No Sweat

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — In a city still overwhelmed by rubble and desperate for food and money, a small miracle of commerce took place on Monday: a garment factory reopened.

But no sooner had the first sewing machines begun to clatter at the factory, DKDR Haiti, than the workers cleared the floor. The workers, almost all of them women, mistook the machines’ vibrations for an aftershock and scrambled for safety outside under the locust trees.

From China Labour Bulletin:

The New Year has already seen a number of announcements in the official Chinese media that seem, on the surface at least, to be good news for workers. Coal mine accidents are down, graduate employment is up, and the authorities in the central province of Hubei have launched a wide-ranging crackdown on forced labour. Of course, the reality behind these "good news" stories is not quite so laudable.

From China Labour Bulletin:

In December 2009, a magazine article exposed the extent to which labour relations in China had deteriorated over the last year, with enterprises deliberately taking advantage of the government's leniency during the global financial crisis to exploit their workforce. The writer called on the government and trade unions to take concerted measures, including the introduction of collective bargaining, to alleviate the growing conflict between workers and management.

· THE WORKING CLASS AND EMANCIPATORY STRUGGLES OF PEOPLE IN IRAN
· Stop killings and torture!

· Farzad Kamangar in danger of execution!

· Free Haft Tapeh labour leaders!

From Workers Iran:

· Free Osanloo and Madadi now!

· The last of May Day 2009 detainees still in jail! Free Mehdi Farahi Shandiz now!

· Free Majid Hamidi now!

· Please use the Sample Protest letter and act now!

From the International Union of Food Workers

The strike by three thousand workers launched by the IUF-affiliated Food and Allied Workers' Union (FAWU) on December 22 at SAB Miller's ABI Soft Drinks Division has now entered its second month.

In 2004, No Sweat, with the Haiti Support Group, arranged for Yannick Etienne from the Batay Ouvriye group to come to London and speak in our workshop at the European Social Forum. Yannick spoke inspiringly about workers’ struggles to improve their working conditions in one of the poorest countries in the world, and certainly the poorest in the west. We were particularly excited to hear about workers’ courageous organising in the new sweatshops in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Yannick spoke at other meetings, including a reception organised by Battersea and Wandsworth TUC. Wherever she was, she was always the best speaker on the bill!

We are shocked by the earthquake in Haiti, and hope that our colleagues in Batay Ouvriye and the workers’ movement are well, that we can get in touch soon, and find a way to support the continuation of your work. It is too early to know where best to direct our efforts, but we will keep looking for news, and in the meantime will be raising funds for the future.

The union makes us strong.

No Sweat

Last Thursday, French TV broadcast a documentary about the dreadful situation of Turkish factory and sweatshop workers employed sandblasting designer jeans (Levis, H & M among others).

Watch a video about the case here or at VJ Movement

Read on for a translation from the French summary of the show:

2010 must herald a new dawn

Hello and Happy New Year!

2010 looks to be a very promising year indeed.

The escalation and radicalisation of protests in Iran against the Islamic Republic bring with it the hope for a very different world to the one we live in. Don’t forget, the suppression of the 1979 Iranian revolution by the Islamists changed the world we knew for the worse. This time round, the fall of the Islamists via a people’s revolution will change things for the better.

Extract from The Nation, 20 January 2010

Just days after the earthquake, the IMF announced Haiti would immediately receive a new loan of US100m.

As the IMF announced its $100 million loan under vague and presumably onerous terms, debt relief activists were already calling for a different kind of global response. They were demanding that aid to Haiti come in the form of grants, not loans. At the same time, Naomi Klein and others warned about the possibility that the earthquake would be used as a pretext to amp up Haiti's exposure to the shock doctrine.

On November 14, Russell Athletic and the union representing the former workers of Jerzees de Honduras (JDH) have reached an agreement which, according to the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC) represents one of the most significant advances for workplace rights in the twenty-year history of codes of conduct in the apparel industry.

Neil Kearney was General Secretary of the International Textile, Garment & Leather Workers Federation.

Neil spoke at No Sweat events and was a lifelong socialist and champion of garment workers' rights. He died recently, whilst in Bangladesh, campaigning for improvements in the garment industry. No Sweat will miss him.

This is a reprint of an obituary that appeared in the Guardian by Doug Miller.

The Assembly of Delegates of International PEN, meeting at its 75th International Congress in Linz, Austria, 19-25 October 2009

Deeply Worried because the Cuban government continues its repressive policy against independent journalists, writers and librarians who try to exercise their right to freedom of expression, established by Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Cuba is party...

A new(ish) leaflet from No Sweat for use on stalls and fashion shows etc to highlight Primark's sweatshop record.

Tata, the transnational Indian conglomerate whose wholly-owned subsidiary Tetley makes the world famous Tetley Teas, has taken 6,500 people hostage through hunger. The hostages are nearly 1,000 tea plantation workers and their families on the Nowera Nuddy Tea Estate in West Bengal, India. The workers, living in poverty and always on the edge of hunger, are locked out and have been denied wages for all but two days' work since early August.

· An update by the IASWI; and Current situation and progressive practices:
· The launch of “Kargar (Worker) TV”

· A call for support and solidarity with Haft Tapeh workers (English translation of Ali Nejati’s second Open letter to all workers-Dated November 7, 2009)

· Open letter to International Labour Organization from The Syndicate of Workers of Haft Tapeh Sugar Cane Company

Sunday, 15 November 2009. From http://chinaworker.info/en/content/news/900/

Hainan garment workers take on European lingerie giant ‘Triumph’

Women workers at a garment factory in Hainan, southern China, began a strike on Wednesday 11 November to press their demands on pay and vacations after management announced drastic cuts in bonuses. Around 3,000 workers at the Hainan Youmei Underwear Co., Ltd in Haikou City, the provincial capital, gathered outside the plant. The factory is wholly owned by German-Swiss lingerie giant Triumph International, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of women’s underwear.

Laid off Triumph International union members have transformed their action camp into a sewing factory producing panties under the label “Try Arm”. Since October 16, 2009 hundreds of workers have occupied the grounds of the Ministry of Labour to protest mass dismissals by Triumph International subsidiary Body Fashion Thailand.

The following is a flyer we distributed last week concerning rising quotas and increased exploitation in the factories in Haiti.

BATAY OUVRIYE

Port-au-Prince, October 16th, 2009

Comrade workers of the clothing and textile industries,

Human rights defender Tita Radilla in London, November 2009

Rosendo Radilla Pacheco, a respected community leader, disappeared in 1974 after being stopped at an army checkpoint in Mexico’s Guerrero state.

In July 2009, his case became the first case of forced disappearance to be brought against the Mexican Government: the decision of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights is due in December.

His daughter, Tita Radilla, vice-president of the Mexican Association of Relatives of the Detained, Disappeared and Victims of Human Rights Violations (AFADEM), will be in London in November to speak about her long fight for justice and against impunity for human rights abuses in Mexico.