Berlin, 8th of September 2005: Protest-Action in Solidarity with Honda-Workers in Gurgaon, India

Dear People,

Here is a short report concerning a solidarity action which took place during the Indian-German investment conference in Berlin. About 20 people protested in front of the entry of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, carrying a banner ('Solidarity with Gurgaon Honda-Workers') and a bill-board with information and pictures concerning the strike and police intervention. Leaflets were distributed to the passers-by (see below). The same leaflet has already been handed out to workers of the early and late shift of the Berlin washing-machine factory 'Bosch-Siemens Hausgeräteauswerk'. Two journalist of the left daily newspapers 'Neues Deutschland' and 'Junge Welt' were present during the protest. The aim was to inform about the strike of the Honda workers. It was to show that, also in the multinational companies, workers in India and other so-called 'cheap labour regions' are everything but docile and that they know how to struggle for a better life. This information is of particular importance for workers in Germany at the moment, given that the bosses use the black-mail of re-location to 'low-wage regions´as a major lever to enforce wage cuts and impose longer working hours etc.

In Solidarity,

Some Rebel-Workers

P.s. The information and the attached pictures are for free distribution.

www.prol-position.net

---------------

Solidarity with striking workers of Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) in Gurgaon/India

On the 25th of July 2005, in Gurgaon, a town in the state of Haryana, India, the police attacked a demonstration of Honda workers, their family members and friends and injured 800 of them. Many were left unconscious on the street with severe head-injuries. 28 workers had still not been found by the end of August. The police action targeted a month-long strike of about 2,000 Honda workers who fought for the re-employment of fired colleages, against humiliating behaviour of the management and for better working conditions. The modern factory is situated in a 'role-model' industrial zone close to New Delhi. A lot of foreign companies are attracted by the low wages and the alledgedly docile work-force. The strike at Honda is an expression of the general tension within the (international) companies of the region. The brutal police intervention was a warning to everyone, re-enforcing the status quo that the 'investment climate' has priority over the need and desire of the workers for a better life.

On the 8th of September 2005 in Berlin, Germany, a German-Indian investment conference was inaugurated. Amongst those invited were chairmen of Thyssen, Siemens, Deutsche Bank and some big business and infrastructure managers from India. They debated the conditions of investments like those which were defended against the workers during the massacre of Gurgaon. At similar meetings managers discussed the closure and re-location of the Bosch-Siemens Hausgerätewerk (washing machine factory) in Berlin. The Bosch-Siemens workers didn't accept the logic of profits and the rat-race of competition amongst locations of production. They fought back.

During the investment conference in Berlin we protested in front of the Ritz-Carlton, denouncing the police attack against the striking workers. And we protested, because it is also about ourselves. During the last months, also in Germany workers who fought effectively against closures, longer working hours and wage cuts were threatened with police intervention. Workers at General Motors in Bochum went on wildcat strike. They blocked the factory gates, they organised independently from burocratic union structures and thereby tresspassed the narrow boundaries of the German labour law. The menace of a police intervention was more or less immediate. The strikers were also black-mailed by the announcement of the management to re-locate work to the GM plant in Gliwice, Poland. The Polish workers were presented as being docile and contented with their role as a cheap labour force. The strike of the Honda workers in India showed that this picture of 'passive low-wage regions' is wishfull thinking and is simply propaganda of the bosses, which they use in order to play us off against each other. Capital is not able anymore to find 'paradises of investment', it is now up to us to overcome company frontiers and national boundaries in struggles for a better life.