Presentation of the work of CAW: 2000 _ 2002

Objectives of CAW
-  Assist in consciousness raising among women workers in the formal and informal sectors in Asia towards the realization of commonalities of their situations, problems and analysis.
-  Support efforts of organized women workers to effect favourable changes in their lives.
-  Facilitate networking and linkages among women workers and related groups within Asia and with other regions for solidarity support.
-  To be the regional platform for women workers in Asia, to facilitate and /or represent the voice of women workers in Asia.

Main Areas of Work
-  Local / National joint programs
-   Regional / sub-regional programs
-  Advocacy and Campaign
-  Solidarity Support Actions and Networking
-  Publication and documentation

I. Introduction and context:
The work for the years 2000 - 2 was visualized and detailed out in the context of the changing nature of women뭩 work and of industrialization at the global as well at the regional level and hence the changing needs of organizations and networks working with women workers.

While due to several processes and structures, women workers have been a section that has been one of the most disadvantaged and discriminated against, these disadvantages and types and levels of discrimination take on very different forms and proportions in different situations and phases of social and economic development. The movement of capital and the strategies of capital are changing rapidly. While capital is being pumped in certain areas, it is being quickly dried out in other areas. Often however, the impact of both these developments is not one of uniform empowerment or disempowerment for women. These developments have had contradictory impacts on workers, especially women workers. Even the strategies of capital in areas where new and large investment is taking is one of deployment of 멹lexible?labour where capital is responsible for no more than the daily or worse still measly piece rate wage of the workforce.  

Just to illustrate one aspect of this phenomenon, our work indicated to us that the years 2000-2001 brought to women workers in different regions very different outcomes. For example, while the Mekong region witnessed a relatively large influx of capital, in countries like Bangladesh, that had witnessed a similar influx in an earlier phase, women workers are now losing jobs every day due to closure of the very industries that had proliferated in an earlier phase ?garments, for example.  

In the present context of globalization, the nature of employment as well as of work generally is undergoing radical changes. Women workers have always been in the lower rungs of the employment and work hierarchy. The present phase seems to have targeted women workers in different ways. One of this has been the growing extent of informalization of work women seem to be involved in.

Hence, it was decided to be more inclusive and widen the active concerns of CAW to include women workers in the informal economy and to look at the structures and processes of informalization of women workers. We also decided to adopt a strategy of multiple methodologies that would give our partners and us some valuable insights into some of the problems and possible solutions to an important aspect of women workers situation in the current context.

With regard to CAW too there have been several changes, including in its structure, in this period. These changes have had serious implications on the personnel of CAW as well as the administration issues in CAW.

The above situation meant an extension of our concerns and constituency. This is one important reason why the EXCO and the Secretariat of CAW had to be sensitive to the increasing requests from our network groups, who were in the field and responding to the changing situation and changing needs of women workers. This in effect meant increasing the number of national programs from the 3 we had envisaged to the 7 programs that we had to respond to and participate in.  

It was in this light that the regional program of the informal economy was developed. Informal work and informal workers are not a new phenomenon. They have been in existence since the beginning of work itself. Even after industrialization and its development, informal work has co-existed with the formalization of the economy. In large parts of the economies of Asia and Africa for example, informal work has been the source of livelihood of the majority of workers. Even in East Asian countries, it was the forcible urbanization of economies and government policies that forced lower prices for agricultural products and policies of land use that turned large sections of people into industrial workers. Various policies of the State have been hugely responsible for the proliferation of informal work in different economies. While informal work has existed prior to the present phase of globalization, the processes of globalization have played a role in increasing the extent of the informal economy in various ways. Informal work is in fact the product of several factors and processes at varied points in time and at different levels. This is happening in very diverse in different countries, regions and sub-regions.

All these processes have posed special challenges for women and women뭩 work. The initial response to informal work by trade unions and other organizations had been that it was a transitory phenomenon that was a result of uneven development or underdevelopment. It was only when informal work and workers began to proliferate once more in the developed industrialized countries and the process from informal to formal did not seem to take place, rather the contrary was taking place, that attention began to once more be focused on informal work. This is the context in which the newer debates are being conducted.

CAW had been working on the issue of women workers for more than 20 years. We have attempted to address the issue of informal sector from a different perspective. These last three years have been attempts by CAW to respond to the network groups in this rapidly changing situation in the context of the changing phases of globalization and their varied impacts on women workers, their work and their organizational strategies and attempts.
II. Structure of this report:
In the beginning itself we will look at the tasks involved in the administering of a regional network like CAW. CAW has been constantly attempting to cope with the task of innovating structures in the context of running a regional organization in the midst of current challenges. The Executive Committee meets at least once a year and keeps in constant touch with the secretariat to steer the work of CAW.

The organizational aspects are followed by a chronological and thematic report of our activities and achievements. This is followed by the challenges faced by CAW as a network and the challenges that we all face in the current context. We need to deal with all these together.

