Confronting Oppression

Chang: Welcome to our workshop on oppression on workers. My name is Chang, I'm from Korean Transportation and Public and Social Services Workers' Unions abbreviated as KPSU. I'm very much delighted to be able to moderate this forum.

 The objective of this session will be to share our own experiences, information about union struggles against oppression in Asia Pacific regions. I hope we will have a very good workshop this afternoon and you will be engaged in your participation. So your comments or advice will be very much welcomed and appreciated as we go along with this workshop. This workshop is scheduled to end around 3:45, as you might know, after this workshop, there will be a workers' demonstration in this venue.

 Generally in this workshop, first, we will have presentations from speakers for about 8 minutes, and after that, we will spend our time on discussion, comments and also inputs from you. This will mean we'll go into the presentation this afternoon.

 I'd like to briefly introduce the speakers. There are 4 speakers from different countries in Asia. First speaker will be Kim Jae Gil from Korea. Second presentation will be made by Japanese colleagues. They are Junichi Uehara and Satoru Yamada. Third presentation will be made by Edgar Bilayon from the Philippines. And the last presentation will be by Han Dong Fang from China. Unfortunately, he is still not here. I hope he will come in time with his presentation.

 Before we start, we will have a short welcoming speech from Mr. Oda, the President of Japan Confederation of Railway Workers' Unions. Please welcome him with a big applause.

Oda: Hello, everybody. Thank you for introduction. My name is Oda, the president of Japan Confederation of Railway Workers' Unions. I am deeply appreciative that we are able to hold this session jointly with Korean comrades and we have also invited lots of Asian friends and all of you in this session

 Please look at our uniform. Before opening of modern age more than 100 years ago, the Japanese government did a lot of oppressions on civilians and farmers so that they can establish a modern world in Japan. These uniforms were worn by the ancient farmers in Japan. They were fighting against oppressions. So their uniforms have absorbed their sweat, blood and their passion.

 By the way, in November 2002, Japanese government, police, public safety authority have arrested seven members of JRU in an unjust manner. Their undue detention lasted almost for one year. And police attacks and oppressions are being inflicted upon us in various forms.

 The aim of this oppression was that they were going to suppress our rights to associate, and they were attacking us with a false accusation of threat and compulsion. Needless to say, this act of oppressions is violating charters of ILO and Japanese Constitution. Against these violations, we are fighting, even now, in the court to complete innocence.

 According to ICFTU, in Asian countries and also in the world, a lot of workers have been targets of various kinds of oppressions. These oppressions have occurred in Korea, in the Philippines, and Thailand. In Korea, there are even union leaders and members who committed suicides.

 I believe the true intention of this oppression is very clear. Behind the scene, there is a big intention by multinational companies of 21st century. Workers in the world are suffering from lowering of wages and working conditions due to the governments working together with multinationals that are trying to make their own profits. For those who try to stand against these oppressions, they are attacking these workers in merciless manners.

 While we fighting, we came to realize the importance of international solidarity. Thanks to our international solidarity, 7 of our comrades were granted bail. Their bail proved that their action was not illegal. 　To respond to the race toward the bottom and to respond to the oppression from the power, we need international solidarity among workers. For this workshop, let me give our firm determination, we have to fight against oppression, we must fight against globalisation through international workers' solidarity. Thank you very much.

Chang: Thank you, Mr. Oda for your welcoming address. There is a small good news. The last speaker of this workshop has just arrived. I would like to mention about ICLS. This was established last year jointly by KPSU and JRU. The objective of this organization is to get a broader and wider network of solidarity of unions in Asia Pacific region. There will be a short introduction of ICLS at the end of this workshop.

 Now, we will have a presentation from speakers. Each speaker will have about 10 minutes. We will have a presentation from a Korean speaker. Please.

Kim: Very nice to meet you all. I am Kim Jae Gil from KPSU. What I am going to say is about our struggle as labor unions.

1. History of Korean Railway

 The Korean railway was opened to traffic in 1898 at the end of the Chosun dynasty. It began as a very humble railway, covering just a few kilometers but the Korean railway was regularly expanded since Japan occupied Korea and made it a colony in 1910. However, Japan did not expand the Korean railway for Korean people. Japan did so in order efficiently to exploit human, food and natural resources of the colony and it needed an efficient traffic network to invade China through the Korean Peninsula.

 Quite a number of Korean people died during the construction of the Korean railway, so at that time it was said that the railway track in Korea had been built over the dead bodies of Korean people.

 In 1945, the Korean railway was divided owing to the division of the Korean Peninsula into South and North Korea, but the railway has been the core of transportation network in Korea even into the early 1970s.

 In 1974, the first subway in Korea was opened to traffic in Seoul. Since then, the subway has consecutively been built in Busan, Incheon and Daegu, and the Metropolitan Rapid Transit was opened to traffic in Seoul. In 2004, the subway in Daejeon and Kwangju will be opened to traffic and the Korean Express Railway will start an operation soon.

 The Korean railway workers' union movement during the Japanese colonial rule fought for the independence of the country, but it was not at the forefront of labor movement under the Japanese imperialism.

 After Korea was liberated from Japanese colonial rule in 1945, the railway workers' union struggled against the U.S. military government in Korea and was also standing at the forefront of general strike of workers and people, demanding the right to decent living and working conditions.

 Since the suicide (burning himself to death) of Jeon Tae-Il in 1970 to protest intolerable working and living conditions of workers, who has since then remained as the spiritual symbol of Korean labor movement, the Korean workers have fought passionately against the oppression of the military dictatorship and capital. After the demand for the direct election of president was achieved through general civic protest and struggle in June 1987, the demands and struggles of the Korean workers, oppressed and subdued for decades, burst out, culminating in the 'Great Struggle' during July, August and September of 1987. This was a period of disillusionment and awakening for the railway and subway workers in Korea, thus leading them to recognize the necessity of the democratization of their unions and to fight for basic labor rights.

 This is a short introduction to recent history of the struggles of the railway and subway workers' unions in Korea. These unions are severely suffering from very specific legal regulations in Korea since legal strikes by these unions are totally impossible due to 'compulsory arbitration' prescribed by the Korean labor laws, of which it is hardly possible to find parallel cases in the world.

2. Recent Struggles of the railway and subway workers' unions in Korea

1) Struggles of the subway workers' unions
Seoul Subway Labor Union (SSLU) went on strike on March 16, 1989, demanding two shift-three group system and the implementation of the agreements concluded between SSLU and the employer. During the seven days' strike, 30 union members had been arrested and the union had been facing harsh oppression by the government and the employer. However, strike and struggle of SSLU was powerful enough to frighten Seoul Metropolitan City and Seoul Subway Corporation and to make them agree to implement two shift-three group system.

