INTERNATIONAL LABOUR VIETNAM:
APPEAL FROM THE FAMILIES:

Last October 21 Molly blogged about the case of three Vietnamese workers who have now been sentenced to lengthy prison terms for the "crime" of organizing their fellow workers during a strike. The following item from the Committee To Protect Vietnamese Workers adds more information to this case. It is basically an appeal from the family of two of the prisoners. please go to the website of the Committee to see how you can help these worker activists.
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HELP!
Jailed advocates’ families asks overseas unions, organisations to help

PLEA FOR HELP

Ho Chi Minh City, 26.10.2010

To: Leaders of democratic nations,

Human rights organisations,

Social justice organisations, and

Unions around the world

We, the undersigned,:

- Đỗ Ty, domiciled at Di Linh, Lâm Đồng, father of Đỗ Thị Minh Hạnh

-Nguyễn Kim Hoàng, at 14/12 Bến Chương Dương, P. Cầu Kho, Quận 1, Hồ Chí Minh City, father of Nguyễn Hoàng Quốc Hùng,

- Chiêm Thị Tường Mạnh, domicied at Trà Vinh, wife of Đoàn Huy Chương

We ask that you use your power and influence to help save our daughter, son, and husband, Đỗ Thị Minh Hạnh 25 years old, Nguyễn Hoàng Quốc Hùng 29 years, and Đoàn Huy Chương 25 tuổi, to be free from the harsh conviction which the Vietnamese authorities have declared, accusing them of disrupting national security and trying to overthrow the regime, and sentencing them 7, 9, and 7 years in prison.

They are innocent and the conviction is unjust.


PHOTO Doan Huy Chuong in court 26 Oct 2010, flanked by police
They are youths who are patriotic and humane who, for many years, have quietly helped poor people, people whose properties who have been forcibly taken, and workers who have been exploited and mistreated by employers. Those actions are the right thing to do and are not illegal.

But, instead of encouraging such actions which benefit society, eliminate injustice, build a fair society, our loved ones have been arrested by the police and accused under Clause 89 of the criminal act.

Đoàn Huy Chương was arrested on 13.02.2010, Đỗ Thị Minh Hạnh on 23.02.2010, and Nguyễn Hoàng Quốc Hùng on 24.02.2010.

During the 8 months of imprisonment without charges, our loved ones were held in isolation and incommunicado, were forcibly questioned, and treated like common criminals. During this whole time, Nguyễn Hoàng Quốc Hùng was not allowed any visit by us, he was beaten and we were not allowed to send in provisions for him. From a strong and healthy young man, Hung was physically beaten into a sick and weak man

At the trial on 26.10.2010 at Tra Vinh, the court violated its own trial procedures. Our loved ones decided to defend themselves but the judge did not allow them to speak. The trial was over very quickly and the sentences had been decided beforehand.

When allowed to say their last words, Nguyễn Hoàng Quốc Hùng, Đỗ Thị Minh Hạnh and Đoàn Huy Chương strongly denied any wrongdoing and asserted that the court was wrong.

All they have is their love for the country, in their hands they have no weapon, how can they be accused of harming national security?


PHOTO The couple Hung and Hanh, about late 2009
This is a most unjust conviction. Our loved ones are unjustly tried.

After their arrests, we were heartbroken but maintained some hope in justice because they had done nothing wrong. But the court of this regime has caused us pain, we are disappointed in the regime’s justice system.

We cannot find justice in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

We plead for your help, please help end our loved ones’ days in jail.

Respectfully and gratefully yours

Đỗ Ty

Nguyễn Kim Hoàng.

Chiêm Thị Tường Mạnh

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR VIETNAM:

SUPPORT VIETNAMESE WORKER ACTIVISTS:

It's just another day in another workers' paradise, and three workers are due to go on trial for organizing a strike. The "proletarian justice" they may face can mean up to 15 years in prison. Here's the story and appeal from the online labour solidarity site Labour Start.

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Vietnam: Labour rights advocates face prison

Three Vietnamese labour rights advocates face 5-15 years imprisonment for helping organise a strike by 10,000 workers at the My Phong shoe factory in January 2010. Doan Huy Chuong, Nguyen Hoang Quoc Hung, and Do Thi Minh Hanh, all in their 20's, have been detained virtually incommunicado since their arrests in February. The trial is expected in late October 2010.

