China Worker

Laurence Coates of CWI interviewed on Hong Kong housing crisis

Wednesday, 11 November 2009 06:00:54 GMT

House prices up 30 percent this year – growing protests against government collusion with speculators

chinaworker.info

On 25 October the protest group Caring Hong Kong organised a demonstration against the spiralling cost of property in Hong Kong as its economy shifts back into bubble phase, based on an inward surge of “hot money” and government liquidity. Laurence Coates of the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI) was interviewed by RTHK’s The Pulse from the demonstration. This ten minute feature, aired on Friday 30 October on the popular English language news programme, also explains the growing hardship for many Hong Kong families as prices skyrocket, not least for the notorious “cage dwellers”, who live in tiny wire cages as they cannot afford to rent even the smallest apartments.

The housing crisis and rampant speculation in Hong Kong’s property market has become a major political crisis for the unelected government of Donald Tsang, as RTHK’s programme shows. chinaworker.info/CWI supporters took part in the 25 October demonstration demanding “Stop the speculators” and “For a public housing plan!”

Read the chinaworker.info article: Hong Kong’s property speculators create housing nightmare

Indonesia: Tamil-speaking refugees on boat in desperate situation

Wednesday, 11 November 2009 04:07:14 GMT

Protests needed urgently!

chinaworker.info

The Committee for a Workers' International views with great alarm the developments of the last few days in relation to the Tamil-speaking refugees fighting for their rights while virtually imprisoned on their boat in the Indonesian port of Merak. The Tamil Solidarity Campaign, supported by the CWI, is doing all in its power to publicise their plight, while governments in Australia, Britain, Indonesia and Sri Lanka try to argue that there is no problem for these men women and children if they return to Sri Lanka. We know to the contrary. A statement by a British government minister (Des Brown) pretends that everything is OK now in the North of Sri Lanka. The Australian government says much the same and has handed over more than a billion dollars to the Sinhala chauvinist Rajapkse dictatorship. The Indonesian government has deployed the navy once again to prevent any more visits to the refugees' boat or negotiations through international bodies like United Nations Human Rights' Commission. See appeals directly from the boat and from Tamil Solidarity on the TS web-site.

We call on all those angered by this callous treatment of fewer than 300 trapped refugees to send protests to the four embassies concerned - Indonesia, Britain, Australia and, of course, Sri Lanka. You can find their e-mails, addresses, and phone numbers on the internet. Someone carrying a letter to them would be most effective. If you have little time to spare, at least copy the appeals into a letter and ask the authorities if they are aware of this scandalous situation.

Please send copies of protests and any brief report of responses and actions to Tamil Solidarity via their web-site and it will be communicated to the organisers of the protests - on the boat and in Indonesia itself.

Hong Kong youth demonstrate against school drug tests plan

Monday, 09 November 2009 09:37:55 GMT

More than 200 students and supporters marched in protest against government’s school drug testing program

chinaworker.info, Hong Kong reporters

On Sunday 8 November more than 200 secondary school students and their supporters staged a protest rally in Chater Garden in Hong Kong against government plans to implement drug testing in schools. They marched to the headquarters of the Hong Kong Government to submit letter of protest. The procession was organised jointly by three youth organisations, the Hong Kong Secondary Students’ Union, the youth union, and Ytalk, and was supported by the Hong Kong Doctors’ Union, Human Rights Watch, and local community groups.

chinaworker.info fully supports the call for abolition of the drug test plan and our members and supporters also participated in the procession. At the closing rally, speakers included the Legislative Council member ‘Long Hair’ Leung Kwok-hung, a representative of the Doctors’ Union, and teachers’ representative.

The acting chairperson of the Hong Kong Secondary Students, Yu, who is also a supporter of the CWI (Committee for a Workers’ International) called on students to use collective action to fight drugs but to oppose the government's plan and to defend freedom and democratic rights. This demonstration, with a show of support from education and medical professionals, was the best possible start for a mass campaign of resistance. Hong Kong secondary school students will continue to firmly promote this campaign to call on parents, teachers, doctors and the community to support young people to give full attention to the right of self-fulfillment, said Yu.

Chinaworker.info supports the campaign against the drug testing program. We believe that drug abuse especially among youth is a symptom rather than itself the cause of social problems. If social problems cannot be solved, if youth are without hope and a perspective of development in the real world, all the alleged youth problems such as abuse of drugs, internet-addiction and youth violence, cannot be eradicated from our society only by police measures and laws. Thus, chinaworker.info demands "change the society, don't chase the youth". Meanwhile, youth also need to link their actions and struggles with the working class and other oppressed layers to fight for geniune democracy and socialism.

What we think: No to school drug tests (chinaworker.info leaflet from 8 November demonstration)

Sri Lanka: Successful Congress of United Socialist Party

Monday, 09 November 2009 09:19:12 GMT

Delegates defied “very difficult circumstances”

Siritunga Jayasuriya, Secretary USP (CWI Sri Lanka)

The United Socialist Party (USP), held its 11th National Congress from 31 October to 1 November 2009, at the Workers' Fellowship Auditorium in Ratmalana, Colombo. It was made up of representatives from all the provinces, including the North and East, and Tamil workers from the central tea plantation area.

