By Jack Mahoney

Ex-workers demand Nike pay them owed dues at a rally in Honduras, June 12, 2010.

UPDATE: New York Times story on the victory

The CGT union in Honduras announced that it reached an agreement with Nike on behalf of the 1,800 former workers who sewed Nike college apparel at the factories Hugger de Honduras and Vision Tex.  One year and six months after the factories closed and failed to pay $2.5 million in severance to the workers, and after a United Students against Sweatshops (USAS) campaign severed Nike contracts with universities for the first time ever, workers and USAS forced Nike to agree to everything they had been demanding. Ex-workers demand Nike pay them what they’re owed at a rally in Honduras, June 12, 2010.

According to the joint announcement from the CGT and Nike, Nike will pay $1.5 million in a cash settlement plus a year of health insurance, and will give priority hiring and training to the 1,800 affected workers.  This is a total victory for USAS student activists across the continent and for the courageous garment workers who kept the heat on Nike on the ground in Honduras.

This is a watershed moment for USAS and the anti-sweatshop movement.  Ever since the 1990s, when Nike led the race to the bottom that produced shocking sweatshop headlines, the sportswear giant has refused to acknowledge responsibility for worker abuses at its subcontracted supplier factories where workers actually cut and sew Nike products.

Today that era is over.  Nike’s full payment of the severance owed to workers at these contracted supplier factories sets an unmistakable precedent:  Apparel corporations will be held accountable for workers’ rights in their supply chain.  No more excuses.

Banner dropped from roof the Niketown in Portland, 1st May 2010

Just months ago Nike dishonestly asserted, “no collegiate licensed product was made in either Vision Tex or Hugger,” and stubbornly swore, “Nike will not be paying severance to workers that were employed by Hugger and Vision Tex.”  Surprisingly, Nike has left those statements on its website here (but just in case they get embarrassed and remove that page, USAS will archive it here).

Nike only became more honest and finally came to this agreement after major economic pressure levied by students campaigning to end their universities’ lucrative contracts with Nike.  Students at the University of Wisconsin made their school the first ever to terminate a contract with Nike over worker rights violations, and Cornell University students fought on into the summer months to finally get a decision to end their school’s contract with Nike as well.

Today’s victory is the first major USAS victory over Nike.  In 2001, USAS fought in solidarity with the workers of Kukdong, a Nike supplier in Mexico, and the campaign won recognition for the first independent union in the maquila industry in Mexico.

The Worker Rights Consortium — the only independent organization monitoring factories producing college apparel — played a major role investigating Nike’s violations, producing several comprehensive reports for their affiliate universities.  Students used the reports to illustrate how Nike had violated universities’ codes of conducts and to compel universities to take action and cut contracts with Nike.

Noticeably absent from the field in this sweatshop skirmish was the Fair Labor Association, a notoriously weak-kneed factory monitoring organization created by Nike and other brands with the Clinton administration. While the FLA’s persistent attempts to exonerate apparel companies for wrongdoing has significantly delayed and disrupted workers getting justice in past cases, their absence and refusal to hear out complaints brought by workers led to a speedy and fair resolution.

The most recent Nike victory also comes within a year of the USAS victory with Honduran unionists who work for Fruit of the Loom, the largest private employer in Honduras.  USAS activists orchestrated the largest collegiate boycott of a single company in history, with over 100 universities cutting ties to Fruit’s Russell Athletic.  Fruit entered into a truly historic agreement with workers’ union.  With these back-to-back victories, student-labor activism is reaching new heights.

More photos can be seen here

Originally published on United Students Against Sweatshops

Press release from INQUEST

Today’s decision by the Director of Public Prosecutions not to bring any criminal charges over the death of Ian Tomlinson follows a line of previous decisions when police conduct has resulted in death or serious injury and no charges were brought.

