A critical report on

SOLIDARITY BUILDING
and

NETWORKING with EUROPE

This report emerges as a result of my good fortune to receive many invitations
to participate in a variety of activities in Europe from 3 March - 10 August
2009. The field-trip brought important opportunities for honest discussion and
debate with friends and comrades old and new, and gave me some much
needed time-and-space for reflecting and thinking about ‘the way forward’ and
the problems we face in our campaigns and struggles to establish effective,
long-term, local-regional-global labour rights strategies.

In the report I reflect on thoughts and feelings that I know are shared by many
labour rights NGOs and activists in the South that have been engaged in
movements for global justice for a long time, and some aspects of the report
are critical.

Junya Yimprasert

THAI LABOUR CAMPAIGN

with assistance from

Richard Thompson Coon

Photo: Participants of the Make-IT-Fair Youth Roundtable, Amsterdam 13 - 15 March, 2009.

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CONTENTS

Programme and activities in Europe 3

Reflections and thoughts
Consumers against corporate exploitation 6
Charity approach and rights-based approach 7
Freedom of Association 8
Social Solidarity Economics 9
‘The Voter’s Uprising that is changing perceptions in Thailand’ 10
Learning about Oxfam’s shops 11
Moving beyond North-helps-South to sustainable solutions 11
North and South in partnership 12
Problems with the ‘Log Frame approach’ 14
From CoC to CSR and the UN Global Compact 14
Corporatisation 15
Global unions 15
Climate change 16
Partnerships beyond the old patron-client syndrome 17
CLOSING WORDS 17
A few thoughts on the way forward 18

MANY THANKS 20
Written work completed on Suomenlinna 21
Some personal rewards 21
Two Thai recipes 22

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 Programme and activities in Europe
MARCH

13 -15 Make IT Fair Youth Roundtable, SOMO, Amsterdam.

16 Visit to SOMO to discuss joint research projects on gemstone and electronics.
Cooking Thai food for friends.
17 Visit CCC, discuss about TLC – CCC cooperation and urgent appeal cases.
Learning about organic farming in Amsterdam.
18 Travel to Brussels, dinner with Solidar’s President.
19 -28 Sharing experiences with consumers and Oxfam Solidarity volunteers.
19 Visit to ITUC.
Preparation of speaking tour programme in Belgium with Oxfam Solidarity.
20 Visit Oxfam Solidarity book and computer shops. Presentation to high-school students.
21 Meeting with WIDE Coordinator.
22 Organic farming day. Visit to farm, lunch in organic food shop. Visit to city collective organic
garden and organic basket distribution point.
23 Visit Oxfam Solidarity book and computer shops. Presentations in Gent & Knokke-Heist.
Evening panel discussion with Indonesian activist (TURC) on working conditions in SE-Asia.
24 Visit two Oxfam Solidarity book and computer shops. Presentations in Nirdles and Charleroi.
25 Visiting European Institute of Asian Study (EIAS), Brussels.
Visit Solidar office.
Dinner with Oxfam Solidarity friends.
26 Presenting in two sessions at the Oxfam in Belgium Partner Day.
27 Meeting with journalists. Interviews together with Zap Mama.
http://www.oxfamsol.be/fr/Thailande-Belgique-dialogue-de.html and
http://www.mo.be/index.php?id=348&tx_uwnews_pi2[art_id]=25190&cHash=3f6042a13c
28 Travel to London.
Learning about ‘No Sweat’ and preparations for the Climate Camp.
30 British Museum. Meeting with Thai political activists in exile.
31 Meeting with ITF labour activist from New Zealand.

APRIL

1 Learning about how to the UK activists organise Climate Camp. Participate in Climate Camp.
Article on Climate Camp in Thai published by Prachatai, Thailand.
2 Meeting with Dr. Dae-oup Chang, SOAS. Brief tour of SOAS / discussions with lecturers.
Cooking Thai for dinner meeting with No Sweat, Labour behind the Label and Action Aid UK.
3 Travel to Helsinki.
4 Communicating with TLC.
6 Participation in a KEPA SE-Asia strategy meeting.
8 Presentation on Women Workers in the Global Supply Chain to 20 young activists at the Fair Trade
Center. An interview with Voima magazine.
http://fifi.voima.fi/artikkeli/Pukisitko-paidan-Pohjois-Koreasta/2838
8-14 Monitoring the political crisis in Thailand from TV, internet media, and political chat boards.
16 Presentation on Thai Politic and Global Supply Chain at ‘One Drop Forum’, Helsinki.
14-21 Preparing article on ‘The Voter’s Uprising that is changing perceptions in Thailand’.
22 Travel to Luxembourg.
23 - 24 Presentation on ‘Solidarity Entrepreneurships’ at the Social Solidarity Economy Congress, LUX’ 09.
25 Travel to Paris.
26 Touring Paris with a TUAC friend and a union activist from Ghana.

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 Preparation for the presentation to OECD at TUAC office.
27 OECD conference on ‘Gender, Development and Decent Work: Building a Common Agenda’,
Distributing ‘The Voter’s Uprising’ to over 50 participants at OECD conference.
28 General discussion with a TUAC friend.
28 Travel to Geneva by train. Meeting with Global Labour Institute.
29 Visit International Workers Union for Food, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering and Tobacco (IUF).
Cooking Thai food for friends from IUF and GLI.
30 Visit to organic farm. Helping to plant vegetables. Learning about organic basket system in Geneva
(which has 20 years of experience) from a Farmer’s Union spokesman.
Visit CETIM office (an organisation that helps political refugees).
Interview by a journalist from the Courrier
(http://www.lecourrier.ch/special/promotion/152d7f87f964fa3/LeCourrier_2009-05-23.pdf)
31 Meeting with SOLIFOND, Geneva

MAY

1 Travel to Helsinki.
2 Revising ‘The Voter’s Uprising’ and posting to the web.
www.timeupthailand.blogspot.com
15 - 30 Work with Gender and Trade manual (the dialogues).
30 Translating ‘The Voter’s Uprising’ to Thai.

JUNE

3 Distribution of ‘The Voter’s Uprising’.

8 Travel to Paris.
9 Participation in CCC strategy meeting.
10 Visit to TUAC office.
11 Travel to Brussels. Discussions with Oxfam Solidarity.
12 Discussions with WIDE.
13 Travel to Helsinki.
14-30 Work with Gender and Trade manual.

JULY

1 - 31 Work with Gender and Trade manual.

(One week with high fever.)
Developing concept paper on ‘ASEAN Democracy Campaign’.
Preparing this text: ‘A Critical Report on Solidarity Building and Networking with Europe.

AUGUST

1-9 Work with Gender and Trade manual and this report.
10 Return to Thailand.

