| One month resistance, stronger voices say
"Stop privatisation of Egat is not just Egat fights but all Thai's"
The protest against the privatisation of the Electricity
Generating Authority of Thailand[EGAT] is not just EGAT's
workers fight, but it is also the fight of all Thais --
consumers, AIDS victims, Environmentalists, the urban poor,
students, academics, journalists, the public, etc...
That was the message which arose from the unity of voices
from 135 organizations representing all the above mentioned
sectors of Thai society who attended the meeting - Stop
privatisation of State Enterprises - on 21 March. They traveled
down from the north of the country, Chiengmai, came up from
the south, Songkla, and came from the west, Kanchanaburi,
and from the Northeastern provinces such as Ubon Ratchathani,
this included consumers groups and The Communities' Radio
Association that covers 200 alternative radio waves. They
traveled 200-1,000 kilometers to Bangkok just for a day
meeting. They discussed and shared their activities and
suggestions on how they can work together to stop the 'ignorant'
Thai government under 'one man's leading cabinet' from blindly
going ahead with privatization plans. They focused on how
to get the government to really listen to the voice of Thai
people who, more and more, are speaking out against the
governmnet's aggressive move on privatisation.
There is much evidence that Thais do not want proivatisation,
including many polls that have shown that over 70% of Thai
do not want the government to privatise. "That is why
Thaksin refuses to call for a referendum, because if he
loses, it means the end of his political life", said,
Kanin Boonsuwan, former member of the constitution drafted
committee.
It has now been a month since the EGAT union's members
and workers first took their stand to fight to stop the
privatisation of electricity on 23 February. With their
strong unity, the false claim made by the government to
the public that they protest just to protect their own interest
is dying out by itself. Joining the determined and united
EGAT workers in their long struggle are many civil society
groups who are starting to act -- not against the EGAT union,
which the government expected, but in support.
27 March at the National Royal Garden, is another call.
We are talking about mobilising 100,000 and even one million
people!
Before the day, from North to south and west to east regions,
the popular education to reach out to the communities is
conducted in many forms; door to door knocking, small groups
meetings, conferences, radio programs, the distribution
of leaflets and posters, and the screening of videos, showing
the failures of privatisation in other countries. EGAT has
produced and is distributing over 200,000 leaflets and nearly
10,000 copies of two main documentaries to show why the
privatisation of public good like energy fails. Documentary
examples of failed privatisation include case studies of
such countries as: Argentina [produced by Nitipoom Naowarat,
a journalist], and the Thai version of the Big Blackout
[the Thai version of which was translated and produced by
Thai Labour Campaign].
Reaching out to communities is conducting by civil groups
like NGOs, consumers networks, AIDS victim networks, and
grassroots organization like the Assembly of the Poor.
Reaching out to factories workers is also conducting by
many unions and the State Enterprises Labour Relation Confederation
(SERC). SERC is reaching out to seek solidarity support
from unions and their members in many industrial estates,
and throughout the countries. I can say that all active
industrial sector unions have agreed to support the struggle
to stop privatisation. Louder and louder voices, echoing
from union to union in both industrial and the state enterprises
are saying "We should call a national general strike."
"Do you have hope that we can win?" a good friend
from a consumer group asked me at the meeting. I responded
"have you ever see as many groups coming to meet with
such a unified voice like this before, except for the struggle
for democracy rights in the past?" I further said "I
believe that we can win". This is not because we fight
harder than other countries but because we are lucky to
be able to see so many examples of how disasterous energy
privatisation has been in other countires. The failure of
privatisation in other countries can be used to educate
the Thai people and support our fight. It is not going to
be an easy fight, however, I refuse to believe that "we
cannot stop the privatisation because it is the direction
dictated by neo-liberal trade policy which every government
has to follow." We fight based on the belief that the
privatisation of EGAT and other public utilities is bad
for the Thai people, and we believe that we will win if
we unite and last one day longer!
Lek Yimprasert
Thai Labour Campaign
photo : www.lueget.com
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