A national perspectives document was presented by the central committee and a party building programme was discussed during the two days. Discussions were mainly concentrated around the new political developments taking place in the aftermath of the war. For more than 30 years, Sri Lankan politics was directly involved with the war between the Sri Lankan army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

After the military defeat of the LTTE , political developments took a sharp turn, mainly in the South of the country. The capitalist government, led by Mahinda Rajapakse, used a Sinhala Buddhist ideological campaign to establish his authority amongst the Sinhala people in the south. During the war, the suppression of the freedom of the press reached alarming proportions. All working class struggles which came forward with day to day demands were also suppressed, accused of being pro-LTTE. Other left parties, including the CP (Communist Party) and the LSSP (Lanka Sama Samajists), all supported this suppression, publicly. And in particular, the pseudo-left party - the JVP - fully supported the Mahinda Rajapakse regime, to pass the ‘Emergency law’, which is being used against the struggles of the working class.

USP Congress

During this congress, we pointed to the possibility of the unfolding of the future struggles of the working class, the youth and the students in the coming period. With the coming back into action of these forces, the so-called popularity of the Mahinda Rajapakse regime will have to face a political tsunami in the next period. In this situation, the USP has been campaigning to set up an Independent National Workers' Congress, to discuss the demands and problems faced by the working class and take democratic decisions.

To overcome sectarian rivalries in the trade union movement, the USP has been in the forefront in campaigning for factory-level elected delegates, from all over the country, to assemble at a national congress, on a genuinely democratic basis.

The national question

Other key discussions were centered on the future development of the Tamil national question in the post-war period. It is manifested again by the Sinhala capitalist ruling class and their inability to put forward any political solution to the national question, even after the defeat of the LTTE.

The USP has always supported the struggle of the Tamil-speaking people against their oppression and stood firmly for their right to self-determination. But we saw the LTTE as partially responsible for its own defeat, in terms of adopting some wrong policies and not basing themselves amongst the suppressed Tamil people or collaborating with the working class struggles in the South of the country against capitalism.

In the present situation, Marxists have a daunting task, to appeal to the Tamil workers, poor peasants and youth, to join with the suppressed masses and the working class in the South of the country, to win their national aspirations and demands. The USP is the only force in the country that has a principled stand demanding the acceptance of the right to self-determination for the Tamil-speaking people. Based on that, we have to build a combined struggle in the North, East and South to overthrow capitalism

We also had a discussion focused on the forthcoming presidential and general elections in the country. The congress unanimously endorsed putting forward a working class programme as an alternative to the neo-liberal policies and communal forces.

We are proud of the comrades who, in the face of very difficult circumstances, attended this crucial congress – particularly the delegates who came from Jaffna, from the tea plantation area and from the East. We had visitors from India and Kashmir, in spite of the difficulties of travel and security. All of us appreciated the warm and optimistic greeting on behalf of the Committee for a Workers' International by Peter Taaffe shown on film to the Congress. We appreciate the huge support given to the USP from CWI members around the world, and especially the Tamil Solidarity Campaign.

There was a high morale amongst the delegates who participated during the two days of discussions at our Congress. This was reflected in the excellent collection of 40,050 rupees for our fighting fund.

Hong Kong – the fight against discrimination of LGBT people

Sunday, 08 November 2009 03:42:10 GMT

Interview with Connie Chan of Women's Coalition and HK Pride

Vincent Kolo, chinaworker.info

With the successful staging of Hong Kong's second Pride parade on 1 November this event is now firmly established as a regular yearly highpoint. The march through central areas of Hong Kong Island was almost twice as big as last year's debut, attracting almost 2,000 participants. Connie Chan, who is chairperson of the Women's Council of Hong Kong and Chief Director of Hong Kong Pride Parade Committee 2009, spoke to chinaworker.info about the struggle for gay rights in this ‘special autonomous region' of China, where homophobia is still a big problem and the legal standing of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) people lags some way behind their position in other advanced capitalist countries.

"There is still no discrimination law in Hong Kong, to protect people in fields such as employment on the basis of their sexual orientation," says Connie Chan when I met her at the office of Rainbow, a collective for young gay men. The office is a hive of activity in the days just before Pride. "This [anti-discrimination law] is something we have wanted for 20 years," she adds. Hong Kong's current legislation does not cover discrimination beyond government authorities, in areas such as employment or the provision of goods and services.

"There is also a lot of talk about same-sex marriage, which is a hot issue all over the world," Connie explains, pointing out that among Hong Kong's LGBT activists there are differing views on the subject, with some opposing marriage or - like herself - advocating the right to civil partnership for gays and lesbians.

The LGBT movement in Hong Kong clearly has a sense of urgency in a society where homophobia is still a massive problem. "We don't have gay-bashing in Hong Kong, but homophobia is still horrific," she says, pointing to the powerful influence exercised by the Christian Right in society. Half of Hong Kong's secondary schools are connected to Christian denominations, as are around half of social services entities such as youth and elderly care centres, marriage guidance counselling and crisis centres. This dependence on religious organisations is in itself is a sign of Hong Kong's chronically under-dimensioned welfare system under its "small government, big market" state philosophy.

The Women's Coalition conducted its own survey of lesbian and bisexual women students in Hong Kong's schools and found that 39% suffer discrimination or harassment on the basis of their sexual orientation. There is no 'safe school project' covering the needs of lesbian and gay pupils in Hong Kong, which is something the Women's Coalition are pressing for.

