Zhang Shaoyan | Chinese Solidarity Group with the DPRK
I. Background and Necessity of the Proposal
The Far East (China, the Korean Peninsula, Japan, Southeast Asia, and the Russian Far East) is one of the regions where exploitation within the global imperialist production chain is most concentrated. Western multinational capital and Japanese-Korean monopoly enterprises, relying on a neo-colonial division of labor, have concentrated highly polluting, labor-intensive, and low-return processing industries in this region. This has created an integrated transnational and cross-border chain of labor exploitation.
The existing workers’ movements in the region suffer from three major shortcomings:
1. The transnational fragmentation of the exploitation chain makes comprehensive investigation impossible within a single country.
The extraction of raw materials, component manufacturing, assembly subcontracting, and overseasx distribution of a single commodity are often carried out by workers in different countries. Wage theft, forced overtime, physical exploitation, migrant labor abuse, and occupational diseases are dispersed across national borders. Trade unions and workers’ organizations in any one country can only grasp fragments of the reality and are unable to expose the complete pattern of imperialist capitalist plunder.
Cross-border fishery workers in Southeast Asia, migrant manufacturing workers, and overseas construction workers are routinely subjected to exploitation by labor brokers, confiscation of documents by employers, and wage deductions. Since these abuses transcend national borders, defending workers’ rights and gathering evidence face enormous barriers.
2. Imperialist capital deliberately divides workers in the region and creates antagonism among them.
Multinational corporations exploit differences in wage standards and immigration policies to divide labor forces, intentionally creating conflicts between local workers and migrant workers, as well as among workers of different nationalities.
At the same time, they support reformist trade unions and company-controlled labor organizations to conceal systemic exploitation and undermine united anti-imperialist workers’ struggles. There is a lack of a unified cross-national mechanism for investigation, evidence collection, and joint exposure.
3. The regional anti-imperialist labor struggle lacks a permanent coordinating investigative institution.
Although the World Anti-Imperialist Workers’ Platform currently possesses a global coordination mechanism, there is no permanent regional investigative body dedicated to the Far East.
Faced with the continued expansion of the U.S.-Japan-South Korea military alliance, capitalist conglomerates, and new waves of exploitation generated by industrial restructuring and supply-chain relocation, scattered resistance by workers in individual countries is unable to generate collective strength. There is an urgent need for a unified platform to coordinate information gathering, field investigations, evidence compilation, and joint solidarity activities.
Based on the principles of the World Anti-Imperialist Workers’ Platform and in order to unite industrial workers, migrant workers, cross-border laborers, and agricultural, forestry, and fishery workers throughout the Far East while exposing the full reality of neo-colonial transnational labor exploitation, we formally propose the establishment of a directly affiliated regional body: The Far Eastern Workers’ Joint Investigation Committee.
II. Organizational Position and Affiliation
1. Affiliation
The Committee shall function as a regional specialized working committee directly administered by the World Anti-Imperialist Workers’ Platform (WAP), while coordinating joint investigations with the WAP Youth and Women’s branches.
2. Scope of Coverage
China, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Russian Far East, covering all workers and peasants.
3. Core Character
A purely worker-led investigative institution composed of frontline workers, grassroots trade union representatives, migrant worker representatives, and cross-border labor representatives. It shall remain independent of employers, state-sponsored reformist labor organizations, and all investigations shall serve the anti-imperialist rights struggles of working people.
III. Core Functions and Main Tasks
(1) Unified Collection of Cross-Border Labor Abuse Reports
Establish multilingual online reporting channels open to all workers in the Far East to collect information concerning: Wage theft. Unpaid overtime, Unsafe working conditions, Denial of treatment for occupational diseases, Confiscation of migrant workers’ documents, Human-trafficking-style labor brokerage, Discriminatory employment practices by foreign-invested enterprises, Exploitation in military-industrial sectors. A comprehensive regional database of labor victims shall be established.
(2) Cross-Border Joint Field Investigations
For major cases of labor exploitation, multinational worker investigation teams shall conduct field visits to factories, construction sites, farms, forests, fisheries, and labor brokerage agencies.
Tasks include:
1. Tracing profit distribution throughout multinational supply chains and calculating the scale of surplus value appropriated from workers by monopoly capital.
2. Documenting poor labor conditions, concealed workplace injuries, and widespread occupational diseases in foreign-invested and subcontracting factories.