 With a rising confidence arising from the strike, the SSLU union members firmly defended the democratic union and were finally able successfully to organize a joint strike together with the Busan Subway Workers' Union (BSWU) and the democratic group within the Korean Railway Workers' Union (KRWU) in 1994. In 1994, SSLU, BSWU, and the National Railway Locomotive Branch Council ("Jeon-gi-hyub" in Korean - a progressive group for union democracy within KRWU) prepared a joint struggle with the continued solidarity spirit arising from similar working conditions.

 SSLU and BSWU demanded that wage guidelines should be abolished and the Jeon-gi-hyub (non-statutory union), made of locomotive drivers and checkers in the railway, demanded '8-hour workdays'. To achieve these key demands, SSLU, BSWU, and Jeon-gi-hyub joined forces through joint activities like mountain climbing, sit-ins, propaganda campaigns, rallies and demonstrations.

Three unions made the following promises to their members. First, if the sit-in of Jeon-gi-hyub was to be brutally put down by a riot police, three unions would immediately call a solidarity strike. Second, if the demands of any single union were not achieved, they would simultaneously go on strike on June 27, 1994.

 As if testing the will of three unions to keep these promises, the Korean government sent riot police into the venue of railway workers' sit-in on June 23, 1994 and arrested the workers there. On hearing this news, Jeon-gi-hyub immediately went on strike and SSLU and BSWU decided to call a solidarity strike after the general meeting of members. As a result of this strike, about 100 members were put behind bars and another 100 members were dismissed.

 This struggle clearly showed that workers can be united in solidarity with all their differing demands and living and working conditions. The spirit of this struggle provided a firm background for the later establishment of the National Federation of Railway and Subway Workers' Unions in Korea ("Minchulnoryun" in Korean).

 Even under the harsh oppression by the government and the employer, SSLU and BSWU did not give up the cause of democratic union and continued to fight for their cause. Jeon-gi-hyup earnestly felt the necessity of democratization of KRWU and moved gradually but firmly towards democratic union. (During the solidarity strike of 1994, to the indignation of unions and concerned public, KRWU, still not democratized, provided lunch to the riot police that brutally beat and arrested its members.)

2) Struggles of the subway workers against the tide of neo-liberal globalization
 At the end of 1997, Korea met a critical financial crisis (so-called 'IMF crisis'). The Kim Dae-jung government, which took office in February 1998, carried out a large-scale structural adjustment program, and the public sector was not the exception.

 In order to secure the safety of citizens and passengers, BSWU fought against structural adjustment policies such as one-person operating system and this struggle has continued for eight days since it went on strike on July 3, 1998. During this struggle, 23 members were put behind bars and 35 members were dismissed.

 SSLU also went on strike against structural adjustment policies of the government and the abolition of subsidy for university education for children on April 19th in 1999 and continued to fight for 8 days. 50 members were imprisoned for this fight and over 100 workers were dismissed.

 Despite the above struggles of the unions against structural adjustment policies, subways in Incheon and Deagu and metropolitan rapid transit system in Seoul, soon to be opened to traffic, introduced automation system and structural adjustment programs and began to operate with considerable risks of weakening passenger safety.

 In the end, these structural problems resulted in deplorable and disastrous accident. On February 18, 2003, a passenger, mentally ill, set fire to a running subway train in Daegu. The fire immediately spread to the train coming from the opposite side. As a result, 200 passengers died since there were no safe measures in place against such accidents. However, the Korean government, Daegu city and the press were eager to put the entire blame solely on the subway train driver for the disaster.

 On March 19, 2003, KRWU and five subway workers' unions held a rally in memory of deceased citizens at the subway station where the disaster had taken place. Unions were fully determined to prevent such a catastrophe from taking place again. They pointed out structural problems behind the disaster and proposed common demands for the safety of passengers and citizens.

 Daegu Subway Workers' Union (DSWU), BSWU, Incheon Subway Workers' Union (ISWU), Metropolitan Rapid Transit Workers' Union (MRTWU) decided to continue solidarity struggle at the joint rally on May 24, 2003. DSWU, BSWU, and ISWU went on solidarity strike on June 24, 2003.

 Even though unions were not able to achieve key demands like the withdrawal of one-person operating system, they could force the government and the employer to replace the interior materials of subway trains with incombustible materials and to establish a safety committee in which unions and civic groups would participate. However, the government and the employer replied to the legitimate demands of the unions in a typical brutal way. That is, 6 members were put behind bars and 7 workers were dismissed.

 In spite of all these sacrifices and oppression, KRWU and the subway workers' unions were advancing one step further over their first joint struggle of 1994 and were able to call a solidarity strike, which was a great achievement considering the Korean context of union movement in recent decades.

3) Struggles of Korean Railway Workers' Union (KRWU)
 Korean Railway Workers' Union (KRWU) was one of the major forces within the National Council of Chosun Unions ("Jeon-Pyeong" in Korean), the federation of democratic and progressive unions since the liberation from Japanese colonial rule. But its decline was accompanied by the collapse of Jeon-Pyeong due to the oppression by the Korean government led by the dictatorial President Lee Seung-Man. Lee Seung-Man was a leading figure in establishing the government in the South Korea in the divided Korean Peninsula under the auspices of the US Military Administration.

 For more than a half a century since then, KRWU, instead of being an organization for its members and the railway industry in Korea, has been eager to suppress those workers who fought for just cause and legitimate demands and has been sycophant to the successive Korean government of military dictatorship.

 The members and activists of KRWU had continued to fight for the democratization of the organization, but it was not until 1988 that their endeavor began to produce a few good results. Encouraged by the democratic labor movement sweeping over the country in 1988, the locomotive drivers of KRWU formed a task force committee for an extraordinary collective bargaining. They waged one-day strike and argued that they were opposed to the introduction of non-stop long-distance trains and demanded the improvement of working conditions. However, this collective action was not successful, leading to the arrest of all the participating workers by the authorities, while the employer (the Korean Railway Corporation) dismissed three union leaders.

 The locomotive drivers of KRWU, however, did not give up their dreams and concentrated all their energies on building up democratic organizations at workplaces and were thus able to establish the National Railway Locomotive Branch Council ("Jeon-gi-hyub" in Korean, considered as non-statutory union by the authorities) together with other democratic organizations of train cars.

 In 1994, Jeon-gi-hyub fought for eight-hour workdays and decided to join forces in a solidarity struggle together with SSLU and BSWU.

 Three days before the scheduled date of solidarity strike, the Korean government sent riot police to the venue of union sit-ins and it triggered the strike of Jeon-gi-hyub at 4 o'clock in the morning of July 23, 1994, leading to the solidarity strike of SSLU and BSWU.

