#contract growers

[levilxvr]

aot men dick analysis

ft. levi, erwin, armin, eren

levi

realistically i’d say he’s a solid 5 inches, 5.5 when hard. He’s not that big of a grower but definitely knows how to use his cock in all the right ways to make you cum. He’s got a single vein going down the right side of his shaft as well, and when he gets hard the tip tends to get really red and swollen. Thickness wise it’s just nice, kinda average.

Oh yeah he’s got the softest balls too, and they’re extremely sensitive. just ghosting your fingers over them makes him shiver with pleasure while they contract in your hand. In terms of his cum, it’s more on the thicker side, but usually his load isn’t that much unless he’s been pent up for weeks.

erwin

Lord every time I look at him the first thing that comes to my mind is big dick energy. Erwin’s about 6 inches when soft, but when he gets hard it can go up to 7.5. It’s more on the straight side but there’s a slight curve towards his abdomen. And it’s THICK.

He’s a little embarrassed about it bc he’s so big and thinks it’s too much, but every time you guys have sex you prove him wrong. The slit on the head of his cock is basically his weak spot btw. Rub your thumb over it, spread the precum leaking out and his legs instantly turn to jelly.

armin

he’s about 5 inches but the girth of his cock makes up for the length. His cock has a really nice upward curve, tbh out of all of them i’d say he’s got the prettiest dick. It’s cute, and every time he gets hard theres a soft pinkish flush on the upper part of the shaft that matches the blush on his cheeks.

He’s got a really sensitive head as well. No actually his whole cock is super sensitive- even the feeling of the cold air hitting the skin when you pull down his pants makes him bite his lower lip to stop himself from moaning.

eren

man’s got a huge dick and he’s proud of it. He doesn’t need to grow any balls either because they’re also big, at least that’s what he says whenever connie taunts him. Eren isn’t much of a grower- I feel like his cock is around 7 inches? Idk I can imagine him with both a big dick and a scrawny pp.

Ok it’s slightly more on the thinner side in terms of thickness, but that doesn’t matter because it’s long enough to make you feel so full every time he’s inside you. And if theres one thing more impressive than his size, it’s the amount of veins lining his shaft from the base all the way up, fading off near the tip. He’s so veiny and loves when you trace those lines while stroking him off.

[k-hotchoisan]

Hello hello!!! I literally haven’t sent an ask in forever but your writing IS SOOOO GOOD 😮‍💨🤌🏾🤎🤎🤎🤎

Can I request 18. Or 22.👀👀😂

I mayhaps am a Mingi Stan lmfaoooo!

Congrats on getting 500 followers!!🫶🏾

22. Missionary with Seonghwa or Doggy with Mingi?

BACK TO BACK MINGI LETS FUCKIN GOOOOO thank you for ur well wishes and compliments baby 🩷 hehe enjoy mingi!

Warnings: smut, pwp, size training @ the beginning, backshots, unprotected sex, it’s mingi and his fat dick, cream pies, orgasms

Taglist: @bro-atz @diamond-3 @mcarebearsstuff @choisansplushie (message me to be in taglist!)

K’s 500 this or that Masterlist here!

When Mingi told you his cock was big, you totally did not believe him until you actually saw his cock. It was once when you sneaked into your shared bathroom with him because you left your phone at the edge of the sink. You slowly pushed the door open and the folding door bends, but Mingi is too busy rapping while letting the hot water run down his back, the steam fogging up the shower partition. You, at the perfect fucking timing, turn your head to your partner who was absolutely oblivious, and your eyes went straight to his cock. Even in the fogged up glass, you could still make out his shape—he’s definitely a grower from the looks of it. Before you realise what the fuck you were even doing, you manage to snap out of it in time before slipping out of the bathroom successfully.

And that’s how you ended up in the predicament of letting Mingi slowly inch into you and keeping his cock in your pussy as you adjust to it over the course of a little over a week. Mingi doesn’t know how he’s able to control himself because every time he enters his cockhead into you, he just wants to spilt you open so fucking badly, but he recognises that your comfort comes first, so he pushes his feral thoughts aside, often biting his cheek when he enters you from below, distracting himself by drawing circles on your thigh while he snuggled against the nape of your neck when the both of you cuddle.