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London Climate Camp
5

Consumers against corporate exploitation
Thailand, in collaboration with consumer movements in Europe and the USA, was one of the first countries in
Asia to engage in direct-action against corporate exploitation of the poor, in particular with the Clean Clothes
Campaign (CCC) in Amsterdam.
My participation with 30 young European activists in SOMO’s ‘Make-IT-Fair’ workshop, Amsterdam, March
13-15, 2009 provided a good start for this field-trip in Europe.
The workshop seemed to indicate how well
consumer movements in Europe are succeeding in
reaching-out to the youth, and cooperating with
environmental organisations like Greenpeace and
Friends of the Earth, and with the public in general.
Full of lively debate, the participatory process was
assisted by professional facilitators who filled the
programme with excitement and fun.
Just a bit irritating for us poor, grass-root activists
from the South was the over-emphasis on
impressive organisation, with unnecessary
expenditure on e.g. choice of venue and evening
entertainment. We were glad to hear a few young
activists from the North making the same
observation, and pointing-out that this was not their
normal practice.
Despite much attempt by partners from the South to
focus attention on the need to bridge the gaps in
understanding between North and South - by
making greater effort to include Southern partners in
designing campaign strategy and actions,
campaigning for global justice in the South remains
North-led, and appears to be dominated by thinking
that campaigning for global justice means pandering
to what young, consumers in the North think or
imagine is cool and sexy. What positive impact does
this approach to campaigning have on bridging the
gaps in understanding between consumers in the
North and workers in the South? The subject can be
debated, but the answer is - not enough.
By the end of the conference there was not a single
action plan that aimed at ‘reaching out’ to meet and
learn first-hand from communities and workers in
the South. Many people have reflected that
attempting to appeal to the consumer tastes of
northern youth as a means to develop global justice
is costly, time-consuming and often skates over the
core issues.
Thoughts and reflections
The word ‘solidarity’ speaks about strong
commitment to the universal principles of social
justice. When fashion not basic needs rules demand
and supply, our strategies become confused. We
must be more aware, more alert and more critical.
To be able to know what they are talking about, to
be able to work in a true spirit of solidarity with the
struggle of workers in the South, activists need at
least some first-hand experience of living under
oppression in the South.
Fair trade campaigners in the North may regard
themselves as progressive, but what people in the
North need to know more about is the work,
courage and determination of the workers in the
South, about their movements against oppression
and about the tens of thousands of grass-root
activists who, while living in poverty themselves,
dedicate their whole lives to struggle against
slavery. However well-meaning, if campaigning in
the North does not represent the situation of
workers in the South, the result may prove negative.
Presenting workers in the South to consumers in the
North as ‘victims’, as ‘people to be rescued’, as
people for whom ‘any job is better than no job’ is
mis-representation. Workers in the South do not say
‘Any job is better than no job’. Most of the time they
think (even if they don’t say) . . ‘If you capitalists
from the North cannot treat us as human beings,
then please go away. We don’t want you’.
The voice of workers from the South has never
stopped ringing with words that emphasise: ‘We
fight and will fight for our dignity with or without
NGO support and development aid’.
Southern activists go to Europe because workers in
the South are held in slavery by global capitalism –
which is rooted in the North. They go in search of
6
solidarity because they understand that North-South
solidarity is needed to overcome the ‘dark forces’ of
greed that threaten our common future.
The language of the poor is not with the written
word, it is with the spoken word, but southern
partners are not just messengers. If the well-
meaning people in the North and the big northern
NGOs really want partnership they must include
their southern partners as equals in the planning
process.
Moving on a bit we ask . . ‘what are the real
consequences of engaging the super-rich super-
stars of western society as ‘ambassadors’ of human
suffering. Do we need these neo-liberal, Calvin
Klein missionaries?
More North-South / South-North bridges are needed
Charity approach and right-based approach
Far too many North-South partnerships leave the
South with a multitude of problems when support
from the North is terminated. Charity hinders
progress to sustainable development in both South
and North. Moving forwards means making sure
that a ‘rights-based approach’ (enabling the poor to
feed themselves) displaces the ‘charity approach’
(feeding the Poor).
While many ‘big donors’ in the north still focus on
charity, on dumping food and second-hand stuff on
the South, there is a growing number of
organisations in the North that are focusing on
rights-based strategies - on moving to joint-struggle
with the South, but these too are frequently
burdened by demand for fast results, and, in final
analysis, may also aggravate rather than improve
situations.
Joint-struggle through a rights-based approach is
always the most difficult, because it goes to the
heart of all illness in society and is time-consuming.
All southern grass-root organisations that work with
a rights-based approach face all kinds of abuse and
violence. When governments in the South do
release cash for local development projects, it is
given to projects which pose no threat (e.g. lottery,
liquor and tobacco taxes to campaigns to reduce
alcoholism, domestic violence and child abuse!
and must be built, but the possible negative
consequences of campaigns designed in the North
must be more carefully analysed, discussed and
examined on an equal platform, with more attention
given to encouraging workers from the South to
speak their minds openly (in the North).
Furthermore, short-term sponsorship aimed at
satisfying the fancies of consumer campaigns
designed in the North can do serious long-term
damage to conceptions of North-South partnership.
The common practice of sending writers and media
crews to ‘bring back’ the best possible images of
suffering in the South needs more careful
evaluation. Activists in the South have no time or
resources to give to ensuring that (fast-track)
journalists point their noses and cameras at the core
issues, and no time to correct the damage done
when they fail.
NGOs dedicated to the rights-based approach are
classified as a danger to neo-liberal development
priorities, to the imago of the state in relation to FDI,
to economic stability and so on.
Whose economic stability we ask? Those who work
with a rights-based strategy never stop attempting
to point-out that ‘poverty’ in the South does not just
mean starving, it means hunger for a democratic
society in which all can participate - for government
that is dedicated to kicking-out corrupt structures,
corrupt politicians, rotten military forces and
unwanted exploitation of local communities by
outside investors.
Five months in Europe has confirmed my thinking
that the right of access to and control over natural
resources, the closing of the gap between rich and
poor and the whole goal of sustainable
development, can only be secured through
democratic social governance. Most countries in the
South are still fighting to establish their most basic
democratic infra-structure. For most people in the