Right-wing religious groups in Hong Kong have been vocal campaigning against LGBT rights in a variety of ways. In 2003, the Catholic Church of Hong Kong released an article attacking same-sex marriage. In 2005, the Christian Right Movement financed four-page newspaper advertisements attacking sexual orientation legislation. In June 2009, when the government, to the chagrin of these groups, revised the Domestic Violence Ordinance to include violence among same-sex common law couples under its protection. These right-wingers protested that such legal recognition conferred "family" status on same-sex relationships and claimed this was tantamount to "promoting HIV/AIDS". The pressure from this quarter has been a major factor holding back Hong Kong's adoption of an anti-discrimination law offering protection to people on grounds of their sexual orientation.

In response, the LGBT movement in Hong Kong began mobilising for IDAHO day (International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia) already in 2005. The first such event drew 300 supporters and it has grown since then, with the 2008 and 2009 Pride parades largely developing out of this movement. Hong Kong's LGBT activists have a sense they are waging a pioneer struggle not just within the territory but throughout China. It was noticeable that mainland Chinese from seven or eight cities took part in this year's Pride parade. "We are really surprised that so many mainland people come to HK Pride," says Connie Chan. "But then Hong Kong is the only city in China we can stage a public event."

Earlier this year, mainland China saw its first ever Gay Pride staged in Shanghai. But as Connie explains this was solely an indoor event, which somewhat defeats its purpose - to reach out, challenge, and build self-esteem. Under orders from China's one-party state, which fears every form of independent organisation or street gathering, the Shanghai Pride organisers were refused permission to stage a parade. The indoor and commercial aspects of the event were permitted however.

The still vastly unequal legal standing of homosexuals and lesbians in Hong Kong is also a reflection on the far from ‘enlightened' colonial rule exercised by Britain until the 1997 handover. Under the British administration, homosexual intercourse was not decriminalised until 1991, a quarter of a century after a similar change took effect in Britain. Prior to this, male homosexual intercourse was illegal in Hong Kong with the maximum sentence being life imprisonment. Even today on the statute books the age of consent is discriminatory for sex between men, at 21 years, compared to 16 for heterosexual and lesbian sex. But an important court case in 2005 partially overturned this discriminatory law in practise, leaving the age of consent in something of a grey area.

"We are still campaigning on this question, and the government do not want to change the law [despite the 2005 decision]. But we have asked the police and they tell us ‘no', they won't arrest anyone under 21 on these grounds," explains Connie Chan.

Perhaps the growth of Pride in Taiwan is a sign of things to come in Hong Kong. In Taipei on Saturday 31 October (one day before HK Pride), 25,000 took part in East Asia's biggest Pride parade. The first Taiwan Pride was staged as recently as 2003, with just 500 participants on that occasion.

Two big differences in Hong Kong, compared to Pride in many other countries, was the refreshing absence of commercialism on one hand, and the barely disguised hostility of the political establishment towards this event on the other.

While many establishment parties in Europe and the U.S. flirt with gay rights in order to fish for votes, but also in an attempt to depoliticise and tame the LGBT movement, by shifting it away from street protest and struggle. Something similar has not yet happened in Hong Kong, where the political establishment shuns Pride and LGBT activism, partly because the unelected government of Donald Tsang has no need to win the gay vote - it doesn't rely on popular suffrage!

In many other countries, Pride has secured some big corporate sponsors, whose commitment to the struggle against oppression is highly questionable to say the least. Their ‘support' for such events is rather a case of chasing the ‘pink dollar' and seeing a lucrative bandwagon to jump upon. This has led to criticism in recent years especially from working class and low-paid LGBT people about a commercial takeover of Pride in cities such as Berlin, London and Stockholm, with expensive entrance fees to Pride events and a blunting of the political edge needed to advance the LGBT struggle.

In Hong Kong, however, the corporate world is far less keen to be linked to a "seditious" cause, and especially wary of incurring the wrath of the religious political lobby. Last year, Citybus of Hong Kong refused to hire a double-decker bus to Pride, expressing concerns about the company's "image". The company's stance would be illegal if, as campaigners want, an all-inclusive anti-discrimination law is introduced.

Hong Kong: No to drug tests! No to the government!

Saturday, 07 November 2009 02:00:38 GMT

The government’s planned introduction of drug tests in schools is an attack on youth and on civil liberties

chinaworker.info

The Hong Kong government wants to introduce random drug tests in secondary schools, to cut drug use among youngsters it claims. A pilot scheme will be introduced next month in Tai Po, before the scheme is extended citywide. On Sunday 8 November, at 11.30 am, school students and supporters will demonstrate in Chater Garden, Central, against the introduction of drug tests. The following is our view on this issue.

The government’s planned introduction of drug tests in schools is an attack on youth and on civil liberties. Young people are being portrayed as the problem – in reality they are victims of government policy, which is pro-big business and anti-youth. The issue of drug use is a complex social problem – not one that can be solved by limiting the freedom and rights of students. Donald Tsang Yam-kuen’s government is not motivated by genuine concern for young people or the school environment. The drug-test plan is little more than a populist trick, another attempt to repair Tsang’s collapsed support – he is now as unpopular as Tung Chee-hwa (who was run out of office).

