Taiwan Politicians that Give Lip Service to Workers’ Rights

      I hesitate to write an article about the Taiwanese politicians that give lip service to raising the standard of workers’ rights. The party on hunger strike in the rain want to exploit the goodwill of Sunflower movement remnants. They are staging an event outside the presidential office building. It looks good for them to be sitting under a makeshift tent in the rain, but it is all showmanship.

     Since the party in power used the youth movement to take control of the legislature in the last national elections, they only need lip service passing laws that mask the real issue - raising the minimum wage to a living wage. Promote laws already on the books safeguarding workers organizing unions protecting them from revenge by bosses. The labor laws here and in the U.S. are similar except that in Taiwan only a workplace with over 30 employees can unionize.

      Instead of sitting out in the rain complaining about laws they ignored passing last year, this political party could be going around Taiwan promoting and explaining the labor laws on the books long before the party they criticize took over the legislature. They could be helping interested workers organize clandestine grass root unions, to build a base for eventual government recognized unions. Since they are not, let them starve, die of pneumonia, or  ignore them better still for all their useless shams while helpless workers suffer slave conditions in Taiwan.
      Well, the police chased them away today; two former professors, a shoe-tosser, and a death metal musician, all turned politicians. They were saved from pneumonia and starvation so they should be thankful, but they won't be. Even President Tsai Ying-Wen, like a good mama, asked them to leave. So they slinked away, will tell their constituents they had victory, put it on their resume, and go on pretending they give a shit about working people in Taiwan. Where is Taiwan's Preacher Casy? Not in this bunch. 
             I woke up after an hour or so of sleep and went into the tea room to complete CD 16 and 17 of The Grapes of Wrath. It’s such a powerful condemnation of American capitalism and unbridled greed. We are part of one big soul, not individual souls, says Tom Joad to Ma before he has to leave the family after he killed the man who killed Preacher Casy. After seeing those egotistical clowns from the New Power Party on TV “apologize” publically for not being able to do anything to help workers after being removed from their three-day hunger strike, I told my wife how I felt personally insulted as I had directly communicated with two that ignored my pleas to unionize. It may not be my fight since I’d been marginalized long before I retired, but I can’t help but shake my head in disgust about the obstructionists that do the bidding for the ruling class with their individual “souls.”