South democracy is still just a hope, an unknown
vehicle that they have heard carries the promise of
‘freedom’. In practice democracy in the South is
often just a charade for buying rights and selling
votes.
7
So what does all this confusion mean? It means we
still face decades of struggle before the majority of
people in the South are able to understand, manage
and experience democratic governance. It means
that the North must stop demanding fast-track
results that deepen confusion rather than release
people from suffering. Southern labour rights
activists, organisations and NGOs cannot fulfil the
North’s short-term, fast-track demands without
selling-out their own people. This indirect bullying
has no long-term value and must be eliminated.
We are not just fighting against poverty for a living
wage; we struggle for freedom of speech, freedom
of association and for gender equality in a fully-
inclusive, fully-functional democratic framework.
Despite all this criticising, TLC has always had a
close relationship with many campaigners in the
North. We cannot thank CCC and partners enough
for all the non-stop assistance they have been
giving to our campaigns for worker’s rights since
1996. The Clean Clothes Campaign network is a
unique and admirable movement. We appreciate
deeply that CCC was started by a group of women
activists who for 20 years travelled endlessly to
countries in the South to learn and understand the
exploitation and living conditions of workers, and
FREEDOM of ASSOCIATION
For twenty years, there has been no ‘Global
Campaign for Freedom of Association’. Yes, within
the campaigns for CSR, Fair Trade and Decent
Work there are calls for FoA, but there has been no
actual campaign for FoA, and we are suffering
because of this reluctance to tackle this core issue
directly - the only road to ensuring the establishment
and implementation of effective Labour Law.
During the 2 years of preparation for the 2004 Play
Fair at the Olympics Campaign, at meetings in
Cambodia, Brussels and Bangkok, southern
partners lobbied hard for the inclusion of FoA at the
core of the Campaign, and the Campaign organising
committee did manage to raise the issue of FoA
with 3 key actors from the North: Global Union,
Oxfam International and CCC, but the engagement
of Global Union in the 2004 campaign was
disappointing.
built the relationships and solidarity needed to
launch a global campaign that is able to stand-up
against the global brands and the TNC race to the
bottom to exploit the poor. With an operational
network covering 13 countries in Europe and over
250 partner organisations around the world, CCC is
surely one of the most exemplary activist
organisations in the European consumer movement.
But we must be critical, even of CCC. Especially we
keep requesting CCC to not co-operate directly with
brands without assurance that there will be space at
the negotiating table for unions and workers. And
we keep requesting they take into consideration
that, in the South, adjustment to new approaches
and project priorities takes at least double the time it
does in the North.
At the CCC strategy meeting in Paris (9-10 June)
and other venues, TLC has been asked why, with
‘all the world’ moving to engagement in promoting
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), the ‘Asian
Floor Wage’ and ‘Decent Work’, TLC is not
engaging? TLC has always provided support for
these activities, but our perspective is that we must
remain firmly anchored to fighting corporate greed
and suppression of Freedom of Association.
TLC has been consistent in proposing that a global
campaign must be organised to demand that every
government on the planet ratify the ILO’s core
conventions on Freedom of Association (ILO 87 and
98). The proposal has not been picked-up by
partners in the North, and there is need for analysis
of why not. The common reason given is that the
issue of Freedom of Association is not interesting
enough to (mobilize) northern consumers! Does this
mean that the freedom of workers in the South to
defend their rights, present their demands, form
unions and fight for a decent life is not interesting
enough to people in the North? No, that cannot be
true. What it does say is something, or much, about
the approach (in the North) to building North-South
partnerships.
TLC’s position is that Corporate Codes of Conduct
are important but cannot replace, and must not be
allowed to replace, the universality of global law as
8
determined by the United Nations and the body of
ILO conventions. These need to be strengthened
not weakened. The ‘topic’ of CSR must not be
allowed to suck-out the vitality of the grass-root
movement for social justice. CSR cannot be allowed
to parasitize the civic space that grass-root
movements all over the world have fought to
establish - the civic space that is essential to the
maintenance and development of democratic.
Social Solidarity Economies
North-North, East-West, South-South and North-South
The ‘International Forum - Globalisation of
Solidarity’ (LUX09), Luxembourg 22- 23 April, was
focused on Social Solidarity Economy (SSE).
SSE is a powerful name, and SSE could provide
models of organisation to help break clear from the
domination of giant corporations. With Fair Trade
representing only 1% of the EU market, SSE could
greatly facilitate the struggle of ‘little people’ in
North, South, East and West to find the way
forward.
There were over 600 activists participating, most
from French-speaking countries in the North and in
Africa, maybe 200 from Africa. There were about
one hundred from Latin America (mainly Brazilians).
The smallest group was from Asia - about 20
people. Asia is a newcomer to the SSE network but
has accepted the challenging task of hosting the
next international forum on the ‘Globalisation of
Solidarity’ in 2013.
Having been introduced to SSE by John Samuel
from Action Aid, LUX 09 was a great learning
experience - about the achievements of North-North
solidarity and attempts to open up a North-South
SSE dialogue. In my view LUX 09 brought to the
forefront several difficult issues which are
considered by many of us from the South to be of
central importance, issues that were to some extent
reflected even in the organisation of the forum
Delegates from the North were school teachers,
municipal officers, representatives of small
businesses, social movements, NGOs, politicians
and trade unions, a quite cross-sectoral assembly.
From the South there came mainly small
entrepreneurs and representatives of cooperatives,
movement - civic space in which our essential,
critical, cross-sectoral exchange of thoughts and
ideas can take place.
If we sell-out on the efforts of the workers and
labour activists that struggle for human rights and
dignity - on the land and at shop-floor level, we will
never witness global justice. Too much attention to
CSR can de-rail all human effort to defend human
rights.
many of whom came with hopes of gaining market
access to fair trade and social solidarity markets;
many brought products to display – and some to
sell.
The presentations from the North were mainly about
‘going local’ and ‘going eco’ and ‘trading within the
city’, about consuming less and eliminating
consumption of non-renewables. There were a few
presentations from the North about re-employment
and job creation with state subsidies
(unemployment packages).
The workshop on ‘networking within SSE’ was a
little ironic. Presentations from the North showed the
impressive level of penetration of high-tech
communication technologies to households and
individuals. Presentations from African partners
showed the exact opposite - why SSE is moving so
slowly. Many African sisters and brothers who want
to participate in SSE networking activity live in
remote villages without electricity. If there is
electricity, internet access is unreliable.
SSE in Quebec was
presented by a few key
persons from RIPESS