III. Executive Committee Meetings:
The Executive Committee meetings of CAW are meetings where the general direction of the organization is reviewed and reworked. This is also the forum where broader political events and impacts are discussed as also issues that pertain to the smooth day-to-day running of the organization. Ideally, the Exco meets every once a year and does the work of critically reviewing the past year and planning for the next year. Only in times of emergencies does the Exco meet more often.  

2000:
In the year 2000, the EXCO meeting was held after the Regional Consultation Meeting to finalize the three-year plan (2001-2003) based on the suggestions and recommendations from the network members during the Consultation meeting. The Exco meeting decided on a few major changes in CAW. These are:
-   Rights of network members: The network members have the right to elect Exco members from each sub-region.
-   The criteria of CAW's network members were spelled out.
The Exco members appointed Ms. Irene Xavier from Malaysia as the Chairperson of CAW for a term of three years.

2001:
As stated earlier, there is supposed to be 1 EXCO meeting every year. However, due to technical problems of moving to Bangkok as well as other staff and administrative matters, in the year 2000, there had to be 2 EXCO meetings, one in January and the second in February 2001.
First meeting on 7-8 Jan 2001 in Seoul
This first meeting was an annual meeting of the Executive Committee. In the meeting, the committee adopted the financial report 2000. Then the secretariat presented the annual report 2000 for the committee to comment on. This was followed by a discussion on the activity plan of 2001 and CAW's vision, role and relocation.

Program discussion
In the meeting, the secretariat and the Committee shared the same understanding on the situation of the women workers resulting from globalization of corporate investment. Therefore the committee decided to support five national programs in 2001, namely from Kansai Union in Japan, UCM in Indonesia, SEWA from India, Women's Center in Sri Lanka and Women Link in South Korea. The reason for this decision has been discussed at length in the section on the national programs.  

The committee also decided that CAW would co-organize the regional consultation meeting on the informal economy. The objective of this program was capacity building for advocacy and lobbying.

Structure of the organization
The meeting had a discussion on the administrative difficulties facing CAW. In order to solve the visa problem of the overseas staff and the non-availability of US dollar account, the Executive Committee proposed to relocate the coordinator back to Hong Kong and decentralize the staff. This would mean that the program staff would work from the country they come from. The committee decided to bring this matter to discuss with the partners in Germany in February. As the new structure required new staff, the criteria of new staff were also discussed in the meeting. Then the Committee scheduled the date for the advertisement of the positions.

The meeting endorsed the amendments in the By-laws. These included
-  Membership Qualifications
-  Procedures for becoming a network member
-  Disaffiliation of network groups
-  Procedures for disaffiliation
-  Rights of network groups and
-  Roles and responsibilities of network groups.

The second Executive Committee on 24-25 Feb 2001
As there was a negative response from the partners on the issue of the relocation back to Hong Kong, the secretariat had to remain in Bangkok. The objective of this meeting was making a decision on the structure of the secretariat.
The meeting began with an update of the administrative situation from the secretariat.
-  The one-year US dollar bank account was granted by the Bangkok Bank. CAW would have to renew it every year. If CAW wanted to withdraw more than US$5000, CAW would have to submit supporting documents.
-  The visa for oversea staff: CAW could apply for visas under CAW foundation after August 2001 when CAW foundation had completed one year of registration.

After the update, the committee endorsed the new structure of the secretariat. Under the new structure, the program coordinator, publication staff and the administrative staff would be based in Bangkok. While the two program officers would be based in their own countries. The meeting discussed the long-term goals and laid out the division of work among the staff. Finally, the meeting carried out interviews for new staff; one coordinator and two program officers were hired in 2001.

2002:
In the year 2002, the Executive Committee met for 3 days in February. During the meeting, several decisions were taken:
1.        The arrangement of the left over money from the three years project 1998 to 2001. It was decided that the secretariat had to arrange the left over money according to the agreement with the partners. However we need to ask the partners if we could allocate the left over money as money carry forward to 2001 to 2003 due to the financial difficulties at the moment.
2.        The EXCO had endorsed the financial report 2001, budget 2002 and activities plan 2002.
3.        The secretariat had to follow up the EXCO members?renewal and election.
4.        The EXCO endorsed the hiring of Program staff for one year with the budget that was left from the 2001 vacant program officer budget.  

IV. Administration and Coordination
This aspect of CAW has seen a great deal of changes in the last three years. An important change has been the relocation of the CAW from Hong Kong to Bangkok. Though the actual relocation took place before the last consultation meeting, the adjustments are still in process. Some of the salient features of these changes and challenges are as follows:

As we had mentioned in the section on the Executive Committee meeting, a new structure of the secretariat was launched in March 2001. The main reason for change was the administrative difficulties in Thailand. The number of the staff remained five but the staff was decentralized in order to solve the visa problem. The new structure is listed as follows:
-  The Coordinator, administrative officer and the publication officer were located in the Bangkok head office.
-  The program staff would be based in their home country.
-  The secretariat will have their staff meetings every three months for updating the progress of the work and discussion work plan for the next three months.

