BY ALLEN MYERS
PHNOM PENH — Hundreds of workers jammed into the premises of the Womyn's Agenda for Change on May 1 to celebrate May Day. The day's events were organised primarily by garment workers, who produce for subcontractors who supply well-known international labels. They were assisted by the Women's Network for Unity, a sex workers' collective.
Cambodia's urban working class is still very small — 85% of the population is rural, and much of the rural population is engaged in family agriculture. Industry consists almost entirely of garment production for export, and more than 90% of the 200,000 garment workers are women.
In previous years, both the government and opposition parties have organised May Day marches of the small unions they control. This year, none chose to do so. Garment workers therefore decided to organise their own event.
Estimates varied, but somewhere between 600 and 800 people attended the events, which lasted all day. In the morning, there were three hours of dances, poems, songs, and skits about the hardships imposed on workers and their attempts to resist them. The afternoon was a party, mixed with impromptu speeches about issues of concern to those present.
Aside from the singing of a Khmer-language translation of "Bread and Roses", all of the works performed were written by the workers themselves.
The highlight of the day's events was a "fashion parade" in which workers wore many of the clothes they produce. These garments were emblazoned with outlandishly sized labels of the companies that benefit from the workers' labour. The "models" carried handbags decorated with slogans and demands suggested by garment workers in discussions prior to May Day, for example: "Fair pay for our work", "Stop gang rape of workers" and "United we stand, divided we fall".
After a campaign by garment workers, in 2001 a legal minimum wage of US$45 per month was established in the industry. However, the law is often violated, and employers are now trying to move to a piece-rates system that would cut wages by as much as 50%.
From Green Left Weekly, May 7, 2003.
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