Asia Pacific Currents

Export processing zones are used by countries around the world as areas of extremely cheap labour for companies to use as union organising is severely repressed.Hundreds of mainly women workers in the Cavite Export Processing Zone just north of Manila, The Philippines, have gone out on strike in protest at the dismissal of union organiser at their factory.We talk to Arnel, spokesperson of the Labor Party of the Philippines, on the dispute at the Lakepower Converter electronics factory and the determination of the workers to stay on the picket line even in the face of repeated attacks by thugs.This is the last program podcast for Asia Pacific Currents for 2017. We will be taking a summer break. Our first program for 2018 will be Saturday the 3rd of February 2018. The APC team wishes a safe and relaxing break to all our listerners.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

Workers in South Korea have managed to overcome the offensives against them in the last few years from governments and companies.Nevertheless, even after ousting the former President Park, they face many hurdles in improving their wages and conditions.This week we talk to Wolsan Liem, Director of International and Korean Peninsula Affairs of the Korean Public Service and Transport Workers' Union (KPTU), about the strike by Seoul metro workers and the issues that they are facing.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 large gas and oil sectors in Australia are dominated by global companies. In the last few years, they have launched an offensive against workers in Australia to slash wages and conditions.Longford in the south eastern Australian state of Victoria is the latest flashpoint of this battle. Esso is trying to force its maintenance workers to be employed by a shelf company which would pay them up to 40% less in wages and introduce brutal shifts that would see workers working up to 4 weeks straight.We talk to Dane Colman, a maintenance workers with the Electrical Trades Union of Victoria, about their 5 months long community assembly and the dynamics and impacts of their struggle.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 labour movement in South Korea is one of the strongest in the Asia Pacific region with its roots in the anti dictatorship protests of the 1960's and 1970's.In the last few years it has come under sustained attack from successive Government administrations. Its Secretary, Han Sang-gyun is still currently in jail for the crime of organising demonstrations.We talk to Mikyung Ryu, the International Relation Director of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), about the latest worker mobilisations and the issues that the Korean labour movement is currently facing.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

Workers all around the world face pressures and repression as capitalists try to increase their profits by spending less on workers welfare and making them work faster, longer and harder for less pay.The Global Day to stop the repression against unionists was initiated in 2014 as a joint project by a number of labour organisations in the Asia Pacific region. This Day is to support workers rights, to call for the end of repression against our brothers and sisters, and to stand together united around the world as a class.Piergiorgio Moro, as AAWL's co-ordinator of this day, talks about the significance of this event and the actions and events that take place around the world to mark this occasion.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 BJP Government in India, headed by Prime Minister Modi, has been in power for over three years.His government has been one of the most pro business governments in Indian history. Modi has set our to free up the hand of capitalists in India while at the same time undermining the power of workers to organise. The demonetisation program that was unveiled last year has only worsened conditions for many workers.We talk to Vusudevan Nambiath, labour leader with the New Trade Union Initiative in Mumbai, about the current labour protests occurring in New Delhi, see video.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

Since 1989, the Australian Government's policies and actions against asylum seekers and refugees have increasingly become xenophobic, nationalist and repressive.On top of turning back boats in acts of piracy on the high seas, deporting refugees back to dangers in countries they escaped from, Australia has created a series of concentration camps for refugees both onshore and offshore.Currently, the camp at Manus Island is closing, leaving hundreds of refugees in a desperate situation. We talk to Tamil Refugee Council spokesperson Aran Mylvaganam about the latest situation on Manus Island.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

While the wars in Iraq and Syria have offered a historical opportunity for Kurdish forces to advance their right to autonomy and independence, there are also major dangers.The recent advances by Kurdish forces in northern Syria in taking Raqqa and their capitulation and losses in northern Iraq examplify the difficulties and uneven situation that Kurdish groups face in West Asia.We talk to Mahmut Kahraman, spokesperson for the Kurdish Democratic Community Centre of Victoria, Australia, on the significance of these recent developments.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

Last week, the two biggest Palestinian political factions, announced that they signed an initial unity agreement. This deal was announced by both sides as a ‘a declaration of the end to division and a return to national Palestinian unity’.While this is a positive steps, there are many big issues to resolve between the two organisations, including the ongoing occupation, a crackdown on independent Palestinian media and the repression and jailing of Palestinian activists by Israel.We interviewed interviewed Reem Yunis, Palestinian and socialist activist in Melbourne Australia, on the reasons of this latest unity agreement and possible outcomes for Palestinian people.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

Around 150 workers in the Australian city of Sydney have been in a brutal struggle from last August against their employer, Streets Ice Cream, a subsidiary of the global giant Unilever, over a new enterprise agreement. The company wants to reduce workers’ wages by over 40%, as well as cuts to overtime and redundancy payments.Matt Kunkel from 3CR Radio's Stick Together program interviews Steve Murphy, the NSW Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) State Secretary, on the workers struggle and the attempts by Streets management to silence them.While a boycott of Streets Ice Cream has been proposed, co-ordinated industrial actions at other Unilever sites around the world would be much more effective in maximising workers’ power.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