Geography 484

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• Geography 484
• Southeast Asia
• Jim Glassman
• Lecture 6a
• October 8, 2008

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Inequalities in Southeast Asian development

• Urban-rural inequalities
• Disparities of wealth and income within the city
• Disparities in wealth and income between men and
  women

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Social struggles as aspects of uneven development

• Rural social struggles
• Over urban bias of development
• Over destruction of livelihoods (access to
  land/resources) through rapid urban growth
• Urban social struggles
• Over wages and working conditions (exploitation
  and workplace environment)
• Over democratization
• Social struggles as social-environmental

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History of Thai social struggles

• 1911 General strike by Chinese workers Thai
  state bans secret societies
• 1932 Civilian-military coup abolishes absolute
  monarchy, establishes parliament
• 1930s Labor groups support civilian faction of
  coup group, but are outlawed
• 1939-44 Thai government, led by military
  faction, sides with Japan in WWII
• 1944-47 Civilian group regains power, supports
  labor and peasant organizations
• 1947 Military group sponsors coup, represses
  civilian group and labor organizations

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• 1947-57 US supports anti-communist government of
  Phibun Songkhram
• 1950s Communist Party of Thailand begins
  recruitment, attracts little support
• 1957-58 Successive coups establish regime of
  Sarit Thannarat, labor unions banned
• 1958-73 US-backed military dictatorships under
  Sarit and Thanom Kittakachorn
• 1965 First Communist Party military operation in
  rural areas of Thailand
• 1972 Labor unions legalized, wave of strikes
• 1973 Thanom pushed from power by student-led
  popular uprising, supported by King

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• 1973-76 Democratic period, much popular
  agitation by students, peasants, workers
• 1974-75 Assassination of peasant leaders
• 1975 First NGOs authorized by Thai government to
  pull support away from Communists
• 1976 Coup, supported by King, restores military
  dictatorship, unions repressed
• 1976-78 Communist Party gains new recruits
• 1978 New Thai military regime declares amnesty
  for Communist deserters
• 1979 Chinese Communist Party abandons Thai
  Communist Party
• 1979-82 Thai Communist Party collapses

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• 1987 Economic boom (triggered by Japanese
  investment) begins
• 1988 Deadly mudslides trigger ban on logging
• 1988 First non-military government since 1976,
  led by Chartchai Choonhavan
• 1991-92 Military coup overthrows Chartchai
  government but is forced to step down
• 1991 Military leaders ban state enterprise
  unions ban upheld by civilian government
• 1990-97 Despite union repression, increasing
  numbers of strikes by workers
• 1990s Increasing struggle by villagers over
  natural resources (forests, rivers, etc.)

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• 1996 Assembly of the Poor brings together
  villagers, workers, NGOs
• 1997-2000 Economic crisis/restructuring
  intensify struggles between popular forces and
  state
• 2001 Thai Rak Thai Party elected in rejection of
  Democrats, structural adjustment

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Definition of sweatshops

• A workplace where workers are subject to
• extreme exploitation, including the absence of a
  living wage or benefits
• poor working conditions, such as health and
  safety hazards
• arbitrary discipline
• Source Sweatshop Watch, http//www.sweatshopwatch
  .org/

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Discussion questions

• Do sweatshops help or hinder development/equality?
  
• Do sweatshops (and/or industrialization more
  generally) improve womens opportunities and
  social position?

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Sweatshops as development...

• Mongkol mentioned that his daughter, Darin, was
  15 Shes working in a factory in Bangkok.
  Shes making clothing for export to America. He
  explained that she was paid 2 a day for a
  nine-hour shift, six days a week Its dangerous
  work, Mongkol added How terrible, we
  murmered, sympathetically Mongkol looked up,
  puzzled. Its good pay, he said. I hope she
  can keep that job Nothing captures the
  difference in mind-set between East and West more
  than attitudes toward sweatshops

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• Protests against sweatshops and the dark forces
  of globalization that they seem to represent have
  become common at meetings of the World Bank and
  the World Trade Organization and, this month, at
  a World Economic Forum in AustraliaYet
  sweatshops that seem brutal from the vantage
  point of an American sitting in his living room
  can appear tantalizing to a Thai laborer getting
  by on beetlesFourteen years ago, we moved to
  Asia and began reporting there. Like most
  Westerners, we arrived in the region outraged by
  sweatshops. In time, though, we came to accept
  the view supported by most Asians that the
  campaign against sweatshops risks harming the
  very people it is intended to help. For beneath
  their grime, sweatshops are a clear sign of the
  industrial revolution that is beginning to
  reshape Asia

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• As a Chinese proverb goes, First comes the
  bitterness, then there is sweatness and wealth
  and honor for 10,000 years.
• Nicholas D. Kristoff and Sheryl WuDunn, New York
  Times Magazine, September 24, 2000

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Sweatshops as degradation...

• If you were to ask industrial workers just
  what, exactly, is subsidizing the rapid growth of
  Thailands industry, many would say expansion,
  aggressively pursued by the government as a road
  toward prosperity, expansion that is, however,
  based on industrial workers blood, sweat, lungs
  and countless tears.

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• My life has been worse than death, said
  Karakate Puangjampee, a former textile factory
  worker. Ms. Karakate began to suffer from fever
  and acute asthma a few months after joining a
  plant as a cotton-spinning machine washer. She
  slipped into a coma after a yearAn X-ray showed
  both her lungs were filled with cotton particles.
  She lost 70 percent of her lungs to the disease,
  known as byssinosis, and now becomes easily
  exhausted

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• I had to quit my job. I had no money to
  support my family. When I sought the maximum
  five-years compensation, the official told me it
  was too much. He said such an amount was given
  only to those who had become bed-ridden. Since I
  could still eat and walk, I was not qualified. I
  was speechless. Why couldnt they see that what
  I had lost, I had lost for life? Part of me is
  dead, Ms. Karakate saidMs. Karakate is not
  alone Thailand has one of the highest industrial
  injury rates in Southeast Asia

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• Former textile worker Somboon Srikhamdokkhae,
  who also lost 50 percent of her lungs to
  byssinosis, asked how many tragedies the
  government needs before it starts to do something
  to protect workers and communities from
  irresponsible industries I dont want the next
  generation of workers to end up with a damaged
  life the way we did, Mrs. Somboon said.
• Atiya Achakulwisut, This bridge you call my
  back, Bangkok Post, May 20, 2000

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Womens and mens gains from womens labor in the
food processing industry, Lamphun province, 1993