Transcript: Episode #233: Workers Strike Back
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Host 0:25
If this is your first time listening to our podcast welcome. Our programming brings a diversity of voices connected to me and Mark to share their perspectives, thoughts and reflections about what has been happening there since the military coup in 2021. All of our guests share one thing in common, a deep personal stake in the ongoing crisis. And it is an honor for us to be able to bring their voices into your ear buds. But however difficult it may be to hear some of their stories. We hope that you will come away with a deeper and more nuanced understanding of what is happening there.
Brad 2:13
Continuing our theme of discussing the non conflict elements of the ongoing Myanmar crisis. My guest today is from the solidarity center here to discuss a damning report released by the International Labour Organization regarding the endemic abuses of laborers and labor rights in Myanmar. Jeffrey, I'd like to thank you very much for joining us today. And I'd like to give you the opportunity to introduce yourself and your organization for our listeners.
Jeff Vogt 2:38
Well, thank you very much. My name is Jeff votes. I'm the legal director for the solidarity center and currently a member of the ILO governing body. The solidarity Center is an international NGO that promotes the rights of workers and trade unions worldwide. And we've been working with workers and trade unions and Myanmar for several decades.
Brad 3:02
Excellent. Now, this, this report that was released towards freedom and dignity in Myanmar is its title. There is there is a lot going on here. And let's just start with the convention. So convention number 87, and convention number 29. Both of these conventions are frequently cited in the report, you frequently point to violations of these two conventions. Can you explain to us what these conventions actually do?
Jeff Vogt 3:32
Right. So the convention 87 Is the Convention on the Protection of the right to freedom of association and to organize and convention 29 on the prohibition on forced labor. These are two of the fundamental conventions of the ILO. And these are two conventions which Myanmar is ratified, which allows us to seek a commission of inquiry.
Brad 4:03
Well, I would say like with with the 87, so the free assembly, what exactly does free assembly in like, entail? What would qualify as a violation of that dimension?
Jeff Vogt 4:13
Right. So convention II seven protects the rights of workers to form and join trade unions of their choosing to write up their rules or constitutions and to undertake activity including the right strike. So this is yeah.
Brad 4:34
So So in effect convention 87 protects the right of workers to form trade unions and act to protect their workers interests.
Jeff Vogt 4:42
Yes, exactly. Okay.
Brad 4:45
So let's so let's start with that one, then because that's that is a topic that we have seen covered on this channel before it'd be interesting to get an outside perspective. How, how you say you've been tracking labor activity in Myanmar for some time I'm how have labor unions and their status within the state changed in the pre coup and the post coup realities of Myanmar.
Jeff Vogt 5:11
In you know, obviously, for a very long time, their trade unions were non existent for the most parts. And it wasn't until 2011 2012, that the the government had passed, laws regulating the formation of trade unions and laws regulating, essentially collective bargaining and dispute settlement. And this these two laws, though, they had numerous defects, at least, set the foundations for trading and speed, once again, legal and to undertake their activities, though, again, with many limitations. So this led from that period forward. Kind of a new springtime for trade unions, in Myanmar. And we saw a number of Trade Unions take advantage of this space and register unions throughout the country. Obviously, at the time of the cool then, that, that nearly a 10 year span of time, was reversed almost immediately, with the government declaring the dissolution of a number of unions sending out issuing warrants for the arrest of a number of trade union leaders.
Brad 6:54
They didn't have a reason for those, by the way, like what was there an official stated purpose? Like, I don't know treason, or, or criminal activity? Or did they just decide to get rid of them for no real reason? Right?
Jeff Vogt 7:07
Well, we we know that trade unions among many other members of civil society were part of the the CDM, the move the movement against the coup, and in the trade unions were among a large sector of civil society that was going to well organized, obviously, as it by its nature. And, yeah, also had important links regionally and internationally. So I think they saw the trade unions as a particular risk. And moved quickly to try to minimize that by, again deregistering. Many of the unions, you know, risking their leadership, sending others in exile, revoking the citizenship, in fact of some leaders. And now at this point, say freedom of associations, all but impossible to exercise in any real meaningful way.