 The Korean government ruthlessly subdued the strikers and the participating unions, resulting in the arrest of 30 Jeon-gi-hyub members and the dismissal of 60 activists and workers. Besides, around 250 members were forced to move to jobs in other regions that they had not applied for, while approximately 800 members were subjected to disciplinary measures.

 Under this ruthless oppression, KRWU, however, were taking a leading role in helping the government to suppress Jeon-gi-hyub. For example, when the riot police brutally crushed the strikers, KRWU provided meals for the riot police, using union members' dues.

 Worse still, knowing democratic movement weakened by the oppression of the regime, KRWU unilaterally raised union dues of its members without asking the opinions of its members and used union dues to provide luxury cars and furniture to its president and regional officers, which was definitely unthinkable in a democratic union.

 Lamentably, it was one of the main activities of KRWU to instigate the employer (the Korean Railway Corporation) to take disciplinary measures against the activists, members, and delegates who were demanding democracy within the union. Further more, KRWU agreed to the government's structural adjustment programs and accepted manpower reduction leading to the dismissal of around 6,000 and one-crew system in the train without trying at all to reform its defective organizational structure of threefold indirect election system for its president and congress delegates.

 Protesting the undemocratic and anti-labor practices of KRWU, the activists within KRWU filed a lawsuit in order to radically reform the organizational structure of KRWU and to abolish its threefold indirect election system of the president and congress delegates. The court ruled that the indirect election system of KRWU was unconstitutional. Encouraged by the court's decision, the union members and activists, engaged in the democratization of the union, formed the Joint Struggle Committee for Direct Election (JSCO) and, from January 2000, poured all their time and energy in the campaign for a direct presidential election of KRWU. Their struggles took the form of various rallies and overnight sit-ins at the local offices of the union. It was no wonder that they finally achieved the direct election system for the president and congress delegates of KRWU. Unfortunately, eight leaders and activists of this 'direct election' campaign were fired and dismissed by the employer during this campaign.

 It was in May 2001 that the members of KRWU directly elected the president of the union for the first time in 54 years since its foundation in 1947. Kim, Jae-Gil, the first President of KRWU directly elected by a sweeping majority of votes, promised, during his campaign, to stop the government policy of privatization of railway industry in Korea and to improve working conditions, and to reinstate all those dismissed.

 At that time, the Korean government unilaterally and forcefully drove neo-liberal policies and intended to privatize the railway industry in Korea. Furthermore, the locomotive drivers and crews were not allowed to have enough holidays owing to the 24-hour double shift system that had been maintained since the Japanese colonial rule in the Korean Peninsula.

 With the dismissal of 6,000 workers, the remaining railway workers were painfully suffering from long hours of work. Accordingly, only in 2001, as many as 34 railway workers were dead through train crashes on duty and overwork, just to name a few key causes.

 Under these circumstances, on February 25,2002, KRWU, together with the Korea Power Plant Industry Union (KPPIU) and the Korea Gas Safety Workers Union (KGSWU), went on a joint strike in order to stop the government policy of privatization for key public utilities. Joint strike by three trade unions in key public utilities was partly successful in improving working conditions, but failed to completely stop the government's policy of privatization, which was just reserved for later decision. Meanwhile, some 10 union activists were arrested and more than 20 activists and members were fired after the strike.

 The union members did not yield to the harsh oppression by the government and instead continued to prepare the future struggles for the successful achievement of their cherished goals.

 On April 20, 2003, a few days before the scheduled strike, KRWU came to an overall agreement with the government with regard to the demands that had been unsettled until then. KRWU did thus successfully halt the government's privatization program for the railway. KRWU concluded a collective agreement with the employer, including the recruitment of 3,400 employees in order to make up for manpower shortage and the withdrawal of one-crew train system, a fatal threat to the safety, and the reinstatement of all those dismissed during the struggles of 1988 and 1994. Moreover, KRWU and the employer agreed that the reform of railway industry should be carried out only when there is a social consensus through sincere negotiations among interested parties including KRWU.

 At that time, the 2003 struggle was regarded as a total success among the members of KRWU. However, the government and the employer completely ignored the agreements concluded with the union and attempted to submit the bill on the privatization of railway industry to be passed at the National Assembly. According to the bill, the facilities and operation of railway shall be divided into two separate parts and the operation and management of each part shall be respectively entrusted to the Railway Facilities Corporation and the Korean Railway Corporation.

 Firmly opposed to the bill, KWRU went on strike again on June 28, 2003. Just two hours after the call to strike, the government sent riot police to attack and crush the sit-in sites nationwide. The police arrested over 2,000 union activists and members. Besides, the government and the employer tried every means to destroy strike including the systematic mobilization of mass media and the threats to the families of striking workers.

 After the strike that went on four days, the government and the employer threw away the agreements with the union and clamped down on the union and unionists. More than 20 leaders and members were thus arrested and kept in custody, while 79 fired or dismissed and around 200 subjected to severe disciplinary measures.

 Aware of the weakened position of KRWU, the National Assembly passed the revised bill of the Korean Railway Corporation in December 2003.

 Although the revised law shall be enforced as scheduled, KRWU is firm in its resolution to stop the railway workout programs and the increase of irregular workers, and privatization policies. To achieve these goals, it will be important to build up, create and maintain wider and deeper solidarity and unity among the leaders, activists and members, and to defend union democracy in the presidential election of KRWU in 2004.

3. Conclusion: Towards Industrial Unions and the Political Empowerment of Working People

By the first half of 2003, all the unions organizing railway and subway workers in Korea became affiliated with Korean Federation of Transportation, Public & Social Services Workers' Unions (KPSU), an affiliate federation of Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU). This affiliation is expected to give more strength and support to the activities of the unions that have been suffering from divisions within 'track workers' and oppression by the government and the employer.

 However, the unions still have a long, long way to go. Truly, the workers should be well organized and strong enough to confront and overcome the oppression of the regime and the capitalists in order to achieve genuine social reform in Korea. Railway and subway unions should take a concerted organizational action and make efforts to tackle the difficulties based on solidarity and unity among them.

 Top priority for them will be the transformation into an industrial union. Railway and subway unions must do their best, together with other unions in the transport sector such as unions of airlines and related sectors, to drive forward those activities decided at the Committee for Building Industrial Union in Transport Sector in October 2003. By building gradually but firmly everyday unity and solidarity in the organizational and strategic decisions of these unions, in 2004 we will be able to prepare a more fertile ground for the transformation into industrial union. Next step will be joint struggles based on common demands for 2004 collective bargaining rounds among the unions in the transport sector, including freight transportation, taxi and bus, railway, subway and airlines. In 2004, all the unions concerned should prepare joint struggle for victory. As determined in the School for Transport Workers in 2003, all the unions should firmly go forward for joint struggles and robust solidarity.

