Some international supporters of both the striking HK dock workers and the struggles against tar sands development in North America have set up a website to coordinate international solidarity actions and translate information about the strike. The following are (1) a brief overview of the stike, and (2) an explanation of the link to tar sands development they prepared for Earth Day (today). “As we think about the Tar Sands and fight the exploitation of native lands for a few people’s profits, remember Li Ka-Shing, who is one of those few, and the Hong Kong dock workers who also refuse to be exploited for his profit.” “Li Ka-Shing, the world’s 8th richest human being and the man who controls the Hong Kong docks, is not only the man Hong Kong’s dockworkers are fighting — he is also one of the people our anti-tar sand friends in North America need to be targeting…”

“Five hundred dockworkers are facing down the richest man in Hong Kong (and, according to Forbes, eighth-richest in the world) in a strike that has entered its third week and brought transport in the world’s third-busiest port to a virtual halt. Li Ka-shing, the billionaire behind Hongkong International Terminals (HIT), controls more than 70 percent of Hong Kong’s port container traffic and oversees a vast transnational network of enterprises including the oil and gas giant Husky. Arrayed against this financial titan often referred to as “Superman” are dockworkers exhausted by 12-hours shifts lacking even toilet breaks, surviving in one of the world’s most expensive cities on wages that haven’t risen in 15 years, and now waging a labor battle that observers are calling pivotal. The confrontation appears to have tapped a vein of indignation against the “greed economy” and its glaring inequalities, bringing the workers broad public support…” (Two reports on the strike.)

Issue #4 of the web-journal China Left Review is now online. The latest issue is tightly focused on the issue of workers, including general overviews and in-depth original pieces on recent large-scale labor struggles involving SOE workers and migrant workers. This marks the second fully bilingual edition of CLR. Producing an issue in two languages takes a great deal of effort, and if you’d like to help out with translating, revising or writing for future issues, please contact [email protected].

China Strikes is a great new site that maps labor unrest across China. It is easy to add strike reports to the map, and anyone can do that.
http://chinastrikes.crowdmap.com/
About This Site:

The purpose of this site is to track strikes, protests and other collective actions by Chinese workers to defend their rights and interests. We hope that over time the site will serve as a resource to those wishing to better understand and support the labor movement in China.
The categories we use for strikes are based on the type of …

Between May and July of this year a series of high-profile strikes in foreign-owned auto parts plants spread throughout China’s coastal regions. Strikes in China are nothing new, but the recent strike wave was remarkable in at least three respects: the amount of concessions granted to workers; the degree of publicity it initially received in the Chinese media; and the prospects for showcase union reform that it has helped push onto the agenda. Although the strikes were directed primarily at unfair wages, there were some attempts to address the more political question of union representation. Lance Carter visited the Pearl River Delta a few weeks after the last strike ended and was able to meet up with and interview several workers who had participated in the strikes. This article is based largely on those interviews.