Brad 8:20
So then this, this leads to a very important question, which is, what was the the actual efficacy of trade unions, because we've had a lot of circumstances, particularly in socialist and post socialist states where trade unions exist, but are often just puppet organizations run by the government that don't really protect the rights of workers. So in this spring period of have trade unions that you speak of during the 2011 onwards, period, did we actually see trade unions effectively advocating for laborers? Did we actually see an improvement of labor conditions? Do we actually see effectiveness among those strike unions?
Jeff Vogt 9:04
Yes, I mean, if you're coming from a history where there in fact, had been no trade unions, right, so it's, this isn't, you know, akin to a kind of post Soviet transition where you're seeing, you know, state led unions in a new environment, struggling to find a purpose. This is now workers who had no effective representation. Up until again, the 2010 2011 and, you know, as a result of many factories, but the fact that they couldn't organize and bargain were making extraordinarily low wages, and poor working conditions. So when there was the opportunity for workers organized, and they kind of knew of it, and then they recognized that there was there was safety and relatively in in coming out and forming unions, that they wouldn't lead to state repression. Then we saw 1000s of workers throughout the country joining units. And using those unions as a vehicle to make demands other employers on wages working conditions. So I think it was, I think the union movement in in Myanmar. He was making important progress.
Brad 10:52
Excellent. And so this is being utterly dismantled. As you say, I, I don't know whether you'd be able to speak on on this in particular, but the general understanding that we received from a lot of different experts is that many ostensibly, private enterprises, the non nationalized enterprises are in fact controlled directly by the military, through through various conglomerates and holding companies, mec, MHL, notably, would you be able to speak to whether this activity of of shutting down trade unions shutting down the progress of workers rights is restricted primarily to sectors that the military has financial interests in, or whether it just extends across the country?
Jeff Vogt 11:40
I mean, I think it's a blanket prohibition. I mean, obviously, there was significant organizing in the public sector, over the last 10 years before the coup began. Teachers and civil servants, workers working for state owned companies, but you also saw significant organizing in the private sector, including in the Special Economic Zones producing for for export. So, you know, to some major international brands. So see, ya know, I think it's the the the organizing those happening, you know, throughout the, throughout the economy of Myanmar, and that is effectively shut down across the board. But I think the only the only unions now you really see able to exist are those who are essentially, employer or government dominated unions that are replacing those who are legitimately formed by the workers themselves.
Brad 12:55
So they basically we're seeing a rise of these false, you, I don't know what you would, whether there's a term of art for this, but but unions that are basically just there to protect the rights of the owners of the industries rather than the workers themselves.
Jeff Vogt 13:12
Yes, yes. Exactly. Wow.
Brad 13:16
And so. So beyond the actual erosion of unions themselves, have we seen the expected corollary erosion of the standard of labor, the workers protections, the salaries and all of these things?
Jeff Vogt 13:31
Well, certainly we have workers unable at this point to be able to address workplace grievances, or bargaining collectively over their terms and conditions of work. So that's certainly having an impact on workers throughout the country. You mean, obviously, the fact of the coup itself is having an economic impact on the country, which is also having an impact on employment and, and workers, wages and welfare, but the fact that they have no collective representation at this point makes it impossible for them to have to get redress that at a workplace level or at a national level, right there. There have no effective collective voice at this point.
Brad 14:26
So So that leads on to an interesting dynamic, because the the most important factor, I would say, underlining all of this is whether or not you can fire someone and replace them, you know, supply and demand. And so how much has the circumstance shifted? Because we understand that the ongoing conflict has led to a disastrous economy. Businesses don't seem to be doing as much as they were doing before salaries. seem to have taken a dive definitely in relation to the cost of living? And what's the what's the relationship, like, between employers and employees just in terms of pure basic market realities? Are the employers in an easier position to find new workers or other workers are able to at least threaten their employers by saying, Well, I'm going to walk out?
Jeff Vogt 15:26
Well, you I would suppose that the threat to walk at this point is a fairly weak one, because with high unemployment, I think the chances of being able to find replacement workers is probably quite high. And given the economic situation that wouldn't be unimaginable that workers in a dire situation would would accept work even if even even under the wages and conditions that are being offered.
Brad 16:00
Fair enough. So let's then turn to the other conventions convention number 29. You say this, this covers forced labor. Can you like is there a definition of forced labor that that the ILO uses?
