Asia-Pacific
Long on Rhetoric, Short on Detail: The Communist Party of Australia and the Hutchison Ports Dispute
The dispute that began in August 2015 with the sacking of 97 dock workers has been resolved. After months of negotiations between Hutchison Ports Australia (HPA) and Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) representatives, a round of voluntary redundancies has occurred and a new enterprise agreement is now in place. The Communist Party of Australia (CPA), has printed its ‘analysis’ of this dispute, an analysis that is short on detail about the final outcome and long on windy rhetoric and Stalinist-style attacks against the so-called “ultra-left”.
Sean Robertson
February 16, 2016
Hutchison Ports Dispute Ends With Dozens of Voluntary Redundancies
The dispute that began on the night of August 6, 2015, when Hutchison Ports Australia (HPA) sacked 97 dockworkers (“wharfies”) by text message and email, has come to an end. So what was the end result of the dispute that some described as ‘the biggest confrontation on the Australian waterfront since the 1998 Patrick lock-out’?
Sean Robertson
January 27, 2016
South Korea: The Fight Against Labor Reform and State Repression
In South Korea on Wednesday, about 80,000 workers from 26 companies including Kia, Hyundai, and GM Korea went on strike. The strike was called for by the KCTU, a national confederation of trade unions, in response to the government’s labor market reforms, escalating repression, and the arrest of KCTU President Han Sang-Gyun less than a week ago.
Tre Kwon
December 17, 2015
A Trotskyist in North Korea
Our author visited the Democratic People's Republic of Korea as a tourist. His question: How does this society function? Is it the Stone Age? Or a cult? Or Dadaist art? A historical-materialist research trip.
Nathaniel Flakin
December 14, 2015
Left Voice launches campaign for 97 sacked Australian dock workers
Supporters of the news website Left Voice have launched a campaign in solidarity with the 97 dock workers employed by Hutchison Ports Australia who were sacked by text message and email on the night of August 6.
Sean Robertson
August 29, 2015
Australia: 97 dock workers sacked by Hutchison Ports remain locked out
After a week of magnificent union and community solidarity with the 97 dock workers sacked by Hutchison Ports Australia, the battle for their reinstatement has gone to court.
Sean Robertson
August 20, 2015
We are Workers: South Korea’s Migrant ‘Machines’
In Seoul, South Korea, members and officers of the Migrants' Trade Union (MTU) enter day 22 of a sit-in protest at the Ministry of Labor to denounce local authorities' refusal to issue the union legal recognition just weeks after the Supreme Court affirmed unionization rights for all migrant workers. The following is a conversation with MTU President Udiya Rai, who discusses the MTU's current demands, the South Korean government's anti-migrant policies, the relationship between migrant workers and Korean labor, and more.
Left Voice
August 17, 2015
Australia: Almost 100 dock workers sacked by Hutchison Ports
On August 6, at half an hour before midnight, almost 100 dock workers received text messages on their mobile telephones asking them to check their emails. These members of the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) unsuspectingly logged on to their accounts only to find out that Hutchison Ports Australia had sacked them all by email.
Sean Robertson
August 13, 2015
Maritime Union of Australia elections: continuity and change
The Quadrennial Elections of the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) have just been finalised, with newly elected officials taking office on July 1. The election results in the union which covers the economically strategic areas of shipping, stevedoring and the offshore oil and gas industry were a real mixed bag. The Maritime Union and its predecessor unions have had a long association with Communism, an association which has left behind a contradictory legacy.
Sean Robertson
July 22, 2015