(Réseau Intercontinental de
Promotion de l’Economie
Sociale Solidaire), one of the
main organisers of the forum,
which has (I think) some 250
participant co-ops giving service to nearly 300,000
people. As a pioneer of SSE, RIPESS seems to
present us with an encouraging example of how
work with SSE could take us from the oppression of
corporate supply chains.
9
At LUX09, the design of the programme and
activities was clearly the work of the large Northern
organisations. 50-70% of invited speakers at the
workshops were from the North, especially from
Quebec and Luxemburg (the host). Also in the
plenary sessions there were far too few speakers
from the South.
To be able to move forward together, the powerful
organizations from the over-developed North need
to be more considerate when designing these
forums - by giving more attention to achieving a
balanced North-South agenda.
In the light of the principles inherent in the term
Solidarity, the SSE forum raised some key
questions:
1. Is the under-lying purpose of the SSE forum to
produce and implement economic models to reduce
the gap between rich and poor, or is it just another
means to develop mechanisms that can assist the
over-developed life-styles of the ‘democratic’ North
from going into deeper crisis?
2. In some cases the social movements and
models of co-operation between small-scale
entrepreneurs that are emerging within the concept
of SSE in the North are already impressive, and we
in the South have much to learn from SSE
development in Europe and Canada. But
consciously or unconsciously people tend to
underestimate the gaps in North-South
understanding and what must be done to prevent
SSE thoughts, expectations and practices - in North
and South - from evolving along pathways too
different to be compatible. To ensure this does not
happen the movement in the North must ensure that
participants from the South are participant in
planning and made comfortable so that they can say
what they think.
The Voter’s Uprising in Thailand
In attempting to respond to the political chaos in
Thailand in April this year, some weeks of my time
in Europe were given to writing the article ‘The
Voter’s Uprising that is changing perceptions in
Thailand’, an early version of which was distributed
at the OECD conference on Gender, Development
and Decent Work in Paris at the end of April.
People in the North may know but seem to forget
that in most countries in the South the great majority
of the population is still living below ‘the thin red
line’, still struggling, in most cases in the absence of
any real social welfare, to establish even their most
basic democratic structures.
3. How can the concept of SSE be developed into
models and tools that enable North and South to
work and move forward together on equal footing in
struggle against the forces of destruction?
Although positive in itself, the Fair Play and Fair
Trade project packaging that is designed in the
North is tending to divert attention from the essential
struggle of the South to establish real democracy.
I did not attend all sessions, but the SSE forum in
Luxembourg seemed to over-look or by-pass
obligation to support grass-root struggle for
democracy in the South - as if such obligation had
somehow faded into history. This was what I
experienced at most of the meetings I attended in
Europe.
Where is the solidarity we talk of? Is all life to be
‘corporatised northern-style’? Are we allowing
ourselves to be sucked into some screwed-up vision
of ‘corporate citizens for corporate democracy’?
Surely not, human resistance there must be and
human resistance there is.
For SSE to work, the SSE movement in the North
must seek to become more interested in and more
attentive to the struggle for democracy in the South,
and become more active in looking for ways to
become more directly engaged - in struggle for
democracy in the South. That is what will make SSE
live.
Preparation of the article proved to be a difficult but
important experience, an exercise in un-masking the
reasons why we, the Thai, have been and remain so
fearful of challenging the status-quo - the autocratic
structures that have kept Thailand in an oppressive
and sometimes murderous political framework since
the Second World War: phenomena which cannot
be ignored when attempting to develop North-South
solidarity.
10
How to clear the political ambience in a country where, for decades, the task of twisting the minds of the
people has been the consistent, main objective of a string of military juntas?
How to establish democratic governance in a country where people have all but lost their ability to distinguish
between universal principles of right and wrong?
What kind of revolution is needed to ensure that the burning embers of frustration do not become
uncontrollable fires of violence?
Learning about Oxfam’s shops
18-28 March, 2009, BELGIUM
Tom Matthijs, Asia Project Coordinator for Oxfam
Solidarity, and myself kept adding to our programme
and, by the end of a very full ten days, everyone
was exhausted.
Our visits in Belgium to many Fair-Trade shops and
Oxfam Solidarity shops (that also sell things like
second-hand books and computers) gave much
inspiration for our fund-raising and out-reach
activities in Thailand, and to our ideas for setting-up
similar kinds of shops in our industrial zones, with
direct supply from local, organic farmers and
producers – alongside ideas for e.g. small coffee-
shops where workers can rendez-vous and chat.
Moving beyond North-helps-South to sustainable solutions
Sometimes debate between North and South can
be painful, especially between poor activists that
are working at maximum capacity to help each
other, have high respect for each other and are
essentially good friends!
Many northern activists lead a highly conscious life-
style, work on a mainly voluntary basis and are
obliged to take on other work just to sustain a basic
living standard. Few have a car, many live in
squats, collectives or share flats, and most are
vegetarians.
Activists from the South must also look in upon
themselves. Blaming every misfortune on
colonialism is not good enough, not sexy and
thoroughly bad when used as a means to self-
empowerment. Blaming NGOs is not sexy either. In
the South our own blame-games are often a
Within TLC we have been discussing how to move
forward to a ‘TLC Foundation’! Usually, when we
attempt to sell our publications we end up giving
them away for free at workshops, or to workers
participating in our Labour Right Caravan’s etc. It is
now important for TLC to explore ideas and models
for starting second-hand shops in Thailand - in
cooperation with Oxfam and Fair Trade networks.
We have talked with some unions in Thailand about
how to sell educational materials - so that unions
can raise some money and so that TLC’s (printing /
admin) costs are covered. It is also important for us
to learn from Oxfam Solidarity and the Fair Trade
movement about their business praxes.
hindrance, limiting our capacity and ability to
analyse our problems accurately and design
strategies that can take us forward.
The constant crisis in Thailand’s economy - export-
oriented economy - is obviously closely linked to the
constant crisis in Thai politics. The stupidity of
promoting manufacturing based on cheap labour
without investing in education for sustainable
development is becoming increasingly apparent as
the cycles of global recession in capitalism become
more frequent. The current socio-economic and
political chaos in Thailand is opening-up new
debate around the question of what kind of
economy we want - and what, for the good of the
majority of the population, does sustainable
development really mean in Thailand and, likewise,
for peoples all across S-E Asia.
11
 • Since 1932 Thailand has had to face 21 military coups - 9 of them successful. It has had to deal with 18
constitutions and 27 Prime Ministers.

