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	<title>World Socialist Party (US) &#187; Asia</title>
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	<copyright>Copyright &#xA9; World Socialist Party (US) 2010 </copyright>
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		<title>World Socialist Party (US) &#187; Asia</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org</link>
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	<itunes:author>World Socialist Party (US)</itunes:author>
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		<itunes:name>World Socialist Party (US)</itunes:name>
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		<title>The Great Leap Forward</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2010/09/the-great-leap-forward/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2010/09/the-great-leap-forward/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 18 Sep 2010 17:35:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Suzy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[China]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[History]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://wspus.org/?p=1804</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Frank Dikötter, a historian who teaches at the University of Hong Kong, said he found that during the time that Mao was enforcing the Great Leap Forward in 1958, in an effort to catch up with the economy of the Western world, he was responsible for overseeing &#8220;one of the worst catastrophes the world has ever known&#8221;. Dikötter, who has been studying Chinese rural history from 1958 to 1962- The Great Leap Forward &#8211; explains that at least 45 million people were worked, starved or beaten to death in China over these four years. His book, Mao&#8217;s Great Famine; The Story of China&#8217;s Most Devastating Catastrophe, reveals that while this is a part of history that has been &#8220;quite forgotten&#8221; in the official memory of the People&#8217;s Republic of China. Members of the rural farming communities were seen by the Party merely as &#8220;digits&#8221;, or a faceless workforce. For those who committed any acts of disobedience, however minor, the punishments were huge. State retribution for tiny thefts, such as stealing a potato, even by a child, would include being tied up and thrown into a pond; parents were forced to bury their children alive or were doused in excrement and [...]


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		<item>
		<title>China’s working class drives capitalist development</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2010/09/china%e2%80%99s-working-class-drives-capitalist-development/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2010/09/china%e2%80%99s-working-class-drives-capitalist-development/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 03 Sep 2010 01:26:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Suzy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[China]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Work]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://wspus.org/?p=1779</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The heroic and inspiring struggles of China’s working class will only lay the ground for new and improved exploitation methods – unless, that is, the struggle turns political – and socialist. “I do the same thing every day,” said one employee at the Foxconn factory in Shenzhen, China, where more than ten workers have committed suicide. “I have no future.” Many, perhaps most, workers will know exactly how he feels. But to the bourgeois mind, it’s all an impenetrable puzzle. There was something criminally stupid and sickeningly idiotic about the reaction to the suicides of Terry Gou, the billionaire founder and chairman of the company, which makes electronic parts for the likes of Apple and Dell. According to a report in Bloomberg Businessweek (7 June), Gou said that he had no idea why the suicides were happening. “From a logical, scientific standpoint, I don’t have a grasp on that,” said Gou. “No matter how you force me, I don’t know.” Another worker interviewed at the factory might have given the hapless Gou a few clues: conversation and human interaction on the production line is forbidden, bathroom breaks are kept to ten minutes every two hours, and workers are yelled at [...]


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		<title>Class war in Bangladesh</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2010/08/class-war-in-bangladesh/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2010/08/class-war-in-bangladesh/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 18 Aug 2010 17:08:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Suzy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Asia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Labor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Work]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://wspus.org/?p=1661</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[According to the International Trade Union Confederation, Bangladesh&#8217;s 3.5 million garment workers, most of them women, are the &#8216;world&#8217;s most poorly paid workers&#8217;. Many work 12 to 14 hour shifts, six days a week, often in hazardous conditions. The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organisations stated &#8216;Bangladesh&#8217;s garment workers are among the hardest working women in the world, and the most exploited.&#8217; Sheikh Hasina Wajed, Bangladesh&#8217;s prime minister, recently told the parliament: &#8216;It is not possible for the workers to live on the wages they get now.&#8217; Compensation in the garment industry was &#8216;not only insufficient but also inhuman&#8217;. Living wages in Bangladesh have not been raised since 2006, even though annual inflation rates have soared to between 6.5 and 10 percent. Garment exports from Bangladesh accounts for 80% of the country&#8217;s total exports. In recent years, Bangladesh has emerged as an attractive manufacturing centre for top multinational clothing retailers such as Tesco, Gap, H&#038;M, Walmart and Marks &#038; Spencer because of its low-cost labor, believed to be the world&#8217;s cheapest, against more expensive manufacturing centres such as China and India. &#8216;The problem Bangladesh faces is that giant multinational retailers will not pay for a wage increase,&#8217; [...]