Jeff Vogt 16:16
Yes, yeah, convention 29 itself has a definition, which I don't have right in front of me at the moment, but basically, it says fortunately, what happens when there is a worker service which the worker does not voluntarily offer, and for which the there is a penalty for refusing to work? There, there are books written describing that go into great detail on each of those elements. Right. But the for purposes of this commission of inquiry, I mean, I can go into some detail about what are the specific cases but I'd also mentioned for the listeners that this is not the first time that Myanmar has actually been under a commission of inquiry for forced labor, this was and this fact is Myanmar is now the only country in the history of the of the ILO to have been subject to two Commission's of inquiry, and in this case, including on the same convention and convention 29 You know, in the 1990s, the ILO of the Myanmar was brought to the ILO because of, you know, the military imposed work including, you know, portering and, you know, construction of military camps and forced recruitment of people into the military, including children. And also forcible work on kind of military own projects, including the famous sin, Unocal, pipeline and so on. So the Commission of Inquiry was established then and establish that there was forced labor and it was not until actually the the establishment of a quasi civilian government that the fee of the that commission of inquiry was closed, which I think it was wrong to what 2014 2015 And now we see obviously, with a coup now and 2021, the reestablishment of forced labor for many of the same purposes is again used by the military in Porter on your equipment in meal clearing. Clearing roads building camps, yeah, in some cases acting as human shields. And what was interesting about this not one issue that came up so much in the last commission recording was also the the allegations of forced overtime, which overtime in itself may not necessarily be tantamount to forced labor, but if it's more systemic, right, and, and if there are, certain consequences may come from the refusal of overtime, that itself also can be indicative of forced labor. And that also goes into the previous question about freedom of association. If you don't have a union, through which you can fight back against the employer, the you know, the forcible overtime is not surprising, right? Including to such a degree that becomes forced labor. So it's not,
Brad 20:23
it's not as clear black and white between you have regular mutually agreed upon employment and you get paid for that, versus you get sent off to a forced labor camp that the forced labor is can start off in a much more subtle way,
Jeff Vogt 20:39
is what you're saying. Right, there is there's a spectrum of activity, which can be for slaver, yeah, I would say with force over time being one and being forced to serve as a human shield on the other end.
Brad 20:52
Okay, and so, you know, the report outlines multiple different elements of violations of this particular convention. And so you use what you've just said, this is the only country that has been subjected to to such investigations. That's I mean, that that sounds very significant. So, the The ILO has, I assume, basically, jurisdiction over the whole world, right.
Jeff Vogt 21:25
Well, those over countries that have that are members of the ILO and also for Commission of Inquiry can only be undertaken into conventions that have been ratified by their country. So, in this case, Myanmar has ratified both of those conventions which allowed constitutionally, a commission of inquiry to be established it you know, just a little bit more background, I mean, the to establish a commission of inquiry the governing body of the ILO and this is what happened in this case, I has to take a decision to establish such a commission, the ILO again, more background and may make this more helpful. The governing body or the ILO itself is a is a, a UN agency, but unique in the fact that its governments only have half the seats in the governance structure. Unions have another quarter of the seats and employers have another Choros seats. So, together, you have this kind of CO governance between labor, employers and the states. So, it was kind of a mutual agreement by the three parties to establish it based on on the facts as it were occurring on the ground and the fact that the ILO had issued previous resolutions on Myanmar after the cool deal because of the very serious allegations that were coming from the ground.
Brad 23:13
So, just for context and background, does Myanmar itself have a seat on the ILO?
Jeff Vogt 23:23
It does. I mean, it is a Yeah, as a member of the ILO it is I was going to attend the International Labor conference, and as a member, whether it's so, of all the member states of which are about 180. A certain number of them on a rotating basis sit on the governing body. Myanmar is not a member of the governing body wasn't at the time, and it's obviously not now. And there is there is the Myanmar has not been invited to participate in the conference since the coup because there's been a dispute among who represents the government of Myanmar. There's obviously the national unity government that is making a claim that it represents the state and then you have the military regime that is claiming that it represents the state. So, given the conflicting claims on who represents the state and no one has been allowed up to this point to represent the the state at at the ILO
Brad 24:42
okay. So interest, so that so then, so the ILO is internal structure does deviate from the United Nations General Assembly structure, which seems just to be based on incumbency principles. So ILO can actually move in and say, until this dispute is settled, No one gets it. No one gets to say,
Jeff Vogt 25:03
well, it's the UN general assembly also has credentials process similar to the ILO. So I mean, you have, you can have other situations in which there have been coos or, or other disruptions in, in governance, where you may have more than one party claiming to represent the state. So this is not unheard of. I mean, the thing that is making this a little bit more complicated is that the UN General Assembly is still recognizing in this kind of tacit agreement that the former ambassador to the UN in New York for the NLD. And although that is the the, so that I just kind of left the the UN General Assembly not to have to really address this decision, they've been just kind of treading water, not having to make a decision between the energy and the military regime, because they're kind of allowing this former diplomat to keep the space. But at the ILO that we don't have such a circumstance, so. So it may be the case that the ILO takes on its own initiative next year to make that decision for itself.
