There was a lot of press hype and UN-generated publicity about the Fourth World Conference on Women (FWCW) in Beijing and the NGO parallel meeting held in Huairou, one hour from Beijing. The women’s Conference was not the last large UN event in a seemingly endless string of UN conferences, but it just as well could have been. Why such a fuss for a UN event that would probably turn out to be another pointless extravaganza?
EPZs are viewed as union-free zones where workers are exploited and their rights to organise are brutally trampled. But the situation for EPZ workers cannot be truly understood if analysed in isolation of family, society, and the global marketplace. Conditions in the EPZs are a reflection and magnification of universal class and gender problems. Even though women are undervalued in the labour force, their families, governments, and employers benefit from and depend on their low cost (and often free) labour inside and outside the home.
Almost a decade ago, thousands of people died painful deaths when the Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal leaked poisonous gas. The death toll in the world’s worst industrial disaster has reached 16,000 people while half a million more were stricken with incurable illnesses.
As expected, United States President Bill Clinton finally backed down on his pressure on China through the magical Most Favoured Nation diplomacy. China appears to be the victor of this international game. It seems that the Chinese government intended to deliberately embarrass President Clinton by arresting a number of alleged labour activists just prior to the deadline of the MFN renewal.
Developments in China always attract the attention of the world. For the West, China represents a treasure yet to be exploited while at the same time sees it as a tough competitor. Such attitude towards the newly emerged Asian giant is reflected in the United States' current trade policies.
Since the “green revolution," structural adjustment schemes have been prioritised by institutions such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund as suitable measures to provide advantageous solutions to Third World economic and growth management obstacles. The effects of structural adjustment are by no means uniformly beneficial.
Privatisation and ‘‘structural adjustment’’ will be a common phenomenon in two of the largest economies in Asia, China, and India. Presently these two countries are undergoing ambitious economic reforms based on creating a dynamic market economy. Often there is insufficient or callous attention to workers’ interests when the planners of these policies implement the so-called “‘reforms’’.
Is the ICFTU theory back-to-front? Is the so-called New World Order (NWO) in danger of being ‘killed off at birth by casino capitalism’, as the ICFTU maintains? Yes and no.
For the last six months, columnists and editors for many publications around the world have been trumpeting the break in the Cold War as a historic victory for capitalism, and, they say, democracy. The euphoria has at times reached almost juvenile heights, but more disturbing than that is the fact that it seems blind to reality.