April 2011 - Centre for Civil Society - University of KwaZulu-Natal

The Audit encouraged Correa to default on some of Ecuador’s bonds which
the Audit found had been contracted illegally – and ultimately resulted in a
write-down that saved the country billions of dollars in repayments.
Two former Ecuadorian ministers have signed the call to support an audit
in Greece, alongside Members of the European Parliament, international
economists and academics and civil society representatives. Correa himself
is now said to be poised to examine more of Ecuador’s debts. Audits are
also on the cards in Nepal, Paraguay and Bolivia, with citizens planning
their own audits in many more countries.
Even more importantly, a Debt Audit will encourage a push for wider
democracy in Greece. As Greece’s debt continues to mushroom, people
need to have control over the policies carried out in their name. The
austerity measures now being pushed on Greece will mean more inequality
across Europe – creating an even more crisis-prone economy. What
happens in Greece today will surely impact on decisions made to debtladen
economies in Eastern Europe and across the developing world
tomorrow.
The Greek people are in the front line, standing up against the power of a
reckless and greedy financial sector – but the consequences of this fight
will be felt across the world.
www.zcommunications.org
China: Young women fight for a better life
Young women play key role in strikes in China’s export industry
Chinaworker 7 March 2011
Young women in China make up the majority of the manufacturing and
assembly-for-export workforce, around 80% in many factories. Not
surprisingly they played a key role in the 40-plus strikes that swept China’s
export industry last year, demanding higher pay and ’grassroots’ unions as
a counterweight to the company unions that are the only legal labour
organisations in China.
Young women, even more than men, leave rural China and join the
migrant workforce because the poverty and drudgery of rural life falls
especially hard on them. They are often pulled out of school to work on
their parents’ farm or encouraged to seek work as migrants from as young
as 14 years of age. The school drop-out rate is 40 percent in some rural
areas, compared to a national rate of 5 percent, and girls commonly make
up two-thirds of drop-outs.
This is reflected in China’s illiteracy rate with 70 percent of the 85 million
illiterate people being women. Despite school fees being prohibited at
elementary level in 2005, school fees are still a fact of life in many rural
areas because local governments are bankrupt or have channeled all their
resources into infrastructure projects that boost GDP figures and provide
officials with fat bribes. Many rural households cannot afford the cost of
schooling and regard a daughter’s education as less valuable than a son’s
due to economic pressures, absence of pension provision and elderly care
services.
Women are expected to marry and in later life take care of their husband’s