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		<item>
		<title>Chinese Bubble Bursts</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2008/11/chinese-bubble-bursts/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2008/11/chinese-bubble-bursts/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 08 Nov 2008 01:08:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>SPGB</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[China]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wspus.org/?p=767</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[China&#8217;s manufacturing contracted by the most on record last month as the global financial crisis cut demand for exports, a second survey showed. A government-backed survey released on Nov. 1 also showed a record contraction, adding to concern that the world&#8217;s fastest- growing economy may slump. With export orders falling because of the global slowdown and rising raw material and labor costs, more than 68,000 small companies nationwide collapsed in the first half of 2008 and about 2.5 million jobs in the Pearl River Delta region may be lost by the end of the year, according to government and industry estimates. As the economy has soured, dissatisfaction has grown: Since mid-October, there have been dozens of labor protests involving thousands of workers at major exporters, including several publicly listed companies. China needs to grow in order to keep generating enough factory jobs to maintain stability in the labor market, as millions of peasants continue to pour into Chinese cities in search of work.In Jiangsu province, the government extended unemployment benefits to migrant workers laid off from ailing factories; these workers had previously been shut out of public services because they don&#8217;t have residency cards. The Guangdong provincial government in the [...]


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		<item>
		<title>Class Division In North Korea</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2008/06/class-division-in-north-korea/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2008/06/class-division-in-north-korea/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 16 Jun 2008 03:29:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>SPGB</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Asia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Left]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wspus.org/?p=457</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8220;Oblivious of rumours that famine is gathering again and that the state&#8217;s food-distribution system is breaking down, the country&#8217;s pampered elite went on a shopping spree at the Pyongyang Spring International Trade Fair, held on May 12th-15th. Originally designed to promote business-to-business contacts, the trade fair, along with a companion event in the autumn, has become one of the few opportunities for North Koreans—or, more accurately, a few thousand residents of the capital—to buy, or gawk at, foreign merchandise. More than 100 Chinese companies, together with some from Taiwan, Indonesia, Britain and North Korea itself, offered up everything from T-shirts to heavy machinery. Cutting-edge technology it wasn&#8217;t. Duvets, refrigerators, flat-screen televisions, DVD players, cooking pots and cosmetics were the most popular items. More than 15 units of one of the show&#8217;s most expensive items, a $1,200 refrigerator from Haier, a Chinese company, were snapped up. Counterfeit iPods were also popular, even if downloading is illegal. North Korea&#8217;s new rich make their money from political connections. But one shortage they don&#8217;t seem to face is that of American dollars. (Economist, 29 May) No related posts.


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		<item>
		<title>A Cyclone Of Debt</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2008/06/a-cyclone-of-debt/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2008/06/a-cyclone-of-debt/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 01 Jun 2008 23:39:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>SPGB</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Asia]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wspus.org/?p=456</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The recent cyclone in Burma is estimated to have killed 130,000 people in a few hours but this being capitalism the long term effect of this natural disaster has become a social disaster for thousands of the survivors. Take the case of Daw Aye as reported in The Times (31 May). &#8220;There was the disaster of her fisherman son, drowned at sea in a storm that was never noticed outside of Burma. There was the disaster of widowhood: her husband died six years ago of an illness to which Daw Aye cannot even put a name. Cyclone Nargis at least spared the rest of her family, although it destroyed her newly built wooden house along with 300 of the 500 dwellings in the village of Thaungche, on the Rangoon River. Having survived bereavement, flood and homelessness, Daw Aye is now facing a potent and more insidious enemy: crippling debt. She has six surviving children, and in the months since the cyclone she has had only two handouts from the Burmese authorities, a total of no more than a few pounds of rice.&#8221; Her oldest surviving son works as a farmhand for about £10 a month and her adult daughter earns [...]


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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>30,000 Dispossessed Die In Cyclone</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2008/05/30000-dispossessed-die-in-cyclone/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2008/05/30000-dispossessed-die-in-cyclone/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 08 May 2008 16:45:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Dr. Who</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Asia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[History]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wspus.org/?p=443</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The 22,000 confirmed dead and 41,000 reported missing that followed the cyclone that struck Myanmar, formerly Burma, on Saturday, revealed a tragedy of unspeakable horror, yielding nauseating stories of impossibly strong winds, damage to life and property wrought by falling trees and, as though that were not enough, the main culprit, a 12-foot high wave that ravaged coastal areas upon which resided millions of the nation’s poor in shanty towns. Myanmar is ruled by a military dictatorship headed by Senior General Than Shwe and Vice-Senior General Maung Aye since the 1990s, but who themselves followed in the footsteps of the original general who established rule by a coup d’etat in 1962, General Ne Win. The latter began the military dictatorship and nationalization of major industries by the name of the Burma Socialist Programme Party. This party was Leninist to the core, and had nothing to do with socialism in the orthodox sense of a classless society. Perhaps Leninist would be an appropriate term in considering the Burmese military junta&#8217;s belief in a vanguard party establishing a dictatorship of the proletariat (meaning one OVER the proletariat rather than OF it), or perhaps one could also use the term Stalinist in referring [...]