He often whispers praises when you’re able to fit in another inch or two, sometimes teasing you before you slap his chest from behind but he wants to make sure you grow accustomed to his size.

He knows it’ll be worth every minute.

And he’s rewarded when on the ninth day, his cock sinks into you fully and his mind completely turns into mush the moment he’s buried into you to the hilt. He hears your whimpers and gasps as you clench around him once more and he kisses the nape of your neck while rubbing your thighs.

“Shit, that feels so good. You did so well for me, princess”, he groans, fighting the urge to start pounding into you, so he opts to squeeze your thighs instead. “How are you feeling?”

“Full. So full, babe”, you whine, wanting to contract the muscles on your abdomen from the pleasure, your palm pressing against the bulge pushing against your womb.

He gives you time to adjust once more, groaning from time to time when he feels you squeeze around him.

“You can start moving, Min”, you mutter, pressing your face into the pillow, your eyes fluttered shut as your grip on his arm around your waist tightens. He pulls out and you squeeze his arm, your thighs trembling from how fucking good he feels as his cock just drags against your cunt.

And he slowly starts fucking you, filling you right up, his cockhead always pressing against your cervix, while he listens to you slowly unravel through squeezes and moans. Mingi makes the mistake of looking down, and he swallows hard when he sees the way you’re creaming so fucking much on his cock.

“You’re gonna drive me insane babe”, he says, tightening his grip around you as he picks up the pace, stroking your thighs as he lifts it up so he enters you at a much deeper angle, one that makes fireworks explode beneath your eyelids. “Mingi…! Fuck! Oh god, you’re so big,”you sob, feeling your mind slowly break from the pleasure. The pressure has practically subsided, and now it’s just pleasure after pleasure whenever he fucks into you. Fuck, you’re gonna get disgustingly addicted to this. It doesn’t help your case that his moans are deep and it vibrates in your ears, you feel your cunt spit more slick—all the more it being easier for him to slide his cock in and out of you now, feeling his balls slap against your skin with every thrust.

Mingi hisses as he pulls out of you, before he shifts himself to go behind you, and you shift automatically with him, your ass perched up in the air while his hands are on your hips.

He pushes his cock in slowly and swallows hard when his cock glides into your sopping cunt so fucking easily. He almost loses his fucking mind.

“Look at you, princess. So well adjusted to my cock that it slides in so easily now”, Mingi hums, giving your ass a soft squeeze that draws a squeal from you, before he doesn’t give you a warning to start pounding into you once more. Your eyes are rolled back, your fingers holding onto the sheets for dear life as he abuses your cervix from this fucking insane position. You’re practically bouncing off his cock and the new angle completely breaking your mind, with only broken moans and cries leaving you every time he thrusts into you.

And Mingi fucking loves it.

The knot in your tummy tightens and drool is seeping past the corner of your lips as you can’t even find the energy to tell him properly that you’re about to cum.

“Cumming-“ you barely finish your sentence before your orgasm hits you, white spots filling your vision the pleasure shoots into your brain and cunt, squeezing the fuck out of Mingi’s cock. Your mind is somewhere else at this point, the only constant feeling is Mingi’s cock just shoved into you so fucking good.

“A-ah, fuck! Oh princess, you’re squeezing me so much-“ Mingi grunts his cock twitching so damn much as his thrusts become erratic. A long, drawn moan Mingi releases before he jerks into your cunt, warm cum filling you up as he doesn’t want to let go of your hips. His body tenses for a few more seconds, and he catches his breath before he slowly pulls out, watching the way the mixture of his load and yours drip out of your abused and fluttering hole, and drizzle downwards.

He releases his grip on your hips and your lower body slides down onto the bed. Mingi’s arm snakes around your waist as he pulls you close, his other hand brushing your hair back from your face as he presses a kiss on your forehead before you let yourself be taken by sleep.

[ramp-it-up]

The Representative

Pairing: Mob Boss! Bucky Barnes x Reader

Word Count: Around 600

Warnings: 18+ As always, MINORS DNI, Not Beta’d. All mistakes my own. , Organized crime, veiled threats, Bucky’s knife, reader gets the best of Bucky physically, possibly subby Mob! Bucky.

A/N: This is a teaser drabble based on this ask. This is in the same AU as Try a Little Tenderness.

I no longer operate a taglist. Follow @rampitupandread to be notified when I post.