The situation for youth in Hong Kong is increasingly bleak. More than one in four under-25s are unemployed. Many of those in work are stuck in dead-end, low-paid jobs. Most young people haven’t got a chance of affording their own apartment – especially now with billionaire speculators hi-jacking the housing market. A cinema ticket costs 65 HKD, which is more than three hours’ labour at a fast-food restaurant – or two hours’ with a student discount. Entrance to a pop concert costs more than a day’s labour! Youth at school face incredible pressures compared to a generation ago, and school resources have suffered cuts, with teachers working long hours (70 hours a week in many cases) and often unable to give students the attention they need. This is the result of government policy – which seeks to squeeze profit out of everything and to hell with those who can’t afford to pay!

Some young people seek an “escape” from these realities in the form of drugs, or other potentially self-destructive behaviour such as excessive online gaming etc. Young women are especially vulnerable because of the discrimination they face in capitalist society. Sexist advertisements exploit women’s bodies to sell everything from cars to phones. The distorted image of women presented by the capitalist fashion industry leads many especially young women to suffer psychological problems and dissatisfaction with the way they look. Ketamine use among teenage girls has been linked to a desire to lose weight (this drug suppresses the appetite). This is just one example of how capitalist greed and this government’s policies are sabotaging the younger generation’s future and possibilities to develop. The pressures also of course affect parents of school-aged youngsters. Some misguided parents are reportedly hiring private detectives at 3,000 HKD per day to spy on their children in case they are doing drugs. The government has helped create this hysteria with its anti-youth line.

Youth are not the problem – they are the solution! It is not surprising Donald Tsang wants to scapegoat young people as an unruly lot who are all potential drug-takers… His government is increasingly in crisis, lacking support, and facing major challenges over its economic blunders, the global crisis, and its refusal to allow truly democratic elections. Young people will be in the forefront of the fight back against Tsang and his capitalist system.

The Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI) supports the campaign against school drug tests. We stand for defence of the personal liberties and democratic rights of young people. Where these police methods have been introduced in other countries such as the USA, they have not solved the problem. Even if the government says its new scheme will be “voluntary”, it’s clear that a refusal to cooperate will be treated with suspicion – the young person can be marked as a “trouble-maker”. Many youth will be put through terrible anguish. This scheme must be completely rejected. NO SCHOOL DRUG TESTS!

The government is counting on a lack of public information to rush through its scheme. Teachers are not being informed, and while many, wrongly, believe the tests will help, they are anxious about the damage this will do to teacher-pupil relations and also, who will do the extra work?

To win this struggle action committees against the tests must be built in every school. They should appeal for support from teachers and other school personnel. The students’ unions should be built into mass organisations. The idea of a one-day Hong Kong-wide school strike against the tests should be taken up, to pull these committees and students unions together as a strong force. A local strike could be planned as a first step, in one district, even as a partial half-day strike to establish an example. In many other countries school students and students have exercised a big influence – and stopped some government attacks – by striking and even occupying their schools. This is the case in Austria today (50,000 university students marched against fees and marketisation) and in Greece last year. In the USA, thousands of secondary students have staged walk-outs to protest against army recruitment in schools for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The government are not the only people who can copy and learn from other countries – except we need to learn from grassroots’ struggle.

The CWI is a socialist organisation based in 40-plus countries, fighting for another world, a democratic socialist world. Our international connectivity allows us to get lessons from mass struggle in one part of the world and share these with others to strengthen the struggle and build a grassroots working class alternative to capitalism and its police-state methods!

Hong Kong: For a minimum wage – at a level we can live upon!

Friday, 06 November 2009 02:56:57 GMT

Only through workers’ united struggle and solidarity can basic rights be defended

chinaworker.info, Hong Kong

A minimum wage has been debated in Hong Kong for several years already, and there have been repeated struggles over this demand by grassroots layers. Next month the government of HKSAR will formally introduce its long-awaited law regarding the minimum wage and set its level. While there are ongoing debates regarding the level of the minimum wage, how it should be calculated, and whether or not migrant workers should be included, nevertheless, based on the current situation it is pretty certain that the minimum wage law will be passed. It is mass pressure, and growing support for a minimum wage from wide layers of the population, that has forced the government of Donald Tsang and the neo-liberal establishment – very reluctantly – to concede a minimum wage law. But in the absence of a real mobilisation by the trade unions especially, the new minimum wage will almost certainly fall far short of what is needed.

Hong Kong is often referred to as a “consumer paradise”, but today it has become a symbol of widening global economic inequality. Its economic disparity ranks the highest among all of the developed economies of the world. According to the latest report from the United Nations, the Gini Index (a measure of social inequality) for Hong Kong has reached 0.43,The income of the wealthiest ten percent of people is 17.8 times that of the poorest ten percent. According to the statistics collected by the Hong Kong Council of Social Services, taking 18,000 HKD/family/month as the median income, there are 1.24 million people in poverty in Hong Kong, meaning a poverty rate of 17.9 percent.

270,000 people have a monthly income lower than 5,000 HKD (US$645), and more than 40,000 young people are in long-term unemployment. One in four of all children (260,000) live below the poverty line, and lack sufficient educational resources and family security. The income of the vast majority of workers in the services industry is lower than 30 HKD per hour (US$3.90). Take fast food for instance, the hourly rate for workers is around 20 HKD (See chart below), and the average wage for workers in convenience stores has only increased by 1.54 HKD (20 US cents) per hour in the decade since 1998, in other words, a mere 15 HKD cents pay hourly increase per annum.