 Another big task before us is the political empowerment of working people. Union activists and members should thus have an active interest and involvement in the activities of the progressive political party.

 In the general election for the National Assembly in April 2004, unions, activists and members will have to be engaged in the election campaigns for the candidates of the Democratic Labor Party and must continue to be an integral part of the activities aimed at the political empowerment of working people even after the general election. Thank you very much for hearing.

Chang: Thank you very much. That was the presentation from Korean speaker. Next speaker will be from Japanese colleagues. The first speaker will be Junichi Uehara from JRU.

Uehara: Hello, everybody. My name is Junichi Uehara. I am from JREU and I am a union officer. Thank you very much for coming to join us. I am a bit nervous in front of all the foreign comrades. Anyway, I'd like to make my report regarding the reality of oppression in Japan. And I'd like to share the experiences with you and when I go back to Japan, I'd like to take experiences to Japan, so that I can build up more fruitful labor movements for our struggles and peace. Let me tell you my experience under oppression.

On November 1, 2002, I suddenly got arrested after a house search by the police with six other members including Mr. Yamada sitting next to me. I heard the name of the victim from a policeman who was searching my house, but such a long time had passed since the event, I could not remember his name right away.

 The public police told me that they are searching my house and are going to arrest me for the crime of compulsion because I threatened the alleged victim to make him secede from the union and leave the company more than one year ago. I could not see why I got arrested at all.

 I heard that during the investigation by the police and prosecutors, one of our members was exercising the right of silence, looking down on the desk and then the police took away the desk and looked up at his face from below. This kind of harassment continued.

 While I was arrested and detained, I was worried about my small child who tends to become sick. Then the police tried to make me worry about my family. Also they threatened me saying that I would surely be found guilty and would be dismissed through disciplinary measures from my company. In this way, I had gone through continuous pressure and threats by the police.

 While I had been in the detention house with tremendous anxiety for almost one year, it was my comrades' powerful every day encouragement that reduced my worries. A lot of comrades believed in our innocence and supported our families. Knowing that there have been tremendous support and encouragement, I felt reassured and gained some spirit and courage. It was our trust toward our families and comrades that let us survive during the 344 days of detention lives.

 Also, listening that there have been a tremendous support not only from Japan but also from overseas regarding our false accusation and unjust oppression, we gained further courage. We also heard that you gave us lots of petition in WSF in Porto Alegre last year. That gave us a tremendous courage. Thank you very much. (Clapping)

 Feeling the preciousness and warmth of labor union movement, we are going to build up solid determination not to be defeated by oppression. We will continue to oppose to the governments' oppression on labor union, sometimes even staking union members' lives in some countries and extend our solidarity to protect peace and human rights, and do our best to establish a peaceful and bright future. Thank you very much.

Yamada: Nice to meet you, folks. My name is Satoshi Yamada, and I am one of the JRU 7 members. Thank you very much for coming to join us today. As Mr. Uehara, I myself suddenly got arrested on November 1, 2002 by the Japanese public police and had been unjustly detained for 344 days until October 10, 2003.

 The public police fabricated our labor union activity into an act of crime, and labeled us ordinary train drivers as extremists. About the same last year, I was in a detention house in solitude. I was by myself. But I heard a report from my comrade who participated in the WSF in Porto Alegre. That gave us a tremendous courage. I heard that our comrades went to Porto Alegre and asked for support. They were gathering lots of support and petition, and they were given an opportunity to speak in public. When I heard all these stories, to tell the truth, I cried out loud in the detention house. Thanks to your solidarity, now I am here. I am being able to participate in WSF. Thank you very much. (Clapping)

 I have read a number of books under this oppressive situation. Through that, I came to know about a long history of the world workers' struggles. I came to realize that the precious lessons from workers in old days, some of who had their own lives deprived during their fight, are made the most in our fight against the oppression. Also at present, a large number of workers in the world including our comrades holding this workshop have been fighting with guts in the midst of fierce oppression. Compared to the fights in the world, our fight may be a small thing. However, the purpose and quality of the oppression on workers' in the world are common. Therefore, our passion is no different from the passion of the workers in the world.

 Let me clarify again. We have never done anything that could be considered as crime and we are not extremists.

 We, officers of our labor union branch office were suddenly arrested, isolated, and were forced to live in the environment where we could hardly see the outside. In other words, we were being mentally tortured without any consideration of our human rights.

Though it had been a tough fight, till today, we have been continuously fighting with our passionate solidarity with our comrades inside and outside of the detention house wall.

While we were spending days of solitude, the report of my comrades who participated in WSF encouraged us greatly. My comrades made an appeal for us, which gathered many people's sympathy, and petitions were collected on the spot. Moreover, my comrades were given an opportunity to make a speech. When I read the report, I felt so happy and cried out loud. Thanks to this solidarity, I am here today at the World Social Forum, meeting everyone here. I feel truly happy.

 At present, Japan is blindly following the US, trying to abolish our Peace Constitution which we can be proud of, and is treading a path for militarization once again. We believe that the oppression inflicted on us is being conducted as part of strategies for globalisation. To be honest, having the direct attack from the state power, we feel fear. However, we are determined to continue to confront this oppression with the lessons, "The fighting itself can be the biggest power to protect our organization," "We can be one to fight when we have hardship."

 Though I know there are various ideologies and philosophies, surely we can work together hand in hand to confront those who try to take away happiness from the people and workers. We will continue to fight in solidarity with workers and people in the world. Let us fight together.

Chang: We'd like to invite our next speaker from the Philippines, Mr. Edgar Bilayon.

Bilayon: Good afternoon, everybody. I am Edgar Bilayon. I am from the Philippine Railway Workers' Union and I am the president of this union since 1991.

 I am very happy to be with you, comrades. We have a very timely topic to discuss about oppression on workers around the world. It's happening now in a very organized way. We have our own experiences. I would also like to say something about oppression on Philippine railway workers and my experiences on these. Our company, Philippine National Railway company was established in 1892 under Spanish colonial times. So it was 1892, and today is 2004, so we should have a very progressive railway. It's supposed to be. Unfortunately, more than 100 years of operation, the Philippine national railway is bankrupt government company. That started the struggles of railway workers. Before, the company owned lots of hotels and lots of bus companies, vast land, and it employed 14000 people. But after 100 years of operation, we have a very few of fleet of trains. We have about more than 1000 employees left, and no assets already.

