Tagged: federation of general workers myanmar
Feminists united – Report by FAU Hamburg on IWD 2022
Below is a report by the Free Workers’ Union (FAU) Hamburg on their activities on March 8th – a day to commemorate feminist struggles worldwide. The original in German is online here.
With the activities around the day of feminist struggles, we set our own substantive accents and focused on the resistance movement against the military junta in Myanmar (or Burma).
The highlight was our rally in front of the Adidas store on Mönckebergstraße. Over 20 comrades, consisting of activists from the FAU, IWW and people who originally came from Myanmar and now live in Hamburg, gathered in front of the store. There was good music, a speech by a feminist in Myanmar, conversations with passers-by and some pyro-light.
To listen to the input recorded by a comrade of the Women League of Burma:
Why Adidas? Because the company says it continues to source clothes from six factories in the country. Many unions – including our friends at the Federation of General Workers Myanmar – are calling for comprehensive economic sanctions and the withdrawal of all international companies in the hope of weakening the military junta. After all, all taxes and duties flow into their pockets and also finance their repressive apparatus.
More background information can be found in this leaflet, several hundred copies of which were distributed (unfortunately only available in German):
Before the rally, we also participated in the demo of the 8M Strike Alliance, which started on the Reeperbahn. Many thousands of people were with us on the streets of Hamburg that day to make a statement against patriarchy.
We highly recommend the following video. It is an appeal by feminists from various groups in Myanmar, which was coordinated together with us. It also explains why we had a sarong at the rally:
We are also happy to announce that the fundraising campaign in solidarity with the comrades of the Federation of General Workers Myanmar (FGWM) ended successfully on March 8th. A total of 14,285 € was collected! 🥳
Thank you to everyone who helped to bring this to a successful conclusion!
The money will be handed over in full to FGWM soon.
#UnitedAgainstTheJunta – Support our Comrades in Myanmar!
The ICL (International Confederation of Labour) together with the grassroot unions of the Federation of General Workers Myanmar (FGWM) initiated a fundraising to support the resistance movement against the military junta in Myanmar.
Even after the coup in February 2021, FGWM is still active in some factories, but the majority of activists joined the resistance movement and went underground or already fled to the border region of Thailand. Many lost their jobs und now depend on support to organize safe-houses, groceries, as well as materials for acts of protest and resistance.
Therefore this fundraising page was created: firefund.net/unitedagainstthejunta
Comrades of the FAU (Free Workers’ Union) and IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) in Hamburg created 5mins clips in English and German feat. comrades in Myanmar.
Consider to contribute and discuss how you can support this fundraising effort in your syndicates and unions. The target is set at 10,000 EUR and has to be reached within two months! Only if the goal is reached, the funds will be paid out.
Firefund was chosen as a platform on purpose, because it is being run by fellow comrades and charges no additional fees. You can only contribute directly through this page with a credit card. In case that’s a problem, the account details of the ICL are added too:
Name: Unione Sindacale Italiana – CIT
Bank: Banca Popolare Etica
IBAN: IT54I0501802400000016796849
BIC/SWIFT: CCRTIT2T84A
Reference: Myanmar Fundraising
All incoming contributions will also be added to the firefund page with a slight delay.
In case you decide to transfer money to the bank account or have any questions/ suggestions, please drop a short line at asia@icl-cit.org.
#UnitedAgainstTheJunta