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		<item>
		<title>Nepal Elections: Waskowy Maowists Win! &#8211; UPDATED!</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2008/04/nepal-elections-waskowy-maowists-win/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2008/04/nepal-elections-waskowy-maowists-win/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 19 Apr 2008 06:36:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>FN Brill</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Asia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Left]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wspus.org/?p=405</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Ah, Maoists.. They always claim they are more clever than us &#8220;arm-chair&#8221; types (their term). They are always swimming with the people, or against the current, but never pissing in the pool or skipping down the capitalist road. And after years of political defeats and military victories, Maoists have taken control of Nepal. Glorious Nepal, the workers&#8217; homeland. After 10 years of &#8220;people&#8217;s war&#8221; the Nepali Communist Party (Maoist) has marched upon Kathmandu &#8211; wearing bourgeois clothing. They won a majority in the Constituent Assembly. Capitalist Roaders here we come! Yes, here are some quotes: The Maoists central leadership has said that the party which has swung the country’s politics during the freshly concluded CA poll will not deviate from the &#8220;globalization and liberalization” process that was on in the world today. Outlining the would be economic policy of the Maoists party when in power, Comrade Prachanda said that “we will not confiscate the properties of the owners contrary to what has been disseminated in order to malign the Maoist party”. According to him, after the political revolution that has just finished, the Maoists will henceforth concentrate its entire efforts aimed at bringing about what he called “economic revolution in [...]


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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>What’s China’s game?</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2008/03/what%e2%80%99s-china%e2%80%99s-game/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2008/03/what%e2%80%99s-china%e2%80%99s-game/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 22 Mar 2008 04:16:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>SPGB</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Capitalism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[China]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wspus.org/?p=380</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[An interesting take-over battle is now taking place in the world mining industry. Towards the end of last year, BHP Billiton, the world’s largest mining company, made a bid to take over Rio Tinto, the world’s second largest mining company. According to the Times of London (5 February) a BHP-Rio merger &#8220;would create the world’s largest iron ore, aluminium and coal supplier . . . A merged BNP-Rio would control about 36 per cent of the world’s iron ore, which is used to make steel, and consolidate 75 per cent of that market in the hands of only two companies&#8221;. Steel-producing countries dependent on imports of iron ore – China, the EU, Japan – are not too happy about this prospect of an &#8220;OPEC for iron ore&#8221;. But so far only China has acted. At the beginning of February Chinalco, the Chinese state-owned aluminium company, splashed out £7 billion in cash to acquire a 12 percent holding in Rio Tinto. Their partner in this was Alcoa, the US aluminium group, which last year lost out to Rio Tinto in a take-over battle for Alcan, the Canadian aluminium company. This appears to be an alliance of convenience, with Alcoa interested in [...]


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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Capitalism &#8211; Chinese Style</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2008/03/capitalism-chinese-style/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2008/03/capitalism-chinese-style/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 10 Mar 2008 10:48:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>SPGB</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Asia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Capitalism]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.wspus.org/?p=371</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The 17th Congress of the Chinese &#8216;Communist&#8217; Party was held back in October. It was five years since the previous one, so this is clearly not a decision-making body that determines how the party — and therefore the country — should be run. Rather it&#8217;s a rubber-stamp gathering that endorses what the CCP&#8217;s power-holders have already decided. The Central Committee is &#8216;elected&#8217;, but even that meets less than once a year, and it is the political bureau and its standing committee (nine men in dark suits) who really run things. The CCP has changed over the years. It now has over 70 million members, and another 20 million applicants for membership. The growth of private capitalism in China has led many of the wealthiest people in the country to join the party. In the Hongdou textile group, which has assets of over a billion yuan (around £60 million), all the high-level managers are party members. Another capitalist, Liang Wengen, who has a fortune of three billion yuan (£190 million), was a delegate to the congress. If private entrepreneurs can join the party, he said, it &#8220;helps to enhance the brand recognition of our company.&#8221; Western companies may promote their brands [...]


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