riots

The workplace struggles that took place in 1987 occurred within the wider background of political reform. For thirty years South Korea had been ruled by a military dictatorship, and growing calls for democracy had echoed across the peninsula through the 1970s and early 80s.

Wednesday 13 Aug - Dhaka; over 5,000 workers at Reedisha Knitex factory staged a demonstration inside during their lunch break at 1pm; they demanded a pay rise to compensate for the rampant inflation of food and other essentials such as rent and transportation. Their demands being ignored by management, they set about ransacking the factory.

Savar, Dhaka area; thousands of garment workers came out on strike over the weekend in a new outbreak of unrest. On Friday 8th Aug two workers on the overnight 'graveyard' shift at Biswas Synthetics Limited were caught sleeping by 'ansar men', who then assaulted them.

There are about 200,000 workers from Bangladesh in the Gulf countries, mostly employed in cleaning services, security guards or construction. Every year thousands of poor Bangladeshis pay a labour recruiting agent (dalal) to arrange temporary jobs in Kuwait and other wealthy countries.

The protests began on 10 July in Kanmen in the coastal province of Zhejiang. Workers - reportedly angered by a beating meted out to a colleague - attacked a police station for three successive nights.

The security guards hit back and one person died while others were injured in the firing. Workers are demanding a 20 per cent raise. Currently, they are paid anywhere between 15-25 Rupees per diamond which they say is inadequate in these times of skyrocketing prices.

The workers picketing the Mbombela Stadium site outside Nelspruit include 500 dismissed last Monday, after appealing directly to President Thabo Mbeki to intervene when he visited the site. The Mbombela Stadium Joint Venture fired the workers for an unprotected strike in defiance of earlier agreements.

Following a period of upheavals in Egypt, the state is attempting to reassert control with a series of measures aimed at curbing both the labour movement and the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s largest radical Islamic group.