New party not to be confused with China Democratic Socialist Party

The China Democratic Socialist Party (CDSP; Chinese: 中國民主社會黨; pinyin: Zhōngguó shèhuì mínzhǔdǎng) was founded in Shanghai on 15 August 1946. It was formed through the merger of the former Chinese National Socialist Party (Chinese: 中國國家社會黨; their preferred shorthand name was "Socialists" and had no relation to the German Nazi party) and the Democratic Constitutionalist Party (Chinese:民主憲政黨), both of which had survived the years of Japanese aggression by generally supporting the Kuomintang-led national government. The new party's first head was Dr Carsun Chang (Zhang Junmai).

Both the Socialists and the Democratic Constitutionalists had strong ties to Liang Qichao's defunct Progressive Party. The former were based in China as part of the China Democratic League while the latter was made up of overseas Chinese and expatriates. Most of their members were middle-age to elderly. They never actively recruited and most of their members were friends or relatives of each other. Their small numbers meant they lacked influence but also allowed them to operate under the radar of the Kuomintang and prevent infiltration by other parties.

The CDSP's platform was to promote democratic socialism in China, world peace, individual freedoms, economic development, a narrowing of the gap between rich and poor, and equal rights for women. The party also sought the implementation of a social welfare system for public health and social security.

After the promulgation of the Republic of China's constitution in January 1947, the CDSP established branches in several provinces and cities around China and participated in the first elections to the National Assembly, Legislative Yuan and Control Yuan. The party also postulated Hsu Fu-lin as candidate for vice-president in the First National Assembly of 1948 in Nanking.

After the ROC Government's retreat from mainland China, key members, including elected representatives and party leaders, followed the Kuomintang to Taiwan. Dr Carsun Chang moved to the United States and was replaced as party head by Hsu Fu-lin until Hsu's death in 1958. Dr Chang was elected party chairman by a national congress of the CDSP held in 1959.

The CDSP was one of three authorized political parties in the Republic of China after the transfer to Taiwan and imposition of Martial Law, the other two being the ruling Kuomintang and the minor Young China Party. The party held a small number of seats in the National Assembly, Legislative Yuan and Control Yuan, but failed to gain elected representation after Taiwan's democratic transition in the 1990's.

Social Democratic Party touts plans

By Lii Wen  /  Staff reporter

Thu, Mar 05, 2015 - Page 3

People associated with the Social Democratic Party (SDP) — a center-left political party set to be launched by veteran social activists — have vowed to clinch five legislator-at-large seats in the elections in January next year.

The party is to hold its inauguration event on March 29, which is to be preceded by a series of public forums to invite increased participation in politics.

At a public forum hosted by the party on Sunday, SDP representatives said they aim to present an alternative to the pan-blue and pan-green camps, adding that both of the major parties have failed to address widening economic disparities.

Led by National Taiwan University professor and women’s rights activist Fan Yun (范雲), the group vowed to promote institutional reforms to ensure social justice, as well as challenge what they see as a “stranglehold on politics by large corporations and privileged people.”

National Chung Cheng University professor Chen Shang-chih (陳尚志) outlined five key policies that are to be the SDP’s platform — increased wages, reforms to the national pensions system, higher taxes for wealthy people and business conglomerates, transparency in government and promotion of social diversity.

The party is to work closely with labor unions and advocates for underprivileged groups, including those that represent the interests of migrant workers, foreign spouses and Aborigines, Chen said.

Youth activist Syu Wei-ting (許韋婷) said the party wants to introduce a new style of politics that emphasizes the discussion of policies, instead of traditional methods of voter mobilization that places a heavy emphasis on personal ties.

“From the start, we want to run this campaign differently from other parties,” Syu said. “We want to prove that it is possible to run an election while focusing on discussion of policies and ideals.”

Women’s rights activist and academic Wu Wei-ting (伍維婷) said that the party aims to secure the support of voters aged 45 and below, especially those from the “sandwich generation,” who are struggling with economic burdens to care for elderly parents and young children.

Fan said that the SDP’s goal is to garner 2,000,000 votes for their legislator-at-large candidates in next year’s elections, which would secure five seats.

Among a total of 113 seats in the legislature, 34 are allocated according to the share of votes each party receives for their predetermined list of legislator-at-large candidates.

