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Day of the Landless

Stop oil palm plantations! Fight for land, fight for life!

Statement

March 30, 2016

As we mark the Day of the Landless on March 29, the Asian Peasant Coalition (APC) is launching the “Stop Oil Palm Plantations!” campaign. This, amidst the massive and aggressive expansion of the palm oil industry that further threatens the life and livelihood of countless farmers, farm workers, indigenous peoples, and other oppressed and exploited rural sectors in the region.

In Indonesia, 1,300 mostly women workers were unfairly dismissed from their factory PT Panarub in 2012 after they went on strike to demand payment of wage arrears and the right to organise.

To date they have not received their severance pay and wage arrears from the Panarub group, and buyers Adidas and Mizuno refuse to admit responsibility and provide support to the workers. The workers' union SBGTS-GSBI continues to demand justice for the workers, and are currently running a campaign against Adidas and Mizuno.

This education module on capital mobility explains the capitalist crisis, and assesses the impact of capital mobility on workers and trade unions. The module also provides stories of workers in the global supply chains and their struggles.

This meeting report discussed the prospect of labour organising in Asia.

Southeast Asian economies show notable performance in the recent years. In 2013, for instance, the growth rate of the region’s gross domestic product (GDP) is 4.9 per cent compared to the entire world’s GDP growth rate of 3.0 per cent. However, despite this significant GDP growth rate, employment in Southeast Asia did not rise in the same rate as the GDP has risen. It has grown only by 1.5 per cent. Moreover, poverty remains prevalent and income gaps become wider. In other words, the economic growth in numbers does not translate to the improvement of the quality of lives of the people at the grassroots level.

The two-day meeting focused on understanding and mapping the landscape of labour resistance in Asia in the past decade or so, with a special focus on identifying, in each country, (1) emerging forms of labour resistance, (2) emerging actors and players in new labour movements, and (3) trends in emerging alliance building and collaborative initiatives.