• Thailand was a founding member of ILO in 1919, but it was not until 1993 that Thailand managed to establish a
Ministry of Labour. In the 16 years since then Thailand has had 19 labour ministers. The first Labour Protection
Law was enacted in 1998. These are facts which provide a starting-point for looking into why labour organisation
in Thailand is so weak and why action to ratify and implement ILO Recommendations (and many other aspects of
international law like CEDAW) remains pathetic.

For more than 70 years parliamentary democracy in
Thailand has been hopping around with it’s feet
tied, one hop forward one hop back and then down
again - in some kind of a tragic ‘dance with the
generals’.
It is high-time in the South that countries stopped
competing with each other over who can provide
the cheapest labour and the most attractive
incentives for foreign corporations. The old mantra
that GDP growth strengthens people’s ability to fight
for democracy is not what the people experience.
We need fresh political analysis and fresh political
energy to be able to move forward to establishing
sustainable economic activity. To be able to
generate the new, political energy we must step-out
of archaic political frameworks. We need and must
strengthen grass-root solidarity across the South -
and with our sisters and brothers in the North.
We need government that has the guts to make
corporations accountable for their decisions and
actions according to clear-to-all universal codes for
governing human conduct.
If our whole global movement cannot make run-of-
the-mill, foot-loose corporations like Triumph
International uphold principles like freedom of
association (See: http://www.triumph-
union.blogspot.com/), it means in effect that we are
allowing corporate power to ridicule our struggle for
global justice.
Consumer movements in Europe and the USA have
made, and make, great contributions to the struggle
of workers in the South, but activists in the South
have become weary of attempting to respond to
short-term campaigns with big goals that are largely
designed to satisfy political trends in the North.
Campaigns that shift focus every other year are
especially exhausting. They make it seem as if
western donor-organisations are, like TNCs, more
concerned with fast turn-over and a flexible base of
sub-contractors (grant recipients) than they are with
eliminating human suffering. ‘Choose your partner
according to your needs’ is a neo-liberal ethic. In
any case, our problems will not be fixed if
everybody is looking for short-cuts and fast returns.
We repeat constantly our request to the North:
please give more attention to consulting with the
South before launching campaigns in which you
expect the South to cooperate.

North and South in partnership

What does it mean when North organisations say they are for partnership? Normally it means ‘We invite you
to joint the campaign we lead. This is the list of work we think is important. This is the money we have
decided to allocate. These are the outcomes we expect’. It means all key planning decisions have already
been taken: what group of people or aspect of governance or corporation is to be the focus, what testimonies
are to be selected from where, what demands are to be forwarded, what results are expected to appear in
the log-frame.
I remember a heated debate with one union in New York around 2002. They wanted TLC to organise workers
in Thailand to support their campaign in the USA.:

12
‘Thank you, we would like to work with you in a participatory process’,
says the activist from the South.
‘That’s why we invite you here’,
answers a big voice in a big smile.

‘But this is not a participatory process. You’ve already decided what we must do!’,
says the activist, refusing to submit.

‘We are for participation. That’s why we talk to you’,

comes the answer, from a bigger boss with an even bigger smile.

