A friend mentioned to me this morning that she felt we were all “doomed”; that the situation was hopeless. As one of the other blogs today points out, this is the mood that is manufactured by the mass media and that the situation in the US is much more favorable than it appears.
The same globally; last month thousands of Bangladeshi workers fighting for higher wages fought with police and 500 were injured. Here in the US, we hear nothing of this in the mass media. It doesn’t warrant the coverage that some nutcase preacher that wants to burn the Koran gets; it would cheer us up and give us some ideas in the process.
Cambodian workers began a five day walkout on Monday: “The Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union, representing about 40,000 workers, expects about 80,000 people to go on strike seeking a $93 monthly wage -- a 50 percent increase from the $61 agreed in July under a four-year pact between the government and several unions.” Reuters
You can read about the Cambodian strike here in English, and in French here. The French piece is apparently much better. I am informed the strike was settled today but, like those in China and Bangladesh these are very important developments industrial working class power has shifted eastwards. Thanks to Jack G for forwarding this from Italy.
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