Amid an explosion of candidates from minor parties, the SDP is engaged in talks to formulate a joint legislator-at-large list with the environmental issue-based Green Party.

As Fan is considering the race for Taipei’s Daan District (大安), she could find herself competing for votes with heavy metal band Chthonic’s Freddy Lim (林昶佐) of the New Power Party, as both parties were launched by social activists.

KMT puts pay raises at top of agenda

ELECTION PLOY?The Democratic Progressive Party said that the higher salaries for public servants sought by the KMT might not trickle down to private-sector workers

By Alison Hsiao  /  Staff reporter

Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Minister Frank Huang, left, and Premier Mao Chi-kuo answer questions about civil servant pay raises during a question-and-answer session at the Legislative Yuan on Tuesday.

Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it will work in this legislative plenary session toward amending four labor-related laws to secure better salaries and bonuses for workers.

As GDP growth is expected to reach 3.78 percent this year, alongside an increase of NT$140 billion (US$4.5 billion) in tax revenue last year, economic gains should be shared with the public, the KMT caucus said at a news conference.

KMT deputy caucus whip Liao Kuo-tung (廖國棟) said Taiwan would continue to see a brain drain if wages remain relatively low, especially as Hong Kong and China plan to raise salaries for public servants.

The proposed amendments to the Company Act (公司法), the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act (中小企業發展條例) and the Factory Act (工廠法) — dubbed “four laws for pay raises” by the KMT caucus — have been placed at the top of this plenary session’s agenda, the caucus said.

“While Article 29 of the Labor Standards Act stipulates that enterprises should hand out bonuses to workers if they have surpluses, no punishment is stipulated for noncompliance. The proposed amendment would introduce a fine of between NT$500,000 [US$15,900] and NT$5 million to assure the act’s implementation,” KMT Legislator Alicia Wang (王育敏) said.

Since the minimum wage is to be increased by 3.81 percent in July, “the raise for workers in general should be at least 3 percent, as well,” Wang said, calling for support from businesses.

The caucus’ announcement came one day after KMT Legislator Liao Cheng-ching’s (廖正井) called for a 3 percent raise for civil servants next year as he questioned the Cabinet on its policy report on the legislative floor.

Liao said his proposal was not just about a pay raise for civil servants, “but a raise for the general public,” as history shows that the economy and salaries in general could be boosted by higher salaries for civil servants.

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said that a raise for civil servants is worth discussing.

However, “it should be put on the table along with taking national finance, social fairness and generational justice into consideration and at a more appropriate time,” DPP spokesperson Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬) said.

“Tabling a raise proposal when elections are in the offing would make people feel that it is merely a pre-election sweetener. It would also put civil servants in the spotlight, which is unfair to them,” Cheng said.

“A pay raise given to civil servants in 2011, ahead of the 2012 presidential election, failed to inspire a general pay raise in the country,” Cheng said.

Instead, it was a burden on the national coffers and aggravated the pension fund deficit, putting younger civil servants in danger of not being able to receive the pensions they are entitled to, he said.

Ministry forecasts job market growth

By Lii Wen  /  Staff reporter

Wed, Mar 04, 2015 - Page 3

The Ministry of Labor yesterday forecast an increase in job openings, with an estimated 45,100 additional jobs to be available by the end of next month.

Ministry officials said that its predictions were based on a survey conducted in January, which compiled results from 3,030 companies nationwide.

The expected job openings will be concentrated in manufacturing industries and the service sector, including more than 5,000 openings in both electronics manufacturing and retail services, followed by 3,400 positions in the accommodation and food sector.

The expected surge in employment opportunities is likely the result of falling crude oil prices as well as growth in the US economy, the ministry said.

Among the companies expecting an increase in job openings, 53 percent said they required additional personnel as a result of increased demand, while 24 percent cited the need to fill vacated positions.

Meanwhile, ministry officials noted that companies may be increasing their workforces in anticipation of stricter labor regulations that stipulate shorter working hours, which are expected to take effect next year. Reforms to cap working hours at 40 per week are still under discussion by the Ministry of Labor, business organizations and labor rights advocates.

