FARM WORKERS BLOCK WORK IN PLANTATIONS AND FACTORIES FOR TWO WEEKS TO PROTEST AGAINST UNWORTHY WORKING CONDITIONS

On February 23, 2022, nearly 2,000 agricultural laborers (cutters) from the Société sucrière du Cameroun (SOSUCAM) went on strike in Nkoteng to protest against the deterioration of their already precarious working conditions. The police and gendarmerie forces immediately came to disperse the crowd, using tear gas canisters. Shots were also fired and two workers were injured, in the forearm and in the thigh.  After three days on strike, the agricultural laborers at the Mbandjock plantation joined the strike in the face of management’s refusal to dialogue, paralyzing work in all the plantations and factories. From 26 February to 8 March, nearly 8,000 people were suspended from work by the strike.[1]

The strike was triggered by requests for explanations issued the day before to 180 workers by their supervisors. These workers had used their right to refuse a task, deemed too difficult. The sanction imposed, while the supervisor is supposed to adjust the tasks to the density of canes to cut, was the last straw. Indeed, the conditions of agricultural laborers are much less advantageous than those of permanent workers (lower salary scale, lower premiums, no health coverage, etc.), and their status is very precarious (seasonal contracts), even though the work is technical and physical. An investigation report, attesting to the difficult conditions of workers at Sosucam, a subsidiary of the French group Castel, has just been published. [2]

Despite a large-scale strike, management did not respond to the workers’ demands: on 24 February, a press release from Sosucam announced discussions with staff representatives and stated that measures would be taken, without specifying their content, and urged the workers to return to work. The workers remained united and the strike gained momentum. New promises were made by management representatives in the following days, but the general manager remained silent and absent. The strikers refused to return to work. They demanded in particular: a significant salary increase (with a base salary of 250,000 CFA francs – €380), step increases with seniority, an increase in the performance bonus, and a reduction in task objectives.

On 1 March, Sosucam management issued a press release announcing resolutions taken in consultation with union representatives (CSAC, CSTC, USLC, CSIC, CTUC). However, no representatives of the seasonal workers, who represent nearly 90% of the workers, and 100% of the agricultural laborers, are present. The strikers, meeting every day in assemblies gathering several hundred workers, demanded a public meeting with the General Manager. He agreed and finally met with the strikers at the municipal stadium on March 3 but declared that “on issues related to wage increases and the harmonization of performance bonuses, [he] could not take a decision. The strikers refuse. “What really matters is fixed pay. The cutting bonuses, for example, are issued arbitrarily by the supervisors, we get between 1000 and 3000f for that only at the end of the month”, testifies one of the leaders of the strike. So The strike has been renewed.

On March 6, a new official statement from management was issued, announcing in particular:

• The cancellation of the 180 requests for explanations issued to agricultural laborers
• The improvement of the reception of workers in the medical centers
• The suspension of the new controversial cutting technique among agricultural laborers and the transparency (posting) of tasks and objectives
• The increase of the cutting premium from 175fcfa to 250fcfa
• The introduction of an end-of-campaign bonus of 15,000 CFA francs for all employees who have worked throughout the campaign
• The recruitment of a social mediator by the labor delegate among the agricultural laborers.

Despite measures deemed insufficient by striking workers, under pressure from traditional chiefs called upon by management, and with police and gendarmerie commando teams patrolling alongside Sosucam agents with megaphones in the neighborhoods, workers gradually returned to work on March 7 and 8. On March 9, the company was operating normally again.

The mobilization and tenacity of the agricultural laborers made it possible to obtain concrete progress, but they decided to organize themselves solidly in order to significantly improve their working conditions, and that their demands could be carried by legitimate and democratically elected representatives, thanks to the creation of a union of seasonal workers of Sosucam.

[1] The injured workers were taken to hospital in Yaoundé and the costs covered by Sosucam

[2] Castel: to the health of Africa – ReAct Transnational, February 2022 – https://www.projet-react.org/fr/elementor-10135/

It’s small world.  Marva Burnett, the president of ACORN Canada and ACORN International, visited several cities in Nigeria last year with her church group.  She met a young man named Edem Etido in Port Harcourt, a large city much farther southwest from Lagos, the mega-city, but also along the Gulf of Guinea, nearer to Cameroon.  I talked to Edem via Skype about his interest in organizing ACORN Nigeria, and how we could get him some training.  I promised to visit him when I was scheduled to be in Nigeria.  The pandemic postponed that visit three times with the latest now pushed back to the spring of 2021, but in the last week I’ve heard from Edem several times via Facebook and email.  Protests have broken out in Port Harcourt and throughout the country, triggered initially over police brutality suffered by young people, but now expanding to a host of other issues over corruption, the economy, and the inaction of government.