Hong Kong boasts the “highest degree of market freedom in world”. It has a myth of free market superstition around it that is created by big capital, powerful (unelected) political leaders, and elite intellectuals. They like to parrot the idea of the “invisible hand” as promoted by bourgeois economists, and about the “optimal efficiency at the balance of supply and demand”. Those political organisations that oppose the introduction of the minimum wage, such as the Liberal Party, go to the extent of using this to threaten the masses, saying that once a minimum wage is established or if the level it is too high, then it will lead to unemployment for hundreds of thousands of low-tech and no-tech workers. What they do not realise is that these fringe theories have already been overthrown by the real world, and even from the point of view of economic reformism, there are a large number of holes in the theories of free-market capitalism.

Even if we accept the laws of supply and demand of the entire consumer market as our basis, we must consider that the commercial costs include various elements, not only labour costs. Under the capitalist system, due to the need to acquire profit by capitalists, the proportion of labour costs relative to the entire cost of running the enterprise is rather small, and therefore changes in labour costs or wages cannot simply be translated into changes in the price of consumer goods. For instance, the retail price of one Apple Nano in the U.S. market is around US$199, but manufacturing price of Apple Nanos from Taiwanese company Foxconn’s factories in China that produce these units is only around US$15, and the workers on the production lines only earn 0.05 USD when they make one unit of Apple Nano. In addition, according to the investigations of SACOM (Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour, Hong Kong) taking Disney plastic toys in Hong Kong made by factories in Shenzhen that sell for 50 HKD as an example, the labour cost of making such toys is only 1 HKD. Therefore in the actual production process, the proportion that labour cost occupy in relation to the total production cost is very small.

Even main food and retail industries in Hong Kong, the proportion taken by labour costs in relation to total production costs is around 15 percent, while the costs of commercial rents usually exceeds labour costs by 2-3 times, reaching as high as 70 percent of total overheads in some cases. More specifically the commercial rent prices in the Causeway Bay district of Hong Kong are the second highest in the world, only after its of Fifth Avenue in New York. If labour costs in Hong Kong are on average just 15% of total business outlays, which is the case, then even a wage increase of 10-20 percent only increases total costs by 1.5-3 percent. Clearly, this will have little direct influence on the price of consumer goods, let alone forcing enterprises to sack people en masse as the opponents of a minimum wage claim.

Also, the examples of Britain and the U.S. confirm this. After the minimum wage was introduced in Britain in 1999, the Low Pay Commission followed and observed various cases over a number of years, and there has never been a case of employees being fired as a result of the minimum wage. After the implementation of the Minimum Wage Law, there has not been any protests from employers’ associations either. According to a report from the U.S., in those states that have implemented a minimum wage, increases in average wage levels and employment rates exceed that of those states that did not have the minimum wage. In 2004 the state of Florida raised the minimum wage, and actually employment and the general state of the economy in this state rose.

There are many strong arguments for the minimum wage. The most important thing is to improve the living standards of the poorest and most vulnerable layers in society through the implementation of the minimum wage law, and thereby increase the average income of the entire society, and stimulate general consumption of society in general. The low-income layers of the population having more disposable income can also help to solve the problems of the lack of domestic demand and thereby improve the development of industries. When workers are paid more, they are also less likely to quit and go to another workplace, and therefore the costs of training and employment can be reduced. Higher pay for workers will improve their general morale and fighting spirit, and with more money and free time they will be able to improve their knowledge and political consciousness, as well as participating in political and social activities.

All of the workers in the world belong to the same family, and only through internationalism can the human rights and democratic power of the world working class be genuinely realised, so that all labouring masses can win the same benefits and welfare. If migrant workers are not included within the minimum wage provision it can only lead to a general decrease of wages, a negative influence on the income of native workers as well. “When the water levels are raised, the ship rises in height with it” – the 300,000 or so migrant workers in Hong Kong must be included within the overall framework of the minimum wage.

Main trade unions, like HKCTU and HKFTU, and pro-democratic parties argue that the minimum wage level should be kept at 33 HKD/hour, which translates into in a minimum monthly income of 6,800 HKD (based on a six-day working week: 6,885 HKD / 26 days / 8 hours = 33 HKD).This is roughly equivalent to social benefits for two unemployed adults in a family from Comprehensive Social Security Assistance Scheme (CSSAC), plus average monthly transportation charges and lunch fees for a worker within one month. The trade unions also calculate the total living costs (taking into account the effects of inflation) based on the study “A Research into Basic Living Necessities” published by the Hong Kong Council of Social Services in 2006, and a similar result is obtained.

chinaworker.info believes the hourly minimum wage should not be lower than 40 HKD, giving a monthly income of around 9,000 HKD, which is about half of the current median income level in Hong Kong. This is the living wage programme we support, to meet the basic living needs of the worker and his or her family. The minimum wage currently under deliberation by the government can barely provide for the basic survival of workers. Marxists believe that the price of labour is the basic minimum cost of keeping labourers alive in a respectable way and making it possible for them to reproduce the next generation of workers. What is considered to be “respectable” in the concrete sense is determined by cultural, political and economic factors in a society, and there is no “objective standard” that is “above” history and society.

