Vietnamese workers in American Samoa win partial victories

Exploited Vietnamese immigrants in the u.$. territory of 
American Samoa recently won a few victories. As we reported 
in MIM Notes 230 (15 March 2001), 250 wimmin paid to travel 
to American Samoa and work for an official wage of less than 
$2.55 per hour at Daewoosa Samoa, which contracts with major 
Amerikan retailers JC Penny, Sears, Wal-Mart, and Target. 

Once there, the wimmin worked and lived in terrible 
conditions and were not paid even the wage they were 
promised. When they organized to receive back wages, goons 
hired by Daewoosa beat them. As of the end of March, JC 
Penny agreed to pay back wages for the wimmin. Furthermore, 
Daewoosa's owner, Kilsoo Lee, was arrested in Hawaii and 
charged with holding the workers under conditions of 
"involuntary servitude and forced labor." 

These victories 
came after a publicity campaign launched by various 
reformist groups (1) and supported by MIM exposed the 
situation at Daewoosa and demanded that Amerikan retailers 
to pay back wages. Wal-Mart Sears, and Target have not 
agreed to pay back wages. MIM continues to support calls to 
put pressure on these retailers. And beyond this particular 
struggle, MIM supports broad reforms aimed at securing basic 
rights for workers ITAL internationally END, such as such as 
the right to organize freely, an international minimum wage, 
and an international maximum work week length. The scope of 
the problem can be seen in the chart on this page. Workers 
in American Samoa or Saipan are not the only ones exploited 
by imperialism. It if is denied a cheap labor force here or 
there, Amerikan monopoly capital will scour the globe 
looking for another. At this time there are plenty wannabe 
middlemen or "gatekeepers" willing to keep "their" workers 
down with force for a share in the imperialists' profits. 

So the monopoly capitalists don't have to look to far to find 
cheap labor. This is why MIM thinks it will take more than 
"pressure from civil society" against individual capitalists 
to secure survival rights for workers. Reforms at the 
government level -- the level of organized force -- will be 
much more effective. While MIM sees some possibility for 
reforms such as an international minimum wage even under 
bourgeois rule,(2) ultimately only socialism and proletarian 
rule will ensure basic survival rights for the proletariat. 

Under proletarian rule the right to property will be clearly 
subordinated to rights to food, clothing, shelter, 
education, etc. The chart also illustrates the great 
disparity in wages between oppressor and oppressed 
countries. MIM has shown that this disparity -- even greater 
when one considers that the apparel industry is relatively 
low-paid in the unites $tates -- is the result of 
imperialist super-exploitation.(3) The profits the 
imperialists make abroad can be spent at home buying the 
allegiance of the "workers" at home. In order to ensure that 
our activism benefits the oppressed, MIM does not raise the 
wage demands of oppressor-nation "workers." Instead, we 
organize these imperialist-country middle forces around 
inherently internationalist issues, like militarism, 
environmental destruction, and international super-
exploitation. As W.E.B. Du Bois wrote, "The white workers of 
Europe and America... can gain black allies only and insofar 
as they frankly, fairly, and completely abolish the Color 
Line."(4) MIM is gathering agitational materials progressive 
labor struggles in oppressed countries. If you would like to 
help in this and future campaigns, or want to suggest a 
campaign you think MIM should support, contact us at 
mim@mim.org or MIM Distributors, PO Box 29670, Los Angeles 
CA 90029.

Notes: 1. Vietnam Labor Watch, www.vlw.org; National Labor 
Committee, www.nlcnet.org. 2. Imperialism and its Class 
Structure 1997, sections C.4. and C.6., 
http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/mt/imp97/ 3. MIM Theory 1, 
MIM Theory 10, Imperialism and its Class Structure 1997, and 
elsewhere. 4. David L Lewis ed., W.E.B. Du Bois: A Reader, 
(NY: Henry Holt and Company, 1995), p. 593.