His message was simple and straightforward, as he wrote,

The youths in my country need international support for what we are advocating for at the moment. I guess you’ve heard or watched the protest that’s ongoing in Nigeria now?

The hashtag that’s trending on Twitter now #EndSars #EndPoliceBrutality is the ongoing protest by the youths here because, the (SARS) which means-Special Anti-Robbery Squad, have gone out from what their primary duties are, which is to protect lives and properties of the Nation and citizens.  All they do is intimidate, harass, and extort youths at gunpoint while also killing youths for no reason, because nobody is gonna query or prosecute them.

We’ve been on this for more than a week now and all our governments could do is just make verbal and audio promises which they have been doing way back since 2015 and we are fed up with fake promises, so we demand full action, and that’s why the protest is ongoing.

We just heard that they are going to send the military to intimidate and shoot at us for the peaceful protest. No country has said anything about this and it’s not fair. I don’t know how ACORN International could help to make this protest go round over there, so as to get the international attentions we need.

If I hadn’t heard of these protests already from Edem, and if you hadn’t heard of them yet, there was a front page picture that jumped later to a story in the Wall Street Journal, because the protests shut down the city of Lagos along with its airport and main thoroughfares.

How can we help?  There’s a petition that the young people hope to send to the United Nations that you can sign.  You can also make a donation to support the protests.  As the article points out, “More than 55% of Nigerians are underemployed or unemployed and youth unemployment is even higher, according to official statistics. More than 90% of Nigerians work in the informal sector….”  People in Nigeria are desperate for change, so anything we can do, small or large, helps make that possible.

In Douala, Cameroon, ACORN International members staged an action to push the electricity company Eneo to negotiate and solve issues of dangerous infrastructures and overcharging in bills. Members blocked the entrance to Eneo headquarters, using an empty chair to symbolize the removal of their interlocutor, and the communication interruptions.

After extensive research into nonprofit hospitals the Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas, the Nonprofit Accountability Project has released our findings and recommendations in a paper, “Charity for Whom?“

Our research indicates that the non-profit tax exemption system enables hospitals to be non-profit in name only, thereby reaping the benefits of tax exemption without sharing these gains with low income families. We argue this is due to the vagueness of relevant laws and leniency of the IRS. 

This paper is the product of cooperation between Local 100 United Labor Unions, the Labor Neighbor Research & Training Center (LNRTC), and ACORN International, plus our tireless team of volunteers.

On August 22, 2020, ACORN chapters across the United Kingdom held a No Evictions! Day of Action.

From ACORN UK:

Hundreds of ACORN members took action in 17 towns & cities across England & Wales saying no to rent debt, eviction & homelessness during the pandemic.

Members held socially distanced actions outside of courts where eviction proceedings will be heard, visited the offices of landlords and letting agents to deliver ‘notices of eviction resistance’ to let them know that we won’t stand for immoral COVID evictions, and held outdoor Community Protection Training sessions! ACORN demands that the 1 month eviction ban extension announced last week is followed by serious legislation to protect renters from homelessness and rent debt in the fall out of COVID-19.

We need rent debt accrued as a result of COVID wiped and an immediate end to Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions.Over the last couple of months hundreds of people have attended Community Protection Training sessions meaning whenever evictions restart, ACORN members will be ready to resist them.

Watch the full video >>

Global social protection in times of global crisis

We low-income families are living in the popular areas of Douala, Toronto, Mumbai, Paris, Lima, Manchester, Tunis, New Orleans and Edinburg are victims of the health crisis. We lost our job, we lost much of our income. Yet we still have to pay our rent, our electricity bills and buy something to feed our families. As the lockdown comes to an end, we are tens of millions of people to find ourselves in rent debt in France, the UK, the United States or Canada. This is how we are reduced to misery and hunger.

50th anniversary flyer

Zoom Link to 50th Anniversary Celebration

Organizers’ Forum

El Comita, ACORN Tunisia and the Jasmine Foundation hosted the organizers forum in Tunis, Tunisia from September 12th to September 18th. The Organizers’ Forum annually visits different countries.  In Tunisia, we met with unions, NGOs, environmental, and women’s organizations along with communities where ACORN’s affiliate, La Comita, was organizing.  ACORN representatives induced Olivia O’Conner from Hamilton ACORN, Adrien Roux from the Alliance Citoyenne, Eloise Mallet from ReAct and ACORN Africa, Sammy Ndirangu from ACORN Kenya, and Marius Beloch from ACORN’s affiliate in Cameroon.

