[Marxism] Asian workers rebel in Dubai

[Andrew Pollack <acpollack2@xxxxxxxxx>]

It may seem strange that the Times happens to feature
this story prominently so soon after the Dubai-US port
fiasco. But the scale of the rebellion described below
is such that the Times may have covered it even if
Dubai were not already on its readers' minds. And in
any case other papers have also picked it up:
http://labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=United+Arab+Emirates
(And who knows, maybe an enterprising reporter saw the
parallel with the similar story thread in Syriana).
The bosses' practices described below are of course
not limited to Dubia; one can find them at Halliburton
and Bechtel subcontractors in Iraq, or at hundreds of
employers in post-Katrina Louisiana.
What's most important for radicals' purposes is to
note the nature of the workforce: South Asian and
Filipino. Employers throughout the Gulf have long
relied on non-Arab workers for the vast bulk of their
workforces so as to derail the class struggle. But
sooner or later that struggle always gets back on
track.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/26/international/middleeast/26dubai.html
The New York Times

March 26, 2006
In Dubai, an Outcry From Asians for Workplace Rights
By HASSAN M. FATTAH

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, March 25

.... When hundreds of workers angered by low salaries
and mistreatment rioted Tuesday night at the site of
what is to become the world's tallest skyscraper, not
only were they expressing the growing frustration of
Asian migrants here, they offered a glimpse of an
increasingly organized labor force.

Far from the high-rise towers and luxury hotels
emblematic of Dubai, the workers turning this swath of
desert into a modern metropolis live in a Dickensian
world of cramped labor camps, low pay and increasing
desperation.

For years, workers like Mr. Kumaran have done whatever
they could to get here, often paying thousands of
dollars to unscrupulous recruiters for the chance to
work at one of the hundreds of construction sites in
the emirates.

Of the 1.5 million residents of Dubai, as many as a
million are immigrants who have come here to work in
some capacity, with the largest subgroup being
construction workers, said Hadi Ghaemi, a researcher
with Human Rights Watch who covers the United Arab
Emirates, citing government statistics. The vast
majority of the immigrants come from the Indian
subcontinent and the Philippines.

Since last September, when 800 workers staged a
protest march down a main highway in the heart of the
city and set off a national debate about the treatment
of foreign workers, laborers have held at least eight
major strikes to demand their rights and get their
pay, which is sometimes withheld.

But the mass action on Tuesday was the most
significant of its kind. Hundreds of workers building
the Burj Dubai skyscraper chased security guards and
broke into
offices, smashing computers, scattering files and
wrecking cars and construction machines. When they
returned to work the next day, demanding better pay
and
improved working conditions, thousands of laborers
building an airport terminal across town also laid
down their tools, demanding better conditions, too.
The
workers also halted work on Thursday, until a
settlement was negotiated.

"It was a watershed moment in coordination and
organization," Mr. Ghaemi said. "It started with
increasing numbers of strikes, and has now evolved
into very organized and coordinated activities. If
these grievances are not addressed quickly by the
government they are sure to begin hurting the economic
growth of the country."
[snip]

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