Ian Tomlinson died on 1 April 2009 in the context of a heavily-policed and high profile demonstration that generated significant public interest. The failure of the Independent Police Complaints Commission to initiate an independent investigation until seven days after the death, on 8 April 2009, led to the potential for the loss, suppression and/or distortion of crucial forensic evidence in the ‘golden hours’ following Mr Tomlinson’s death. This repeats a pattern in previous contentious deaths following police contact where the death has not been treated from the outset as a potential homicide. INQUEST believes there should be an inquiry into the role of the City of London Police, the coroner, the pathologist and the IPCC, who have all played a part in ensuring no charges were able to be brought.

Responding to the decision, Ian Tomlinson’s son Paul King said,

“After 16 months of waiting, to hear nothing is being done is a complete joke. Today they gave us no hope. This experience has broken our family apart. The DPP has told us there was an unlawful act, yet no charges are to be brought. This is no justice – everyone has failed us.”

Deborah Coles, Co-Director of INQUEST, said:

“The eyes of the world will be looking on with incredulity as yet again a police officer is not facing any criminal charges after what is one of the most clear-cut and graphic examples of police violence that has led to death. This decision is a shameful indictment of the way police criminality is investigated and demonstrates a culture of impunity when police officers break the law. It follows a pattern of cases that reveal an unwillingness to treat deaths arising from the use of force by police as potential homicides. It demonstrates yet again the flawed procedures that follow contentious deaths involving the police and stands as testament to their unaccountability.”

The family’s solicitor, Jules Carey, said:

“The CPS decision is a disgrace. They have accepted the officer’s conduct is unlawful, but have determined not to prosecute him for anything. We shall examine this decision and challenge it if possible. There must be an inquiry into whether the failure to charge is a lack of competence or of will.”

Southwark Trade Union Council presents: Southwark Unites against the Emergency Budget at the Salvation Army Community Church Hall, 1 Princess Street, London SE1 6HH on Monday 19th July 2010 at 7pm.

The Coalition Government have declared war against working people and the poor. Despite attempts to dress up the budget as “progressive”, independent economists have given it a damning verdict.

Join the fight for our rights and collective interests and get involved

At The Multicultural Politic, we applaud all those who were involved in the campaign to save Sakine Mohammadi Ashtani, a 43 year old woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery today, as it appears that the Iranian Government has responded to the international outcry by reviewing her death sentence. Her life has been saved by all those who participated whether on Twitter or old fashioned petitions and letter writing, you are all heroes. We now publish here an Amnesty International appeal for a Nigerian prisoner, Patrick Okoroafor may his campaign also receive similar attention.

Patrick Obinna Okoroafor was 14 when he was arrested in 1995 and has now been in prison for 15 years – half of his lifetime.

Patrick was initially sentenced to death for robbery. In 2001, when a Nigerian High Court judgement declared his death sentence to be illegal, his sentence was changed to one of indefinite detention ‘during the pleasure of the governor’ of Imo State. On 29 May 2009, after campaigning by Amnesty International, Patrick’s sentence was reduced to 10 years imprisonment, starting immediately.

If Patrick completes his sentence he will have spent a total of 24 years in prison – for a crime he says he did not commit. Besides Patrick’s age at the time of arrest, there were many irregularities in his trial and subsequent detention. He also alleges that he was tortured. Amnesty is calling for his immediate release.

Send an appeal to the Nigerian authorities now

View clips and photo galleries of activists campaigning for Patrick on the Protect The Human website

At The Multicultural Politic, we support campaigns against discrimination everywhere and anywhere in the world. Across Europe and especially in Hungary and Slovakia, the global recession has strengthened far-right parties and fascist groups. The Gypsy and Roma people have been at the front line of persecution and discrimination especially by these groups in Eastern Europe.

by Ulrike Schmidt & Justin Baidoo

Magyar Garda - The Fascist "Hungarian Guard"

The rise of right extremist and fascist parties and organisations in some European countries, particularly in Hungary have brought a sharp increase in violent attacks on Roma people. Often these attacks occur after a meeting or demonstration of fascist organisations like Magyar Garda or the “Hungarian Guard”.