3. Investigating how imperialist sanctions, geopolitical conflicts, and arms races increase the prices of energy, agricultural inputs, and construction materials, thereby affecting the survival of workers and peasants.
(3) Publication of the Annual Far East Imperialist Labor Exploitation Investigation Report
Each year, the Committee shall compile investigative findings and publish a comprehensive regional report.
Reports shall expose the realities of exploitation by transnational capital in sectors including: Textiles, Electronics manufacturing, Deep-sea fishing, Overseas construction, Mining, Agriculture.
These reports shall be distributed globally to anti-imperialist movements and workers’ organizations as key materials for education, labor struggles, strikes, and international solidarity.
(4) Coordination of Cross-National Workers’ Rights Campaigns and Solidarity Actions
1. Coordinate simultaneous protests, petitions, and strike support campaigns among workers in multiple countries against the same multinational corporations or capital groups.
2. Facilitate cross-regional evidence sharing for migrant workers and foreign laborers facing abuse.
3. Cooperate with the World Anti-Imperialist Women’s and Youth Platforms to investigate hidden forms of exploitation affecting women workers, young workers, and child laborers.
(5) Compilation of Historical and Contemporary Anti-Imperialist Labor Documentation
Document the history of imperialist exploitation of Far Eastern workers, including: Forced labor under Japanese imperialism, Exploitation of Chinese workers by Western capital, Compare these historical experiences with contemporary neo-colonial supply-chain exploitation to clarify the imperialist roots of workers’ suffering.
(6) Establishment of a Regional Exchange Mechanism for Workers’ Investigative Experience
Regular conferences shall be held for Far Eastern worker investigators to exchange experiences in: Evidence collection, Labor rights defense, Mass organizing
Training programs shall strengthen workers’ abilities to conduct independent investigations and preserve evidence, thereby cultivating local worker-investigator cadres.
IV. Personnel Structure
1. Composition
Each country shall appoint 2–5 frontline worker representatives, including: Manufacturing workers, Construction migrant workers, Cross-border fishery workers, Miners, Agricultural laborers.
Representation of women workers and young workers shall be ensured.
Chinese representatives shall primarily come from industrial workers and migrant labor communities.
2. Rotating Secretariat
The Committee shall establish a rotating secretariat, with the host country changing every six months and permanent liaison offices rotating accordingly to ensure balanced regional participation.
3. Specialized Investigation Groups
Four specialized teams shall be established: Supply Chain Investigation Team, Migrant Labor Investigation Team, Military-Industrial Capital Investigation Team, Worker-Peasant Joint Investigation Team
V. Working Principles
1. Worker Leadership Principle
All investigations shall be led by frontline workers and reject control by capital, reformist unions, or foreign NGOs.
2. Anti-Imperialist United Front Principle
Distinguish between ordinary workers employed by enterprises and monopoly imperialist capital as the principal contradiction, while uniting all workers exploited by transnational capital.
3. Cross-Border Cooperation Principle
Information, evidence, and actions shall be shared throughout the region to prevent fragmentation and isolated struggles.
4. Principle of Seeking Truth from Facts
All reports and propaganda materials shall be based exclusively on field investigations, workers’ testimonies, and documentary evidence, ensuring objective exposure of exploitation.
VI. Initiative for Implementation
1. Submit this proposal to the plenary session of the World Anti-Imperialist Workers’ Platform for approval of the establishment of the Far Eastern Workers’ Joint Investigation Committee.
2. Convene a preparatory meeting of worker representatives from Far Eastern countries within one month after the conference to determine: The first membership roster, Permanent liaison mechanisms, Annual investigation plans
3. Launch two priority investigations: Cross-border fishery workers in Southeast Asia, East Asian electronics subcontracting supply chains
4. Regularly organize Far Eastern labor sessions at future International Anti-Imperialist Conferences, publish findings, and strengthen global solidarity with anti-imperialist labor struggles in the Far East.
Hundreds of millions of migrant workers, industrial workers, and cross-border laborers in the Far East have long suffered exploitation by imperialist transnational capital.
The establishment of the Far Eastern Workers’ Joint Investigation Committee is a crucial step toward breaking the information blockade imposed by capital and strengthening our common weapon of struggle.
I fully support this proposal and pledge to participate actively in joint field investigations. Together with proletarian comrades throughout the Far East, we shall uncover the truth of capitalist plunder and advance a new wave of anti-imperialist labor movements across the region.
Workers of the Far East, unite!
Down with transnational monopoly imperialist capital!