 So our struggles begin because our employment, the job security of us workers is in peril, which is a very difficult situation. So we started to put up 14 years of dictatorship under martial law, the very famous Marcos dictatorship. In 1987, we established a railway union after the absence of 20 years. Our intention was to defend right of workers, especially the job security. The retirement premiums of the workers had not been remitted also, and the mandated salary increase was not given, and the operation of the company was very very bad, going from good to bad. So we faced very grim future, and so the struggle began. We filed the case against our management for mismanagement, graft and corruption, which is very common around the world, among management people. But our militancy and vigilance resulted in dismissals and threats and intimidation. Myself, also, I was almost kidnapped during the time we were on strike. We cannot get our members go on strike because our government doesn't allow it. We are below in the Philippines, which is very oppressive, and the public sector employees cannot go on strike.

 If you go on strike, you will be dismissed as an employee. It is very oppressive, because the government is very very bad management. Our government doesn't really take care of the conditions of workers. Our government is representatives of very corrupt, killing the company that threatens the future of the workers and their families. I as president was the most target of our government, and I received so many cases in court against invented cases. But until now, I was dismissed by the government and by the company, and we are fighting in the court. As I listened to the report from comrades from Korea and Japan, we have almost the same problem and almost the same situation of workers around the world. How are we going to confront these? Solidarity of workers around the world is very very important. Our colleagues from Japan were in jail for 344 days. The case was invented by the government and they needed the international support from workers and organization, at least to pressure the Japanese government.

 The Philippines government needs pressure from different workers' organizations around the world also. We need pressure in our case, because the Philippines government many times listens to the protest letters coming from different organization coming from different parts of the world. Now this I think is the only way we could do to fight oppression. I cannot do it alone. Nor my union can do it alone. You cannot do it alone. We have to do it together. All of us join hands to do it! Otherwise, we will all be destroyed. We will be perished. Because we have a very very organized opponents, and our governments are very strong. They have all the resources in their hands. They have money. They have the power. They control the military. They control the police. They can do anything to destroy our organization. That is our very timely. I and our union in Philippines support strongly the call for solid labor movement around the world to move together and march together to fight against these oppressive forces from the government, capitalists and from everybody. Thank you very much. I hope you had understood my very very short speech.

Chang: Thank you very much for your speech, Mr. Edgar Bilayon. Thank you very much for closing within the time limit. Our last presentator is from China. His name is Han Dong Fang. Please come forward.

Han: Thank you. Oh, that's a big question for me. I do not know whether I can finish within the time limit. Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to share our experiences and struggles in China. I was a railway worker in 1989 but I have never never felt at home in a union situation even though I was working for the railway for six years. I used to ask my union to help me when I was working at the railway but they said, "You walked into a wrong office." That was the only experience I had with a union in China, which the Communist Party set up. That was 1989, and that was the reason that I myself and many other Chinese workers tried to organize workers' organizations. Again, after the massacre, we were jailed.

 I wonder whether the Japanese railway workers' Union colleague, you were in prison and you had the same experience, and imprisonment can be a great lesson. Let's put it that way. It can make you stronger. It will not destroy you. It will only make you stronger. So it's my lesson after two years, so don't make one year or two years in prison always bad things, but can be good if we make it good.

 Now since 1994, I moved to Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, I established China Labor Bulletin, and we later started a radio broadcasting to China. We have a lot of listeners calling us from mainland China. We are able now to use the telephone line to help the Chinese workers, and also through our radio broadcasting, through e-mail or e-newsletter, we do the trade union agitation work. From our work experiences, here are some cases I'd like to share with you very briefly.

 The first one I would like to share is about taxi drivers in China. The taxi companies used to be owned by the state or the government before 1990. And these 15 years, the government has privatized them. Now the taxies in almost every city are sold to individuals. Now individual drivers own their own cars and now they buy their licenses from the government. The government resells the license every two years. That makes these taxi drivers really go nowhere and they spend huge amount of money to buy the license after 5 or 6 years, they make such amount of money, and they have to put it again to buy the license again.

 So here is a case in Sichuan province, which is a southwest of China, and Dazhou city. There were more than 1000 taxi drivers on strike from the late last year. It was the beginning of December. They wanted to strike because exactly the government did what I said. And these taxi drivers used to work for the state enterprises, which could be machinery factories, textile factories, and now these state owned enterprises are all bankrupt. And after these people lost their jobs, they got a little compensation, and they borrowed some money from the relatives, and they spent all their money about four years ago or five years ago, they brought the taxi for the car, and got the license, and now from the middle of the last year, the government decided to take back the license and resell it. The excuse the government gave to the drivers was that the government should find a best way to use the public resources. And they used that to attract the money to make sure that the government's tax money is not enough and just use this to collect more money. So after several times, each time taxi drivers were on strike for three or four days. After several times of strikes on city traffic, the government addressed a few representatives. And so far, there are still four representatives under arrest and facing serious charge which is disturbing the public order and to be sentenced for 2 -5 years.

 There is another case. It is not only taxi driver, of course. The state enterprise the government had it bankrupt and fired all these workers. And there is always legal compensation of each year you get only year 50-90 US dollar compensation per year. That means that for 30 years, you get only 2500 US dollars of compensation. That makes the workers really angry. After 30 years of serving the state enterprises, they wished they would have everything in their life just for working for the government. Finally, they got these 2500 US dollars after 30 years. They get no pension, no social security, and no men for care and nothing and end up with nothing. That is why we are struggling.

 Unfortunately, because the official trade unions were set up by Communist party, the serving of government policy, which is current government policy for the state enterprise reform, privatization, and the official unions fully support the government policy. So when the workers are in the speed what the official government does in the labor union, they send the trade union people to the workers to tell them 2500 US dollars for 30 years service is quite a good deal. If you continue this kind of struggle, making trouble, you even do not get this, and no money. You better get this money back home, and then less trouble, and you will be fine. So this is what the official trade union does when workers start fighting.

 We also have lots of cases on teachers. Teachers are not only working for the state enterprises, but they are working for the government. They are supposed to be financed by the government by the state.

 But in China, there are huge amount of schools in China not financed by the government. Schools under the county level are all financed by the county finance, which is by the farmers. They tax the farmers and support the school and support the teachers' salary and school fees. Because the town government cannot collect enough tax, and the farmers cannot carry that heavy burden of the government taxes, that makes the teachers, including the town government civil servants, usually every year they have no salary half a year.

 There was a case in Hubei province; about 1000 teachers went on strike late last year. The reason was that all these teachers graduated from college year 2000. At that time, the government promised them that everybody would get contract, a state contract within the next three years. But after three years, there was nothing happened. But the first two years, which was year 2001 and 2002, these 1000 teachers, they got nothing. Although they were working everyday, they got nothing. No income, not at all.

 From the late year 2002, the teachers went on strike several times, and the government decided to salary them with 40 US dollars a month. And that was only from beginning of year 2003 after the teachers went on strike for several times. The teachers were asking for these things. 1) Two and half years of salary-they want their salaries back, 2) State contract as the government promised.