And the result? They turn their attention to another NGO.

Global organisations in the North have inherited and become accustomed to having power to pick-and-
choose. TLC is constantly having to stand-up to remind people that real change cannot be achieved through
abandonment of the bottom-up approach.
We believe in Global Solidarity, and respond to every call for solidarity, but working with the global
organisations is often problematic. If a national NGO feels the need to draw attention to an issue by saying
‘our problem is this’ there is a high risk that the problem will be pushed aside as a ‘country-level issue’. At the
end of the day, after all ‘participatory discussion’, the global campaign goes on as planned, without change,
aiming at targets pre-set in the North. ‘Another fashionable fast-food campaign’ we mumble as we fly off from
Europe with heavy, brooding thoughts. A year or two years later we are back in Europe sitting in yet another
‘participatory consultation’ conducted by a facilitator who is employing all possible professional means to
ensure that everyone delivers in 1 to 3 minute sound-bites. Another global campaign is being designed, for
our benefit, and we have 1.5 days, or 3 at most!
We attempt to make sense, but our voices in the extreme, time-dominated process, attempting to condense
in a foreign language a multitude of problems, are often a bit shaky, and it often feels as if more attention is
being given to monitoring time than to listening to our message.
Grass-root organizations in the South must struggle to overcome huge personal and practical difficulties. Few
grass-root NGOs have the resources to engage skilled linguists etc., and it takes time to motivate workers to
respond to new demands initiated somewhere far away in the North.

Any NGO in the South that is doing it’s work well risks being inundated by requests to participate in
campaigns originated in the North - to collect data, host researchers, respond to endless requests for this and
that, as if they were just another link in the North’s supply chain.

Most NGOs in the South have to face the full spectrum of injustices on a daily basis. Few if any can work on
just one particular issue. Most are, at one and the same time, fighting for social justice at every level - for
democracy in the absence of democracy, for gender sensitivity in the absence of sensitivity and for the
means to maintain their own critically important independence from corrupt, autocratic, administrative
authorities.

If we cannot move the moon in three years, we wait to hear that it is, according to high-paid evaluators
(usually from the North), our failure. Most of these evaluators have never participated in the activities they are
sent to evaluate, or have only cursory first-hand experience.

They tell us that they understand and respect our work, but inform us that they are obliged by circumstances
beyond their control to shift the focus of their policy. In short this means ‘Go find yourselves some other
sponsor’. In many cases, what this means is that, if an NGO is vulnerable in terms of commitment, in
attempting to find a new sponsor, it may decide to compromise it’s principles. And so the rot continues to
grow.

Most grass-root rights activists in the South - in Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Cambodia and Vietnam,
work a seven-day week. The same goes for all workers. All work a 10-16 hour day.

TLC will continue to focus on Freedom of Association. We have a nine year log of non-stop struggle for FoA,
during which time we have enjoyed and been proud to have been able to ‘sub-contract’ our own form of
professionalism to assist (and legitimise) the work of various northern organisations in Asia.
13
Some of us must draw the line in front of corporate capitalism or all will be lost.
Problems with the ‘Log Frame approach’
As pressure from consumer movements in the North
to respect human rights in the South became more
effective, the tactic of the TNCs was to announce
that they will do their best to monitor the infamous
labour practices of their suppliers and sub-
contractors and, in the early 90ies, they came up
with a wonderful thing called ‘Corporate Codes of
Conduct’. The tactic spread like wildfire.
However, as corporate globalisation and the ‘race-
to-the-bottom’ intensified and TNCs searched for
the cheapest possible production bases - using vast
financial assistance from corrupt, national agencies
in the form of tax exemptions and subsidies (public
money), what the poor people of the South actually
experienced was not improved working conditions,
but the laying-off of millions of elderly and/or
unionised workers and the unaccounted for closure
of thousands of factories.
All around the world, workers that attempted to
defend their rights were ignored, dismissed without
compensation, taken to court, beaten-up and
threatened with their lives.
From CoC to CSR and the UN Global Compact
In the geo-political vacuum created by capitalisms
inability to come-up with any solution to the
multitude of increasingly severe problems it has
generated, including growing poverty, most high-
level policy-makers have begun to cling blindly to
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), which has
started to function as an apology for the failure of
the United Nations and Bretton Woods institutions to
adopt and evolve along a rights-based trajectory.
CSR represents an amorphous, spineless,
compromise that sucks-up donor agencies that have
lost their integrity and can no longer maintain their
organisations without support from TNCs. Can CSR
be the answer to the world’s problems? Can
pressuring partners in the South to fall-in behind
CSR lead the world to sustainable development?
How does CSR translate in practice? It means that
leading brands, while continuing to compete on the
publicity market in terms of the amount of money
they supply to sporting events etc., are allocating a
little more than before to charity work - as an
additional means to divert public attention from the
ugly reality in their southern sweat-shops, where
To date, the emergence of this much accredited
wave of corporate Codes of Conduct has produced
far more brutality than benefit. Over 90% of the
world’s goods are still produced by workers who
know nothing about CoC and, vice versa, 90% of
consumers still don’t care. All around the world,
when workers who do know something about CoC
request fair treatment, they are most commonly
subjected to punitive measures.
The log frame approach is used extensively around
the world as a means to assess the work and
results of the recipients of development aid. Not
surprisingly, the approach usually drifts towards
assessment and evaluation of short-term results
and quantitative expectations.
The failure of the log frame approach, as applied by
development aid agencies to strengthen the impact
of investment in the rights-based approach, is easy
to see by looking at the 20 year progression from
the failure of Corporate Codes of Conduct to the
failure of Corporate Social Responsibility to failure
to attain Millennium Development Goals.
wages and social welfare are kept as minimal as
possible - so that ‘the show can go on’ undisturbed.
In 1999 the UN announced it’s own CSR dialogue
with the TNCs, and in 2000 presented the world with
the UN Global Compact, along with a concept called
‘corporate citizenship’! Is not the UN undermining
it’s own authority? Has the UN become desperate?
In 2009 this Global Compact stated that since 2000
over 8,700 companies have ‘made a commitment’ to
implement the principles of the Compact and
communicate their progress to their own
stakeholders on an annual basis. Failure to
communicate progress can lead to being de-listed.
About 400 companies have been de-listed thus far.
About 6,400 companies in over 130 countries are
now affiliated to the Compact.
Maybe it would be a good thing if all corporations
did sign-up to the principles of this Compact, but
take the example of Thailand, where the focal point
of the UN Global Compact is the Employer’s
Association of Thailand. Thailand is world famous
for it’s successful union-busting strategies and only
14
1.4% of the national labour force (half a million of 36
million) is unionised – a world record.
If Principle 3 of the UN Global Compact states that
“Businesses should uphold the freedom of
association and the effective recognition of the right
to collective bargaining”, how come the UN and the
ILO say nothing when Employer’s Associations such
as are found in countries like Thailand assume the
lead role. For 20 years the most basic demands of
the Thai Labour Movement to make Thailand ratify
the core labour conventions on Freedom of
Association have been opposed by the Employer’s
Association of Thailand.
Are the UN agencies promoting the Global Compact
allowing corporations to wash their hands in the
golden bowl? Expecting the Employer’s Association
of Thailand to uphold labour rights is like ‘asking the
dog to watch the meat’. Has the UN and the ILO
capitulated to corporate power?
Under the CSR codes of the OECD that were
introduced at the end of 1970’s, most of the cases
that have been brought by southern unions against
Corporatisation
Capitalism is currently in a desperate struggle with
itself, and attempting to persuade us that it is has
learnt some lessons, will be more careful with
natural resources, and treat poor people as people,
but capitalism thrives on human weakness, on
greed and desire for more.
We seem to be drifting towards some kind show-
down between the trans-national globalists that are
pushing for trans-national economies-of-scale and
the strengthening of Walmart-type business models,
and regionalist who see long-term value in
respecting cultural and biological diversity.
Movement to non-elect, hierarchical, corporate,
capitalistic global governance is, obviously, not the
way forward. Concepts like ‘right to wealth’, ‘trickle-
down effect’ and ‘minimum wage’ belong to the 19th
century, and the concept of ‘corporate citizenship’
belongs, obviously, in the same bucket.
Global unions
The strength and significance of the ILO is that it is
the only institution in the UN body with a tripartite
structure in which representatives of workers have
some voting power - through the global and national
unions.
The world needs local, regional and global unions to
counter-balance misuse of power by state authority,
unfair practices are ‘still pending’. OECD
procedures are far too bureaucratic to be able to
respond to the needs of the millions of oppressed
workers.
Although OECD guidelines could be a powerful
mechanism for justice they have been largely
discredited by their inefficiency, both in the North
and the South. Some global unions still cling to
them.
The most ironic reflection of all human rights
initiatives is the blue-eyed enthusiasm around the
Millennium Development Goals. This UN ‘mission
impossible’ was launched in 1999 by all UN member
states - to eradicate poverty in 15 Years - by 2015.
There is no Hollywood enemy called ‘Poverty’. The
enemy lies within the United Nations and the glass
walls of capitalism, which is why UN officials have
so much difficulty explaining the MDGs. A recent
assessment launched by Ban Ki-moon warns that . .
‘despite many successes, overall progress has been
too slow for most of the targets to be met by 2015’.
With 6 years to 2015 poverty is increasing not
decreasing.
The current drift to incorporation of global NGOs
and unions into a global corporation of corporations
can only lead to a dead end.
We need global co-operation for sustainable
development between eco-geographic regions that
are oriented to achieving sustainable management
of their own resources and to developing their
capacities to provide for the basic needs of their
own people.
One of the main objectives of the struggle for global
justice is surely to ensure that the rules of the global
market, and what is traded on the global market (by
sustainable, regional economies) are decided by the
elected representatives of elected regional
parliaments.
corporations and other mafia. Since foundation TLC
has worked constantly to build relations with and
between unions at all levels.
In Thailand the full range of global unions is present:
the ITUC, ICEM, IUF, IMF, UNI, PSI, ITGLWF and
ITF, and sometimes they help launch campaigns to
expose violation of workers rights but, despite all of
15
this, the union movement in Thailand remains NGOs that work hard to defend worker’s rights,
extremely weak. In manufacturing it is the huge which NGOs must do when unions are nowhere to
electronics and textile and garment sectors that be seen, or fail to perform.
have most difficulty to establish a basis of effective
The times when non-active unions have attempted
cooperation with the global unions. Most workers in
to discredit the really important work of the labour
these sectors are non-unionised women at the
rights NGOs are too frequent to count. Unions
bottom of the pyramid that are still quite easy for the
frequently accuse NGOs of riding on the backs of
bosses to manipulate. Who to blame? For a start
suffering workers in order to be able to write finance
the anti-union policies of the neo-liberal Asian
applications. With the union movement so weak,
approach to export-oriented industrialisation.
labour rights NGOs tend to not want to discredit the
Cooperation between the union movement and big brother unions, but they could easily return the
NGOs is better than it was when TLC started in accusations if they wished.
2000, but unions have an old habit of claiming sole
TLC works with unions all the time. Most of our time
ownership of the workforce, even when the great
goes to supporting workers, especially women
majority of the workforce is not unionised. With their
workers, who need and want to unionise. We
claims to ‘legitimacy’ they often attempt to discredit
respect democratic unions.

