhere. Anyone who finds something better, wants to get away. Two people who worked before me have moved to London to clean airports there.”

Zanon under workers control - An occupied factory in Argentina

The movements following the uprising in Argentina in December 2001 express the difficulties and potentials of combating alliances between workers in different situations, e.g. between workers in modern factories and those without jobs. Although the brochure on Zanon was published by the German magazine wildcat in as long ago as December 2003, we decided to translate it. A comrade visited Argentina and stayed inside the occupied Zanon factory for a month. During that time she talked to the Zanon workers about their links with the rest of the movement and how work and relationships inside the factory changed after its occupation. “Zanon is not a backyard workshop, but a very modern factory with a highly automated production process. Hardly anyone believed that the production workers would be able to get the plant running under self-management. They showed that it is possible. Instead of begging for jobs in times of crisis or trying to make ends meet in informal niches they took over the precious machinery and organised work in such a way that as well as producing tiles there is still always time for drinking mate and having a chat”.

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[prol-position news #6 | 7/2006]