Taipei to beef up labor inspections, to focus on media

By Abraham Gerber  /  Staff reporter

Wed, Mar 04, 2015 - Page 3

Taipei will take new steps to beef up enforcement of labor regulations, adding new inspectors and conducting a full-scale inspection of media firms, the city’s Department of Labor announced yesterday.

“We have designated accompanying appraisers to participate in labor inspections,” Department of Labor Commissioner Lai Hsiang-lin (賴香伶) said. “Our objective is to improve the effectiveness of our inspections, ameliorate the overuse of the responsibility system and distortion of the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法).”

While labor union representatives already participate in inspections within their industries, the new policy represents the first time workers in non-unionized industries will be invited to accompany department inspectors on their rounds, division chief Ho Hung-cheng (何洪丞) said.

“Including worker representatives will help prevent firms from hoodwinking us,” Ye Chien-neng (葉建能), another division chief, said, adding that workers’ knowledge of their fields and related firms would help them ask the right questions.

Using the media industry as an example, he said that the city has been unable to enforce regulations on overtime work because half of the firms inspected claim they have no record of employee work hours.

After holding discussions with media representatives, the department found that it could use Line messages and filing times for articles to estimate work time in lieu of conventional time cards, he said.

Finding proof of overwork or failure to pay overtime would enable the department to potentially triple the fines that a firm would already face for failing to keep work hour records, Ye said.

The department also announced that beginning in the middle of this month, it would conduct a full round of inspections into the labor practices of 31 of the city’s largest media outlets, with follow-up inspections later this year for companies found to have violated labor regulations.

Inspections of media firms will be followed by further rounds of enforcement targeting the medical, financial and technology fields, the department said.

Lai said that the department’s objective was to spark public discussion by publicizing violations of labor regulations in the targeted industries.

She said that fines alone were unlikely to change the behavior of the violating firms.

With fines capped at NT$30,000 for each type of citation, city fines would be pocket change to the corporations affected, she added.

Meanwhile, the city government announced that labor union representatives will make up one-fifth of city appointments to the corporate boards of firms in which the city holds a stake.

Ministry looks to Burmese workers to solve shortage

‘SLAVE LABOR’:：Taiwan International Workers’ Association researcher Wu Jing-ru said that the treatment of foreign workers is ‘shameful’

By Lii Wen  /  Staff reporter, with CNA

Sun, Mar 01, 2015 - Page 3

The Ministry of Labor is in talks about introducing workers from Myanmar to mitigate the impact of an expected shortage of domestic workers, Deputy Minister of Labor Chen I-min (陳益民) said on Friday.

Chen’s comments were made in response to Indonesia’s recently announced plans to gradually stop sending domestic caretakers to Taiwan, starting from 2017.

During an interview with Indonesian Web site Liputan6 on Wednesday, Agency of Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers head Nusron Wahi said that Indonesia is to follow Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s policy of bringing Indonesian domestic caretakers back home.

Indonesia is to stop sending domestic caretakers to the Middle East this year, while a ban on those in the Asia-Pacific region — including Taiwan, Hong Kong and Malaysia — will be gradually implemented starting in 2017, Wahid said.

He added that Indonesia would focus on exporting skilled labor in the future by providing migrant workers with training programs, saying that the policy would help Indonesians receive better salaries abroad.

Widodo has made the protection of the rights of Indonesian migrant workers one of his top priorities since he was inaugurated as president in October last year, saying that the issue was “a matter of national dignity.”

Last year, the case of Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, an Indonesian maid in Hong Kong who was brutally tortured by her employer over the course of eight months, sparked a public outcry in Indonesia and other migrant worker-exporting nations.

As of last month, among a total of more than 500,000 migrant workers in Taiwan, about 220,000 were employed as domestic caretakers, including more than 170,000 Indonesians.

Foreign domestic caretakers in Taiwan typically receive a monthly wage of about NT$15,840, well below the minimum wage of NT$19,273. Unlike migrant workers employed in manufacturing, domestic caretakers are not protected under the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), which caps work hours at 84 hours every two weeks.

In December last year, Wahid told Taiwan’s Central News Agency that Indonesia would reconsider its plans if Taiwan engages in reforms to improve the working conditions of migrant workers by ensuring that wages for Indonesian domestic caretakers fulfill minimum-wage requirements, that work hours are limited to a level consistent with local law and that domestic caretakers are housed in dormitories.