The secretariat had started the recruitment process in January after the first executive meeting in January 2001. CAW had targeted to recruit four positions, one coordinator and two program officers for the EED, HIVOS and ICCO program of 2001 to 2003 and one program officer for the specific campaign on informal sector supported by Inter-Church Action from Canada. As the team support for the program officers would be less than before, the secretariat attempted to look for well-experienced women worker activists to fill in the post. Unfortunately, we had difficulties to get the ideal candidate to fill the position of one program officer. The post was vacant from January to October. We had the full team operating only from November 2001.  However as the publication officer had her maternity leave since August, we were under- staffed for the whole year.

Implication of new structure on administration
US dollar account
The US dollar account was granted in January 2001. Theoretically we can transfer US dollars and have US dollar cash with this US dollar account. However, from the experience of last one year뭩 operation, we found that we have to rely on the US dollar account in Hong Kong. It was because the US dollar account in Bangkok can only accept donations that come from EED, Germany. If we have any transaction other than from EED then we have to get an endorsement letter of the transaction from EED. Besides, this US dollar account in Bangkok subsists for only one year. We have to renew the bank account with the annual report on a yearly basis. Cash dollar withdrawals are another battle. With every withdrawal we have to provide sufficient information to support the withdrawal. For example, photocopies of the invoice of the expense and photocopies of the air ticket and passport of the participants. Because of all the hassle, we are not likely to use this US account as the main organizational bank account. It can only serve as a US dollar petty cash account in Bangkok with small amounts if money in it.

As a result, we had to keep US dollar accounts both in Hong Kong and Thailand. Hence we had to do audited financial reports in Hong Kong and Thailand as well.
Foundation registration and visa application of the overseas staff: In Thailand, work permit of the overseas staff of the foundation needs to be renewed on a yearly basis. The regulation states that the foundation can only apply for a visa for overseas staff after the completion of one year of registration. Therefore we can only start to apply for visas for the staff after August 2001, even though the coordinator had to report duty from May 2001. The office could only process her work permit after August 2001. It took almost two months for the process to be completed. As compared to past experience, this was considered to be an extremely successful outcome. The differences in experience may due to the discrimination toward different nationalities that is present in immigration policy and made even more difficult by the attitude of the immigration personnel.
By the end of 2001, due to the impact of September 11, a new policy of work visa application for NGOs was suggested by the government. In order to curtail the so-called terrorist activities, all the NGOs who get foreign funding would not be able to have foreign staff working in the organization. This has posed a threat for organizations like CAW that we would not be able to get work visas for overseas staff in Thailand. A network to fight against the new policy has been formed among the local and regional NGOs. CAW had actively participated in the activities to defend not only the autonomy of CAW but also the democratic space of the civil society as a whole.
Since the process of work permit and visa application, registration of the foundation, bank account application, bookkeeping and logistics of the local program have to be carried out by the administration officer, she has hardly any time for the accounting work of the organization. Therefore we had to hire a professional and well-experienced NGO accountant to work for us as a part-time accounting person.  

Evaluation of the structure:
The secretariat had reviewed the new structure in the November 2001 secretariat meeting. The positive and negative experiences have been summed up as the follows:
Positive
-  Program officers have closer links with local organizations. It is easier to access what happen on the ground.
-  Program officers found it easier to attend meetings and workshops near their own base or nearby.
-  Most of the well-experienced women activists in the region have several commitments, including that of the family. By deploying the decentralized structure, hassles of relocation or separation from the family are avoided. Therefore it might easier to get well-experienced staff.
Negative
-  The structure had increased the cost of the administration. For example, the communication cost was higher than last year.
-  The decentralized staff found it difficult to make decisions with long distance communication.
-  It was difficult to build up teamwork.
- All the administration work had fallen on the head office with only 3 persons.

Most of the staff expressed their preference to work physically together as a team. However as there were a great deal of difficulties ?right from getting visas to personal aspects, the team tried to work on the negative aspects and build the team based on the positive aspects.  

V. Programs / Projects / Activities

V. a. Local / National joint programs
As we can see from the Table below, the issues taken up by the Network Groups in their own regions are a very wide spectrum. They range from globalization and its different impacts to sexual harassment to organizing and trade unionism. These are all of course related as they pertain to the different issues women workers are facing in the region.

The general thrust of the network groups seem to be awareness raising. The methodologies used are also quite varied ?workshops, meeting, education and training, campaigns, mobilization and video production.      