Brad 26:48
Okay, interesting. It's good time to send these these contextual points, because they can be very, very important down the line. So then, okay, so there's a certain degree to which these investigations have to be voluntary, like a country actually has to be a signatory to to the convention. So with that in mind, would you say that the scale of what is going on in Myanmar with regards to labor violations? is in a global sense exceptionally bad? Or is it just that the majority of countries that have endemic violations simply do not join the ILO or do not become a signatory to the conventions?
Jeff Vogt 27:27
Well, I would say the The ILO has not universal, but nearly universal membership. So I mean, there are a lot of both good and bad actors that are members of the ILO. And I believe Myanmar ratified many of these conventions quite some time ago. So no, it's not a it's not so much that. But I think the the, with regard to the fundamental conventions such as these the convention 2927 They're not universal ratification, but very high levels of ratification because they're seen as being you know, particularly important that all countries respect these conventions. So, so, you see a high degree of ratification
Brad 28:25
interesting. So that that would then indicate that the the Myanmar violation of labor laws is unusually bad.
Jeff Vogt 28:34
Yeah, so many commission of inquiry is not established in the first place unless there is a a serious violation of ratify convention. There are there are other mechanisms that can be used within the ILO system, to raise complaints about non non adherence. Commission of Inquiry is only really reserved to those situations where there are very serious or serious concerns about non adherence or non compliance. And this is certainly one of those cases. So,
Brad 29:13
so for the audience's benefit, then it should be understood that the fact that the report has been published is not simply a matter of course, it's not a regular annual review that everybody would be subjected to is itself quite a significant thing that the ILO would even go to, to the extent of launching the investigation in the first place.
Jeff Vogt 29:31
Right, right. It's there. There have not been that many commission of inquiries in the 100 year history of the ILO. And again, it is, it actually requires a political decision of the governing body to agree to establish a commission of inquiry based on on the facts before it. So, this was not a in this case was not a difficult decision for the the governing body had a broad a A broad support.
Brad 30:03
Okay, and so turning back to the evidence that's that's being presented, I think, perhaps the most egregious you have a section here entitled, work or services, porters, guides, human shields and for camp construction within the general topic of what is it labor extracted by the military in the context of armed conflict and military activities? So, what can you tell us about that? Are you saying that the military themselves are going in grabbing civilians, and forcing them to work for the military?
Jeff Vogt 30:36
Yes, I mean, this was, again, the the basis of the previous commission of inquiry against Myanmar. And this one is similar in the so they all go into communities, villages. And in particular, now, where the government or not the government in the military regime is in, in, you're fighting a kind of ethnic militia. And we'll say, alright, you need, you know, 10 men to help clear this, Clear this area, put up a camp and maintain the camp. If you don't, we're going to assume that you're with a, a hostile militia, and, you know, some may have been executed on the spot. Right. So they. So you really, yeah, you don't really have a choice. Right. And, and the consequences for refusal are obviously can be extremely serious. So yeah, I mean, that's what makes it worse labor, there's absolutely no choice as to whether to offer your services and that in that sense.
Brad 31:56
I mean, that's, that's horrific. Do we know, what happens if these people do in fact, comply? And they do what the military tells them to do? Are they actually subsequently released? Or do they just sort of get kept around as essentially slave labor?
Jeff Vogt 32:12
Yeah, my understanding is that these may be periods of forced labor for a period of time until the military moves on or they have no longer use for that service. So no, I don't think there is a a traveling normal force, labor force, anything as militaries moving into an area, they will fall force, civilians in that location to do what they need, so long as the military is there. I mean, there are some cases, obviously, in case of portering, where somebody who may need to move from one area to another because they're carrying military equipment, or again, in the case of human shields, you're marching with the military, essentially, to catch bullets for, for the military.
