Monthly Archives: December 2016

Following the death of King Bhumibol, his son Maha Vajiralongkorn has become the new King of Thailand. Amid an atmosphere of social repression and military dictatorship, the new era has not seen any change. Jatuphat Boonpattaraksa was arrested and accused of Lese Majeste the day after the coronation for a […]

The Australian Federal Court this week awarded AUD $220,000 in damages to the Aboriginal community of Palm Island in Queensland, Australia, for being subjected to racial discrimination. The judgement was against both the Government of Queensland and its police force in relation to the police actions in 2004 on Palm […]

A new report detailing how Burma’s political and economic integration with the global capitalist system is leading to a huge expansion in its garment sector. There are at least 350 garment factories in Burma and like the other major garment centres of the world such as Cambodia and Bangladesh, conditions […]

At the end of November, the Australian Senate passed a new amended version of the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC). The ABCC is an anti union law that is directly aimed at one of the most powerful unions in Australia, the CFMEU and its officials. The ABCC restricts the […]

Faremo International was a garment factory in the Philippines Cavite Export Processing Zone near Manila. It announced that it was closing and relocating to lower wage countries though orders were still coming in. The decision by the company was part of an ongoing offensive against its nearly 1,000 strong workforce […]

The economy of the central Asia republic of Uzbekistan relies heavily on cotton with hundreds of thousands of workers coerced into the annual harvest. While international campaigns have led to a decrease in the number of children being gang pressed for the harvest, the numbers have been taken up by […]

The vicious and brutal ‘war on drugs’ that President Duterte unleashed (see here and here), since the start of his Presidency, continues to ravage Filipino working class communities. In the first five months of his rule, the number of people killed in this campaign has now reached 5,000, whether from […]

The embattled and scandal ridden government of President Park Geun-hye attempted to stop the planned general strike by Korean workers by declaring any strike action by workers as illegal. On the 30 November, over 200,000 workers demonstrated in central Seoul in a strong and defiant protest against the continuing attempts […]

In the last few weeks there have been huge demonstrations by far right Islamic groups calling for the resignation of Jakarta’s governor, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, or Ahok, for blasphemy. While the demonstrations on the 4 November and on the 2 December, saw hundreds of thousands of working class people take […]

After the election in the USA, and witnessing the rise of the far right in Australia, the union movement – and particularly union rank and file members – need to take a lead in the fight against racism. Trades Hall has partnered with a number of unions and community groups […]