Asia Pacific Currents

Turkish workers have a proud history of organising and fighting for better conditions. Unfortunately, the last few years under the Presidency of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan have seen conditions deteriorate with workers coming increasingly under more pressure.The huge new airport being built just outside Istanbul examplifies this new reality with workers continually facing insscure and dangerous workplaces but then when they try to organise to win better conditions, the full force of the state is brought against them.APC recently spoke with Hasan Demir (not his real name), a labour activist at the Istanbul airport, who explained the conditions facing workers and the recent events that saw hundreds of workers detained by the police.Due to circumstances beyond our control there was no APC program for Saturday Nov 24. Our apologies.Asia Pacific Currents provides updates of labour struggles and campaigns from the Asia Pacific region. It is produced by Australia Asia Worker Links, in the studio of 3CR Radio in Melbourne, Australia

President Rodrigo Duterte's 'War on Drugs' has been going on for more than three years. During this time there has been a normalisation of extra judicial killings, impunity for death squads, vilification of human rights defenders and arrests of activists. His death squads have murdered over 25,000 people.These massacres has had a terrorising effect on on urban, working class communities in the Philippines. Nevertheless, opposition and organising against this repression is growing both internally and internationally.APC interviewed May Kotsakis, co Chairperson of PASA (Philippine Australia Solidarity Association) and the finance Officer of ILPS (International League of People's Struggle), on the current situation on the Philippines.Asia Pacific Currents provides updates of labour struggles and campaigns from the Asia Pacific region. It is produced by Australia Asia Worker Links, in the studio of 3CR Radio in Melbourne, Australia

In this week's program, independent journalist and long time human rights activist Nick Mclellan, talks about the recently held independence referendum in New Caledonia and the national elections in Fiji.While is both countries the eventual results preserved the current political status quo, the reality is that both show that Pacific island societies are changing and that the previous social order is not guaranteed to last into the future.Asia Pacific Currents provides updates of labour struggles and campaigns from the Asia Pacific region. It is produced by Australia Asia Worker Links, in the studio of 3CR Radio in Melbourne, Australia

The Arab Spring that swept across north Africa and West Asia promised a new beginning for working class communities. The reality has been one of broken promises, repression and war.Syria has probably witnessed the greatest bloodshed where during the last 7 years, all kind of reactionary, repressive, conservative and imperialist forces have conspired to defeat the popular uprising.APC asked Joe Daher, a long time Syrian activist, to assess the current situation, to look back over the last few years to see how we got to this disaster and what lessons can the left and solidarity movements learn.Asia Pacific Currents provides updates of labour struggles and campaigns from the Asia Pacific region. It is produced by Australia Asia Worker Links, in the studio of 3CR Radio in Melbourne, Australia

The use of workers on temporary visas has increased in Australia over the last twenty years. Temporary migrant workers are very vulnerable due to the precarious nature of their work visa.Employers from all industries in Australia exploit their vulnerability by systematically underpaying them and making billions of dollars from unpaid wages.APC interviewed author and researcher Laurie Berg from the University of Technology Sydney about her latest research on the extent of this underpayment and the structural barriers that make it difficult for these workers to organise and claim their wages back.Asia Pacific Currents provides updates of labour struggles and campaigns from the Asia Pacific region. It is produced by Australia Asia Worker Links, in the studio of 3CR Radio in Melbourne, Australia

As with many other countries in the Asia Pacific region, Australian workers are also facing rising rates of job insecurity, wages that are not keeping up with the cost of living, and harsh laws that prevent workers from organising freely at the workplace.Trade unions in Australia have come together under the banner of 'Change the Rules' to campaign for a change of government and better laws for workers. Tens of thousands of workers came out in Melbourne last Tuesday in support of this campaign.Asia Pacific Currents hosts, Pier and Jiselle, analyse the campaign so far and discuss whether 'Change the Rules' is too focussed on an electoral strategy and not enough on building workers power at the workplace level.Asia Pacific Currents provides updates of labour struggles and campaigns from the Asia Pacific region. It is produced by Australia Asia Worker Links, in the studio of 3CR Radio in Melbourne, Australia

Bananas are one of the big agricultural export items of the Philippines. Rural regions of the Philippines have always seen some of the worst instances of semi feudal exploitation and human rights abuses.Almost a 1,000 workers at the giant banana plantation of the Sumifru corporation have been on strike since the start of October. They are demanding a collective agreement so as to get a pay rise and secure employment contracts.APC interviewed Paul John Dizon, the President of the local union NAMASUFA, about the strike and the dangers that they are facing from company thugs, the police and the army.Asia Pacific Currents provides updates of labour struggles and campaigns from the Asia Pacific region. It is produced by Australia Asia Worker Links, in the studio of 3CR Radio in Melbourne, Australia

The popular uprising in Syria in the last few years has created a big debate among the left around whether activists should prioritise anti imperialist work, especially against the USA war machine, or stand in solidarity with working class movements.In the same region, the Iranian government is at ongoing risk of being bombed by the USA but the Islamic government is also heavily repressing actions and protests by workers.Jiselle and Pier discuss the political issues around anti imperialism and class struggle in relation to the ongoing situation in Iran, both internally and regionally.Asia Pacific Currents provides updates of labour struggles and campaigns from the Asia Pacific region. It is produced by Australia Asia Worker Links, in the studio of 3CR Radio in Melbourne, Australia

The current Islamic for of government has been ruling Iran since the 1979 revolution that overthrew the dictatorship of the Shah. After almost 40 years, the economic and social situation for the majority of Iranian is increasingly becoming worse and worse.Since late last year there have been massive working class protests throughout Iran. The Iranian government has tried to both repress and co-opt these protests but unemployment, starvation wages and corruption are bringing more and more people onto the streets.APC interviewed Bahman Yusufi, an Iranian labour activist, about these working class actions and especially the current massive strike by around 600,000 truck drivers that has literally stopped all road commercial traffic in Iran.Asia Pacific Currents provides updates of labour struggles and campaigns from the Asia Pacific region. It is produced by Australia Asia Worker Links, in the studio of 3CR Radio in Melbourne, Australia

Australia and New Zealand have similar histories, both being settler societies and imperial outposts of the British Empire.They share similar laws and industrial landscape, though organising the working class in these two countries also has its differences.APC interviewed Mrunal Shroff, who is now employed as an organiser with the Migrant Workers Centre at Trades Hall in Melbourne, about his views on organising workers in New Zealand and in Australia. In New Zealand, Mrunal was an organiser in the Finance and Retail sector.Asia Pacific Currents provides updates of labour struggles and campaigns from the Asia Pacific region. It is produced by Australia Asia Worker Links, in the studio of 3CR Radio in Melbourne, Australia