Brad 33:19
Yeah, so let's, let's talk about that. So I'm going to quote from the report here, pages 151 and 152. The reports that in Shannon chaos states between November 2021, and February 2022 civilians, including at least 80, children from Qin pond village in Sudan, were detained by the military for 36 hours as potential human shields during clashes with resistance groups. Can you can you talk about this human shield thing? Because it's a phrase that we hear a lot. But what what does that actually look like? What is what is the idea here with with seizing 80 children from a village? Yeah,
Jeff Vogt 34:01
I mean, I think the way it's manifested in this case, is that if a military is marching in a formation, they may have civilians, you know, surrounding the, the military in front or in back of it, for example, as they're moving from one area to another, through through territory where they believe they may come under fire, with the expectation then that the civilians who are acting as human shields are gonna be the first to be shot, and thus giving the military time to take cover and I guess returned fire. So yeah, that's the that's how human shields are being used in this circumstance. Do we?
Brad 34:51
Do we actually have any information on whether or not these human shields have been killed as a result?
Jeff Vogt 34:58
I believe there important, this report or others do have indicated that people have died as a result.
Brad 35:10
Wow. And so this this is not what I expected to see in a labor report like this. You know, last time I read the Geneva Conventions, human shields were a war crime, doubly so when you're using children. Is this something that that the ILO is forwarding on to other organizations within the UN or the international community generally?
Jeff Vogt 35:37
Yeah, so it is a un record and the I think, as other UN agencies are taking up the supervision of the of Myanmar, under its various international human rights obligations. This will obviously be cited in I think you're right, absolutely. In my view, the the report in you know, clearly outlines your crimes against humanity and war crimes in the in the context of fortunately, labor I mean, this is only Monday, the the the ILO has a specific mandate, which is obviously the world of labor, and is able to make certain determinations based on the scope of the conventions that has as the basis of supervision. So it is able to indicate, as this report does that something the facts indicate serious, violent violations of the prohibition unfortunately, the ILO itself does not have a mandate to identify something as a crime against humanity as a war crime, though I think in this case, they clearly are. So that would be for other UN agencies to make that determination or brothers to bring to bring such a claim at a other relevant tribunals in the UN system.
Brad 37:17
I mean, this, just reading this report, and, again, for those in the audience who who are looking forward, it's called towards freedom and dignity in Myanmar. Chapter Seven, particularly the part focusing on the violations of forced labor, if this, this reads like a horror story that this is not just forced labor, which in and of itself is terrible, but this is, the report seems to indicate that it is absolutely commonplace and routine for the military to go anywhere. And to use civilians, use civilian homes, use civilian vehicles, civilian property, to their own ends, and in a lot of cases, perfidious Lee, you specifically highlight that the military will demand that people come and guide them, give them give them sort of sort of guidance through rough terrain, even though the military knows that terrain very well. They're they're being duplicitous, and they're saying that we need assistance in in, you know, trekking across this terrain, when really, they're just hoping that those guides are gonna be the first ones to get shot. Like this is this, this is very shocking, and appalling to read. So the next question, and I'm sure the answer is going to be, you know, disappointing, but it has to be asked what next steps can actually be taken, is there any way to try and rectify these offenses?
