On 3 May, a badly decomposed body was recovered off the shores of Morecambe Bay, Lancashire. It was thought to be that of the 21st victim of the tragic drowning on 5 February 2004 of 20 mainly Chinese cockle-pickers. Another three missing people, who have not been in contact since February, bring the possible toll to 24 dead. Working a back-breaking 15-hour shift for £1 daily reward, in perilous conditions, in the dark, on notoriously dangerous mudflats, picking cockles in strong winds and waters not much above freezing, their horrible deaths were the last price they paid to support an industry worth £20 million annually. Most of them, like the 58 people who died inside an airtight tomato truck at Dover in June 2000, were from China’s southeastern province of Fujian. This tragedy lifted the veil on the exploitation of migrants to maintain the profits of British agribusiness. CHARLES CHINWEIZU reports.
The super-profits of British imperialism have always been based on the exploitation of the oppressed nations and their émigrés. The ‘opening up’ of China to world markets and international (mainly UK and US) capital has led to privatisation, layoffs, high levels of unemployment and poverty. In these free-trade export-processing zones workers are cheap, taxes practically non-existent and labour and environmental regulations not enforced. One of the first ‘export zones’ was established in 1980 in Fujian Province; however, by 2000 rural incomes were $350 per annum, less than $1 a day, and urban incomes not much better at $750.
When the US National Labor Committee investigated 21 factories in China in 1997, it found forced overtime, 60-96-hour working weeks, 10-15 hour shifts, crowded dormitories, and below-subsistence wages. There are four million clothing workers in China, the vast majority of them young women, migrants from rural areas, 17-25 years old. Many are unaware of their legal rights and none had heard of imperialist companies’ ‘codes of conduct’. Many are fired once they turn 25 or if they become pregnant. Virtually all attempts to establish independent unions have been crushed. A living wage in China would be 87 cents per hour; however, imperialist companies, through their sub-contractors, pay as little as 13 cents an hour.
Millions of rural poor in interior provinces of China migrate to cities looking for work. There they suffer appalling exploitation and mistreatment, causing them to move again and ultimately to migrate.
The Chinese migrants at Morecambe Bay had started work before dawn with a long walk to the shores past warning signs in English they couldn’t read. They were paid £6 a bag for their cockles, while English workers got up to £15 a bag. After £2-£3 unspecified ‘administration fees’, and other deductions, they ended up with around £1 a day. (The Guardian, 9 February 2004) Their work was highly irregular, depending on the tides, as was their sleep. They had no safety equipment or vehicles to help them get off the sands safely. About 30 Chinese migrants lived in three houses leading Lancaster City Council to serve overcrowding notices.
These conditions were not unique: a week later, 54 Greek Roma gypsies, including 10 women, were rescued from a flower farm in Penzance, Cornwall. Local ‘fixers’ had promised them expenses, food, ‘proper flats’ and a choice to leave if they didn’t like the work, for £34 a day. Instead they were housed in a barn with no heating or proper plumbing: ‘we were working like slaves every day…picking flowers… [We got] dog food cans for dinner, and not even one per person.’ Their ‘gangmaster’ refused to pay them, claiming they were in his debt for the costs of bringing them from Greece and when they tried to escape sent in heavies who beat them up with sticks. Working ‘legally’ as part of the £50 million annual daffodil harvest, the migrants were paid six pence per bunch of a dozen handpicked stems. They worked from first light until dusk – nine hours of backbreaking work in all weathers, picking flowers for Winchester Growers, Britain’s largest flower producer, who supply supermarkets and florists, and for Bold Line, which supplies pickers to growers through Greek ‘contacts’. About 5,000 migrant workers are exploited annually in Cornwall alone, as slave labour by British companies, keen to hire cheap labour in order to guarantee their profits.
Empire World Trade (EWT), Britain’s largest fruit packers, supplying major stores like Tesco and Safeway was revealed (The Guardian, 29 March 2004) to employ South African migrants in what Anti-Slavery International called ‘bonded labour’. They were charged £55 weekly rent to share three or more to a room in crowded dilapidated and dirty houses, motels or caravans. The intermediary agency, Staffmasters Ltd deducted rent, an ‘administration charge’ per shift and 100% interest on the £1,500 ‘loan’ (for visas and flights), leaving them with as little as 78 pence a week. EWT makes £77 million annually.
The hypocritical and racist Labour government has responded by announcing it is to ‘beef up checks on illegal immigrants’. Such ‘checks’ on Chinese restaurants led many of the shellfish pickers at Morecambe Bay to flee to their doom. The profits of the ‘unknowing’ companies will escape such ‘checks’ as they seek other ‘gangmasters’ to replace the ones they lost, and keep things ticking over nicely. Racist immigration laws and the constant threat of deportation that prevent the Chinese, Greek and other migrant workers from seeking better conditions and protection or redress from their despicable treatment is the sole responsibility of the Labour government, and they are primarily to blame for the deaths at Morecambe Bay.
FRFI 179 June / July 2004