2000:
2000: Organizations  Countries Themes Programs
Women's section, NFL  The Philippines Evaluation of women's organizing and training  National conference
Metropolitan Textile Labour Trade Union         Thailand         Globalization and occupational health and safety        Education and campaign
Persatuan Sahabat Wanita Selangor        Malaysia        Address fear of Trade unionism         1.        Survey2.        Consultation
Da Bindu Collective        Sri Lanka        Awareness raising on rights and gender issues        Translation of resource book
All Nepal Women Association        Nepal        Impact of patriarchy and globalization        Leadership training
Yasanti and Humanika        Indonesia         Awareness raising on rights and gender issues        Leadership training
Korean Women Workers?Associations United        Korea        Awareness raising on rights and gender issues        Workshop
Pakistan institute of Labour Education and Research        Pakistan        Awareness raising on rights of informal sector women workers        Preparation of video
Joint Action Group Against Violence Against Women        Malaysia        Awareness raising on sexual harassment        Campaign
Nepal Centre Women Workers?Department        Nepal        Follow up of earlier program        1.        Leadership training2.        Publication3.        Mobilization4.        Research  



2001:
Organizations         Countries         Themes         Programs
Kansai Women Worker Union        Japan        Awareness raising on situation of temporary public workers        Preparation of video
Friends of Women         Thailand         Setting up trade union for laid off women workers        1.        Education and campaign2.        Vocational training
Urban Community Mission        Batam, Indonesia        Awareness raising on rights        Training program
NFL        The Philippines        Evaluation of women뭩 organizing and training        1.        Consultations 2.        Nat. conference3.        Advocacy4.        Education and training
Women뭩 Centre        Sri Lanka        Building collectivity among women workers        1.        Training2.        Education
Women Link        Korea         Awareness about sexual harassment        1.        Training2.        Networking
Self Employed Women뭩 Association        India         Awareness raising on legal rights         Para-legal training of women worker activists
Self Employed Women뭩 Association        India         Rehabilitation support for women workers        1.        Rebuild survival tools of women workers2.        Re-establish markets
Da Bindu        Sri Lanka        Awareness raising on rights        1.        Publication of booklets2.        Discussions


Up to mid 2002:
Organizations         Countries         Themes         Programs
Working Women뭩 Organization        Pakistan        Awareness Raising Workshop On Gender Sensitization        Workshop
National Federation of Labor (NFL)         The Philippines        Capacity building of women unionists in the NFL for election in the union        1.        Research2.        Policy intervention3.        Dissemination of research
Metropolitan Textile Trade Union         Thailand        Impact of globalization on women workers, labour laws and struggles        1.        Education programs2.        Campaign
Sahabat Wanita        Malaysia        Awareness raising on rights         Campaign against massive retrenchments
Solidarity Front of Women Worker         Taiwan        Develop mutual supporting network for the marginalized groups        1.        Training2.        Exploring market alternatives3.        Setting up alternative structures
Women뭩 Link        Korea        Awareness raising on rights and gender issues        1.        Campaign2.        Education



V. b. Sub-regional / Regional programs:
The sub-regional and regional programs of CAW aim to draw upon the commonalities of the region / sub-regions. Here the focus seems to be on the different 뻚irect and indirect ?impact of economic processes in the region and the sub-regions.

At one level is the concern with broader structures -- patriarchy and capitalism. These include problems of feminization of poverty and of casualization processes, as well as sexual harassment. At another level is the theme of the current phase within these structures ?informalization, liberalization. At the third level is the concern with strategies for organizing and for coping. Lastly, is the need for CAW as a regional organization to reach regions that are newly emerging as large areas where there exist immense possibilities for organizing women workers.  


Sub-regions         Themes         Programs         Location
2000                        
East Asia        Organizing strategies to challenge job insecurity / unemployment of women workers in Asia         Sub-regional workshop         Taiwan
Regional         CAW뭩 Regional Consultation         Meeting        Thailand
Regional         The impact of globalization and informalization on women workers        Regional program         Korea
Network meeting         `Patriarchy and Feminization of the workforce?        CAW network meeting         Korea.
ASEM?People뭩 Forum meeting        `The impact of trade liberalization on women workers?in Korea.        People뭩 Forum meeting         Korea.
Regional training         Gender perspectives in organizing women workers         CAW Regional training         Malaysia.
                       
2001                        
South-East Asia         Issues faced by women workers and alternative strategies         South-East Asia workshop         Indonesia
Regional consultation         Women workers in informal work         Consultation         Thailand.
2002                        
Mekong region         Sexual Harassment         Workshop         Thailand
Training of Burmese migrants        Training of Burmese migrants        Training         Thailand








V. c. Advocacy and Campaign:
Like the sub-regional and regional programs of CAW, advocacy and campaign aim to draw upon the commonalities of the region / sub-regions. Here too the focus seems to be on the different 뻚irect and indirect ?impact of economic processes in the region and the sub-regions. However, advocacy and campaigning also has specificities of the country where the processes seem to be unfolding in. At one level are advocacy and campaign attempts at the sub-regional / regional / global level; at another level are campaigns at the national level. These are often inter-connected; but may not always be connected directly.

