Independent report on French nuclear tests
Polynesian activists recently toured Europe to present the results of the independent inquiry into the consequences of French nuclear tests on the Tahitian people. We spoke to Gabriel Tetiarahi, member of the radical non-governmental organisation Hiti Tau • What is the aim of this tour?
We hope to improve our dialogue with funding bodies, evaluate our partnership with them and increase it as part of alternative economic solutions to the economy of the bomb: development of co-operatives for the production of monoi, vanilla etc.).
We'll also be participating in a number of seminars. Finally, we want to publicise the inquiry, inform the public, politicians and political groups. • What are the highlights of this inquiry?
Firstly, that there were children working in Moruroa, the atoll where France carried out its tests. It seems that 10% of workers there were less than 18 years old, including 6% under than 16, working primarily in the subcontracting sector.
Only 48.5% of former workers had a medical examination after leaving Moruroa, as opposed to 92% upon their arrival on the site. Former workers had two desires: the establishment of an independent organisation to defend their right to workplace health and safety, and independent medical research.
The establishment in Tahiti denounced this inquiry. However, it was well reported in the media of the Pacific region. The civil society of Polynesia is thankful to the former workers who broke the wall of silence. The state must now assume its responsibilities. • It can't have been easy producing an independent inquiry...
For a number of years, non-governmental organisations like ours have suffered intimidation and political harassment. The police arrived in our office with shields and batons to demand the list of former workers at Moruroa who testified at the inquiry. No visa of any real duration is granted to foreign visitors. The authorities do not look favourably upon the alternative vanilla and monoi programs which we suggest as an alternative to the "bomb economy."
• Has the change of government in France altered the situation in the Pacific?
One of the changes is that the Pacific is now classified as a "special region." But the main representative of France in the Pacific is still Gaston Flosse, a close friend of President Chirac, and president of the French Polynesian Territory.
The same policy is being carried out as under France's Socialist President François Mitterand. [French foreign policy is controlled by the president, not the government.] A billion francs are given to Flosse annually, without control, without any development projects resulting, unless it's construction in the tourist sector, under the control of multinationals like Lyonnaise des Eaux.
The second development is between France and the United States. The Americans have allowed France to assume a leadership role in the Pacific, probably in exchange for other regions. France has become the primary source of funding for the region.
At the last Pacific Forum in Fiji, we saw a true sell-out. As during the "best" colonial period, France exchanged financial aid for the abandonment of support by these states to indigenous peoples like the Kanaks in New Caledonia and the Maohis here in Polynesia. [Both territories are still colonies ("overseas territories") of France.] In the final declaration, there is not even mention of the future of these peoples and their right to self-determination. Of course the Fijian army trains in Kanaky (New Caledonia). And, here in Polynesia, France is constructing the largest military base in the Pacific, on Hao island. * Interviewer: Laurent Durose/Rouge. Translation: Stuart Russell/Green Left Weekly
INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH AND EDUCATION
Do the workers have a country?
by José Iriarte "Bikila"
• £2.50/$4. Cheque payable to P. Rousset, IRE, Postbus 53290, 1007 Amsterdam, Netherlands.
26 International Viewpoint #296 command of "one, two" of a military commander. The driver explained to us: "A militia group of women workers are undergoing military training." He added: "Life here is quite merry now!" Yes, that is true... At present, it is quite lively, with a thick car traffic, a profusion of electric light, and some 2 000 workers working in Nam Cuong footwear enterprise, a cashew-nut processing factory, and the Daewoo-Vietnam Electronics company. We put some questions to a number of women workers, who were quite young and looked quite skilled: - How long have you been here? - Since the opening of the factory. - Do you like your job? Are the wages good? - I was a peasant, and so I was a bit uneasy with the discipline in the factory. But I am quite used to it now...
"We met a big number of peasant girls in Song Be. They are now factory workers, used to industrial discipline and collective life, always willing to help one another in case of illness or other misfortunes."