CLIMATE CHANGE

How much do labour activists know about climate huge new opportunities for the advanced capitalist
change, the Kyoto protocol and carbon trading? And world to promote agro-industries, biofuel production
about how all this impacts on the labour movement? and sell high-tech
solutions to the South.
I was fortunate to have been able to participate in
For the South it means
the Climate Camp in London on 1 April. I had very
fresh opportunity to
little knowledge, but now I’m learning and, after
profit by short-changing
listening and searching for information on climate
the struggle for worker’s
change and the ‘climate market’, what little I have
rights, democracy and
learnt is already shocking enough.
sustainable
The environmental devastation and human suffering development by selling
caused by capitalist-induced climate change provide carbon quotas to the
16
unsustainable economies in the North, in other
words by selling-out the rights of the people of the
South, also of the North, to determine through
democratic process, their own pathways to
sustainable development.
Around the world, the common sense of the
citizenry is being suffocated and drowned through
the imposition of this type of insanity, which is
engineered far from the chambers of their own
parliaments.
To a large degree climate change is a product of the
misconceived thinking of the so-called Green
Partnerships beyond the old patron-client syndrome
Global donors like holistic strategy, but like it less
when their lesser partners also want to uphold a
holistic approach. Global donors like to imagine it is
only they who hold the blueprint for development,
and they like it best when their small partners feed
them information that strengthens their own global
strategy, structure, management and status. When
they say ‘we support bottom-up, grass-root
empowerment’ what they mean is stay down.
To be able to wage successful war on poverty and
climate change we must all go to the point, to core
issues. In our current work for a book on Gender
and Trade I have begun to better understand the
urgency of our need to find the way forward – to free
grass-root people, organisations and society from
manipulation from above.
Many can talk about what is wrong with the world
and many have ideas about which way to go and
what should be done, but progress is painfully slow
because facing the meaning of sustainable
development means facing our own weaknesses.
CLOSING WORDS
Five months in Europe has given me time for
reflection, to think, debate and evaluate TLC’s
activities, time to clear my backlog of written work,
and more time than before to experience the
European way of life, including time to peep-in a
little upon organic farming in Europe. These days,
farming families make up only 4% of the EU
population.
Several organic farmers told me that across Europe
400 000 farmers are pushed out of their farms every
year. The organic farmers I met said that although
they are relatively poor they don’t feel poor. Some
work as part-time activists, unionists and artists.
Most make time to read, campaign and engage in
Revolution that took-off in the 1960ies. Carbon
trading has emerged as a desperate, and thereby
doubly destructive, attempt by lost capitalist
economists to hoodwink people into believing that
all is under control, alles ist gut.
Who wants to live in a world where epidemics and
disasters are welcomed as new opportunities for
making profit? The swine-flu scare in Thailand has
given a huge boost to private sectors hospitals:
when a mother brings her child for swine-flu
treatment she must first queue half a day and then
pay 400 Euro, which, for many women, is equivalent
to 3 months of wages.
and failures. Sustainable development requires
fundamental changes in our attitude to life,
especially with regard to our individual expectations
concerning material wealth and comfort.
One key issue that I discussed with many of the
organisations I met with in Europe was how to bring
the attention of everyone to the many unsolved
problems of the endless, raw, on-going, exploitation
of poor women in Asia.
OXFAM Solidarity, WIDE, Action Aid and CAW are
supporting the 100 Year Anniversary of International
Women’s Day in 2011, which provides a major
opportunity for women’s groups across Asia to bring
gender inequality issues to the attention of their
governments. Following-up on the Thailand
Women’s Forum in 2007, in January 2009 TLC
organised a forum on Asian Working Women in
Solidarity and, with sponsorship from Action Aid
Asia is continuing to build cooperation with women’s
groups in Thailand and across Indo-China in
preparation for IWD 2011.
active struggle for global justice. They enjoy life, feel
fortunate and have no thoughts that being a small
farmer is anything to be ashamed of.
In contrast, small farmers in the South feel
themselves at the bottom of their nation’s economic
hierarchy. They are looked-down upon as dumb
peasants by Asia’s new urbanites, and made to feel
that their work is undignified and shameful.
The ability of Asia’s small farmers to maintain self-
sufficient life-styles is being destroyed by contract-
farming and the growing impacts and pressures
from agri-industry and agri-business and their
parent corporations, which force small farmers into
17
cycles of accumulating debt and, as in Europe, off
the land.
As the holders of indigenous agricultural knowledge,
as producers of organic food, as stewards of the
bio-diversity of the landscape, as upholders of rural
traditions, small farmers have only real reasons to
be proud of their occupations, and basic, common
sense demands an answer to a basic question . .
What good reason can neo-liberal capitalists give
for attempting to annihilate small-scale farmers?
They don’t have any good reasons. neo-liberal
capitalists have ‘interests’ - to own and control land,
to own and control the means of production, the
food market and the profit. And what is the impact of
their interests? Nothing but increasing disease,
poverty, suffering and environmental destruction,
accompanied by rising levels of fear, paranoia,
terrorism, loss of freedom of expression, increased
public surveillance and militarism.
For decades millions of humiliated, small farmers
have been bundling what they can into whatever
transport they can find to head into the cities - in
hope of something. The cities of the South are now
jam-packed with people that a few years ago were
self-sufficient. There is no way that the authorities in
our mega-cities can ensure the physical and mental
well-being of these migrants. The exodus from the
land must be halted, and labour activists in both
South and North must broaden their perceptions
and perspectives, and investigate and learn to
better incorporate the issue of the de-population of
the land into their strategic discussions, analyses
and agendas.
Many of my friends show surprise or astonishment
when they hear me talking about organic farming.
Are you no longer a labour activist they ask!
Extinguishing and substituting small-scale farming
with mono-culture agri-industry commanded by
multi-national corporations has no logical
connection to the eradication of poverty. On the
contrary, all evidence points in the opposite
direction - to increasing poverty, slum conditions,
risk of epidemics and a whole bunch of negative
impacts reflected in negative climate change.
The issues of the landless and soon to be landless
small farmers cannot be held separate from the
issues of the millions of workers labouring in the
industrial zones.
The corporation’s race to exploit the poorest of the
poor was encouraged and supported by the geo-
political power-brokers of the West, and sold to
governments in the South as a model that leads to
prosperity. For hundreds of millions of workers in
the South it has been a fast track to slavery - in
many aspects worse than imperial colonialism.
Mass market manufacturing is dependent on its
ability to maintain a continuous supply of cheap
labour. The agri-industry - the ‘food for the world
industry’ - wants small farmers off the land, wants
the land levelled and wants the young blood of the
land for serving their conveyers as cleaners, cutters,
packers and branders.
By attempting to engage in dialogue with global
brands, NGOs in the North, imagining that they can
turn devils into angels, have been loosing critical
time. In the South NGOs have been loosing
precious time in responding to calls from the North
to provide information and evidence of violations, so
that North NGOs can engage with brands and
maybe raise awareness of consumers. Such
activity, although needed, has been tending to divert
energy and concentration from main issues and
core demands.
In the South we see indications that, with 70% of the
southern workforce now swimming around in the
informal sector, the circumstances of low-paid
workers are sliding backwards. What this says quite
clearly is that unions and NGOs must stop
squabbling, re-assess their strategies and return to
the essential politics of strengthening the labour
movement’s power-base, first-and-foremost
amongst the workers themselves, and more
generally across all sectors. In terms of North-South
co-operation this means a budgeting emphasis on
bringing experienced, dedicated activists from the
North to assist in raising awareness of the millions
of workers in the South who need to know about the
dangers of corporate power.
18
A few thoughts on the way forward
• Where Freedom of Association is barred the road to sustainable development is barred. Without collective
solidarity within the working class the road to sustainable development cannot be built. The workers of the
world must unite against corporate capitalism to launch a global campaign for Freedom of Association.
• Stronger global solidarity is needed between labour activists and ‘consumer movements‘ activists to
strengthen and mobilize support for worker’s collectives and cooperatives, so that the regular citizenry -
North, South, East and West - has constantly increasing possibilities to buy, bargain and barter in fair trade
markets.
• Legal procedures must be strengthened so that global corporations that cause human suffering, negative
environmental impacts and the disruption of due democratic process can be criminalised.
For every article produced in the South and sold in the North the labour cost is never more than 1% of the
sale price. Of course workers in the South can be paid more, but capitalism is dependent on maintaining a
huge pool of cheap, manual labour.
• The need to boycott brands from corporations that do not respect international labour law must be given
more serious attention.
Like union-busting, bankrupting small farmers may be in the interests of capitalism but it is not in the interests
of the future of life on the planet. It is in the real immediate and long-term interests of all people, especially
working-class people to support small-scale farmers and their efforts to defend themselves, so that they can
move forward to the production of clean, organic food and end the migration of agricultural workers into over-
crowded cities.
Our efforts at reaching-out to strengthen solidarity across sectors and geographic regions are undermined by
capitalism’s relocation games - and by the freedom they are given by corrupt South governments and weak
unions movements to relocate to wherever labour is cheapest and circumstances most favourable.
• It is one of the main tasks of South-South solidarity to put an end to this relocation game, a game which
makes workers in the South compete against each other, contributes to border conflicts, builds unnecessary
hatreds and breeds fascistic forms of nationalism.
To step away from the double-standards, lies, ugly
games and domination of global capitalism, the labour
movement must develop more effective regional
strategies, more regular regional meetings and more
effective inter-regional joint-actions.
The Solidarity Factory in Bangkok and the La Alameda
cooperative in Argentina are recently established
worker’s co-operatives that are now joining hands in
solidarity across the Pacific, to demonstrate publicly
that there are and can be non-exploitative models of
production, that can enable local people and
communities to step away from the supply chains
controlled by trans-national corporations.
The members of both cooperatives worked for many
years at the start of the global supply chains, cutting
and stitching clothes for many famous global brands, until they decided they had been sponsoring TNC
supply-chains for long enough. Many groups of workers from all across the South visit these cooperatives to
strengthen their own thoughts about how to break free from the big fish - small fish power-play.
There are millions of exhausted garment workers in the South in urgent need of support from the global
unions and the fair trade movement in the North, to help them break free and start their own cooperatives. In
other words, the global unions and fair trade movement in the North need to give far more effort to supporting
not only direct trade with worker’s cooperatives in the South - but to helping to establish new cooperatives to
strengthen and catalyse resistance against the evil’s of corporate power.

