A testament to the gospel of globalization

The brutal manner in which a peaceful strike by Cambodian garment workers for higher wages was recently crushed raises serious questions over workers' rights within a neoliberal system and the overweening power of corporate investors. Tom Fawthrop analyses what happened in Phnom Penh.

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A nationwide strike by garment workers, after a week of protest rallies in Phnom Penh, was brutally broken up by a military unit firing live bullets on strikers on 3 January at the Canadia Industrial Area, which includes six South Korean textile factories.

Four workers were shot dead, 39 seriously wounded and 23 have been detained. A shocked Cambodian civil society has denounced the bloodshed as the worst case of repression against unarmed demonstrators in the last 30 years, with unprecedented use of soldiers in an industrial conflict.

Clothing manufacture is Cambodia's largest industrial sector, accounting for some $5 billion per year in exports catering to some of the world's leading high-street brands.

The conduct of the Cambodian government was so outrageous that even international brands likeAdidas, Nike,H&M, Primark,Marks & Spencer,Tescoand Walmart were forced to respond in unprecedented fashion in an open letter to Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen. In the 17 January letter the companies expressed 'grave concern' at the use of deadly force against protesting workers, and called on the Cambodian government to launch a prompt and thorough investigation. The retailers reminded Hun Sen: 'The global garment industry is changing rapidly, and industrial peace is required to rebuild our confidence in the Cambodian garment industry.'

This has added to the many pressures on Hun Sen's government after a closely fought election in 2013 which saw a strong showing by the opposition despite many alleged electoral violations that have still not been resolved.

The opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) has boycotted parliament despite winning an impressive 55 seats, with the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) gaining 68, a loss of 24 seats. The current deadlock between the caretaker government and the CNRP, which is demanding fresh elections, is still unresolved.

Recent attempts by the opposition led by CNRP chief Sam Rainsy to harness garment workers to his campaign to oust Hun Sen have, however, been rejected.

The Workers Information Centre (WIC) had held a meeting on 28 December and discussed with local leaders and workers' activists its concern that the workers' struggle should remain independent of both the CNRP and the CPP. Both parties should respect the independence of the workers' movement.

The right to strike and to form trade unions is guaranteed by the Cambodian constitution. The UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO) has also promoted a 'Better Factories Campaign' as a way of fostering decent working conditions, also setting up a tripartite cooperation mechanism between workers, management and the government.

However, in practice, a Human Rights Watch inquiry found that in one survey 33 out of 55 factory workers who wanted to form independent unions or who were members, were systematically harassed and in many cases fired.

Five years ago, a living wage survey for Cambodia's garment industry conducted by Dr Kang Chandararoth from the Cambodia Institute of Development Study (CIDS) concluded that the workers' minimum wage should have been $90 to $120 per month.

The current effective wage in the garment industry of $79 per month, which includes overtime and other allowances, is not a living wage. Excluding overtime, which is currently being reduced by factories because of the economic slowdown, the average effective wage is $67 per month.

A task force formed by the Ministry of Social Affairs has made the case that wages should now be $157 to $177 per month to meet minimum survival needs, hence the current demand for an increase to $160 a month.

From 26 December until 3 January the strike and protest rallies had been peaceful. Shrek Sophea, a women's and trade union activist from the WIC and a former garment worker, observed that 'the strikers had been singing and dancing and calling out their demand for a $160 wage a month'. So why did it turn out so violent, culminating in the intervention of the Cambodian army on 3 January instead of the normal deployment of police?

South Korean dirty tricks and belligerence

While the big market brands like Gap have been calling on the suppliers and the bosses of garment factories in Cambodia to adhere to ILO standards, it is clear that the South Korean bosses have been displaying a belligerent indifference to the workers' conditions.

South Korean investors own a majority of Cambodia's 500 garment factories that employ about 600,000 people, earning $5 billion a year in exports from big brands like Levi Strauss and Puma. The Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) says losses from recent industrial action had cost its members more than $200 million.

Garment factory workers, union leaders and other activists were protesting outside South Korean company Yakjin's factory when the Cambodian military baton-charged the crowd following a stone-throwing incident prior to the shootings.

A picture taken of a 911 paratrooper at the scene of the violence clearly shows him wearing an armpatch bearing the South Korean flag on his uniform. Such insignia often denotes when a Cambodian soldier has received training overseas. It was the first time that battlefield troops had been deployed on the streets of Phnom Penh to quell the strike.

Why did the Yakjin factory, which supplies Gap, Old Navy, American Eagle and Walmart, receive special protection from an elite unit of the military?

Entries on the Facebook page of the South Korean embassy in Cambodia have furnished compelling clues about some high-level consultations between Seoul and Phnom Penh officials. Australia's ABC TV website reports that the translation from Korean read: 'We contacted the leader of national committee against the terrorism explaining to him about the deep worry for our foreign companies. With these actions, we believe that the Cambodian government accepted our appeals and raised their concerns for our companies.'

The embassy posted this statement explaining that it had appealed to military and counter-terrorism officials to protect Korean factories. 'We believe that these efforts prompted deep consideration from government authorities and prompted them to a rapid response,' the embassy wrote.

The statement was quickly removed after it garnered disparaging comments.

By turning to Cambodia's counter-terrorism committee for a matter requiring 'low-level routine crowd control', Korean officials showed an 'appalling lack of good judgment', the GlobalPost website quoted Carl Thayer, a leading South-East Asia expert and emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales, as saying.

A WikiLeaks document contains mention of 'the National Counter Terrorism Committee Special Forces (NCTCSF)  with Colonel Hun Manet, a 1999 United States Military Academy Graduate, as the commander. Oversight for the manning and structure of the NCTCSF was an international effort between Cambodian, United States, Australian, and South Korean government officials with additional input provided by Japan and Singapore' (http://www.wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/08PHNOMPENH933_a.html).

It is not so surprising, then, that South Korea would lobby high-ranking Cambodian officials and even the country's counter-terrorism agency. However, Cambodia does not face any terrorist threats. South Korea clearly was pulling strings for special treatment for its corporate interests by lobbying its close contacts inside the counter-terrorism unit.

The neoliberal system

Since the UN peacekeeping operation in Cambodia (1991-93) and the introduction of multi-party democracy, the country has become a prime recipient of World Bank policy direction assisted by Asian Development Bank loans and Western aid programmes, all designed to ensure Cambodia's complete adherence to a neoliberal vision of development.

World Bank policies on open markets, private sector domination, no government subsidies, and feeble government funding for vital public sectors such as health and education, have proved attractive to an aid-dependent regime which has been prepared to repress wages to draw foreign investment.

Exploiting garment workers and forcing them to routinely work overtime just to make a bare living at under $80 a month is testament to the gospel of globalisation and the economic misery that it spawns.

In today's globalised corporate control of the developing world, the Cambodian affair makes it clear that it is not only Western governments that can bully and manipulate weak Third World governments. South Korea's corporate managers in Cambodia backed up by Seoul are clearly able to flex their muscle too.      u

Tom Fawthrop is an author, roving reporter and filmmaker. He directed Where Have All the Fish Gone? (Eureka Films), a documentary about the damming of the Mekong River.

*Third World Resurgence No. 281/282, January/February 2014, pp 47-48