(Vietnam Economic Review, #3/4, 1997)
Two strikes involving over 400 workers in the Tan Thuan EPZ on June 24, 1997, marked the first collective protests against exploitation and labour rights violations in the Export Processing Zones. Both strikes took place at 100 per cent Taiwanese-owned factories: a shoe factory, Delphi Co., and the Toan My Co. glove factory. On the morning of June 24, over 200 workers in the tanning workshop at Delphi Co. were involved in a mass walk-out after the second shift
The workers were protesting against the humiliating punishments inflicted by the Taiwanese supervisors, which include verbal and physical abuse, and being forced to line up and wait in the rain for long periods of time. The workers also demanded an end to forced overtime. In the preceding months the management forced the workers in the tanning workshop to work an extra four hours at the end of each shift, with no overtime pay. Anyone refusing to do overtime faces a penalty of 20 000 dong (US$1.80) per day, which is more than a day's wage. Workers caught going to the toilet or resting are fined 50,000 dong (US$4.50) each time, which can lead to deductions of up to half their wages at the end of the month.
The day before the strike at Toan My Co., the director, Duong Duc Hung, issued a communiqué stating that the system of wage payment would be changed before the end of June and any outstanding wages would be left unpaid. More than 200 workers declared strike action to protest these changes, demanding the full payment or wages and collecuve negola- payment of wages and collective negotiation of any changes to the wage system. In response to the strike the newly-created branch of the Ho Chi Minh City Labour Federation established to manage industrial relations in the Tan Thuan EPZ intervened to resolve the dispute. As a result the director agreed to paying the wages
Vietnam outstanding at the end of June in the following month, though a new wages system was introduced without any collective negotiation involving the workers themselves.
Less than a week later, on June 30, more than 600 workers went on strike at Giai Man Co., a Taiwanese-owned picture frame factory located in the Linh Trung EPZ, the second largest EPZ in Vietnam. The strike began at 5 o'clock in the morning, lasting eleven hours. The workers demanded shorter working hours, a decrease in shifts, specific policies to protect the rights and well-being of women workers, a system for the protection of workers' health and safety, and an end to the mistreatment of workers by managers and supervisors. Although the workers went back to work on the morning of July 1, these problems remained unresolved. Despite attempts to organise a union in April, the workers were still unable to form a union ever
Hoon, threatened the workers with dismissal, forcing an end to the strike.
But just as the Dae Yun strike ended, more than 80 workers at Kasvina Co. Ltd., a Korean-owned factory in the Tan Thuan EPZ, began a two-day strike to protest against unpaid wages. The management claimed that they lacked the finances needed to pay workers, insisting that workers should get back to work and be paid later. Local authorities and trade union officials again intervened to end the strike, accusing the workers of failing to
Analysis w There is only one magazine in
• the leaders of France's trade union follow the regulations on strikes. Despite its small scale, local government and trade union officials were particularly sensitive to the Kasvina strike because the factory is located in the Tan Thuan EPZ, representing a revival of workers' protest in the heart of Vietnam's foremost Zone of capitalist industrialisation. *
Sources: Saigon Times Weekly, Thoi Bao Kinh Te Sai
Gon (Saigon Economic Times), Lao Dong (Labour),
Nguoi Lao Dong (The Worker), and Thanh Luu, "The bustling Binh Duong Industrial Zone", Vietnam
Economic Review #3/4, 1997, p.43. ith Attitude the English language where left debate how best to articulate the were still unable to form a union, even after the June 30 strike.
An even bigger protest took place in the same EPZ on October 16, when 930 workers at the Korean-owned shoe factory, Dae Yun Co., began a two-day strike. Workers protested against the refusal of the management to pay allowances for exceeding their quotas in September. The allowance - which increases the pace and intensity of work to meet morters quotas a basic part of monthly - is a basic part of stipulated in their contracts. Despite raising output in each shift for the whole of September, workers were paid less than half the allowance owed to them - losing up to 112 800 dong (US$10.25) each. After the issue was raised on October 14, officials from the Ho Chi Minh City trade union federation for EPZs and IZs intervened. The failure of the trade union officials to deal with the problem led workers to declare a wild-cat strike two days later. However, on October 17, the South Korean deputy director, Kwak Dae International Viewpoint Analysis with attitude!
YOUr NAME new mood of resistance to public sector cuts and unemployment.
• Tahiti's NGO activists explain why they feel Greenpeace marginalised them during the campaign against French nuclear tests.
• Indian activists argue that we shouldn't ban imports on countries with deficient environmental and labour legislation.
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