I Do NOT consent to my work being reposted, translated or presented on any other blog or site other than by myself.

———

He was attractive, dark hair and slate blue eyes. And he had a very compelling argument. If you were a weaker woman, you would have assented and signed the contract. But you weren’t stupid. An binding seven year contract for your produce? And you could supply no other entities?

Ridiculous.

You tried to tell him so, very politely as you stood up and walked around your desk.

“Mr. Barnes, I don’t want to appear rude. Your offer, though eloquently presented, is just not a good fit for Three Rivers Produce.”

You leaned on your desk in front of him and his eyes slid up your firm from your Manolos to your grey pinstripe pencil skirt to your immaculate white silk blouse.

Bucky took in the little things, the flex of your thighs as you pressed them together beneath the fabric of your skirt, the swell of your breasts under the fine material of your blouse, the curve of your neck, those lips, those eyes. Your scent. He was lost.

Yet when he smiled at you, you were unaffected. He quirked his eyebrow as you continued.

“We are a small, but growing produce company in the tri-state area with cooperating agreements with local growers and small restaurants and stores. I won’t cut off a source of livelihood for the farms and fresh, good food for our customers. Although your proposal cuts costs, it also cuts corners, which is not acceptable.”

You stared at James Barnes, and he stared back at you. There was electricity zapping back and forth between you that you wouldn’t acknowledge.

“I am very busy, so I hope you understand that I need to end this meeting.”

Bucky admired your resolve and when he saw that you wouldn’t waver, he stood and reached into his pocket.

You stood up and showed him the door.

“This way.”

No matter how fine you were, you dismissing him would not do. Bucky needed you to agree to this contract. He decided to apply real pressure.

When you turned back to him, Bucky had an intricately carved knife out, cleaning his immaculate fingernails.

“You don’t want to turn down this offer, Doll. My partners would not be pleased.”

You narrowed your eyes.

“I could not care less about your partners, Mr. Barnes. And I am not a doll. I am a full grown woman. Get out of my office before I use that knife on you.”

Bucky’s pulse quickened at your words, but he smirked arrogantly and held the knife out to you.

“Try it, Doll.”

Before he knew it, Bucky was up against the wall with your forearm against his windpipe and his knife jammed into the drywall next to his head. You two stared at each other for a split second, both turned on beyond belief.

You stepped back from him, smoothed your skirt, and indicated the open door as you walked back to your desk where you kept your gun.

“Now get out.”

Barnes smiled and stared at you after he extracted his knife. He might have just fallen in love.

“This isn’t over, Ms. Y/LN. Expect another visit. It was a pleasure to meet you.”

“Then the pleasure was all yours.”

Your bored tone did not reveal the way your heart was racing.

“And the only thing I expect from you is payment to repair my wall, Mr. Barnes.”

You looked down at the inventory spreadsheet on your laptop and dismissed him again.

“Good day.”

You didn’t spare him another glance as he made to leave.

Bucky’s grin became wider as he exited your office, down the stairs and outside.

Once in the car he took a minute to collect himself and then dialed Steve.

“Just as we thought. Everything we heard is true. She will be a tough nut to crack, but I will seal the deal. And I have a feeling I’m going to enjoy doing so.”

Read the next part: Queen of Heaven

[fatehbaz]

The SAWP is a temporary labour program that brings foreign workers to Canada for periods between six weeks and eight months annually [...], paving the way for the recruitment of Jamaican workers as well as workers from other Caribbean countries like Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados [beginning] in 1968. [...] The SAWP has been a resounding success for Canadian growers because offshore indentured workers enable agribusiness to expand and secure large profits. Being indentured means that migrant farm workers are bound to specific employers by contractual agreements [...]. First, they are legally prevented from unionizing. [...] Additionally, because they are bound to specific employers, they must ensure that the employer is happy with them [...]. For instance, migrant farm workers are forced to agree to growers’ requests for long working hours, labour through the weekend, suppress complaints and avoid conflicts, if they want to stay out of “trouble” [...]. In “Canada’s Creeping Economic Apartheid”, Grace Galabuzi shows that the Canadian Government’s immigration policy is, in reality, a labour market immigration policy [...].

[Text by: Julie Ann McCausland. "Racial Capitalism, Slavery, Labour Regimes and Exploitation in the Canadian Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program". Caribbean Quilt Volume 5. 2020. Paragraph contractions added by me.]