Organization         Country         Theme         Forum
2000                        
        Thailand        UNCTAD X         Participation in the NGO plenary caucus
        Thailand        UNCTAD X         Participation in the NGO Forum
        Thailand        UNCTAD X         UNCTAD X official forum
Thai Durable textile workers.         Thailand         Advocacy and campaign to protect the rights of the Thai Durable textile workers        National level
2001                        
        Regional/international        To know about the processes in the ILC        International Labour Conference 2001
2002                        
        Regional /international         Participation in the general discussion on the `informal economy?        International Labour Conference
Groups in Indonesia        Indonesia        National campaign on women in the informal economy         National campaign
Groups in Thailand        Thailand        National campaign on women in the informal economy         National campaign
Groups in Korea        Korea        National campaign on women in the informal economy         National campaign









V. d. Women Solidarity Support Actions:

Year         Organization and country        Program
2000        Women workers from the Elfa spinning textile, Thailand        Supporting the court case
        Thai women workers        Solidarity support to raise their own issues during the Asian Development Bank Forum in Thailand
2001        The Thai Labour Campaign, Thailand        Support worker to participate in The Forum of Alliance Against Globalization in Hong Kong
        Asian Network for the Rights of Occupational Accident Victims (ANROAV), Bangkok         For support for meeting in Bangkok
2002        Bethune House, Hong Kong        Campaign against wage cut
        With the sub-regional network of Mekong        Sexual Harassment at the workplace
        TACAB        Gender training workshop for Burmese migrant worker in Thailand
        7 groups in total (funded by Oxfam HK)        Exposure trip for the Chinese group in BKK



V. e. Solidarity Linkage and Networking

Conferences attended:

2000:
Location        Purpose        Date
Cambodia        Consultation meeting on the Mekong sub-region network to combat violence against women        January 2000
Laos        Follow up meeting of the Cambodia meeting        April 2000
Germany        Workshop on women workers in the informal sector        June 2000


2001:
Location        Purpose        Date
Bangkok        Health and safety discussion by ANROAV        6 ?9 May
Geneva        ILC 2001        9-20 June
Bombay, India        Sexual harassment national workshop        3-6 June 2001
Australia        People뭩 globalization versus corporate globalization by APRN        26-30 Sept
Taiwan        Conference on globalization on anti-globalization        1-2 Sept
Malaysia        ILO workshop on sexual harassment at work placeTraining on leadership by MTUC         2-4 October
Bangkok        Garment Research, organized by WWW        16-19Nov
Bangkok        v        CEDAW training for NGOv        Code of Conduct, organized by DAGAv        Asian TNC watch by AMRC v        HOMENET Thailand national meetingv        Thailand National bill for health and Safetyv        Meet with National Human Rights Commission and Deputy minister of labour and social welfare on the Thai Krieng case        1-3 Nov29-30Nov,1-2 Dec.NovemberNovNov
Bombay        ?nbsp;       Alternative strategies for unions?nbsp;       Umbrella legislation for informal workers?nbsp;       Sexual harassment ?nbsp;       Plants closure        6- 8 Dec. 200112th Dec 2001Dec. 200127th Dec 2001


2002:
Location        Purpose        Date
Ahmedabad, India        Meeting organized by WIEGO about women workers in informal employment        Jan 2002
Hyderabad, India        Meeting of NGOs and unions working with domestic workers        Feb 2002
Netherlands        Meeting organized by IRENE about women workers in informal employment        April 2002
V. f. National Visits:

Year         Country         Purpose
2000                
        Nepal         Follow-up national program
        Indonesia         Attend national program
        The Philippines        Strengthen links
2001                
        Hong Kong        East Asia program discussion; informal sector discussion
        India         Attending meetings; regional program discussion
        Indonesia and Medan        South East Asia program discussion
        The Philippines        South East Asia program discussion
        Thailand        South East Asia program discussion
        Taiwan        East Asia program discussion
        Sri Lanka        South Asia program discussion
        Cambodia        Contacting Mekong network
        Korea         East Asia program discussion; study of situation of financial crisis
2002        Nepal        National program discussion; meet new groups
        Bangladesh        National program discussion; meet new groups
        Japan        
        China        
        Batam        
        Medan        
        Malaysia        


VI. Documentation, Research and Publication

VI. a. Manual on globalization for women workers
In 1998 CAW produced a video tilted 밆olls and Dusts? It was a video documentary on the impact of economic restructuring on Asian women workers. To accompany the video, a manual was also envisaged. This manual was meant for women activists to understand the issues / debates about globalization and the processes and events as narrated in the video. The manual, also titled 밆olls and Dusts?published in December 2000, not only examines the impact of industrial restructuring on women workers, but also includes analyses and perspectives of certain Asian researchers and activists, besides women workers about 밽lobalization,?about 밽lobalization and the gender division of labour?as well as 뱒trategies for change?  

