Thursday, August 09, 2007

Chinese People Kick STARBUCKS Out of the Forbidden City/SF Richmond District Activists Oppose STARBUCKS in our Community
Photograph: Stephen Shaver/EPA

A few weeks ago Chinese activists forced STARBUCKS out of China's Forbidden City in Beijing.

For months journalists and activists waged a campaign that generated 500,000 people urging the closure of the STARBUCKS which had operated for 7 years in one of China's most historical landmarks. The BBC reported:

Starbucks, which has nearly 200 outlets in China, opened the Forbidden City shop seven years ago and removed its brand sign two years ago to address cultural sensitivities.
But the shop continued to draw protests. China state TV personality Rui Chenggang led the online campaign, saying the shop's presence "undermined the solemnity of the Forbidden City and trampled on Chinese culture".
I am part of a growing grassroots campaign in San Francisco's Richmond District, sometimes called the City's "new Chinatown," to support our independently owned coffee houses and cafes and prevent STARBUCKs and other "formula retailers" from ruining the unique, diverse, and ethnic character of our neighborhood.
We have generated over 3000 signatures in support and are mobilizing support in our community and at the Board of Supervisors to overturn the City's Planning Commission's June decision to grant a permit for a new STARBUCKs in our neighborhood. More info.

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Our San Francisco Chinese Progressive Association just celebrated 35 years of grassroots organizing and effort to re-build our peoples movements for economic and global justice for all.
Technorati Profile

Monday, February 12, 2007


My daughter and I marched on Labor Day 2006 for global justice abroad and economic justice at home. This shot was picked up by the World Journal.
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Sunday, December 31, 2006

Happy New Year! For Peace and Global Justice in 2007
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Monday, December 18, 2006

Harbin Educators Visit with San Francisco Unified School District Superintendent, Staff and Board Members
Our school district was honored today by a visit by Minister Bai Junming of the Harbin Education Bureau and 24 teachers, principals and educators from the beautiful Northern China City of Harbin. Also known as Little Moscow because of its connections with Russia and northern Asian and European cultures, Harbin is known as the ICE CITY beause of the amazing ice sculptures and structures during the Winter Time.
Addressing the visitors I said that delegations like these allow educators from the US and China to share experiences and dialogue to help build US and China People's Friendship for the future, not just for mutual trade and business, but also to help move us toward world peace and global justice.
For more info http://www.uscpfa.org/
or http://www.sfusd.edu
Walden Bello Interview with IFG's Dale Wen: “China Needs an Ecologized Social Democratic System.”

Thursday, 30 November 2006
By Walden Bello*
Dale Wen's short book China Copes with Globalization: a Mixed Review, published by the International Forum on Globalization, is probably the best comprehensive introduction to the environmental and social impacts of China's breakneck industrialization available in English (http://www.ifg.org/) Based on both Chinese and non-Chinese sources, the report carefully reviews China's economic policies from Mao to the present leadership, discusses the consequences of the economics of the reform era from 1978-92, analyzes the globalization of the economy since 1992, and surveys the alternative voices in the Chinese scene, including the environmental movement and the "New Left."
Born and raised in China, Dale obtained her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Science and Technology of China in Anhui province and her PhD from the California Institute of Technology. Currently an associate of the International Forum on Globalization (IFG), she worked in Silicon Valley's high tech industry before moving to non-profit work. Her writings on China's development and environment have appeared in a number of publications. She travels frequently to China, where she maintains close ties with China's emerging civil society.

Thursday, October 12, 2006

SEIU leader Andy Stern will be in town visiting with SEIU Local 790 activists on Wed 10/18 at noon.
Also, a fond farewell to International Forum on Globalization researcher/activist Dale Wen as she relocates from our fair City of SF to New York City.
I have found the work of Dale Wen very helpful. Dale's great analysis China Copes with Globalization for the International Forum on Globalization is excellent.
I especially liked her analysis of China's changing workforce, health care system, and on growing poverty and inequality were very helpful, as was the section on China's diverse 'New Left'.
Wen has a great website as well - Dale's China Page

Monday, August 21, 2006

Free Image Hosting at allyoucanupload.com
A few SEIU friends and other labor leaders from SF and other parts of the US and Canada have just returned from a delegation to China which included many intense meetings with the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) and historic building of labor solidarity and new global relationships with the world's largest union.