---

A big finding that came out of the oral history interviews was a much richer tapestry of worker protest than has previously been documented. Speaking with workers – including former workers back in their home countries of Jamaica and Barbados – allowed me to hear the types of stories that often don’t make it into archives or newspapers. Interviewees told me stories about wildcat strikes, about negotiating conditions with employers, and also about protesting their home governments’ role in organizing the migrant labour program. [...] [T]hings did not have to be this way; our current world was anything but inevitable. [...] [But] economic forces transformed tobacco farming (and agriculture writ large), [...] leaving mega-operations in their wake. [...] [L]arge operations could afford [...] bringing in foreign guestworkers. The attraction of foreign workers was not due to labour shortages, but instead in their much higher degree of exploitability, given the strict nature of their contracts and the economic compulsion under which they pursued overseas migrant labour. [...] Ontario’s tobacco belt (located in between Hamilton and London, on the north shore of Lake Erie), was from the 1920s to 1980s one the most profitable sectors in Canadian agriculture and the epicentre of migrant labour in the country [...]. In most years, upwards of 25,000 workers were needed to bring in the crop. [...]

[The words of Edward Dunsworth. Text is a transcript of Dunsworth's responses in an interview conducted and transcribed by Andria Caputo. 'Faculty Publication Spotlight: Ed Dunsworth's "Harvesting Labour"'. Published online at McGill Faculty of Arts. 15 December 2022. At: mcgill.ca/arts/article/faculty-publication-spotlight-ed-dunsworths-harvesting-labour. Some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me.]

---

Jamaican agricultural workers say they face conditions akin to “systematic slavery” on Canadian farms, as they call on Jamaica to address systemic problems in a decades-old, migrant labour programme in Canada. In a letter sent to Jamaica’s minister of labour and social security earlier this month [August 2022], workers [...] said they have been “treated like mules” on two farms in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province. [...] The workers [...] are employed under [...] (SAWP), which allows Canadian employers to hire temporary migrant workers from Mexico and 11 countries in the Caribbean [...]. “We work for eight months on minimum wage and can’t survive for the four months back home. The SAWP is exploitation at a seismic level. Employers treat us like we don’t have any feelings, like we’re not human beings. We are robots to them. They don’t care about us.” Between 50,000 and 60,000 foreign agricultural labourers come to Canada each year on temporary permits [...]. Canada exported more than $63.3bn ($82.2bn Canadian) in agriculture and food products in 2021 – making it the fifth-largest exporter of agri-food in the world. [...]

[Text by: Jillian Kestler-D'Amours. "Jamaican farmworkers decry ‘seismic-level exploitation’ in Canada". Al Jazeera (English). 24 August 2022.]

---

In my home country, St. Lucia, we believe in a fair day’s pay [...]. In Canada, we give more than a fair day’s work, but we do not get a fair day’s pay. [...] I worked in a greenhouse in [...] Ontario, growing and harvesting tomatoes and organic sweet peppers for eight months of the year, from 2012 to 2015. [...] In the bunkhouse where I lived, there were typically eight workers per room. Newly constructed bunkhouses typically have up to fourteen people per room. [...] I also received calls from workers (especially Jamaicans) who were either forbidden – or strongly discouraged – from leaving the farm property. This outrageous overreach of employer control meant that workers had difficulty sending money home, or buying necessary items [...]. [O]n a lot of farms, [...] workers’ movement and activity is policed by their employers. The government knows about this yet fails to act.

[Text are the words of Gabriel Allahdua. Text from a transcript of an interview conducted by Edward Dunworth. '“Canada’s Dirty Secret”: An Interview with Gabriel Allahdua about migrant farm workers’ pandemic experience'. Published by Syndemic Magazine, Issue 2: Labour in a Treacherous Time. 8 March 2022. Some paragraph contractions added by me.]

---

The CSAWP is structured in such a way as to exclude racialized working class others from citizen-track entry into the country while demarcating them to a non-immigrant status as temporary, foreign and unfree labourers. The CSAWP is [...] a relic of Canada’s racist and colonial past, one that continues unimpeded in the present age [...]. [T]he Canadian state has offered a concession to the agricultural economic sector in the way of an ambiguous legal entity through which foreign agricultural workers are legally disenfranchised and legally denied citizenship rights.