As a follow-up of this project, we are currently in the process of designing a training manual for women worker activists to use as a guide to generate awareness among women workers on the issues and implications of Globalization.
Purpose of the manual
?nbsp;       To deepen the understanding of women workers regarding the process of       globalization and its impact on their lives.
?nbsp;       To help the women workers understand the critical debates taking place concerning the responses and alternatives to globalization.

VI. b. Urgent Appeals
The Urgent Appeals that CAW has received from 2000 to 2002 from her networks and contacts in Asia and to which we have responded are as follows:

2000:
1.        Thai Durable Workers?request for government intervention to resolve disputes over unjust and inhumane practices of and illegal dismissals by the management in Thailand.  
2.        Protest against the unjust and inhumane practices of the management of Master Toy Co. Ltd. in Thailand.  
3.        Protest against the unfair payment and welfare of the Garment Manufacturers?Association in Cambodia.
4.        Protest against the unfair practices of the management and gross violations of basic labour standards of the Kalayaan Arts and Crafts Inc., a German owned company in the Philippines.  
5.        Protest against the denial of compensation fund to workers in the Zhilli fire.

2001:
1.        Daewoosa Samoa Garment factory on the island of American Samoa.  
2.        Ladybird Garment Factory in Bangkok, Thailand.
3.        Almond Jewelry workers, Bangkok Thailand.
4.        International Garment Manufacturing Corp, The Philippines.
5.        Two Urgent Appeals from SUARAM, Malaysia in August 2001 about the detention of political activists under ISA.
6.        Workers?struggle and repression of workers and trade unionists in Pakistan in August 2001.
7.        A fire in a factory in India where 7 young workers, including 2 women died in August 2001.
8.        Gina Bra factory in Thailand, where union members were sacked in November 2001. {DETAILS OF THE IST 4 ABOVE NEED TO BE WRITTEN. MABEL, COULD YOU DO THAT? I DO NOT HAVE THE DETAILS.}

VI. c.  Asian Women Workers?Newsletter

2000:
Issues published:
1.        CAW뭩 regional consultation
2.        Sexual harassment
3.        Labour movement
4.        Changing patterns of women employment

2001:
Issues published:
1.        Patriarchy and feminization of the workforce
2.        Globalization, economic integration and inequalities
3.        Health and Safety
4.        Alternative strategies on organizing

Up to mid 2002:
Issues published:
1.        Women and the informal economy
2.        Sexual Harassment at the workplace
3.        Labour Contracts

VI. d. Documentation and dissemination of information:
From the very inception, CAW has put great emphasis on disseminating information about the situation of women workers. CAW has been maintaining a library of periodicals, books, research reports, newsletters etc. for use by NGOs, researchers, students, academics and interested individuals.

With the advent of the electronic mail, CAW has also been actively using the e-mail to advocate women workers?issues. CAW has also developed a website and currently is in the process of upgrading the website and making it more accessible to people. A plan is also underway to develop an electronic database on women workers.

VII. Achievements
The achievements of CAW are also or mainly the achievements of its network groups and of the women workers the NGs work with. Some of these achievements we have attempted to relate in the words of Network Groups themselves as far as possible. We have not included all the comments of all the Network Groups; only a few representative ones from each sub-region and about different types of programs taken up by CAW.

According to the Kansai Women뭩 Union, Japan:
The members from KWU found the process of production of the video supported by CAW very educational. By interviewing the women workers, writing the script of the video and editing the video, they could understand more on the situation of the part time workers. Moreover the members expressed that the project helped them to develop new skills.

The video had been shown in many "lay-off ceremonies"  as an illustration of the policy of the "temporary public workers".   The video was well received by the "temporary public workers", the trade unions and the community in Kansai area as well.  The KWU is exploring the possibility of showing the video on the community TV station.?br />
According to Women뭩 Centre, Sri Lanka:
`The general health condition of the workers who participated in the program to assist the empowerment of women workers through building collectivity among women in FTZs showed signs of improvement. Besides the workers also set up an informal network. They can discuss their problems in the network.  It helped to strengthen the organizing base in the area.?br />
Women뭩 Link from South Korea:
`A module for lecturing on education and counseling on the issue of sexual harassment at work place was produced. It served a very important role in raising consciousness and guiding the women workers to challenge harassers at the workplace. The project also provided the national network an opportunity to exchange information and share their experiences to confront cases of sexual harassment. It also brought the strong solidarity between local and central women뭩 groups together to tackle the problem especially in dealing with cases of a serious nature.?nbsp; 

