Asia Pacific conference offers solidarity to Nike picket

Issue 

[The following motion was passed unanimously by the Asia Pacific Peoples Solidarity Conference in Jakarta on June 7.]

For the past 10 weeks workers and students in Melbourne have blockaded the Nike superstore in the central business district each Friday evening. On each occasion they have successfully shut-down the store for the night.

On a number of occasions the non-violent blockade has been physically attacked by police — beating protesters, arresting protesters and attempting to silence the growing opposition to the exploitative practices of companies like Nike.

The weekly blockades of Nike are in protest against Nike's treatment of its workforce — both in Australia but also in Indonesia, Vietnam, China and many other countries.

In Australia Nike's outworkers are paid only two dollars an hour, while in Asia Nike workers are paid as little as two dollars a day!

Protesters in Melbourne are also demanding that Nike stop its attacks on workers' right to organise — that it stop intimidating unionists in its Asian factories, and permit the formation of genuine trade unions to defend workers rights.

This meeting of the Asia Pacific Peoples' Solidarity Conference held in Jakarta from June 7-10, 2001 pledges its solidarity with the Melbourne Nike blockade and condemns Nike, the Victorian police and the Bracks Labor government for attacking non-violent protesters.

We call on Nike to cease its super-exploitation of workers in Asia and Australia. We demand that Nike:

1. Sign and implement the homeworkers' code of practice

2. Pay a living wage to all its workers in Asia and Australia

3. Cease its intimidation of workers' organisers and unions in its Asian factories.

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