Cameroon

After months of campaigning, the threat of an action by the members of ACORN affiliate OnEstEnsemble led the agency to pay the hostesses of the GCG agency after waiting for months. The repair of the main pipe has been completed which will reconnect households to the network of water Bonewanda. Local residents have asked the Metropolitan regulate the parking of motorcycle taxis to avoid congestion.

Canada

At the national level, ACORN Canada released the report “Barriers to digital equality” which calls for affordable and universal access to the internet. In Toronto, ACORN members won the city vote for effective implementation of the RentSafe Toronto, a landlord registration program that we had won in 2016. In Mississauga, PEEL ACORN members won a proactive inspection program based on RentSafe Toronto which will be piloted in select buildings. In Ottawa, members won a motion at the city council to enact minimum distance and licensing requirements for payday lending companies. In Hamilton, members having fighting renovictions, the city voted unanimously in support of a motion to review the its incentive grant programs to developers to ensure no city funds are given to renovictors.

Czech Republic

Members of the social building cooperative and AKORN gathered on November 17 at the Republic Square to support the Real Left event called the Revealed Revolution. It was a call out for a comeback of the unfinished “velvet revolution” that began in November 1989, marking the establishment of the Civic Forum. Members are working to create a connected platform like the Civic Forum through which power can be shared and people are able to be actively engage and influence or propose programs.

France

ACORN’s affiliate in Lyon, France, Alliance Citoyenne represented its members in an action demanding burkini wearers be allowed to swim in public pools, wearing the ACORN visor hats! This comes in the wake of the proposed banning of the garment by the authorities in several French towns.

India

ACORN foundation in India demanded Indian companies to devise a method to buy back plastic packaging and bottles that get discarded by consumers after usage at a Bloomberg Equality Summit in Mumbai. ACORN India also featured in the award winning article in the Global Post.

Kenya

Members have been planning for the campaigns on Feeding program and that of Environmental sanitation in Korogocho and its neighboring villages.  Members were able to strike a partnership with Koch FM which is the only radio station in Korogocho. This will allow ACORN to have four hours of daily programming with live or pre-recorded on air programs. Further, over 400 women attended an empowerment event in Korogocho in Nairobi, Kenya where six months’ supply of sanitary pads were distributed to all participants.

United Kingdom

In Brighton, as part of ACORN’s National Renters Vote campaign to mobilise people in vulnerable housing to vote in the General Election. Working across Brighton and Hove at soup kitchens, housing advice and community centres, street stalls and in temporary accommodation, the union has successfully registered almost 100 people, including 50 people with no fixed address. ACORN alongwith several allies launched a national renter manifesto which sets out the steps needed to ensure that everybody has a secure, affordable and decent home. The manifesto covers six key themes: Security, Affordability, Justice, Conditions, Discrimination, and Housing for People Not Profit.

ACORN Liverpool held a protest against homes being auctioned off in Kensington Fields. Members managed to get one of the homes pulled from today’s auction, but sadly the other one went ahead. Families with children in Liverpool are facing potential evictions as landlords advertise their homes to be sold off as student house shares. Acorn Liverpool’s AGM was a big when members spent time plotting and scheming to build working class power. A new committee is in place, and members are ready to get back at it.

ACORN started another new chapter for ACORN in England: ACORN Portsmouth!

United States

New Orleans: A Community Voice, ACORN’s Louisiana affiliate alongwith Justice and Beyond, a community group and other scientists and environmental activists were able to highlight the issue of lead poisoning and put forth demands for cleanup in New Orleans. While groups have been trying to call attention to the problem for years, it was only recently that a demonstration with some 50 people outside the water board headquarters to protest high water bills and lead levels brought attention to the issue. A 2016 study estimated that there are 6.1 million lead pipes bringing water to homes in the US, a fact that was hidden for long.

Memphis: Wade Rathke, founder of ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), and Diné Butler, community organizer and policy analyst, explored ways large equity firms are reducing homeownership in Memphis’ low-income neighborhoods.

Netherlands

Netherlands is pushing forward to build ACORN and more there. Inquiries about ACORN organizing have come from Tel Aviv where there’s interest in a building an ACORN Tenants’ Union.  Marielle Benchehboune from Lyon is meeting with them in December when she is there for a conference.  Progress is reportedly slow but steady for ACORN in Ireland as well.