 That was the reason Dec 2003, the teachers went on strike for three days, and they were gathering together in front of the city government and all these meetings, and three days after, they were dismissed by the local police, and very unfortunately, one woman teacher lost her child, and when I interviewed the government official, the government people denied that there was no police action and it was peaceful and the police just tried to ask teachers in a very nice way to ask them to go back home, and but there was a teacher who called me that the police was very very violent.

 The government finally did not give the teachers contract and they told the teachers, they were going to have exams again, although these people graduated from college three years ago and had full credits to be teachers three years ago after the graduation. The government use this to give exams to them again and I heard from the teachers who knows the leaders of the strike, after the exams, they were not hired again.

 So this is what I mentioned about the taxi drivers and teachers. Also I mentioned about state owned enterprises for example, oil company from year 2002, there was a big demonstration in northeast of China. There were 50000 oil workers. Each one went onto a street, and continued the demonstration for more than three months.

 The reason was that they were dismissed for the excuse of state enterprise reform, they were sold to the oil company, which was not going to make any money, they were going to be bankrupt. If you want to sign the paper to leave the company on your own, you will be able to get some money. The oil company was quite rich, they gave the workers 200 US dollars for yearly salary. Workers thought that was a good deal, and they took the money and get dismissed on their own, signing the paper.

 After one year, they saw the company was making great money, the company management each year earned the bonus 10000 US dollars at the lowest. That made the workers really feel that they were cheated. That was the reason they went back to the company and they said, "Did you cheat us? We want more money as compensation or job back."

 But after three months of demonstration, people from trade unions when I interviewed them, they said "Our job is tell people that they are not workers anymore because they are fired. We are not going to protect you because you are not workers. So don't make any trouble, otherwise you will be charged in court and will be sentences.

 Of course these workers had huge number of people in the streets and they were not so scared compared to other smaller demonstration. And three month the demonstration continued and they got two small deals. One is that they got a little more money, of course not that as they requested, and two whenever the company hires new employees, their children will be hired first. So that was the result after the three months of demonstration. Unfortunately, because there is no union organization, after the three months, they became quiet and there is nothing afterwards.

 Now, we can see these are the situation. There are great needs for workers and there are several things.

 One is the idea of our solidarity about union. Because the Chinese workers never talk about unions, and they immediately think about the official unions, and they say union help the government. The union serves the management. That is the only kind of picture of union. It is very difficult to make the Chinese workers now to believe unions should help workers if you organize the union. So this is one work we have to do as China Labor Bulletin as a future independent trade union movement.

 Second is that the workers do not believe laws because lawmakers and government are the biggest lawbreakers. And they make the laws and break the laws everyday. It is very hard for us to make the workers believe law should be used by the workers not only individually but also collectively.

 These are the main two works China Labor Bulletin are doing in Hong Kong through various contacts with Chinese workers and also we do help workers' individual cases.

 Currently, we are helping a worker's case. He half a year is working for a Japanese company in Chaosu (Chiangsu) province, and he get a blood cancer. He tried to go to a local government to exam to see whether it is related with industrial related disease. But the government said that you have to have your manager agree and sign the paper, then we can do the exam, otherwise we cannot do it for you. So that is Chinese law. But after half a year, the family brings this worker back into the provincial government to the local government, the company and the court and this worker died. Now we are working to support the father of this worker. And the father of this worker continues to fight for justice to get justice for his son. We are trying to see who is to contact through brothers and sisters in Japan, and try to see whether union in Japan can help us find out this company and have solidarity work.

 Finally, thanks to this situation, we have lots of intellectuals in the cities, they are trying to form some of these social service centers, and of course in China you cannot touch unions. If you touch a union, the government will immediately cause you a trouble because the Communist Party, still use the working class as a tool and their publicity, still say that they are workers' party and it's Communist Party. And they don't want to see the workers to have their own union and have arguments with the government. That will make the government legitimacy weaker.

So these social service centers are organized by intellectuals and they are very helpful for individual cases of workers but they are definitely not allowed to push the workers and tell the workers to have more ideas about the solidarity and organizing. So these intellectuals are very good people.

 We can see that although we have lots of very good people working very hard trying to help for workers' purpose with their heart, but without workers' own organization, it will not resolve the workers' problems, it will not permanently make workers' right to be protected, so again we believe from our case that we believe in the future in China, we have to form an independent trade union movement, and with this work, we definitely need international trade union movement as a support.

 And also myself is a case after 1989, I was in prison for two years and I nearly died in prison, without an international support, I would have been a dead person today, not being able to speak here and that time international support and union support in my case, including union from ICFTU family members, my personal case also international solidarity was needed. And that will give a more encouragement to Chinese workers for their future fighting. Thank you very much.

Chang: Thank you for your presentation, Mr. Han Dong Fang. We could hear from here about his activities in China Labor Bulletin. The working people in China, regardless of sectors, it is very difficult to have independent unions.

 So he talked about concrete examples of Chinese workers, for example, teachers and workers in state own enterprises. Also he mentioned about a very timely point that the international solidarity is very important.

 Now we had presentations from four different countries in Asia, and I myself am quite wondering how similar things are happening again and again in these countries. I mean, if such things happened in Korea, the same kinds of things are repeated in another country in China, and in Japan. So I think we can discuss about it whenever discussion is in progress. We have a time limitation.

 We have about one hour and 15 minutes for discussion for our own. So I would like to suggest that there is a five minutes for everybody and then we have the floor so that everyone has a chance to talk. So I'd like to open the floor to take comments or opinions from you, and also I'd like to ask all the speakers to come forward and sit at the podium to respond to the opinions or comments from the floor. Please come forward, speakers. If I am allowed, I would like to give a chance to an Indian colleague. Her name is A from Orissa. She would like to talk about municipal employees union in Orissa, India. Please come forward.

India A: Good afternoon, everybody. I 'm A from Orissa. Actually I am very happy that at last we are united for a common cause. Because I am heading one trade union named our state municipal employees federation and working president of the federation.

 And I faced many problems and many hazards from our government. That is very sensible for you, I think. That's why I left my job. I was in the municipal sector before, but whenever we go for strike, whenever we do agitation, whenever we speak about our demand, the government makes an action against union leaders. And they think that the leaders of the union can be purchased. And they are doing so. Some of them are purchased by some power leaders, and they want to break our solidarity and our unity.

 In our state, there are two types of labors. One is organized sector; another is non-organized sector. Organized sectors are government sector, and public sector, and non-organized sectors are laborers who are working in different communities like agriculture people, or general sectors who are working with other sectors. We have unions in organized sectors.

 But there is no union for unorganized sector. They are suffering most. They don't say about things. So you have unorganized sector also, but it is difficult. Because in our state, in our country, more trade union leaders are affiliated with some political parties lead by political people. They are not independently thinking, they are not independently working. That is the problem of the whole thing.