[Text by: Adam Perry. "Barely legal: Racism and migrant farm labour in the context of Canadian multiculturalism". Citizenship Studies, 16:2, 189-201. 2012.]

---

Other publications:

Smith. 'Troubling “project Canada”: the Caribbean and the making of “unfree migrant labour”’. Canadian Journal of Latin American Studies Volume 40, number 2. 2015.

Choudry and Thomas. "Labour struggles for workplace justice: migrant and immigrant worker organizing in Canada". Journal of Industrial Relations Volume 55, number 2. 2013.

Harsha Walia. "Transient servitude: migrant labour in Canada and the apartheid of citizenship". Race & Class 52, number 1. 2010.

Beckford. "The experiences of Caribbean migrant farmworkers in Ontario, Canada". Social and Economic Studies Volume 65, number 1. 2016.

Edward Dunsworth. Harvesting Labour: Tobacco and the Global Making of Canada’s Agricultural Workforce (2022).

Edward Dunsworth. “‘Me a free man’: resistance and racialisation in the Canada-Caribbean Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program,” Oral History Volume 49, number 1. Spring 2021.

[treethymes]

“In his study of [the international coffee] market, scholar Joseph Nevins finds that the big changes occurring between the mid-1970s and the mid-1990s are related to the “longer-term struggle over the distribution of income related to the crop.” In the early part of this period, growers pulled in an average of around 20 cents for every dollar of coffee revenue. They were aided by an agreement called the International Coffee Accord (ICA) of 1962, which acted as a sort of cartel plan, constraining and arranging supply. In the wake of the Cuban Revolution, the Kennedy administration supported the ICA and its concessions to Third World workers as a Cold War tool to head off communist onshoring in the Western Hemisphere. But as the U.S. strategy changed, the country and its free-market Latin American proxies abandoned the ICA in 1989. The results were quick: By the mid-1990s, the grower share was down from 20 to 13 percent. Roasters, traders, and retailers in the drinking countries improved their share from 54 to 78 percent. That big, fast shift was partly thanks to repressed grower wages, partly thanks to repressed domestic service wages in the West, partly thanks to consolidation in the industry, and partly thanks to new high-priced coffee drinks. Starbucks went public in 1992, and if it seemed to be growing like a tech company in the ’90s, that’s because both thrived on the same social changes.

“Worsening conditions for workers in Mexico and in the rest of the Americas pushed people north, rapidly increasing the undocumented immigrant population in the United States. The Bracero program was over, but the jobs still needed doing. Caught in between employers who were hiring migrants and nationalist restrictionists, the Reagan administration legalized a few million undocumented workers while increasing border enforcement. Even though the vast majority of narcotics came into the country via legal ports of entry, conservatives and liberals alike framed border enforcement as a central front in the war on drugs. Increasing the costs of crossing couldn’t stanch the increase of people—they were responding to larger factors: Out-migration from Mexico’s coffee-producing areas increased after the dissolution of the ICA, for example. This tendency intensified after the North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect in 1994, pushing Mexico further toward cheap manufacturing exports and cheap imported American corn.

“The glut of cheap labor and commodities in this period undermined labor protections in the center as well as on the periphery, and the United States lost union jobs at a rapid clip. Reagan undermined the bulwark of government jobs by bringing Boulwarism to the White House. His signature incident occurred in his first year, when he fired more than 11,000 striking air traffic controllers and decertified their union. To the press, the president quoted an air traffic controller who quit the union and reported to work as ordered: “How can I ask my kids to obey the law if I don’t?” Once again, questions of individual criminality put the Reaganites on firm ground. Organized labor took to rearguard action, holding on to its institutions by agreeing to two-tiered contracts that reduced benefits and protections for new or future members. Capital shook off the midcentury labor agreement like a bad habit, reducing its accountability to its own workers the way it previously reduced accountability to the broader communities. The second part didn’t require as many votes.”

Malcolm Harris, Palo Alto

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from the Desert Sun:

The federal government and Imperial Irrigation District on Friday unveiled a key environmental assessment of a potential huge Colorado River conservation deal that could save nearly 1 million acre-feet of water through 2026 — and yield the agency and area farmers as much as $700 million in public funds.