The attacks often involve shootings of random Roma people and firebombing of houses. In this racist crime wave, very rarely are the attackers brought to justice, which might not be coincidental as one trade union of police officers has affiliated itself to the Jobbik Party and called in their newsletter for war against Gypsis and Jews. Ketrin Balogh and her mother Maria Balogh were attacked in their home at night and shot. Maria died, her 13 year old daughter Ketrin survived with severe injuries which might never heal. Amnesty International Hungary is running a solidarity campaign for Ketrin.

In Italy, the right-wing coalition government headed by Silvio Berlusconi has put forward a plan to fingerprint all Roma children, which has been criticised by the European Parliament and UNICEF. A few weeks after announcing these plans Italian citizens are photographed sun-bathing near the dead bodies of two drowned Roma girls. With Italy also legalising far-right militias, attacks on Roma and Gypsy people continue to take place, by forced evictions by authorities as well as vigilante violence. This problem goes as far as the United Kingdom as we shouldn’t forget the brutal attacks by Irish Neo Nazis on Roma people in Belfast a year ago.

This Friday 9th July, In London, Amnesty Hackney & Islington and Amnesty Waltham Forest Presents:

“Romani Dreams” - An evening devoted to Romani culture, also highlighting the recent rise of violence against Roma people in Europe.

A night of Refreshments, poetry, music, debate and film

Venue: Amnesty International UK , Human Rights Action Centre, 17‐25 New Inn’s Yard, London EC2A 3EA

Speakers :

Kate Allen – Director of Amnesty International
Ognyan Stanchev – Roma Rights Advocate
Alex Jagger – AI/UK co‐ordinator for Central Europe
Barbora Cernusakova – Researcher for Amnesty International IS
Weyman Bennett – Joint Secretary, Unite Against Fascism

A news report about the rise of the Hungarian Guard:

Nine protesters who shut down Aberdeen airport in March last year have been found guilty of breach of the peace. The charges were significantly reduced over the course of the two week trial, with all vandalism charges being dropped.

The jury in Aberdeen – the oil capital of Europe, were the first to hear evidence from climate scientists on the need for action since the failure of the Copenhagen talks.

The nine are celebrating their victory in showing that peaceful protest is a necessary and legitimate way to take the action needed on climate change. Expert witnesses gave evidence on the desperate need for more radical emissions targets and called for the actions of ordinary people to prevent greenhouse gas emissions before its too late. These statements were unchallenged by the procurator fiscal after Judge Colin Harris referred to the overwhelming scientific agreement that climate change is anthropogenic.

Dr Geoff Meaden, expert in biogeography and coastal hazards, who was also a key witness in Greenpeace’s precedent Kingsnorth six case, decried government inaction;

“At present I see little evidence that governments at all levels are taking sufficient action on climate change. Therefore, like those who have committed civil disobedience in the past I believe that groups such as Plane Stupid must take every opportunity to bring the urgency of climate change to the public attention.”

The court watched video evidence from the protest in which defendant Dan Glass stated;

“This is not a media stunt, this is about stopping carbon emissions. We want to close the airport for as long as possible; to stop C02 emissions as they are dangerous; to stop airport expansion; to highlight the social disparity between those who cause the problems and those who suffer the impacts.”

In the face of trumped up charges by the state, which barrister Frank Gallagher described as ‘complete and utter overkill’ the nine defendants have received statements of support from all over the world. These included documentary film-maker John Pilger, villagers displaced by climate induced flooding in India, faith leaders, public health experts, grandparents, and most recently from Michael Mansfield QC.

Speaking after the trial, another of defendants Tilly Gifford said:

“We set out to show in court that policies such as the aviation white paper contradict what the science demands. Now that the court has heard expert witnesses testify to the imperative need to cut emissions, they are mandated to prosecute the real criminals, the corporations who are profiting from polluting.”

From the texts I got last night, it appears a lot of my English friends are all Ghanaians now with the disgraceful crashing out of the Capello’s men. England is going home, unsurprising when England failed to beat Algeria, it was a harbinger of worse things to come. The millionaire footballers failed to deliver and Sunny Hundal, editor of Liberal Conspiracy tweeted last night:

England today destroyed right-wing meme that more incentives means people work harder. Cut footballers & boardroom pay!

