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16 June, 2008
A two-day workshop on Chinese investment in Africa was held 10-11 June in conjunction and following the ICEM’s Sub-Sahara Africa Region meeting in Accra, Ghana. Thirty-one delegates attended the ICEM workshop, which had valuable support from Germany’s Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Foundation (FES).
Rayford Mbulu, ICEM Regional Vice President, who chaired the conference, said, “We are experiencing a new form of direct investment from China and based on what we’ve seen to date, we are deeply concerned that it could lead to a lowering of labour standards throughout the continent.”
Participants at the workshop adopted a resolution, which will be presented to this week’s ICEM Executive Committee meetings in Geneva for approval.
The workshops focused on the thrust by Chinese state and other companies for the raw materials so vital to driving China’s economy, and also on the exploitation of labour, communities, and the environment that such rapid development is leaving on Africa. The ICEM delegates concluded that any wealth generated from the extracted resources of the continent must be directly aligned with the ILO’s concept of Decent Work, as well as providing for the health, housing, and education for Africans in a sustainable future.
The conference also lauded the April 2008 Solidarity action by the South African Dockworkers’ Union (SATAWU), which refused to off-load a shipment of 77 tonnes of armaments destined for the repressive Zimbabwean regime of Robert Mugabe. A Chinese government cargo ship, the An Yue Jiang, was forced to depart the port of Durban with the cargo still on board.