Growers said they're ready to begin summertime fallowing and other measures as soon as the paperwork is finalized, and the clock is ticking. But a veteran analyst of intertwined Colorado River and Salton Sea issues and an area environmental justice advocate both said they have concerns.

The proposed System Conservation Implementation Agreement calls for up to 300,000 acre-feet a year to be conserved, or nearly 98 billion gallons of water — as much river water as the state of Nevada receives annually. That's an extra 50,000 acre-feet more than was originally proposed by IID, itself sufficient to supply a small city. An acre-foot of water equals about 326,000 gallons, and is enough for a year's worth of supply for about three households. And that would be on top of about half a million acre-feet of water that is already conserved and transferred to urban areas under earlier agreements.

The water district holds by far the largest and among the oldest rights to Colorado River water, giving its farmers top access to abundant amounts. But all are keenly aware of the long-term drought prognosis for the river system, and the ever present clamor of urban areas for more water.

The agreement, likely the last and largest of a series of deals struck between the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and cities, tribes and wholesale water contractors since the river system neared dead pool two summers ago, could take effect within 30 days if a series of approvals of the key environmental document are made in rapid fire order. The river and its reservoirs, the nation's largest, supply supply more than 30 million people with drinking water across seven western states, and irrigate millions of acres of farmland.

That document, a relatively short draft environmental assessment released Friday afternoon by Reclamation staff, says a full, time-consuming environmental review of the deal was not needed, because there would not be significant additional adverse impacts to endangered species, air quality or environmental justice communities from the relatively short-term program.

IID's board of directors hastily called an emergency meeting at 4:30 p.m. Friday and authorized staff to use the draft document to begin preparing related contracts and other paperwork, pending a series of federal, state and its own final approvals.

After waiting more than a year for OKs of their original offer to conserve a million acre-feet of water by 2026, they and area growers are eager to move forward.

[cathkaesque]

There’s a lot of research on banana production out there, especially from this great organisation called Bananalink which supports banana workers’ unions in the UK supply chain. Most the facts here are from these two pages on their website. I just wanted to ground some of the discussion around bananas in the production process, labour and environmental conditions, and who benefits from this process.  The above diagram might not be very clear so I've reproduced the text below:

1. Banana production takes approximately nine months. It starts with the preparation of the soil including the clearing of land, drainage, installation and fertiliser application. Then planting and field work, such as weeding, pest and disease control, and irrigation, take place. Bananas are harvested while still green [you can watch a video of this process here]

2. The harvested bunches are transported to a packing shed where they are divided into smaller market-friendly bunches, inspected, sorted, washed, treated, labelled, and boxed for export. Bananas that do not meet the quality standard are usually sold locally at a much lower price or used for livestock feed.

3. Some bananas are pre-packed into bags according to the specifications of individual retailers. Pre-packing is used to differentiate bananas such as Fairtrade organics or small bananas from the bulk supply of loose bananas. It can be an opportunity for the grower to add value, but it also offers advantages in controlling quality and reducing wastage.

4. Bannas are then transported by truck to ports, placed in sheds, and packed in refrigerated ships or refridgerated containers. Bananas take between six to 12 days to get to the UK/Europe. They are shipped at a controlled temperature of 13.3 centigrade in order to increase their shelf life. Humidity and ventilation are carefully monitored to maintain quality.

5. When the bananas arrive at their destinaation port they are first trucked to warehouses where they can be kept in cool conditions and then ripened - using ethylene - when they are needed for delivery to retailers. Bananas may also be bagged at this stage. They are then delivered to retailers' regional distribution centres before final delivery to individual stores.

The local population eat different varieties of bananas grown primarily by small farmers. The ones for the Americans and the Europeans, Cavendish variety bananas, are grown in huge, monoculture plantations that are susceptible to disease. The banana industry consumes more agrichemicals than any other in the world, asides from cotton. Most plantations will spend more on pesticides than on wages. Pesticides are sprayed by plane, 85% of which does not land on the bananas and instead lands on the homes of workers in the surrounding area and seeps into the groundwater. The results are cancers, stillbirths, and dead rivers.

The supermarkets dominate the banana trade and force the price of bananas down. Plantations resolve this issue by intensifying and degrading working conditions. Banana workers will work for up to 14 hours a day in tropical heat, without overtime pay, for 6 days a week. Their wages will not cover their cost of housing, food, and education for their children. On most plantations independent trade unions are, of course, suppressed. Contracts are insecure, or workers are hired through intermediaries, and troublemakers are not invited back.

