http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=432007&version=1&template_id=45&parent_id=25
Thousands march for May Day across Asia
Demonstrators in Manila and other major cities demand improved wages and an end
to the policy of sending workers overseas
Publish Date: Monday,2 May, 2011, at 02:34 AM Doha Time
Activists burn an effigy of Philippine President Benigno Aquino during
the Labour Day protest in Manila yesterday. Filipino militant workers sent
their highest salute to the working people of the world and in the country,
during the 125th celebration of International Labour Day
Thousands of people took to the streets across Asia yesterday, marking May Day
from Indonesia to South Korea with demands for better rights and wages for
workers facing soaring living costs.
Several thousand marched in Hong Kong in a noisy procession calling for
stronger labour laws, even as the city best known as a glitzy financial hub
introduced the first ever minimum wage for its legions of low-paid workers.
At least 4,000 people processed through the downtown area of the densely
populated city, banging cymbals and drums in protest against fast-rising rents
and food prices and shouting: "Put an end to worker exploitation!"
Some carried giant images of the tycoons who dominate the city's economy, with
bloodstained vampire fangs drawn on.
Most workers in the southern Chinese territory are now entitled to at least HK
$28 ($3.60) an hour. Unions hailed the measure as a step forward but said more
is needed for the hundreds of thousands on low incomes.
"Workers should be able to share society's fruits of labour," said Stanley Ng,
chairman of the Federation of Trade Unions.
In Seoul at least 50,000 workers gathered to chant slogans calling for higher
pay and better job security and to slam the conservative administration, with
thousands of police deployed to the largely peaceful demonstrations. "Our
livelihood has been ruined by anti-labour policies, rising unemployment and a
widening wealth gap for the past three years under (President) Lee Myung-Bak,"
the Korean Federation of Trade Unions said in a statement. Protesters
criticised labour laws they said had made job cuts easier, with one -- his face
painted with mock tears of blood -- holding a sign saying: "I knew it was
coming."
In the much poorer Philippines, thousands of demonstrators in Manila and other
major cities demanded improved wages and an end to the policy of sending
workers overseas. Nine million Filipinos are estimated to work abroad.
"For the past several years, the government has always made a show of holding
Labour Day job fairs. But why do many Filipinos still go overseas to look for
greener pastures, even at their own risk?" said Vencer Crisostomo, chairman of
the group Anakbayan.
"It's because these job fairs do not solve the problem of low wages in locally
based jobs."
President Benigno Aquino in a Labour Day message rejected accusations he had
failed on a campaign promise to raise living standards. "Those who are telling
you that lasting changes can be made overnight or in a month are only pulling
your leg... What is clear is that we are headed to real, significant changes,"
he said.
Protesters in Indonesia called for better social security, turning out in their
thousands -- with some 10,000 security personnel in attendance -- to shout
slogans such as "the country is rich but the people are poor". Demonstrators at
the peaceful rally carried a coffin covered with a black cloth bearing the
slogan "The death of justice" as they called for lifelong health insurance and
a pension fund. "There is no social justice for Indonesians without social
security," said a statement from more than 60 labour unions.
In Taiwan, where presidential elections are due in January 2012, more than
3,000 blue-collar workers protested the island's widening wealth gap, with
labour groups urging voters to express their discontent at the ballot box.
"Over the past three years ... the number of the poor has increased, while the
rich have paid less tax," protest leader Wang Jung-chang told a rally in
Taipei, calling the protest a "warning" to President Ma Ying-jeou.
The Asian Development Bank warned last week that tens of millions of Asians
could be pushed into extreme poverty this year and the region's economic growth
dented by skyrocketing global food and oil prices. Domestic food inflation in
developing Asian nations hit 10% at the start of this year, with double-digit
rises in the price of wheat, corn, sugar, edible oils, dairy products and meat,
the Manila-based institution said. AFP
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