SEWA from India:
`CAW ad hoc support was utilized for providing the women workers who were affected by the earthquake to rebuild their survival tools, as many of them were home-based workers. Some of the support was also utilized to teach women new skills. SEWA also tried to re-establish markets for the traditional handicrafts of the women. This included both national and international markets. In some places, basic infrastructure had to be built in order for women to start their livelihood activities. In some cases, the houses of the women workers had to be either re-built or mended. Some women had to buy livestock and equipment. The ad-hoc support of CAW was utilized for some of these purposes.?br />
Yasanti and Humanika from Indonesia:
The leadership training for women workers was helpful in the following ways:
`1. Understanding about the root of the problems faced by women workers.
2. Publication of useful training manuals.
3. Increased confidence among activists
4. A detailed follow up plan was worked out that included advocacy and lobbying, leadership programs etc.?br />
About the South East Asia program:
`The workshop on Alternative Strategies was helpful in pointing new dimensions for discussions among the participants and their organizations on the issue of organizing. Many of the participants were unfamiliar with the actual struggles that had been waged of issues like equal pay for equal work. They were also not very conversant with strategies like organizing the unemployed workers.?br />
About the Regional program:
The Regional program was a workshop on women workers in informal employment. According to the evaluation forms from the participants, many groups had participated in the regional conference for the first time. They reflected that it was a good experience to learn the situation of the women workers in other countries. It helped them to formulate the strategies on organizing and lobbying for policy change in their own context. Moreover for many of them, this was the first conference that focused on discussions on the issue of informal economy in Asia. It helped the groups to link up the issue of informal economy workers on the national, regional and international level to issues of globalization and socio-economic and political processes. Besides, the participants found that the presentations from SEWA and ILO were very useful in terms of organizational development, advocacy and lobbying. Most of the participants also found the information pack prepared by CAW to be very useful.?br />
This year CAW was also able to organize a workshop on Sexual Harassment at the workplace together with a women뭩 network in the Mekong region, an area relatively new not just for CAW, but also for women뭩 organizing and for NGO work in general.  

VIII. Challenges
There are several challenges that the present situation has posed for all of us. They emanate out of the changes in the situation of women workers and in the balance of power that this has meant. Some of the challenges relate to the difficulties in doing what we were doing already. For example, organizing women workers has become more challenging now with the site of women뭩 work itself having changed. This has several implications and new ways of organizing are being explored. This means both redefining strategies as well as attempts at evolving new analytical tools to grapple with some of these challenges.

Besides, there have been changes in the global situation and in the situation of many countries, e.g., the Indo-China region as well as China and Central Asia. These were regions CAW had not ventured into at all and there are more and more women뭩 organizations that are wanting to relate to CAW.    

Here we have attempted to consolidate the experience of the past and plan for the future. We at the Secretariat have tried to summarize valuable opinions from all the discussions and cull out the possible paths ahead as well as the tasks and challenges this path is likely to throw up. This is in no way an exhaustive list; however, it provides us with a certain focus that would help us in our work of planning for the future.  

Strengthen grassroots organizing
The declaration from the Manila conference in 1977 clearly stated important concerns regarding the well being of women workers in the Asian region. Since then, CAW has been working with this mandate for the past 25 years. Our efforts to facilitate women workers' organizing and empowerment of women workers for leadership have certainly remained the main focus of our work and would do so in the future as well.

Learning from women workers
Even more important purpose and role of CAW have been and will be to learn from women workers, their situation, their lives and their strategies. Capitalism and patriarchy have several common features all over the world. However, the way these systems operate in the lives of women is different in different societies, depending on a whole range of factors. And it is in these different circumstances that women workers live and concretize their strategies. These may be coping strategies or changing strategies. Women workers, whether they are organized into recognizable forms of collectives or not, have a great deal to offer each other and others in terms of what lessons they draw from their experiences in working, organizing, struggling and living. We in CAW as well as in different networks have a great deal to learn from women workers.  
Redefining strategies
However throughout the past three decades, there have been phenomenal changes in the world. The situation of women workers has not changed much; however the problems are more complicated now.

Production is no long necessarily carried out in factories or in one standard set-up. Production is much more decentralized. It may be carried out at home, in small sweatshops, it may be divided into tedious assembly line steps. Besides, the employment relationship has been made more and more opaque; in some cases it seems almost invisible. All these mechanisms are aimed at and result in the avoidance of labour protection and labour rights. In this situation, the strategies that organizations and unions deploy are often not effective enough. This is partly because they are not based on informed choices as the organizations at the grassroots level may not be informed enough about the wider level changes taking place.

Education and training as important focal points
It is with this perspective that concerns are expressed that, CAW needs to develop education programs that can help women workers understand the complexity of situation and the problems. It is often tough to explain the situation or the reasons for some things to women workers even when we understand the situation. Even if we explain, we find it hard to convince them to believe that it is true. This means there is need to train trainers as well.

Analysis as a tool
At a more basic level, the changes taking place at the local, sub-regional, regional and global levels are so many and in so many areas with such rapidity and complexity, that often even academicians who spend their entire lives unraveling these phenomenon, find it difficult to decipher the underlying forces and their implications for different sections of people. What we need are new concepts and new tools to understand crucial processes that are affecting us so deeply and irrevocably. Thus theoretical and conceptual work needs to go alongside work at the grassroots level and both need to inform and consult with each other.