Who benefits most from this arrangement? The export value of bananas is worth $8bn - the retail value of these bananas is worth $25bn. Here's a breakdown of who gets what from the sale of banana in the EU.

On average, the banana workers get between 5 and 9% of the total value, while the retailers capture between 36 to 43% of the value. So if you got a bunch of bananas at Tesco (the majority of UK bananas come from Costa Rica) for 95p, 6.65p would go to the banana workers, and 38p would go to Tesco.

Furthermore, when it comes to calculating a country's GDP (the total sum of the value of economic activity going on in a country, which is used to measure how rich or poor a country is, how fast its economy is 'growing' and therefore how valuable their currency is on the world market, how valuable its government bonds, its claim on resources internationally…etc), the worker wages, production, export numbers count towards the country producing the banana, while retail, ripening, tariffs, and shipping & import will count towards the importing country. A country like Costa Rica will participate has to participate in this arrangement as it needs ‘hard’ (i.e. Western) currencies in order to import essential commodities on the world market.

So for the example above of a bunch of Costa Rican bananas sold in a UK supermarket, 20.7p will be added to Costa Rica’s GDP while 74.3p will be added to the UK’s GDP. Therefore, the consumption of a banana in the UK will add more to the UK’s wealth than growing it will to Costa Rica’s. The same holds for Bangladeshi t-shirts, iPhones assembled in China, chocolate made with cocoa from Ghana…it’s the heart of how the capitalism of the ‘developed’ economy functions. Never ending consumption to fuel the appearance of wealth, fuelled by the exploitation of both land and people in the global south.

[pix4japan]

From Orchard to Arcade: Unveiling the Legacy of Fruit Tokunaga

Location: Yokohamabashi, Minami Ward, Yokohama, Japan Timestamp: 17:49 on December 19, 2023

Fujifilm X100V with 5% diffusion filter ISO 800 for 1/125 sec. at ƒ/6.4 Astia/Soft film simulation

The Fruit Tokunaga shop, in operation for over 75 years, stands as a classic example of Japanese fruit stores renowned for their premium quality offerings, often chosen and wrapped with care for gifting purposes.

At the store's entrance, more budget-friendly fruits are available, though slightly pricier than those at nearby supermarkets or Chinese-run produce shops just a few doors down.

Venture towards the back of the shop, and you'll find the true gems showcased in a display case. Not immediately visible in the photo, these treasures include cantaloupes priced at ¥5,500 each (approximately $39 to $50 USD, depending on the exchange rate).

Specializing in seasonal fruits cultivated in Japan through contracts with carefully selected local farmers, the shop's motto, "Face to Face," underscores the owner's commitment to quality. The emphasis on face-to-face interactions with independent growers ensures a meticulous chain of quality control, guaranteeing that bespoke fruits become delectable gifts.

When purchasing fruit as a gift, customers can request separate gift wrapping for either refrigerated or room temperature storage.

Meet the shop's owner, Mr. Hirotaka Tokunaga (pictured on the right, wearing glasses), a local celebrity in the Yokohama Shotengai shopping arcade.

Apart from successfully running his family business for decades, he is an avid design and photography hobbyist. Mr. Tokunaga generously volunteers his time and talents, creating flags, banners, promotional materials, and posters for the shotengai association members.

These creations are strategically placed throughout the shopping arcade, serving to announce upcoming festivals, convey public service announcements, and promote special events scheduled throughout the arcade.

Google Maps links to Fruit Tokunaga, references for further reading, and source materials can be found at the latest blog post at pix4japan: https://www.pix4japan.com/blog/20231219-yokohamabashi

[antidrumpfs]

Wonderful’s owners, the Beverly Hills billionaires Lynda and Stewart Resnick, say their “calling” is “to leave people and the planet better than we found them.”

Here’s another side of the company. Since February, it has been engaged in a ferocious battle with the United Farm Workers over the UFW’s campaign to unionize more than 600 Wonderful Nurseries workers in the Central Valley.