 Second thing I want to say is that Orissa state is the poorest state of Asia now. And Orissa became the laboratory of the globalization process. Our energy sector has been privatized by our government. Any companies and sectors are going to be privatized. That's I am telling that our state is become a laboratory for privatization. The government is experimenting everything in our state.

 So laborers are suffering more than other states in India. Because two months back, there was a big strike of private college lecturers. After the privatization of companies and corporate sectors, the government is thinking about education sector of our state. They are trying to privatize education sector also.

 So what happens? You know, 90 % of people in our state are poor laborers with very rare income. After the privatization of education sector, they can't afford their children to reach. So this is all thing happening for poor labor class people. The lecturers of the private colleges and the teachers of the primary schools, they are coming for the strike coming for the agitation. But the government was very strongly opposing to the agitation and strike.

 You will be surprised to know that our supreme court of the government of India, they have passed the order that employees cannot go for strike when the government takes a decision not to listen to the employees. They employees are supposed to go for their justice to the judiciary sector. But now the judiciary sector also closes their mind to support employees.

 So, you can think about, you can imagine what type of problems of prices you are going to face. I think you people also have that kind of problems. That's why we say there is an obligation for this solidarity of unions. That's very very important. And we should fight for our right together. Thank you very much.

Chang: That was the presentation of struggle and how difficult it is in the state of Orissa in India. As I told you just before, this is time for discussion and comments on the presentation made by four different speakers from four different countries in Asia and Pacific. So I would like to open the floor to take comments and questions from the floor. If you have a question, please raise your hand. Yes, please.

Pakistan A: I am A from Pakistan, Karachi. Listening to the Chinese friend, I was wondering, what are the alternatives they are looking for. What should be the solution for the problem? Because I remember the Chinese revolution was said to be the ultimate way for the workers in those days. Workers in the world are on their way to get their right. Even though the Communist regime did not provide their answer to it, how are we going to fight capitalist oppression? It is very essential now. In the globalization, do we have the other ideology?

Chang: Who would like to respond to this?

Han: I grew up during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. That was why my family gave me the name Dong Fang, which means east. At that time, you know, everybody was singing the song "East and Red". So that was for cheering Mao Tse-tung. And we do not believe that the revolution is the way out.

Look at the China's history. We have a history of revolution. And every time, we thought we will remove the dictator and will have a great future. But unfortunately, every time we sacrifice 10s of million of lives and the only thing we got was repeated dictators. The new dictators one after another.

 So that gave us a great lesson, we don't want revolution anymore. And the last one should be the Communist one. But as you said, where is the way out if you don't resolve the problem?

 We are trying to find a new way-one, make the workers believe in the judiciary system. Not believe in the current judiciary system, but we have to take the laws seriously. The reason the government people can bring the law everyday without any trouble is that, one of the reasons is that people do not believe in law.

 And for example, usually when I talk about the future in the case I mentioned, according to the education law and labor law, the salary should be released in cash per month. If there is a delay on the payment, the employer should pay not only the salary but also the punishment-fine. And I told them, for two and half years, you should have probably 2000 US dollars, and you will get back 3000, because at least you have 50% fine from the government. You should sue them.

 And these teachers repeatedly told me that they don't trust the law, laws are not protecting our rights. Laws are for the government rules. So that is a very difficult for us to make the workers in China believe in laws, but although it is difficult, we can get away with this.

 So what is the opposition of revolution? I believe rebuild the rule of laws-a system which fully regards laws. Not only making people, but workers and farmers trust the law and follow the laws, and also making the government follows the laws. What can really make the government follow the laws? Which is I believe the collective powers of workers and farmers and organized civil society.

 If more people take the legal system seriously, that will bring more cases into the court, and more highlight on the issues of the government frequently breaking the law and that will possibly be one of the way to lead the situation out of the bad circle which is the revolution. You have a very sound legal struggle, and if you have a trade union idea, which is collective bargaining, that again will bring the ideal of democracy.

 People will have the right to vote for their own representatives, and these representatives should be responsible to these people who voted for them. So that's again this idea that people will compare if we keep trade union representatives representing workers to make collective bargaining with employers and that people will compare with undemocratic government, which is government is not elected, therefore they are not responsible to people.

 Or leaders from trade union, they are responsible to us and if they do not do a good work, we can kick them away. That idea again will improve the people's mind believing in democracy. So we hope that can work in China. Because the reason we choose for fighting legally and choose the collective bargaining is that we do not want to send workers' leaders one after another to prison. So although I said that prison term could make people stronger, it's not tasty. So better not to go. They put everybody into prison. So that's how we choose. But we don't know whether it has worked out or we have enough time in this bad situation in China. Thank you.

Chang: Thank you for your reply. Someone want to make some other comments?

Palestine A: I am A from Palestine. First of all I would like to thank you for contacting with us to give us opportunity to speak to you and contact with other comrades. My intervention would be about experience of Palestinian workers. Listening to your suffering, I consider you are lucky. Because you can talk about your problems but we cannot. We are not allowed for two reasons.

 First one is that they don't have representative party to raise this issue at international conference or even locally. And the second one is that they cannot come by themselves to talk about their suffering.

 So I would like to talk about their story. First I would like to mention about important information, which is that 130,000 workers used to work in labor market before the "Intifada", which has started in September 2000. After this, more than 97 % of this number is jobless now. Because they are prevented from going to their workplace.

 Unemployment rate of first quarter 2003 in Palestinian was 26.4%. The problem is that they have no job and no income, and especially Palestine local economy is very weak and destroyed and it's completely dependant on Israeli one.

 The story I would like to talk about is protesting. Two years ago, they conducted a protesting in front of the building of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Union . The important thing was that officials and politicians and trade union activists and leaders visited them for political support, but they did nothing for them. Now the Palestinian workers need support for four points.

 The first point is that they cannot find jobs to sustain their family, especially our big economy. The second one is to organize themselves and also to fight the corruption inside the trade union. The third important thing is the conduction. Israeli trade union which called "Histadrut" prevented to give for the Palestinian authority all the formula for social insurance institution. The Israel refuses to give the money to the Palestinian authority.

 So the Palestinian authority has no budget to assist the workers to protect them from unemployment. So the Palestinian workers are supposed to fight first to find jobs and sustain their families. The second is to organize themselves because they are not organized in the trade union. The third is to improve the situation from inside the trade union, to make election and to promote the policy of accountability. So they have to fight everywhere. I find myself obliged to tell because nobody are keen to talk about himself and their suffering. Thank you.

Chang: Thank you very much for your comment. Extraordinary difficult situation for workers in Palestine. Any other comments?