Here's background from the Action LA labor watch site -

After Long Campaign, Chinese Union Will Unionize All Wal-Mart Outlets

Labors Watch China - Projects of ActionLA Coalition

August 19, 2006

1) Wal-Mart sets up 19 trade unions in Chinese outlets (People's Daily, China)
2) Wal-Mart Bows Down to China (Ohmy News, South Korea)
3) Wal-Mart's Union (Andy Stern, SEIU, USA)

1) Wal-Mart sets up 19 trade unions in Chinese outlets
August 19, 2006
People's Daily (China)
FULL ARTICLE

The world's retail giant Wal-Mart has established 19 trade unions in its Chinese outlets since late July, disclosed an official of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) on Friday.

"The negotiations between Wal-Mart and the ACFTU have proved fruitful. The two sides have agreed to set up trade unions in Wal-Mart Chinese outlets on a cooperative and harmonious basis and in line with Chinese laws," an ACFTU official said Friday in an interview with Xinhua.

The two sides agreed that the candidates for trade union posts in a Wal-Mart Chinese outlet should be approved by a higher-level trade union after work staff's nomination.

...Wal-Mart opened its first outlet in China in 1996. Until July 29 this year, no Wal-Mart Chinese outlets had set up trade unions.

The world's leading retailer has some 1.6 million employees in 16 countries and regions. And Wal-Mart's 60 Chinese outlets employ 23,000 people.

Wal-Mart has traditionally not allowed trade unions in its outlets, for which it has been widely criticized by human rights groups and labor organizations.

With mounting pressure from the ACFTU and the public, Wal-Mart China backed down in 2004 by saying in a statement that "Should associates request the formation of a union, Wal-Mart China will respect their wishes and honor its obligations under China's trade union law."

On July 29, its outlet in Jinjiang City, east China's Fujian Province, set up a trade union. In the following 20 days, another 18 trade unions were established in Wal-Mart's outlets in the cities of Shenzhen, Nanjing, Fuzhou, Jinan, Shenyang, Dalian, Nanchang, Qingdao, Wuhan and Taiyuan.
...

2) Wal-Mart Bows Down to ChinaAfter a long fight the American giant allows trade unions in all 60 of its Chinese supermarkets

Ohmy News, South Korea
August 14, 2006
FULL ARTICLE

Xu Zhiqiang (xuzhiqiang)
...

3) Wal-Mart's Union
Andy Stern, President, Service Employee International Union (SEIU), USA.
August 17, 2006

FULL POST AT www.huffingtonpost.com

Well, I went to my first unionized Wal-Mart; unfortunately it had to be in China
for the experience.

Three decades ago, with over 800 million people in farming and state-owned enterprises aging, China initiated a series of economic reforms. They chose to do what Russia failed to do: open itself to the idea of investment and what went along with it.
In opening its market, China made investment king -- and other than political stability -- it trumped all other considerations.

Today the Chinese government is feeling more and more confident in its dealings with multinational corporations, or Foreign-Owned Enterprises (FOEs). Once FOEs became a necessary and revered source of investment, they could do no wrong.

For big business, despite all their claims of wanting to promote democracy, the 1.3 billion-person Chinese market plus a dominant and stable government was too hard to resist in this new era. So throwing 20th century values to the wind, the corporate money rolled in, particularly along the eastern coast.

The financial capital Shanghai (and China's New York) constructed as much office space as Manhattan in 2005 alone. Half of the world's concrete was poured in China last year. By the 2008 Olympics, 110 new hotels will open for business in Beijing.

And last month, I said month, China reported a $10 billion trade surplus.

Wal-Mart simply overplayed their hand.

The Chinese Constitution allows workers the right to have unions by simply applying for recognition. The union tried to find, as they would say, "harmonious relations" with management, but Wal-Mart rebuffed them as they have unions everywhere. For two years the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) made efforts to organize workers, and Wal-Mart still resisted - that is, until the government and the union joined forces.

The workers stepped forward and Wal-Mart was "persuaded" to allow the workers' desire to be recognized. Today there are 16 stores organized, and growing interest in the union.

It's a huge signal not only to Wal-Mart, but also to multinational corporations and FOEs that investment was once supreme, but stability, workers, and the rule of law is now getting more attention. The ACFTU believes it will go from 30-40 percent union recognition in the private sector to 80-90 percent by 2008.

Today's lesson is that a more confident China is willing to set the rules on investment, and no employer is big enough to ignore them.

Tomorrow - what does this mean for the workers?