Jeff Vogt 38:54
Well, yeah, assuming it's. So, you know, fortunately, you know, outside the ILO, we already know that a number of governments have already issued a number of sanctions on the government, whether there are financial sanctions, trade, sanctions, Visa sanctions, or there's a range of activities is already taken, whether the more can be done, obviously, is an open question. Right. And I think certainly there could be within the scope of the ILO. There is the possibility that the governing body could decide to refer this issue to the conference, which is the kind of the plenary of of the ILO. It's where, every once a year, all the member states plus unions and employers from around the world will meet. It's kind of the sport kind of the legislature of the of the ILO And this, this matter could be referred to the conference for them to take up this matter under Article 33 of the Constitution. Article 33 has only been invoked twice in the history of the ILO, the first time I was done was the last time that Myanmar was under a commission of inquiry, and then just the year before against Belarus. So Myanmar could be now the first country to ever have two applications of article 33. And article 33. Other ILO constitution basically just says, If you invoke this, you're calling on all member states, the ILO to take measures to try to bring Myanmar into compliance with his obligations under the conventions, that can have a lot of meetings, right, it's on the institution itself, to try to take what steps they can do pressure the government, it also is a signal to other UN organizations, international financial institutions and other member states, as well as unions and employers do take measures to try to compel the government to respect these conventions. And that can take a lot of forms. And some of the ways in which we're talking are already have already taken place because of sanctions that are imposed since the 2021 coup. But it will put a broad pressure on all member states and other intergovernmental institutions to step it up and find ways to further pressure the government to comply. It will make it obviously more difficult for companies to invest or do business in Myanmar, especially those that have any sort of human rights due diligence obligations. So I mean, it will make it it may lose certain trade preferences as a result of the sale there, there are a number of costs consequences that may come from a result of the of the well, the Commission of Inquiry being established for one, and in article 33 would be really the, you know, the, the the, you know, the fullest expression of the ILO membership that this this, the facts here are just so far beyond the pale, that more full and complete measures need to be taken to address the situation.
Brad 43:01
Because then this is something that we've dealt with for a long time, you know, the lack of appropriate sanctioning has been a thorn in the side of the revolution. A particularly salient example that comes to mind was that, even after the United States, put through the Burma bill, they put through, you know, a lengthy section on Burma in the the National Defense Authorization Act, consistently, we saw exceptions being carved out for things like Myanmar oil and gas enterprise, because at the time, Chevron still had people connected to them. So large, large corporate interests seem to have and government interests seem to have prevented a lot of the really powerful, really impactful types of sanctions from being imposed, which is not to say that sanctions have not been imposed. So far, they have been and they have been quite impactful, and they have significantly reduced the hunters income, but the really big stuff, you know, putting nationwide embargoes things, for example, like jet fuel, you know, these these have eluded the the revolutionary forces for years now. If article 33, would it be triggered? Do you anticipate that it genuinely would start leading to very broad spectrum very powerful sanctions coming from economically significant countries?
Jeff Vogt 44:30
Article 33, wouldn't require that. And again, many of these measures took place even before the commission inquiry was established. So but I think a number of countries in particular because of the previous military period, had not didn't wait this time, right because they think they recognized that So there's a high likelihood or for the repetition of human rights abuses that happened under the previous military period were likely to resurface again and have right so I think that's explains the kind of the quicker reaction time this time around. But no, there's nothing about article 33 is going to immediately lead to restrictions on jet fuel or further sanctions on Myanmar oil and gas, although it will certainly I think, give civil society in Myanmar and outside further argumentation as to why those gaps in the sanctions regimes need to be closed.
Brad 45:54
And just for context, how many times has an article 33 been triggered in the past?
Jeff Vogt 46:00
Only twice again in the 100 year history of over 100 year history of the ILO, Myanmar being the first and Belarus solely having the second article 33. That was last year. So it would be it's extraordinarily, extraordinarily rarely used the measure. And again, it would be exceptional in that country, you would have that apply to them twice. Yeah. Yeah.
Brad 46:33
I mean, there's, it's quite difficult to but I mean, the number of of countries that we think of as bad actors and serial violators of of workers rights and labor unions, and yet, Myanmar would be the first country to receive to article 33 is only the second country in history to have one at all. It really sort of under underscores just how severe and and abusive. The violations are under the current the current regime. Yes. But, yeah, so So essentially, what you're saying, though, is that the ILO itself doesn't actually have any direct authority that what the ILO is really only able to do is to call upon others to choose to take action.
Jeff Vogt 47:26
Yeah, I mean, it actually is, in some senses, a coordinating body and, you know, is also able to, you know, interact with other intergovernmental organizations on the same issue. Right. So, it will be on the under the ILO would very likely, in the case of Article Three, well, the scope of the bid to clarify the scope of the actions to be taken on Article 33 would also be determined by the governing body. So the governing body would then outline a set of recommended actions, which could be taken, and then, and then it would be up for the conference as a whole, to then decide whether to amend that list, or to vote on it. As is or amended. In, I mean, the earliest that I could happen would be June of 2024.
