Mass layoffs shake Asia
Big banks put profits first in growing crisis
By Fred Goldstein
Efforts by the capitalist world's bankers to
stem the financial crisis in Asia are collapsing. Instead, as
they try to save their loans and profits, the havoc is
spreading. It is turning into a general economic crisis
affecting millions of workers in the region.
International Monetary Fund bailouts to insure debt
repayment are enormous: $17 billion in Thailand, $40 billion in
Indonesia and $60 billion in south Korea. Yet they have failed
to stem the crisis. Attempts to organize so-called "roll-overs"
of south Korean debt to over 100 banks in the big imperialist
countries are unraveling.
The currencies of the region continue to plunge.
Agence France Presse of Jan. 5 reported that the Indonesian
rupiah, the Malaysian ringgit, the Thai baht and the Philippine
peso all hit record lows in relation to the dollar. The
Singapore dollar fell to its lowest since 1991. The Hong Kong
stock market is on a downward trend once again and the south
Korean won has lost over 60 percent of its value in the last
two months.
As these currencies plunge, bankruptcies are mounting. Mass
layoffs and unemployment are growing.
In November, unemployment in south Korea rose by 120,000,
the highest rise for one month in 15 years, according to Chosun
Ilbo of Dec. 29. December's statistics are not in yet, but
regional unemployment offices report a 67 percent increase in
workers looking for jobs.
The worst is yet to come. Rep. Kim Young Hwan, head of
president-elect Kim Dae Jung's Emergency Economy Committee,
declared that "mass industrial layoffs in all industrial
sectors are inevitable" later this month. (Korean Times, Jan.
3)
In Indonesia, even the official trade unions have warned
that the unemployment rate "could reach 11 percent of the
country's estimated work force of 90 million."
The New York Times of Jan. 7 reports that "twice last week,
the Indonesian military, projecting unemployment soon of two
million workers, said it stood ready to suppress protests that
disturbed 'national stability.'"
In Thailand, according to the New York Times of Jan. 6,
"Thai labor unions threatened mass protests if the government
failed to take concrete steps to control unemployment, which
economists predicted could reach two million by the end of the
year."
Behind this crisis are Citibank and Chase Manhattan,
Tokyo-Mitsubishi, the Deutche Bank, the Societe General, and
other big imperialist banks that are trying to hold the region
in debt slavery. Their efforts to push capitalism's financial
crisis onto the backs of the workers are bound to backfire and
spark mass resistance.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)
HOME
:: U.S. NEWS ::
WORLD NEWS ::
EDITORIALS ::
SUBSCRIBE ::
DONATE
Email
this article
Printable
page