The "crimes" alleged by prosecutors are that Doan Huy Chuong, Nguyen Hoang Quoc Hung, and Do Thi Minh Hanh worked in an organised manner, distributed leaflets expressing discontent about working conditions and about the authorities, and helped workers to organise a strike. All of these activities ought to be legal, under Vietnam's own Constitution and in international instruments to which Vietnam is a signatory. The charges that they encouraged workers to destroy factory properties are without evidence and appear made-up.

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THE LETTER:

Please go to this link to send the following letter to the Vietnamese authorities.

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I call on the Vietnamese government to release jailed labour rights advocates Doan Huy Chuong, Nguyen Hoang Quoc Hung, and Do Thi Minh Hanh.

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR-VIETNAM:

WORKERS' STRUGGLES IN A 'WORKERS' PARADISE':



The days of state socialism are pretty well over and done. About the only adherent to the full blown Marxist dream left in power these days is the increasingly bizarre and vicious ruling class of North Korea. Many countries, such as those of the ex-Soviet bloc, have abolished the old system of class rule lock, stock and barrel. Others have abolished the economic reality of managerial control without any way of gauging prices but have kept the old dictatorial political systems. Even the darling of leftists worldwide, the Castro dictatorship, has advanced very far along this road.




Vietnam is one such country, and like China it has managed to combine what is possibly the worst of both old style Communist managerialism and the so-called 'capitalist' managerial system. Looking at the ocean of debris left floating after the storm that wrecked the SS Marxism, one is generally struck by the extraordinary nastiness that the new ruling class (usually very much the old one with only an exchange of the tools of power) exhibits. So far only the countries of eastern Europe that the EU has been able to bribe into at least a moderate semblance of civilized political behavior have been able to escape this general trend. The old communist corruption, however, has been less touched by this bribery than the political facade has been.




What is the problem here ? Molly submits that the systematic use of the Marxist "propaganda model" failed in its ostensible goals, but "succeeded" in producing some unexpected side effects. Some of the failures are glaringly obvious. Despite decades of propaganda about "internationalism", once the lid was opened on the pot various nationalisms exploded in many such places. The "proletarian brothers" were not just unsympathetic to those in far distant corners of the world. No, they began to slaughter their neighbours. Decades of the propaganda had precisely the opposite effect than that intended. Because the class rule of the managers was built on such obvious lies about the economy, and because it was enforced by state terror, generations grew up believing that all of what the ruling class said was a lie, including their pious proclamations of "brotherhood".




Vietnam is one of those countries that has opened its doors to western management while retaining the anachronistic old political regime. The ruling class retains all of the viciousness that it once had, but this is becoming less and less effective. The working class of Vietnam, just like that of China, is turning its anger to what will hopefully be a more productive end than racial pogroms (though that may be a far shot in China), the defence of its own interests against that of the ruling class. Here's a story from the LibCom site about some of the latest labour unrest in Vietnam.
Vietnamese workers stage walkout over management bullying:
Over 300 workers at a Taiwanese company, Hwata Vina, in Ho Chi Minh City went on strike July 3 after complaining about managers’ draconian rules.





They said that the company, which produces water tanks and Inox appliances for kitchens, had made unreasonable stipulations. For example, workers were permitted to go to the toilet just three times a day for five minutes each. Workers would not get paid for periods when electricity was cut.





They were also asked to be present at the company 20 minutes before work started. Failure to do so, resulted in a deduction of VND100,000 each time a worker is late.





The stipulations were made worse by the bullying and abusive language from managers.





Director of the company, Ly Cheng Yeng said that the company did not have such rules, and it was the managers who set the regulations themselves. He apologized to workers for the bad treatment and pledged to correct the situation.





The managers were also asked by relevant authorities to produce work licenses, they could not.





Although Mr Yeng promised that the company would register the managers, the representative of the management board of industrial zones and export processing zones did not agree. He has asked authorities not to permit the managers to work at the company.





In the early afternoon, workers agreed to return to work.





Ho Chi Minh City authorities recently announced that top executives of two more foreign companies fled the country leaving behind debts, taking the number of such firms in Ho Chi Minh City so far to five. Four of them are Korean and the other Malaysian and the companies have all shut down as a result, leaving 1,246 workers in the lurch.





