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Labor rights
activists stage mass protest
‘GARBAGE’: The activists vented their
frustration by throwing eggs, protesting against a raft of government policies
that they say favor big business over workers
By Loa Iok-sin / Staff reporter
Demonstrators take part in a
protest against the government in Taipei yesterday. Workers hurled eggs at the
Presidential Office as thousands took to the streets demanding that the
government change economic policies which they say favor big business.
Photo: AFP, Mandy CHENG
Thousands of workers, students and social
activists yesterday threw eggs toward the Presidential Office in Taipei during a
protest about various economic and social issues, after launching five parades
across the city.
“Fuck the government. It’s garbage,” thousands of demonstrators assembled on
Ketagalan Boulevard chanted in unison as they moved toward the Presidential
Office.
As they reached police barricades that stopped them about 300m away from the
Presidential Office building itself, they began to throw eggs.
Thousands of eggs were thrown over the barricades, accompanied by angry shouts,
cheers and whistles.
Zhongzheng First Precinct Police Chief Fang Yang-ning (方仰寧), the commander of
the police force at the scene, immediately declared that egg-throwing violated
the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) and asked the crowd to stop or to disband.
However, the protesters continued and soon the ground was covered with egg yolk
and cracked eggshells.
Prior to the rally in front of the Presidential Office, the demonstrators had
marched across the city in five parades, each representing a social dilemma —
including “merchandization” of education, racial discrimination, forced land
seizures, a development-oriented economy and deteriorating social insurance
systems.
“The demonstration today is a demonstration for all members of the working class
and incorporates issues concerning education, environmental protection,
agriculture and racial discrimination,” longtime labor activist Lin Tzu-wen
(林子文) told the crowd. “In recent years, the government has been leaning more and
more toward capitalists, while overlooking the suffering of the general public.
It’s time for us to remind them to pay more attention to the people, not the
few.”
Taiwan International Workers Association spokesman Hsu Chia-chuan (許家雋) said the
government’s recent economic policies sought to trim labor costs by weakening
protections for blue-collar foreign workers, while relaxing restrictions on
white-collar foreign workers.
“This is not only racial discrimination, but also class discrimination,” Hsu
said.
Some of the policies the government is mulling include lowering the threshold on
businesses hiring foreign workers and excluding blue-collar foreign workers from
the minimum wage.
“So many different groups concerned about different issues are assembled here,
because we all face one core issue — the right-wing tendency of this
government,” Raging Citizens Act Now spokesperson Lai Hsiang-ling (賴香伶) said.
She said the government was turning education into a commodity, making it
increasingly expensive to go to school.
She also said the government was trying to import more cheap labor from
overseas, exploiting foreign and domestic workers alike to benefit big business.
“The government is seizing farmland to make way for factories once big
corporations demand it. The government is allowing industrial tycoons to expand
capacity at expense of the environment,” she said. “Because the government
predicts that the labor insurance fund may collapse within two decades, the
solution it comes up with is to ask workers to pay higher premiums, accept lower
pensions and retire at an older age, while it continues to give tax breaks and
other favorable measures to capitalists.”
A retired manager of a Taipei-based trading company surnamed Chang (張) said he
came out not only to show his anger against the government, but also his
solidarity with his children.
“When I was young, I always believed that you could have a successful life if
you worked hard enough, but it doesn’t seem to be the case nowadays,” he said.
“My son is an electrical engineer, he works hard, but he still lost his first
job when his company moved across the Strait. Not long after he started his
second job, he was put on unpaid leave by his boss for some time because of the
bad economy.”
“It’s Sunday today, but he still cannot come here, because he’s working overtime
on a Sunday shift — he works hard, actually, he works even harder than I did,
but I don’t feel as hopeful for him as I did when I was his age,” Chang said.
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