Earlier this month, hundreds of workers in East Timor marched calling for an increase to the minimum wage. The minimum wage has not been revised since 2012 and is only around 50% of what an average family needs to live on. East Timor is a relatively young nation where workers […]
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In the middle of April there were unprecedented protests by thousands of garment workers in the southern Indian city of Bangalore. These protests were heavily repressed with many workers injured. Over 300 workers are now facing charges following these protests. Raising bail for all defendants has put a lot of […]
Earlier this week, an international delegation visited the capital of Seoul to support the ongoing campaign to free the jailed leaders of the KCTU and to highlight the ongoing harassment of others. In other labour news, thousands of unionists marched onto the headquarters of the giant automaker Hyundai to protest […]
Earlier this week, five workers employed at the Maxen Plastic Factory in the Korangi Industrial Area were sent to clean a chemical tank. They were not provided with any specialised breathing equipment and they were killed by the fumes. Unfortunately these are not the first deaths of this kind in […]
Last Friday, thousands of working class Iraqis once again broke through the fortified barriers around the Green Zone in Baghdad and managed to enter parliamentary offices. Unlike the previous month, many demonstrators were shot and an unknown number were killed and injured. This latest mass demonstration is a continuation of […]
Lucky Akhtar, a union leader with the Garment Workers’ Trade Union Centre, was abducted in the middle of the night earlier this week by paramilitary thugs. Grave fears for her safety were held as repression of unions and labour activists in Bangladesh is very common (see here, here and here). […]
A recent investigation into the labour practices of fast food global giant McDonald’s has revealed how the company has managed to underpay thousands of its employees in Australia. The key to their success has been the co-operation of the yellow union covering these workers, the SDA, in cutting overtime rates. […]
This week saw the welcome release of a Palestinian journalist, Mohammed al-Qeeq, who had been on a 94 day hunger strike in protest against his jailing by Israeli forces. Unfortunately Mohammed’s case is not an isolated one with thousands of other Palestinian activists in jail. The pattern around West Asia […]
A local community group in Melbourne Australia has organised an anti-racism rally in the suburb of Coburg. This rally has been met with hostility and threats from far right wing forces who are planning a counter-rally. As we’ve previously reported, these far right wing and fascist forces have built momentum […]
While repression against anti dictatorship activists has been documented before (see here, here, here and here), a recent report by Human Rights Watch, HRW, has catalogued the full extent of repression by Thailand’s military junta. HRW found that since the coup in May 2014, over 1,600 people are being tried […]