Dates:    September 8^th through 13^th (Sunday through Friday)

Place:     Columbo

Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon) is an island country below the Indian subcontinent located in the Indian Ocean.

Quoting from Wikipedia:  Sri Lanka…

officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an island country in South Asia, located in the Indian Ocean to the southwest of the Bay of Bengal and to the southeast of the Arabian Sea. The island is historically and culturally intertwined with the Indian subcontinent, but is geographically separated from the Indian subcontinent by the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait. The legislative capital, Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, is a suburb of the commercial capital and largest city, Colombo.

Sri Lanka’s documented history spans 3,000 years, with evidence of pre-historic human settlements dating back to at least 125,000 years.^[10] It has a rich cultural heritage and the first known Buddhist writings of Sri Lanka, the Pāli Canon, date back to the Fourth Buddhist council in 29 BC.^[11][12] Its geographic location and deep harbors made it of great strategic importance from the time of the ancient Silk Road through to the modern Maritime Silk Road.^[13][14][15]

The current constitution stipulates the political system as a republic and a unitary state governed by a semi-presidential system. It has had a long history of international engagement, as a founding member of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), and a member of the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations, the G77, and the Non-Aligned Movement. Along with the Maldives, Sri Lanka is one of only two South Asian countries rated “high” on the Human Development Index (HDI), with its HDI rating and per capita income the highest among South Asian nations.^[7] The Sri Lankan constitution accords Buddhism the “foremost place”, although it does not identify it as a state religion. Buddhism is given special privileges in the Sri Lankan constitution.^[17]

The island is home to many cultures, languages and ethnicities. The majority of the population is from the Sinhalese ethnicity, while a large minority of Tamils have also played an influential role in the island’s history. Moors, Burghers, Malays, Chinese, and the indigenous Vedda are also established groups on the island.

The various ethnic groups united to end British colonial rule, but the British legacy insisted on communal representation that eventually pitted the majority Sinhalese against the minority (over 800,000) Tamil leading to civil war in 1983 over a number of issues involving language and jobs, including provisions that made the Tamil virtually stateless and unable to obtain citizenship in the emerging nation.  The Tamil Tigers was a well-known guerilla effort classified as terrorist by many nations.  Attempts at peace broke down a number of times until after more than twenty-five years with the help of the Indian army a military victory was achieved over the Tamil in 2009.

More recently, Sri Lanka was in the news over a constitutional crisis involving the president, prime minister, and parliament in the fall of 2018.  A popular prime minister accused of corruption was ousted by a political coalition that elected the president who after several years in office suddenly returned the former prime minister to that job triggering mayhem.  Eventually, he was force to resign in the stalemate between the president of the parliament.

The Organizers’ Forum is interested in meeting with a number of groups in order to evaluate the progress of the country a decade after its civil war as it tries to resolve the historic issues that have divided its people and undercut its institutions.  A delegation from the Organizers’ Forum had undertaken a similar mission a decade after the end of apartheid in South Africa in order to understand how deeply change had become embedded and shaped the country’s future.  Similarly, the Organizers Forum delegation in Indonesia was able to view the impacts of ethnic strife in that country that had experienced state terror during the Cold War and how it had adapted in unique ways.

In this time when the issue of climate change has global importance, the Organizers’ Forum is also hoping to learn more about how an island nation like Sri Lanka is making plans to deal with the potential impact of rising seas.  Some members of the delegation have discussed a side trip to the Maldives in order to see that country “while it’s still there,” since many scientists also project that by the end of the century it could be underwater.

Long thought of as an exotic country, Sri Lanka is now at the crossroads of a different kind of future, and the Organizers Forum delegation is seeking to better understand what we have to learn – and to offer – at this critical juncture.

The Organizers’ Forum is a project of the Labor Neighbor Research & Training Center.  Interested parties need to contact director@laborneighbor.org in order to reserve a place.  The Forum covers housing, most meals, and in-country transportation and events, while members of the delegation and their organizations cover transportation to and from Sri Lanka and cover a modest program fee that allows from planning and logistics to make this trip happen.  Please contact us at your earliest convenience and certainly not later than August 1^st.  As always, the earlier plane reservations are made, the cheaper for the delegates.

A visa is required to North American, UK, and European visitors that costs about $30 USD and is available electronically within three working days or at the airport, but best advice is getting it earlier.

This will be a great trip!