A rare MSM spotlight on Han Dong Fang of China Labour Bulletin

imagesHan Dong Fang of the independent Hong Kong based China Labour Bulletin comments in this FT video on the recent labor unrest and tragic Foxconn suicides.

A wildcat strike at Honda has led to a large wage increase as well.

I recently was profiled in Inside Fashion making the point that the global “race to the bottom” in China has likely touched bottom. Workers there are pushing back.

The regime itself now likely realizes the need to raise domestic demand to counter balance the hit the export sector is taking. The key step now is the legal recognition of genuinely independent unions. In the longer run the new Chinese labor movement must develop an alternative perspective on economic organization.

June 1: Han Dongfang on why Chinas labour system is broken – world – FT.com.

New School’s Bob Kerrey Tapped to Head MPAA?

I was at a reception with Bob Kerrey in NY a few weeks ago. He was hosting our conference on US corporations in the current crisis at the New School University of which he is President. Kerrey has been somewhat controversial with the lefty faculty and students at the New School but his comments at the reception were those of a solid liberal. He predicted a fairly significant shift away from the Democrats in the upcoming fall elections, which the interim elections on Tuesday strongly reinforced. He may be too much to the center in New York but he would likely be a breath of fresh air at the MPAA.

EXCLUSIVE: Bob Kerrey Tapped to Head MPAA – TheWrap.com.

The Party’s Over: China’s Endgame

And so, as the economy began to fail in 2008 and as factories closed by the tens of thousands, workers took to the streets, especially in the country’s export powerhouse, the Pearl River Delta of Guangdong Province. Protests have continued around the country. At the end of July last year, for instance, some thirty thousand steelworkers in the rust-belt province of Jilin fought with police and beat to death a top manager who had threatened large layoffs after a merger. The incident illustrates the trend that disturbances are becoming larger and more violent. In fact, demonstrators in the last few years have been using deadly force as an initial tactic against local authorities.

All the more reason for the State Department and organized labor to re-think any idea of “constructive engagement” with China.

via World Affairs Journal – The Party’s Over: China’s Endgame.

Foxconn: Another worker suicide at electronics maker’s factories in China

Worker protest by suicide is a horrible fact of life in China. It serves as more evidence of the misguided approach to labor rights that the new human rights team at the State Department appears intent on following.

Instead of  “constructive engagement” with the bosses in Beijing, we need pressure on China to recognize universal labor standards including the right to freedom of association.

Silicon Valley should take the lead here and ask for an independent investigation of labor conditions at Foxconn and the other offshore manufacturing centers used to build our laptops and smartphones and iPads by the ILO and including an internationally recognized team. Transparency is a crucial first step to encouraging Chinese workers to take advantage of universal human rights to solve their problems rather than desperate measures.

Foxconn: Another worker dies at electronics maker’s factories in China

“Oh to be Solvent When Labor Strikes Back”

This is an interesting idea – that organized labor has more power than it may think in the era of globalization.

Why? Well the argument is that companies use a kind of “just in time” approach to finance, stretching to the breaking point their credit position. Any unexpected pressure from the labor force can tear a damaging hole in the thin fabric of global finance that knits the whole system together.

I made a related point recently in an interview about my new book, From Che to China, with Inside Fashion. I suggested that the race to the bottom of global capital over the last three decades may have reached bottom with widespread labor unrest breaking out in China and thus threatening the cheap labor model that has been so dominant.

Dude, wheres the Dharma?: Oh to be Solvent When Labor Strikes Back.

The Greek Grind

imagesFelix Salmon notes the problem: an explosion of fictitious capital (149% of GDP “in a best case scenario”) with a possible fall in GDP of 12%!

The FT had a piece today comparing Greece to California…of course, they leave out one huge difference – there is no serious left or labor movement in California while rioting Greek workers helped contribute to the panic on Wall Street last week.

The EU bailout: Too much, too late | Analysis & Opinion | .