Chinaworker.info supports the introduction of a statutory minimum wage in Hong Kong, but this legislation alone is insufficient for solving the basic problems of workers, and the only way to fundamentally change society is through various social movements and workers’ struggles that can unite the working class in solidarity and raise their consciousness.

As Lenin said, “Marxists recognise the struggle for reforms, i.e., for measures that improve the conditions of the working people without destroying the power of the ruling class…. The Marxists are working tirelessly, not missing a single ‘possibility’ of winning and using reforms, and not condemning, but supporting, painstakingly developing every step beyond reformism in propaganda, agitation, mass economic struggle, etc.”

Reforms within the framework of capitalism are not sufficient, as has been shown internationally by more than two decades of reverses and attacks on previous pro-worker reforms such as shorter working hours, job protection, pensions and free or subsidised healthcare. To make such reforms permanent requires the abolition of capitalism and the building of a socialist society based on mass democratic control over the economy.

chinaworker.info and socialists have long demanded a minimum wage, but we do not believe the new minimum wage law from this capitalist government will in itself eradicate low pay or super-exploitation. We believe that building a mass workers’ party and fighting trade unions is the only way to achieve real social change and organise a fight for democratic socialism with the solidarity of the working class internationally.

Fast Food Restaurant Workers’ Pay

Restaurant	2006 hourly rate	2007 hourly rate	2008 hourly rate
KFC	$15.7	$16.18	$18.94
McDonald’s	$17	$18.43	$20.29
MX	$18.9	$18.51	$21.11
Yoshinoya	$19	$18.52	$20.64
Café de Coral	$17.7	$19.4	$20.24
Pizza hut	$19	$19.9	$23.71

Retail chain shopworker hourly pay

	7-11	Circle K	Vango	Park n Shop	Wellcome	Watsons	Mannings	Average
1998	$22.7	$20.6	$20.5	$20.6	$21.5	N/A	N/A	$21.18
2008	$21.5	$23	$22	$25	$22.1	$27	$27	$22.72
change	-$1.2	+$2.4	+$1.5	+$4.4	+$0.6	--	--	+$1.54

$ = Hong Kong dollars (US$1 = 7.8 HKD)

2009: A year of wage cuts

Thursday, 05 November 2009 07:25:19 GMT

No end to recession in our wage packets – UN report says wages are falling in around 20 major economies

Stephen Chan, chinaworker.info

The International Labor Organisation (ILO), a United Nations agency, questions claims that the global capitalist recession is over since wages are set for a second consecutive year of declines. Taking account of inflation, workers’ wages stagnated in 2008 and are likely to fall this year despite the “recovery” theories. These findings, contained in the latest Global Wage Report from the ILO, confirm what most of us already know from personal experience.

The report covers 53 rich and poor (developing) countries and reveals that more than a quarter of them experienced flat or falling monthly wages in real terms in 2008. These countries include major economies like the United States, Germany and Japan, but also Switzerland, Israel, Singapore, South Korea and Mexico. The big low-wage economies of China and India were not included in the report as their governments did not provide the ILO with data. Among the 10 members of the G20 leading economies that the ILO accessed data from, real average wages slipped 0.2 percent in 2008.

“The picture on wages is likely to get worse in 2009,” says the ILO. It said that real wages in nearly 20 countries are now falling outright, often because of cuts to the number of hours worked. Monthly wages have fallen almost 2 percent in the United States since January.

This raises fundamental questions about the giant stimulus packages – more than US$5 trillion worldwide. Who has benefited? And will this government spending produce a real economic recovery? As the ILO report points out, without an improvement in take-home pay levels, consumer demand could remain weak and undercut any economic rebound.

“The continued deterioration of real wages worldwide raises serious questions about the true extent of an economic recovery, especially if government rescue packages are phased out too early,” the report’s lead author Manuela Tomei said.

The current deterioration in wages follows a decade or more of wage ‘moderation’ (i.e. wage freezes or trade union inaction) before the global capitalist crisis. The report considers that years of stagnating wages relative to productivity gains together with growing inequalities have contributed to the crisis by limiting the ability of many households to increase consumption other than through increased debt.

According to the ILO, the regional unemployment rate this year in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, could increase to between 6.0 percent and 6.4 percent from the 5.5 percent in 2007 – an increase of 2 million to 3 million unemployed people in the region. The growth of this ‘reserve army’ of unemployed can put more downward pressure on the wages of those in work unless this is met with determined workers’ struggle – to build and democratise the trade unions by re-equipping them with fighting, working class leaders, and to organise the unemployed. This and the building of a real political voice – mass socialist parties – for workers internationlly is an urgent task.

chinaworker.info fights for:

No wage cuts – open the company accounts to public inspection and nationalise any company threatening job or salary cuts.
For a minimum wage set at no less than two-thirds of the national median wage.
For massive government investment in healthcare, education, affordable public housing, and socially necessary infrastructure projects such as green technology and renewable energy, clean water, and rural electrification – to create much needed jobs.
Build and de-bureaucratise the trade unions – workers’ representatives should live on a worker’s wage and answer to trade union members not the bosses or the media.
Capitalism means unemployment, falling living standards, and debt slavery – the alternative is democratic socialism.