Chen on Friday said that the Ministry of Labor is still working on a draft version of the Domestic Worker Protection Act (家事勞工保護法), adding that the ministry fully supports equal rights for migrant workers.

However, the ministry’s plans to introduce migrant workers from Myanmar or other nations provoked serious criticism from labor rights advocates.

“The most shameful part is that not only does [the government] take no action on reforming a system that is akin to slave labor, but now we’re trotting around the globe to find new sources of slave labor,” Taiwan International Workers’ Association researcher Wu Jing-ru (吳靜如) said.

My Opinion: Why Unions Must Sprout from Taiwanese Soil.

It is clear that Taiwan needs more indigenous proponents of labor unions; it won't come from the anti-union West, and it can't come from China.  Taiwanese workers need a homegrown movement fighting for their rights.

I am a foreign EFL teacher, tolerated in Taiwan, sometimes even looked up to, for the wrong reasons. As an educator, proven methods of language acquisition are frowned upon here unless I can teach to the test; teach how to join the ruling class and make more money exploiting others. Almost no one in Taiwan will listen to a foreigner telling them that their education is killing them. For centuries, foreigners have been what is killing Taiwan culture; why should I be trusted now? 

I am an old foreigner to the young "Sunflowers." They know that they are being screwed economically and have come to blame China because the KMT is kissing up to China and the DPP isn't. However, it is western capitalist business people who have been exploiting Taiwan for sixty-seven years, not China, but the underpaid youth blame China, not the West. Strange. Great American propaganda, right?

The Japanese put fear into Taiwan's heart years ago, but at least they were inclusive, within a glass ceiling. Taiwanese was spoken and used in schools and business. The Chinese ruling class came in '47 and took over without giving anything in return; only Mandarin language and Chinese patriotism. They slaughtered Taiwanese intellectuals and took over the land and schools after the 228 massacre. 

Today, the Democratic Progress Party (DPP) blames China and the KMT for the economic regression; look at the rhetoric of the "Sunflower Movement." Sixteen years of no salary increase, not because of China; because of America, yo. They should be blaming America and the Western capitalists who have carved up Taiwan with Starbucks and McDonald franchises, and low salaries. 

China is a peoples' republic with worker sensibilities in their constitution, more than in Taiwan. The Three Principles of the People of socialist Father Sun Yat-Sen has been trampled upon in Taiwan. Socialism is good. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) merely wants to keep its wealth and power in Taiwan in the event of a Chinese takeover, so they quote it. It sounds good. With the DPP in the American camp, China has no choice but to court the KMT; at least the KMT is still in control of the island if worst comes to worst. The United States, with forked tongue, supports the DPP despite the rhetoric that they agree with China that Taiwan is a part of it. It is so sad. The Three Principles are good. The United States government couldn't care less.

A workers' party in Taiwan that China should love would be the answer; a party that would not protect American interests in Taiwan, a party that would be more involved in protecting the interests of the Taiwanese people. If China could agree with the DPP about the corruption of the KMT without tumbling into the American camp, cast the KMT out, China could easily win the hearts and minds  of the Taiwanese people, but no; they support the KMT. The DPP doesn't care any more about workers' rights. They are into power-sharing; a neo-liberal fake democracy, just like in the U.S.A. 

How ironic it is that to defend workers' right and unions in Taiwan today is misunderstood as being pan-blue; a supporter of the KMT. That is what I was called on a blog here. How strange that the White Terror of KMT martial law is counter-productive for workers to fight for their rights today; workers are afraid to speak out. The Taiwanese worker has no place to go. 

Taiwanese workers have the will and they must find a way to raise their salary to a living wage. Forget China. Forget America. They can do it through an industrial union at each of their workplaces, no matter how big or small. The Industrial Workers of the World has a plan, but it takes guts, a whole lot of  guts. The IWW is a union for all the workers, a grassroots union that fights underground, the only means where, above ground, independent unions are illegal. We workers must fight for our rights; no one will give it to us. The Taiwanese must look into their empty pockets and stop blaming others for their misfortune. 

For One Big Union. 
Solidarity Forever!