A-Infos (en) Burma, IWA-YGN: WSLB's Workers' Convergence: Strength in Solidarity during Adverse Times (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Worker Solidarity League of Burma (WSLB)  was organised in 2000 as a 
semi-underground association to fight for workers' rights in the 
emerging industrialization of the country and only one founder, Mr. Ye 
Naing Win, survives today. CCTU (Cooperating Committee of Trade Unions) 
was organised by 45 basic labour unions in 2012, with the objective of 
organising labour unions and bringing them together into strong 
coalitions. WSLB/CCTU has been engaging in day-to-day protection and 
promotion of labour rights, capacity development of labour unions, 
organising and networking with more labour unions, and striving to build 
genuine and strong labour federations at the township, divisional and 
national levels.

After the 2021 military coup, CCTU was outlawed by the SAC  military 
government and it faced a lot of hardships like any other worker union 
and trade unions. Among all unions and trade federations, WSLB has, in 
its history of over 20 years, maintained a reputation for serving only 
the interests of the working class, devoid of any partisan elements. 
Under these circumstances of Coup and civil war, the worker unions are 
divided into two groups as power politics by NUG (National Unity 
Government) leaning groups and SAC (State Administrative Council) 
leaning groups. WSLB tries very hard to firmly stand with the class 
interest over the war between the statist party's political interests. 
It has been federated with IWA Yangon Initiative aiming to build 
cross-border solidarity and true working-class internationalism with the 
other IWA affiliations.

Now, under the name of WSLB, the league held a Workers' Convergence with 
some unions from industrial zones. The objective of this convergence is 
to reconnect amongst the unions, introduce Anarcho-Syndicalism, share 
and discuss the issues from each different division of labour and 
sector, find ways to cooperate, and finally build solidarity among the 
working class.

The highlight of discussion in convergence would be the recent victory 
of the strike in regards to the raise in minimum wage. Minimum wages 
have been revised from 4800 MMK to 5800 MMK (1.6 USD) per day through an 
allowance of 1,000 MMK on 1st October 2023. Young workers are trying to 
migrate abroad because of insufficient wages. The inflation and rise of 
commodities prices have forced the workers to fight with their 
self-consciousness. Moreover, at the most chaotic time of turmoil, not 
only the workers are clashed between two ruling classes in war but also 
the bourgeois class is exploited in every possible way in various 
workplaces, as there is no news, media, or labour unions or civil 
society organisations to monitor. On the bright side, we believe that 
mutual aid and solidarity will be the way of survival in this turmoil 
and the working masses will learn their true strength and inner merit. 
They will get inspiration from each other; they will learn from each 
other by themselves; they will protect each other by themselves; they 
will share the bittersweet victory among each other which is their class 
interest through solidarity. Therefore, this had been a good opportunity 
to advocate the concept of direct action, mutual aid and solidarity.

https://iwa-yas.org/wslbs-workers-convergence-strength-in-solidarity-during-adverse-times/
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