Scotland: SNP tables ‘independence’ referendum bill

Tuesday, 03 November 2009 01:23:15 GMT

Scottish National Party, New Labour & Tories – All pro-capitalist parties threaten major cuts in jobs and services

Philip Stott, International Socialists (CWI in Scotland)

The Scottish government is set to table a bill for a referendum on independence on St Andrew’s day, on 30 November. At the recent Scottish National Party (SNP) conference, SNP leader, Alex Salmond, claimed that any political party that voted to deny the people of Scotland the democratic right to a say on their constitutional future could not survive for long. The SNP also set a target of winning an unprecedented 20 MP’s at the forthcoming Westminster election. This would, according to Alex Salmond, mean that in the event of the SNP’s favoured option of a ‘hung parliament’, Westminster would be forced to, “dance to a Scottish jig.”

The SNP and a general election

However, the majority of MSPs, at this stage, are opposed to a referendum on independence and there is virtually no chance of a referendum bill being passed by the Scottish parliament. With support for independence at around 30%, the SNP have made it clear that they are not opposed to a third question in a referendum that gives the option of extending the powers of the parliament – but which falls short of full independence. This leaves open the possibility of them doing deals with a Cameron-led government, which, in theory, would support strengthening the powers of the Scottish parliament. Such a scenario is not ruled out, after all, the SNP have had to rely on support from the Tories in the Scottish parliament for the last two years to get their budgets passed.

However in Scotland there is an increasingly powerful mood to stop the Tories coming to power. The memory of Thatcherism, with the economic and social carnage that came in its wake, is still strong, particularly among the older generation. It is, therefore, unlikely that the SNP can increase their Westminster representation to twenty MPs, as hoped for by party leaders, from their current seven. Sections of the Scottish electorate will vote at all costs to try and stop the return of a Tory government. Many will “hold their noses” and back Labour, to do so. A recent poll found that the SNP have fallen behind Labour in people’s voting intentions for the next Scottish general election, due in 2011.

However if the Tories were to win an outright majority it would inevitably lead to a resurgence of nationalism in Scotland, particularly as the Tories are only likely to get 2 or 3 MPs elected in Scotland. It would be seen as a return to the ‘dark days’ of the1980’s and 1990’s, when the Tories were left with a rump in Scotland, but a Tory government held power across Britain, as a whole.

Under these conditions, a Tory government, while attempting to implement an all-out war on public spending and the working class generally, may have to make concessions on the national question and offer talks over extending the powers of the parliament. At a certain stage against this backdrop, and perhaps following the 2011 Scottish general election, a referendum on the constitutional future of Scotland is very possible.

Cuts, cuts, cuts

The SNP have been working very hard in the last few months to distance themselves from the massive public spending cuts that are being carried out now and will be accelerated after the general election in 2010. Alex Salmond is trying to position the SNP as the ‘defender’ of public services, stating, “The only disagreement between the Liberal, the Labour party and the Tories is how savage the cuts are going to be and the timescale on which the cuts are to be implemented.”

Echoing this point the SNP Deputy First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said: “Labour has made an almighty mess of the public finances and they now want ordinary folk to pay the price for their failure - and the Tories are just the same.” She could have added that the SNP are also going to try and make the working class pay for the economic crisis. The Scottish budget is being cut by £500 million next year and up to £2.5 billion over the next four years, but it is the SNP who will largely be taking the axe to jobs and public services in Scotland.

The SNP minority government has already been implementing their own cuts, disguised as efficiency savings, over the last year. A large part of the SNP’s programme for government remains gathering dust on the shelf, including the scrapping of the council tax and the abolition of student debt. At local government level, SNP-run councils, like Labour-led councils, have moved quickly to cut jobs and services. In Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Fife, the Lib Dem/SNP coalitions have cut hundreds of council workers jobs, closing schools and axing other council-run facilities. The SNP/Liberal coalition council in Edinburgh has put forward ‘options’ for filling a £247 million deficit that include, cutting the workforce by up to 2,000 staff; every council department having to make a 12% slashing of frontline costs and outsourcing and privatisation of key frontline services including refuse collection, street cleansing, park teams and building maintenance.

In Dundee and Edinburgh, the SNP supported using private refuse companies to undermine local authority bin workers who have been taking industrial action – showing that when put to the test they are prepared to undermine basic trade union rights. Moreover, it is clear that there is not the slightest intention by the SNP to stand up to New Labour, or a Cameron-led Tory government and refuse to make the savage cuts that are being prepared.

At a time when Royal Mail workers are taking strike action to defend jobs and fighting against the threat to privatise the service, the SNP have handed an £8 million contract to TNT, the Dutch privatised mail service, to deliver all second class mail from the Scottish government.

Adopting the Scottish comedian Billy Connolly’s defence of, “A big boy did it and ran away!” is not going to get the SNP off the hook. The SNP is guilty of effectively being handed a loaded gun and instead of refusing to turn and fire on working class communities, the SNP are pulling the trigger, while blaming the people who handed them the gun in the first place.

Genuine Left opposition

If the SNP were a genuine left party, prepared to stand up for working and hard pressed middle class families in Scotland, they would refuse to make these cuts and play a role in building a mass campaign of defiance demanding the resources to defend vital jobs and services.