19
MANY THANKS
During my stay in Europe I was able to discuss issues with the following organisations: No Sweat, Action Aid,
KEPA, the Fair-trade Network, SASK, Social Solidarity Economy Network (Asia), RIPESS (Quebec),
European International for Asian Studies (EIAS), Solidar, WIDE, Fair Wear Foundation, Oxfam Fair Trade,
IUF, People Global Action, SOMO, Clean Clothes Campaign, Oxfam Solidarity, Labour behind the Label,
Trade Union Advisory Council, OECD, Global Labour Institute.
There are many people I wish to thank for making my visit to Europe possible, enjoyable and productive.
A great thanks to Tom Matthijs and friends at Oxfam Solidarity for all hospitality, and for fast response to
urgent requests! A warm thanks to all who gave-up a warm corner of their simple, loving flats: Ineke
Zeldenrust , Martin Heason, Kristine Drew, Tom Matthijs and Richard Thompson Coon.
Many thanks for support and expressions of concern from: Josef Weidenholzer, Benedicte Allaert, Barbara
Brovo, Kolya Abramsky, Dan Gallin, Olivier Demarcellus, Wim Polman, Naomi Adam, Ethel Cote, Sam
Marta, Justin Baidoo, Anne De Boeck, Jeremy Anderson, Ginney Liu, Gerry, Heta Niami, Jukka Pääkkönen,
Benjamin Quinones jr., all friends at the CCC Secretariat, friends at SOMO, and all friends and individuals not
mentioned here who shared their passions and gave solid support.
A big warm thanks to our TLC team in Bangkok who have worked hard in my absence to keep TLC
functioning well during this difficult time in Thailand. And a big thanks on behalf of all of us to Andrew Little
and friends, and to Doris Lee from AMRC, for effective facilitation with the task of developing cooperation
between the Solidarity Factory and La Alameda (March – October 2009). TLC was fortunate to have been
able to recruit a dedicated, new Office Manager, Patchanee Kamnak, just before I left for Europe. Without
Patchanee and hours of skyping and MSN, TLC would be in trouble by now.
A special thanks to my host organisations: SOMO, Clean Clothes Campaign, Oxfam Solidarity, Labour
behind the Label, Trade Union Advisory Council, OECD and the Global Labour Institute.
I wish also to thank the Republic of Finland and the Suomenlinna World Heritage Site for sanctuary and
peace for meditation during writing.

Written work completed - on Suomenlinna 5000 miles from base

• The translation of ‘A Single Spark’, a biography of Chun Tae-il, from English to Thai (350 pages).
This story of a Korean garment worker who immolated himself in 1970 was first published in
Korea in 1983 and translated to English in 2001. After 5-years of sporadic attempts at translating
this book from English to Thai it was a huge relief to get the translation completed, and to know
that the book will soon be distributed in Thailand.
• With thanks to the Global Labour Institute in Geneva, I was able to arrange sponsorship and
complete arrangements for the combined printing and publication by the Thai Labour Campaign of
the translation from English to Thai of two texts - the book ‘Two Souls of Socialism’ by Hal
Draper (1966), and an article on the International Labour Movement by Dan Gallin (2005).
• A report on the London Climate Camp, in Thai, 6 April 2009
• An article entitled ‘The Voter’s Uprising that is changing perceptions in Thailand’, in English
and Thai, 28 April 2009.
• A letter to Triumph International Labour Union (Thailand), in English and Thai.
• An Activity Report on Empowerment of Women in Indo-China, in English.
• This Critical Report on Networking and Solidarity Building in Europe.
Throughout my time in Europe work has been on-going on our 200-page manual for gender activists
called ‘The Villager’s Dialogue on Gender and Trade’, which is to be published in December (2009).
Work for a concept paper on the ASEAN Democracy Campaign - for discussion amongst concerned
organisations in Asia, Europe and around the world is also now on-going.

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Some personal rewards
Visiting an exhibition of a collection of Van Gogh’s night paintings, ‘Colour of the Night’, at the Van
Gogh Museum in the Amsterdam was one cheering and unforgettable moment.
For years I had waited for an opportunity to visit the British Museum. The BM receives mixed
comments from my friends, some like and some hate it. To friends from post-colonial countries the BM
is often a symbol of colonialism - of stolen cultural property. On the other hand a professor friend
points-out that if the BM did not exist we would have to travel to many countries and still never see as
much, and much would by now have been destroyed by civil wars or be hidden in collections of the
super-rich.
For me, as with millions of other visitors, the collections in the British Museum told me about the
fantastic history of civilizations, about the greed of capitalism, about how we arrived at where we are
today and how human destruction of civilization has been accelerating during the last 100 years.
The entrance to British Museum is free. Thank you!
Visiting organic farms in Belgium and Switzerland, and tasting organic seasonal food, was a real
reward that I shall share with my organic farming friends when back in Thailand.

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I promised a few people some recipes, so here is . .

Two Thai recipes

‘Somtum d’Europa’ - for maybe 2-3 people
Ingredients: 3-4 carrots, a handful of red radishes, an apple, a
big tomato, 1 garlic, 1-2 fresh green or red chilli, palm or brown
sugar, tamarind juice (if possible), lemon, and fish and / or soy
sauce.
Shred and / or fine-slice the carrot, apple and radish.
Put garlic and chilli in a big mortar (a ‘Kruk’) and crush and beat
a little. Then add a few slices of green lemon or lime, with a
small part of the carrot, radish and sliced tomato, and beat a
little. Then add sugar, tamarind juice and fish and or soy sauces,
and beat a little.
Finally, add all remaining ingredients carrot, apple, radish and
tomato and gently fold all in together.
Taste and adjust taste as required. You can add a little fresh
mint etc.
Serve cold as a stand-alone salad or with rice vermicelli.

‘Red tofu curry d’Europa’ - for maybe 3 people

Ingredients: Thai red curry paste, fresh medium-hard tofu,
coconut milk, carrots, eggplant or similar vegetable, red or green
paprika and, say, some green runner beans, and garlic,
coriander root, fresh basil leaves, sea salt, black pepper corns,
olive (or other) oil.
Preparing the curry paste: Place 2-3 garlic, 2 green chillies, 1
or 2 coriander roots, some 10 pepper corns and a little salt into
the big mortar, and crush and beat together. Then beat in the
red curry paste until all is thoroughly mixed, but it doesn’t need
to be smooth and better not.
Boil the carrots and eggplant until almost cooked and remove
them from the water.
Cut the tofu into squares and fry in oil until lightly brown -
in a wok or pan. Take out the tofu.

Add little more oil to the wok or other pot and, when the oil is
hot, add the curry paste, palm sugar and sauces and stir fry
together. As the mixture stiffens a bit start adding coconut milk
while stirring all together gently and continuously..
Turn-in the fried tofu and lightly boiled vegetables. Add more
coconut milk according to your judgement!
Taste and adjust to your liking, adding more sauce or sugar or
whatever.
When You think it’s ready add the fresh, thin-sliced paprika and
basil leaves. Give all a final stir, remove from heat and serve.
Be alert!

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