Concretizing new strategies
It has been expressed very often that we need to continue to find new strategies to respond to new situations and to the more complicated phenomena of development in this new age. Women are all the time being marginalized. It is important to highlight the strategies taken up by some groups to struggle against this marginalization.

Besides, it is also becoming clearer to everybody on a daily basis that due to informalization of work, the identity of women workers has been challenged in radical ways. So old strategies may not work now. We may have to address the more daily life issues of women as a parent does. CAW has to find links with communities and address the daily life issues more.

New areas, new systems, new challenges
There is another big challenge from geopolitical point of view. In the past, CAW worked mainly in non-communist countries, as it was difficult to have NGO activities in communist countries. After the mid-eighties, many communist countries in the region started to have an open door policy. Now, countries like Vietnam, Cambodia and China have a very different situation. Women workers in these countries once enjoyed relatively better social protection. However, after following the development model of the capitalist countries, especially of the East Asian countries, the women workers in these area are experiencing drastic changes. Their situation is similar in some senses to the women workers in the industrialized East Asian countries. However, due to their earlier history, there are significant differences as well. These are areas and systems that CAW is not used to working in. The organizing strategies and the alternatives would be different.

Forward-looking perspective
Many activists working with CAW have pointed out that CAW has always been forward-looking in terms of understanding issues in the global setup. Often the analysis has been too simplified. The situation is much more complex. The general analysis has often been rather simplified. We have often used similarities between the situations of women workers in different countries to explain the situation in all these countries. This may not be sufficient. CAW needs to encourage and support local groups to bring out these aspects.  There are not only similarities and differences between the conditions of women workers across countries; but even within a country, there are differences based on religion and ethnicity.

Holistic approach
Our understanding of women workers?issues needs to have a more holistic approach. We can no longer only collect information on the political, economic and social situation of different countries. We also have to equip ourselves with other analytical tools and provide a good analysis to formulate strategies on the global setup as well as the local specificities.  

Struggle against persistent patriarchy
Besides the struggle for livelihood and survival, there are continuous struggles against structures, instritutions and practices that downplay women뭩 issues in workers?issues and struggles. As mentioned  in the interviews with the women who have been involved in the work of CAW for a long time, it is important to see women workers "as women and as workers". This has always been a special point of concern for CAW ?how to balance between women뭩 issues and worker뭩 issues.  CAW had contributed this analysis from different aspects, such as, the misuse of sexuality by capitalism, unequal gender relationships in the family, gender discrimination in the labour market, in trade unions and in the society at large. This is also true in the more recent struggles against the impact of globalization. Women workers are once again becoming targets to be marginalized in the process of globalization. In these new circumstances, there is a need to sharpen our analytical tools in this arena as well.

Advocacy and lobbying
The issue of women workers?rights has been persistently pursued by CAW and sister organizations in different forums, at national as well as broader levels. We also need to sharpen our skills and networks on advocacy and lobbying.  

Lobbying and training
One area of concern for CAW has been the need to provide exchange and training opportunities to organizers in different areas. It has often been expressed that CAW has to promote women workers?concern and facilitate exchanges, especially with women workers?organizers who work at the local levels and may not be properly equipped with the understanding of the region. The training that we provide should go beyond the national level as it is time to engage at the international level.

All-round strengthening of local efforts and organizing
It also needs to be recognized that in Asia, in many places there are many women workers?struggles. Some groups are big and some are small. CAW needs to strengthen these groups and push forward the agenda of women workers in all fora. There is a need to strengthen these groups against the processes of informalization. But only strengthening the groups is not enough. CAW also needs to coordinate with her friends and help the groups to access resources. CAW should network with people who lobby for women workers and people who are in a position to make or influence policies. They should be included into CAW뭩 structure as consultants. Such support systems are needed. These people will be more resourceful in using information to do effective work.

Therefore the need for training and understanding international mechanisms, networking with high level lobbying groups, research on the situation of informal sectors, training for grass root organizers on lobbying at the national and international level are new challenges for us all.  
Broader alliances  
The situation and movement of women workers is closely related to other progressive movements, like the women뭩 movement, the workers?movement, the union movement, the human rights movement etc. All these movements are undergoing serious changes. These changes themselves bring forth a very new spectrum of challenges and opportunities.

The relationship between for example the labour movement and the concerns for women workers?issues has not always been a non-contradictory one. The issue of overt and covert discrimination against women workers has not always been important for the trade union movement. At this juncture, the trade union movement is losing ground and losing membership. On the other hand, women workers are coming into the labour market in large numbers and proportions. How new alliances as well as old alliances on a new footing will be forged in the coming period has to be negotiated in practice as well. This will be an important moment for the network groups and other groups CAW is working with. A moment that is full of new challenges and seamless opportunities.  

Posted by KWWA
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