Philippines: Good afternoon. I am Leody de Guzman from BMP Philippines, with our experiences of Philippine workers. They have suffered very much in the hands of capitalists. Especially now in globalization, the workers right has not been recognized, even labor codes, and even the constitution of the Philippines. We heard the experiences from other Asian nations. Philippine workers are considered to be slaves, unchanged slaves in the Philippines. The capitalists are after profits, different from the workers profits which are living wages. On that aspect, I am sorry to speak to our delegate from China, at the present set-up; workers revolution is no longer necessary or possible. I think in our framework, it is necessary to achieve a workers' system which serves for the interest of workers. Many kind of oppression are conducted in imperialistic countries, in the US, Japan, and even in Korea. Maybe in China, they had problem in revolution. But the true concept of revolution is to serve for the interests of workers.

Bilayon: I want to explain more what my comrade had said. Our comrade is saying that the comment from Han Dong Fang who said, "Revolution is not necessary," he is not in agreement. Comrade Han Dong Fang should have generalized revolution is a failure. That is why my comrade had said that. Workers revolution in China has failed in this regard. If the Chinese labor's revolution has failed, that was because of the leaders. But the concept of workers' revolution is to free workers from corruption and oppression. That is the real essence of that-benefiting the workers. But the problem of China was something. That could be discussed more. If that is a failure in China, it is the failure in China. But that is unnecessarily true to the other parts of the world. If they want to do it, it will be reflected upon the leaders. Am I correct?

Chang: A colleague from the Philippines had a little disagreement with Han Dong Fang, about the meaning of revolution in our times. Are there any comments?

India B: Thank you, comrades, friends, and representatives from different countries. And welcome to India. Here we talk about the solidarity of workers as our representatives have told us. There are different ideas and opinions, and ideologies. There is ideological fighting. I can say that workers of the world have joined on Communist manifesto.

 United workers are workers. Unity of workers cannot get any facilities from the government. Any government of the country. But the fighting mass of the working people is the basic people of the nation. These people are making so many things that are needed for the people, for the nation, for the development of the things. Workers are creating for that sense.

 These are the lessons I have seen and you have seen. Our creating members are workers. Without having workers, we will lose. Workers will lose. I mean working people and peasant people and all the working class people are the people of India.

 50-60% of our people are living their lives very poorly. Because of only a small number of families are getting millions of millions of dollars. Nearly all the 60 % of people go to bed without any money to go to the market. They don't have enough to wear and eat because of the capitalist government. The government is working in support of capitalist class.

 The government of India is for the landlord class and capitalist class. And monopolist capitalists in India are feeding the problems. And monopolist capitalists and the government are cooperating with the American imperialists.

 American imperialists and British imperialists are destroying our works because of the politics called globalization adopted by WTO or imperialist country like America. Due to this cause, our nation of India is getting weaker and weaker. It used to have in 1917 in Soviet Union under the leadership of Communist Party under comrade Lenin, you know this matter.

 And the dictatorship was gone and socialist was introduced for working people when you have seen the development in Soviet Union due to revolution. Yet in India, you can see the development of West Bengal. Because there is a left government there. And the left government is sincere there. And the left government has been elected by working class people. And the government of West Bengal tried to reform the land. And the local people of West Bengal are engaged in this land reform and people have land to live permanently. No province in this country has land for working class people to live permanently. Working people in this country have no land to live and no food to eat. So the West Bengal people have decided to provide facilities for working class people and peasant class people. It is in the process of revolution and some has been done.

 I am particularly saying you that the theme of globalization supported by WTO and America are changing the inside of worker, culture, education, and all respect of lives with various crisis. If we accept that, all the politics will be globalized. I request you all that unite the countries and workers to resist globalization. Without this, workers in India cannot get a success for their aim and objects and cannot get freedom from the world of capitalism and new imperialism. So we have to fight and it is our opinion that without fighting, we cannot go against globalization. We need unity and this is my request. Thank you.

Chang: Thank you for your passionate comment. Just one more comment, please.

India A: I want one more thing to add. I think corruption is the biggest cause of unemployment in our country. Is it happening in other countries, for instance in Japan or in China?

 Because in our country, corporate leaders are most political people, and because of this corruption, workers are suffering. Only a few workers are corrupted and they are supporting these business people. Is this kind of thing happening in your country?

Chang: Thank you for your question. Unfortunately, I think corruption is happening everywhere. Who want to answer to this question?

Bilayon: Corruption is an epidemic or sickness around the world. Everybody has opportunity to do it. And the Philippines is no exception from that. If our government is very good and our bureaucrats are very good, I am not attending in this conference.

India A: Is it possible for the workers to fight against corruption in their sector? Is it possible to protect public sector? Possible to protect from privatization, which I think is a corruption process.

Chang: I think it's possible and we should make it possible if we are hopeless. If there is no more comment, I think it is time to have short introduction about International Center for Labor Solidarity. I am sorry there is a person who is going to make a comment from a Japanese group.

Yanagihara: Hello, my name is Yanagihara, and I am from JREU. From my union office, the seven union members got arrested. We heard reports from the two members out of seven. I need to report to you that we gathered 450,000 petitions and submitted to the court, which gave the court the pressure to grant the bails to the seven. Thank you very much for your cooperation. The reason why the union members got arrested is that our union is against the Japanese government militaristic policy. Another reason is that our union is standing against the management of our company for social justice. In Japan, top class corporations such as Mitsubishi, Yukijirushi, and Sogo were exposed to their scandals. But none of the scandals were exposed by the labor unions in the companies. As some of you have just there, leaders of labor unions were purchased by the companies. I think all the comrades here probably do not get involved in such corruption and fighting for social justice. I suppose all of you are labeled with something bad. To all the people who are being oppressed by the capitalist and those who have power, we have to make a network of solidarity and improve our living and to establish a peaceful world.

Chang: Thank you for your comment. Now it's time to introduce the organizer of this workshop, ICLS. The presentation will be made by Mr. Pak, the executive of ICLS.

Park: Hello, my name is Park of ICLS from Korea, the organizer of this workshop. Let me give you ideas of ICLS. In 1997, KPSU was struggling against deteriorating division of labor unions in Korea. At that time, JRU was giving us a solidarity support. Since then, for six years, KPSU and JRU have been exchanging solidarity programs and after that we decided to establish ICLS in 2002. Now we have our head office in Soul Korea, and we plan to have full-scale operation by 2005. We have key objectives. Fighting against neoliberal globalization, making joint struggles and solidarity against oppression of government and companies. Fighting against the war and making peace movement. So let me suggest for you all. ICLS will start January 2005 in full scale. Now I am suggesting that Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Philippines and other nations in Pacific and Asia to join us. Thank you.

Chang: Thank you. It is time to bring this workshop to an end. I thank you for your cooperation and patience and participation you have shown in this workshop. Thank you.