The companies owe the workers VND2.2 billion (US$129 million) in salaries. Vina Haeng Woon Co.,Ltd tops, with wages owed of VND1.3 billion, followed by Quang Sung Vina with VND553 million.





The companies also owe their customers and the social insurance agency another VND4.8 billion.

VIETNAM:

ILLEGAL STRIKES IN VIETNAM:

The following item is from the LibCom website, a British anarchocommunist site. Over in Vietnam there has been a wave of illegal strikes, carried out unofficially by the workers themselves. Vietnam, like China, is a managerial society where the ruling class- the managers- are attempting to correct some of the irrationalities of their class rule by opening up parts of their economy to investment by other managerial corporations, in the vain hope that this will bring about the corrections of a "free market" to their country and lead to prosperity. A "free market", of course, has its own irrationalities, but the way that this pseudo-transition has been managed in countries such as Vietnam and China leads to some very unique tensions. One is that the loosening of the economy inevitably leads to organization on the part of the working class, the very class that the ruling managers mendaciously claim to represent. The managers are stuck between a desire to maximize their own well-being by "liberalization" and the need to keep a repressive hold on the consequences of such liberalization. Class struggle is often at its most brutal in such transition periods. The official bodies that the ruling class set up prove totally ineffective to protect workers' interests or to mollify rising working class demands.

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Vietnam: 330 illegal strikes in six months:

A total of 330 strikes have been recorded so far this year and all of them were illegal because they were not led by the trade unions and didn’t follow the law, reported the Vietnam National Confederation of Labour at a conference in Hanoi on June 16-17.

The confederation’s Vice Chairman, Mai Duc Chinh, said that under the current regulations, only grassroots trade unions have the right to organise strikes, but this regulation is unrealistic because there is no mechanism to protect trade union leaders and most employers don’t positively cooperate with trade unions.

Most leaders of grassroots trade unions assume many jobs so they don’t have much time for this job. Their skills as trade union leaders are also very poor, Chinh said.

He also said that the rules on compensating companies for losses caused by illegal strikes are unfeasible. For example, a company in HCM City lodged a case with the court but its petition was rejected because it was unable to define the major subject of the lawsuit among 10,000 workers participating in the strike.

Since the amended Labour Code took effect on July 1, 2007, illegal strikes have continued to increase in number.

Under the current law, labourers are not allowed to go on strike in conflicts of rights but must bring the conflict to court. They can go on strike if conflicts of interest are not solved by negotiations. Labourers must compensate their employers if the court finds that their strikes were illegal.

VIETNAMESE LABOUR:

NIKE PLANT REMAINS CLOSED FOLLOWING STRIKE IN VIETNAM:

The struggle for decent working conditions is international. governments that pay lip service to "socialism" (their definition of that term) are just as repressive of workers in their countries as so-called capitalist regimes are. The turn to more "capitalistic" forms of exploitation in many countries still dominated by Marxist dictatorships is a mere change of form that obscures the fact that such thuggish regimes were always class societies from the very second of their birth. the following article from the Libcom site tells of one struggle in the so-called "socialist" country of Vietnam.

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Nike plant remains closed following strike in Vietnam


Following a 17,000 strong strike for higher pay, the Taiwanese-owned plant has locked out workers since Wednesday after violence broke out during the return to work.

The strike began when workers walked out of the Ching Luh factory in the southern Long An province on April 1, demanding a wage increase of 22%. A return to work negotiated by trade union officials after two days saw the majority of workers return to the factory, although the terms agreed to by the union amount to an increase of only 10%.

The chairwoman of the Long An province trade union said, "We persuaded them to come back to work tomorrow, but we are not sure if they will restart working or continue the strike".

Workers returned to the plant on Wednesday, and violence soon broke out following an argument between a former worker and a security guard. Police were called in, and a number of workers are reported to have been beaten.

The negotiated 10% increase agreed between management and union officials has left many workers unsatisfied, and the plant remains closed amid fears of more violence. Groups of workers have distributed a leaflet outside the plant arguing for a continuation of the strike to achieve the full increase of 22%.

Rapidly rising inflation in Vietnam has left many unable to cope with the soaring cost of living, and prices are estimated to have increased 19% since this time last year. These conditions sparked a series of nationwide strikes in 2007, eventually forcing the government to increase the minimum wage for foreign-owned companies by 13%.