Statement Of The ILPS Asia And The Pacific Regional Committee
Informality is what the world of work in Asia and the Pacific looks like. Conservative estimates peg that up to 90% of the workers in South Asia are part of the informal sector, while for the rest of the region is around 66%.
Such condition of work leads to race-to-the-bottom for wages, dearth or even lack of social protection, unsafe and dangerous work, as well as those hard-earned worker rights being eroded. When a worker can easily be hired or fired due to the deregulation of the labor market, the wages of workers will take a hit, as the employers have more leverage to pushed down the wages, as workers are forced to swallow the bitter pill of lower pay, or choose unemployment. Social protection, occupational health and safety, as well as other rights that are usually included in existing labor laws, do not cover the informals who remain outside of labor laws.
Most women workers are in the informal sector. They work as domestic workers, home-based workers, temporary and agency workers, own-account and unpaid family workers. When they do belong to the formal sector, women wages are often lower than male workers. Unemployment is what many young workers are facing, with the youth unemployment figures 2-3 times higher than adult workers.
While the workers across the region suffers from current economic crisis and struggle to pay for an honest meal, the rich continues to get bigger. The Ambani’s and the Adani’s continue their climb to be among the richest billionaires, not only in the region but in the whole world. Gautam Adani is currently the 2nd richest person in Asia and 25th in the world, while Mukesh Ambani takes the top spot for Asia, and 9th in the world, with a net worth close to USD 120B.
The capitalists and their defenders continue to drive wedges amongst the working people. Host workers are pitted against migrant workers, informals are blamed for lack of jobs of those in the formal sector, while those who cannot find work are blamed as parasites of the system. These are antiquated tactics of divide-and-rule and aims at obfuscating the real source of the crises: capitalism and the bosses themselves.
We must build a common front of workers in Asia and the Pacific opposed to all forms of capitalist exploitation and oppression. Instead of being divided, all workers, whether migrant or host workers, formal or informal, unemployed or employed, must come together and stand against the bosses. All workers must fight for decent jobs, higher wages, for social protection and safe workplaces. We must fight together in the local, national, regional and global level. Solidarity of the working people will defeat the schemes of the capitalist and creates the possibility of a better future for humanity.
Build a common front of workers across Asia and the Pacific!
Fight together against capitalist and imperialist exploitation and oppression!
Solidarity and struggle for a better future for the working people and the planet!
Signed,
International League of Peoples’ Struggle – Asia and the Pacific Regional Committee
Source : https://peoplesstruggle.org/en/towards-a-common-front-of-workers/
Source : https://maoistroad.blogspot.com/2025/05/towards-common-front-of-workers-for.html