Brad 48:37
Okay, so that's, that's not too far away, that gives us a reasonable timeline. To anticipate something to be done. Excellent. So, yeah, looking at the looking at the the report that's written here, obviously, there are a number of recommendations, but many of these recommendations are likely to fall on deaf ears on the Myanmar side. Calling for the the respect for these conventions. I mean, we've seen how little regard the Myanmar military has for, you know, ASEAN requests and for the United Nations in general. So hopefully, something more substantial can come down the pipeline. I
Jeff Vogt 49:21
mean, if I was to kind of make one observation, I guess. We started this way, just say the, I think as a report reflects the the ability of workers to be able to associate and collectively form trade unions is absolutely important. And it's not only important because of the role of workers in it Getting from members of their workplace, but the role of workers in their unions in being proponents for democracy, both in the workplace and in their communities and society. And I think that is the reason why we saw the the military regime acting quickly to crackdown on trade unions, because they recognize as other governments around the world have recognized in the past that they know organized labor has played very important roles in the promotion of democracy in in their countries, and that this government, this regime, rather, is not acted decisively to try to remove that threat. And I think this again, just underscores the importance of kind of an organized civil society in organized workers in, in democracy. And I mean, that is also why we need to support workers support the principle of freedom of association because fundamentally it's about questions of democracy, whether it's democracy in the workplace, in your community or in your country.
Host 51:43
We want to take a moment to introduce you to our nonprofit better Burma's online shop, which features handicrafts sourced from Artisan communities scattered throughout Myanmar, far from being mass produced knockoffs. The pieces we offer are unique and handmade, reflecting the wide diversity of different peoples found throughout the country. When Myanmar experienced its transition period moving from democracy in the late 2010s, after decades of harsh military dictatorship, many Burmese crafts people hope their beautiful work could finally be appreciated beyond the country, when Myanmar experienced its transition period moving towards democracy in late 2010s. After decades of harsh military dictatorship, many Burmese craftspeople hope their beautiful work could finally be appreciated beyond the country's borders. But sadly, this was not to be so. Following the military coup, many skilled artists in suddenly found all possibility of continuing their livelihood closed off and began struggling just to feed their families. With this in mind, we prioritize working with artisans from disadvantaged and vulnerable backgrounds, because we know just how hard it can be to survive at the margins of society and Myanmar. This includes such people as those with disabilities, mothers who have contracted HIV AIDS, civil servants on CDM ethnic and religious minorities and more. To view these wonderful pieces, please visit a local crafts.com That's a loca a l o ke crafts C R A F T S one word, a local crafts.com. Otherwise, please consider a donation through our usual channels. If you would like to join in our mission to support those in Myanmar who are being impacted by the military coup, we welcome your contribution in a form currency or transfer method. Your donation will go on to support a wide range of humanitarian and media missions, aiding those local communities who need it most. Donations are directed to such causes as the Civil Disobedience movement CDM families of deceased victims, internally displaced person IDP camps, food for impoverished communities, military defection campaigns, undercover journalists, refugee camps, monasteries and nunneries education initiatives, the purchasing of protective equipment and medical supplies COVID relief and more. We also make sure that our donation Fund supports a diverse range of religious and ethnic groups across the country. We invite you to visit our website to learn more about past projects as well as upcoming needs. You can give a general donation or earmark your contribution to a specific activity or project you would like to support, perhaps even something you heard about in this very episode. All of this humanitarian work is carried out by a nonprofit mission that are Burma. And the donation you give on our insight Myanmar website is directed towards this fun. Alternatively, you can also visit the better Burma website better burma.org and donate directly there. In either case, your donation goes to the same cause in both websites except credit card. You can also give via PayPal by going to paypal.me/better Burma. Additionally, we can take donations through Patreon Venmo GoFundMe and Cash App. Simply search better Burma on each platform and you'll find our account. You can also visit either website for specific links to these respective accounts or email us at info@betterburma.org. That's betterburma. One word, spelled B E T T E R B U R M A.org. If you'd like to give it another way, please contact us. We also invite you to check out our range of handicrafts that are sourced from vulnerable artists and communities across Myanmar available at alokacrafts.com. Any purchase will not only support these artists and communities, but also our nonprofits wider mission. That's aloka crafts spelled A L O K A C R A F T S one word alokacrafts.com Thank you so much for your kind consideration and support.