That tired meme favoured by ideologues of the Right can be summarised further:

It isn’t for anyone to decide wages, laissez-faire capitalism: the market knows best.

This idea has covered multitude of sins from England’s poor World Cup campaign to the greatest recession for 70 years, and once again this meme has exposed to be far from a “truism” but instead a pernicious fallacy.

In 1998 the average yearly wage of a Premiership footballer was £190,000 after a period of getting intensely relaxed about the filthy rich, in 2010 it is now £1.4 million. Therefore you could expect that the England team of today are at least twice (if not 9 times) as good as the England team that led the France ‘98 World Cup campaign. It clearly doesn’t add up.

Capitalism promotes the idea that return on investment must be made as quickly as possible and so footballers rather than being nurtured and cultivated are being bought and sold as mere commodities across the globe. This concept has been extended to football clubs, and ownership has passed around without discrimination, from exiled and corrupt billionaires to debt-ridden American businessmen, the Premiership has already bankrupted more than a few football clubs with the promise of more to keep financial administrators busy. This all happens while millionaire footballers, conspire to avoid paying tax in the country that has enriched them.

The marriage of business and football has long been a tradition in FIFA, but in the Premiership it has brought collosal debt, extortionate match ticket prices, a high turnover of managers and players, and the WAG phenomenon.

However the footballing loving public aren’t taking it lying down completely, there are World Cup alternatives and a supporter-led fightback in Manchester United, supporter-owned teams such as Barcelona point to a better sustainable future for football fans, though Spain isn’t immune to big business football.

Meanwhile in the World Cup, Argentina footballing legend and current Argentina manager Maradona is inspiring and getting the best out of his highly paid players, but those who support capitalism in football must answer this question, can Mammon do the same?

This is painful but important to watch, Diane Abbott struggles to answer very tough questions from Andrew Neil on the “This Week” sofa last night.

It was indeed very harsh and caught Diane unaware which has led some to claim foul play. I can’t say it is unfair for legitimate political questions to be asked on a topical political programme.

Watch:

Will she survive this to win the Leadership election?

Some political commentators are already predicting she’ll need to be getting another taxi.

Hat/Tip: Paul Waugh

Buses also leaving from across Toronto: http://wp.me/sVzSF-buses.

Thai Lese Majeste laws criminalises the ability to criticise the King

From South Eastern Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA):

Thailand’s Cabinet approved on 15 June 2010 the creation of an online crime agency that will go after violators of the Kingdom’s lese majeste law, media reports said.

Agence France-Presse quoted the government as saying that the Bureau of Prevention and Eradication of Computer Crime was established to protect the royal family.

“The monarchy is crucial for Thai national security because it is an institution that unifies the entire nation,” government spokesman Watchara Kanikar said.

Insulting the King or members of the royal family is a criminal offense in Thailand, carrying a 15-year prison term. Under Article 112 of the country’s Criminal Law, anyone can file a lese majeste complaint against anyone seen as having defamed the Kingdom’s highly-revered monarch and the royal family.

The Computer Crime Act, a law enacted in 2007, carries a five-year prison term and a fine of THB100,000 for anyone found guilty of online defamation, including lese majeste.

The formation of this new agency came at the heels of the months-long Red Shirt protest, its violent dispersal last month and the subsequent rioting in the capital.

The Thai government extended on 6 June 2010 the State of Emergency over Bangkok, empowering the Thai military to restore order and allow the government to impose curfews, ban public gatherings of more than five people, censor and ban media from disseminating news that ’causes panic.’ According to a report by the Associated Press, the measure also “also allows security officials to detain suspects without charge for up to 30 days”.

According to Chiranuch Premchaiporn, webmaster of the independent news website Prachatai, the CRES has announced it has shut down 2,200 websites deemed to be violating the Computer Crime Act since the State of Emergency was imposed in April this year.