This was the approach that Liverpool City Council took between 1983 and 1987, when it refused to make cuts demanded by the Thatcher government. Militant, the forerunner of the Socialist Party in England and Wales and the International Socialists in Scotland, played a leading role in that struggle by mobilising the working class and the trade union movement in a mass campaign that won concessions and extra resources for the city. The outcome was a transformation in housing conditions and other important reforms for working class people.

The SNP could be lacerating Brown and the capitalist establishment for spending over £1 trillion on bailing out the capitalist system, supposedly necessitating a public spending onslaught. They could be explaining that if the government can spend that amount of money to defend their system they can come up with the relatively small amounts needed to invest in a real recovery programme, creating jobs and expanding public services – instead of cutting them.

However, the SNP, whose leadership are pro-capitalist to their core, cannot foresee anything other than implementing a savage cuts agenda. They will rightly blame Brown and Darling for handing on reduced funding for the Scottish government, but cynically, while having no interest in fighting the cuts, the SNP leaders hope to make political capital to increase support for the SNP.

The SNP leadership supported, without criticism, the banking bailouts, not least because the main beneficiaries were the darlings of the SNP, the big Scottish banks of the effectively insolvent HBoS and RBS. Alex Salmond was a former economist at RBS and leading Scottish bankers also sit on the SNP government’s economic advisory committee.

There was not a word of criticism from the SNP leaders at their recent conference over the behaviour of the bankers. Alex Salmond, only two weeks before HBoS was saved by the public purse, claimed the bank was a “well capitalised and a good, sound business.” Salmond fared no better in his analysis that the ideal model for a future independent capitalist Scotland would be the self-styled “arc of prosperity,” which was to involve Ireland, Iceland, Scotland and Norway. All that is left now of this fantasy is a blackened, smouldering wreck of collapsed banks, economic recession, mass unemployment and draconian attacks on working class people. Only Norway has survived relatively unscathed, for now.

Working class communities, trade unionists fighting the onslaught against jobs and working conditions and young people facing a future of mass unemployment need a political party to represent them, The SNP cannot play that role, and clearly Labour and the rest of the establishment parties are also a dead end. The building of a working class party, based on a significant layer of trade union activists and left unions nationally that can attract a new generation of class fighters, is urgent.

The International Socialists (CWI in Scotland) supports all steps towards the building of an independent voice for the working class. We are involved in the RMT (rail union) led initiative to put together an electoral pact in time for the Westminster general election. We are actively involved in current Tommy Sheridan and Solidarity’s election campaign in Glasgow North East.

In the process of the formation of new parties to represent the working class, it is also vital to build a strong Marxist core to help strengthen and give political guidance to these new parties. It is these tasks, alongside fighting to build working class opposition to the economic recession, which the International Socialists turn to with energy.

Biggest Pride parade so far dazzles Hong Kong

Monday, 02 November 2009 09:32:34 GMT

1800 take to Hong Kong’s streets to highlight the struggle for equality and LGBT rights

Chen Lizhi, chinaworker.info

Hong Kong’s LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people) community took over the streets of central Hong Kong Island in a loud, spectacular and overwhelmingly youthful Pride parade on Sunday 1 November. Organisers announced to cheers from the crowds in Chater Garden that around 1,800 had joined this year’s parade – almost double last year’s tally. This was the only the second ever Pride parade and the increased participation is therefore a great encouragement and sign of rising self-confidence for LGBT people in Hong Kong and China.

The parade drew participants from mainland Chinese regions including Beijing, Guangzhou, Guizhou, Shenzhen, Shanghai and Sichuan, as well as from Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore. The participation from mainland China was very significant as Amnesty International in Hong Kong pointed out: “In mainland China, it’s impossible to have a gay-pride march, so this is a very important day that has attracted many people to Hong Kong.”

Pride’s director Connie Chan Man-wai said the event gave the gay community the opportunity to express themselves with pride. The parade was a carnival of colour and song, but also put across a serious message of “anger at the city’s homophobic laws and attitudes,” as The Standard newspaper commented. Hong Kong is at first appearances a tolerant cosmopolitan city, but Christian right groups are an influential force here with their reactionary views on the family, women, and homosexuality. Massive pressure needs to be exerted on the political establishment to shift them from current policies. There is still no anti-discrimination law in Hong Kong and same-sex partnership or marriage is vigorously opposed by right-wing religious lobby groups.

The city’s political establishment was noticeable for its absence from HK Pride. “The government always says how much it values equal rights but no official showed up today,” said Chan. The exception was the League of Social Democrats (LSD) and its chairperson Wong Yuk Man, who was joined by a sizeable contingent of LSD members and supporters. The Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI) also took part and produced a pamphlet ‘Pride, solidarity and socialism’ on global LGBT struggle especially for this event. A PDF version of the pamphlet can be downloaded here.

chinaworker.info – what we think

Equal rights for all and an end to sexual oppression are fundamental democratic rights and therefore an important part of the wider struggle for social change in China, Hong Kong and globally. LGBT people are increasingly finding their voice and fighting for their rights as the recent 150,000 strong National March for Equality in Washington shows. But once again the main barrier to real equality is the capitalist system and its patriarchal class structure, which is now a global system in crisis. The social upheavals that lie ahead – climate destruction, economic collapse, poverty, and a mass working class fightback – will give rise to new working class and genuinely socialist parties that will provide a political ‘home’ for all oppressed groups including those whose sexual identity is crushed by this system.