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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.

The Asian Roundtable on Social Protection (AROSP) Network's periodic newsletter on social protection issues in Asia.

The AMRC Social Protection Newsletter is a bulletin that provides updates about the struggles, campaigns, and other activities related to social protection. It is prepared and publish by AMRC.

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.

Proceeding on social protection South Asia parnter conference in Dec, 2014

ILO’s Social Protection initiative articulates the need for a social protection as follows:

 “The rapidly growing interconnectedness of global financial, product and labour markets poses new challenges for the maintenance or enhancement of social justice. In a world in which financial and economic crises in any region are highly contagious and their effects on labour markets and social welfare spread rapidly, the capacity of individuals to cope alone with economic risks is less effective than before. The global social risks associated with pandemics and the expected effects of climate change have a similar impact on the levels of individual social protection. National social protection systems need to be stronger than ever to neutralize additional systemic global risks. The risks and opportunities inherent in globalization require effective social protection.”[1]

However, the ILO social protection does not propose any measures to reduce these risks; rather it focuses only on contingencies and proposes to offers a minimum kind of safety covers to help people survive. This clearly indicates that ILO tries to convince us that there is no alternative to this anti-people politico-economic regime and the socio-economic and environmental disasters that it brings, the only thing that can be done is to extend some help to the people during contingencies so that they survive and remain in the labour market. This is also in the line with broader perspective on informal sector workers, where in the focus is not on helping them to make their livelihoods sustainable, but only on extending them some safety cover to help them survive as the reserve army of labour. This is fully in line with new strategies of profit maximization in the new international division of labour shaped in the global value chains.

The real concerns of the social protection initiatives of UN and the ILO are more visible in the following statements:

“National Social Protection Floors are a social and political necessity, a minimum of income protection is the material basis for the functioning of families and households which, in turn, provide the basis for social cohesion that is pivotal for the functioning of societies and states. Without a minimum of social protection and material protection, the commitment of a major part of society to a democratic state will be at risk and with it the protection of all. This was also acknowledged by, among others, the World Bank which, in its 2005 World Development Report, made the case that poverty is a risk to protection and lack of protection can sully the investment climate.”[2]

The above statement makes it clear that the real concern behind the social protection initiatives are not the wellbeing of the people, but the wellbeing of the capital and the state. The globalization and liberalization are worsening the conditions to the extent that it is crossing all the limits, and if something is not done, it may very soon force the emergence of anti-capital volcanic movements and revolts. This is the real danger for the transnational capitalist class and it is the real concern behind the social protection initiatives. This is why, social protection initiatives are more focused to show and convince the people that the state and the capital are concerned for them. Therefore, as in case of CSR, the emphasis of social protection initiatives is also more on ‘appear to be doing’ rather than ‘actually doing’. Because ‘actually doing’ is very costly; and effectively ‘appear to be doing’ reduces the costs and at the same time effectively manipulates the consent of the people and minimizes the discontent. This may be seen in ILO and UN praising the efforts of some developing countries like India towards achieving universal coverage of social protection. Take the example of well praised achievements in case of old age pensions in India. Firstly, the old age pension is only for the below poverty line old age people and not for all. It is also very well established that the determination and listing of poverty line people is done in such a way that large number of poor actually living below poverty line are not taken in to account. And what is actually offered under old age pension is not even sufficient for one meal every day. Is it not shameful that ILO and UN praise such pension scheme? Another example is the Unorganized Workers Social Protection Act. Apparently it looks promising, but actually it is also the strategy of ‘appear to be doing’ rather than ‘actually doing’. There are serious problems in the act itself, and on the other hand, practically this act is only on the paper, without any budget and without any implementation machinery.

Recognising that economies in Asia are developing very fast, there is a considerably widening gap in terms of income as indicated by the Gini coefficients per country. For example, in most of the countries including Laos and Vietnam the income gap has been widening while the economy grows. Aside from increasing informalisation of jobs, there are also other indicators indicating that the labor situation has not improved in the last decade. It is true that poverty in Asia is decreasing but relative poverty has been increasing which means that the income gap in society has become more serious. There are more self-employed and own account workers and more women than men in these categories. The situation of women is relatively worse than men in the informal economy because they have no voice and visibility particularly in   decision making processes.  Aside from increasing precarious work, the marginalised informal workers also suffer from privatisation of public goods. Increasing occupational risks comprise another difficulty faced by informal workers.

The Asian Roundtable on Social Protection (AROSP) meeting for Southeast Asian partners happened in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on 27-28 June 2014. It intends to consolidate the AROSP partners’ network in Southeast Asia towards the strengthening of the social protection advocacy in the region. It was attended by 30 participants (14 women and 16 men) representing workers’ organisations in different Southeast Asian countries including Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Social problems are raging across Asia, a region deemed the world’s global economic locomotive. Poverty is high and pervasive amidst so much wealth for a few. In fact, inequality is deepening everywhere, within and across countries. Joblessness and near-joblessness are widespread. And majority of those who have jobs are trapped in precarious work arrangements and hostile working conditions.

On July 4-5, 2012 AMRC organized Southeast Asia Sub Regional Workshop in Bangkok. The workshop involved 16 groups from Southeast Asia. As a continuation of AMRC last three year program on informal workers organiizing and collective bargaining, the meeting focused on elements of sustainable organization.

The following attachment is a report of a workshop wich was co-organized by AMRC and partner in Central Java Province, Indonesia. The workshop was aimed at structuring experiences in organizing workers in informal economy such as waste pickers and fishermen into a training manual.

The 3 rd Asian Regional Round Table on Social Security was organised in Chiang Mai on 24-25 Aug 2011, jointly by Asia Monitor Resource Center (AMRC), the Faculty of Economics, Chiang Mai University; Hong Kong; Center for Social Policy Studies, Department of Applied Social Sciences; The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong; and Hong Kong Social Security Society (HKSSS).

The following attachment is the proceeding report of AMRC regional meeting on informal workers' organizing and collective bargaining in Bangkok on October 17-19, 2011. The meeting concluded three-year project on New Ways of Organizing. In this meeting, the groups exchanged their experiences in solving problems and barriers encountered in organizing and exercising collective bargaining strategies.

This is a collection of papers from the Third Asian Regional Roundtable on Social Security (AROSS 2011). The Roundtable aims to arouse interests in the issue of social security in Asia, to facilitate exchange and debates between all stakeholders including academics, NGOs and trade unions, and to chart out a concrete roadmap towards social security for all in Asia.

Since 2008 the Labour Contract Law has been implemented by the Chinese government to strengthen workers’ rights and regulate the increasingly unstable labour relations in the country. However, this initiative did not help forestall a new slew of strikes while China is on its path of economic recovery from the global recession.  Consequently, the Chinese government has recently been compelled to come up with new attempt to pacify the disgruntled workers by trying to strengthen the workplace collective bargaining mechanism.

The following attachment is a report of a workshop wich was co-organized by AMRC and partner in Central Java Province, Indonesia. The workshop was aimed at structuring experiences in organizing workers in informal economy such as waste pickers and fishermen into a training manual.