Having lost a series of motions before the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board to delay a mandate that it reach a contract with the UFW as soon as June 3 or have terms imposed by the board, Wonderful on Monday unleashed a nuclear attack: a lawsuit seeking to have the 2022 and 2023 state laws governing the unionization process declared unconstitutional.

If it succeeds, California’s legal protections for farmworkers could be rolled back to conditions that prevailed before César Chavez’s campaigns for farm unionization in the 1960s.

*********************************************************************

Boycotting the products that make these assholes filthy rich is not enough. Write letters and emails regarding why you will not purchase products from Los Angeles-based Wonderful Co. — the world’s largest pistachio and almond grower, the purveyor of Fiji Water, Pom pomegranate juice and Justin wines, and the Teleflora flower service. Greed knows no bounds. Thousands of millions of dollars have been made by these people off the hard work of thousands but it will never be enough to satisfy them... -antidrumpfs

[nefretemerson]

I live in an area with an extensive history of growing tobacco and pretty much every farm around here has a tobacco barn or two, including the family farm, but it's a labor intensive crop to grow and it's usually grown in 1-3 acre lots because everything has to be done by hand. Tobacco, due to its labor intensive and expensive nature, is more or less a contract crop. Like. Every year the regional tobacco buyers let growers know how much they want and then divide the acreage out among the interested farmers so that no one is wasting time growing surplus tobacco and no one is losing money. I've seen less and less tobacco cultivation for the last decade but in the past couple of years that's started to reverse a bit and I've started to see a small increase. then This year it's like everywhere I look someone has put in another acre or two of tobacco. I swear I'm seeing more tobacco than soybeans this year. So I asked a friend who's father does tobacco what's up and she said that the local purchaser asked the southern part of the county to put in 300 more acres of tobacco this year. 300. For a crop that gets grown 2 acres at a time. Pour one out for declining American nicotine usage. It was nice while it lasted.

[cooganbegs-blog]

Proposed sale of business and assets

Thank you for your continuing support of TY.

In the aftermath of COVID, the Company raised a convertible note in May 2022 to fund the business to enter the US market. The intention was to demonstrate traction in the US growing season to support a Series B capital raise in late 2023.  

The planned raise did not prove possible and at the time the Company informed shareholders that the capital markets were very challenging, a situation made worse in the US with the collapse of Silicon Valley and First Republic Banks.

Investors remain risk averse and valuations are constrained. Investors are prioritising profitable companies rather than potential growth companies. The Yield which has material ongoing investment requirements to further develop its platform technology and operates in an industry where adoption has proved slow for a variety of reasons.

TY revenue growth has been adversely affected by the difficult weather conditions faced by the industry in Australia and New Zealand over the last couple of years and slower than expected traction in the US. La Nina caused widescale flooding across eastern Australia in 2022 which negatively affected specialty crop producers. In response to this, the Company made a decision to focus on the NZ market whilst Australia recovered, only to then have the entire Hawkes Bay area wiped out by a cyclone. The impact on growers and the community has been devastating. This resulted in key contracts under negotiation being put on hold while the industry focused on recovery.

As a result, the business has experienced difficulties  in achieving sales targets. In specialty crops the impact of inflation has also both depressed demand for their produce as well as driven up input costs.

In 2023 TY Board consulted major shareholders having failed in its attempts to raise capital. At the time the best option to enable the company to continue was to accept a further convertible note from YAM. Since that time the Company has made progress with its technology and has built a presence in the US market but revenue has not materialised at the expected rate.

The Board has been in active discussions with large Shareholders to determine at path forward in the current difficult circumstances. In addition, the Board sought advice from firms specialising in capital raising in both Australia and US on alternative options to finance the business, none of which proved successful.

Following discussions, the Board received an offer from YAM to acquire the assets of TY. Whilst the Board’s preferred approach was to sell the company and potentially enable shareholders to continue to maintain an interest in the business, YAM’s strategy is to acquire the assets and include TY technology in its global agriculture platform.

The Board commissioned Leadenhall to undertake an independent valuation of the business and Leadenhall valued the business between $17 – $30 million with a recommended range of $25 – $30 million.  The YAMoffer values the Company’s assets at $27M which is the higher end of the range and matches the cap in the 2023 Convertible Notes.

The Board retained Grant Thornton to conduct an analysis of the financial alternatives available and the conclusion was that the YAM offer was the best outcome for shareholders, creditors, employees and customers, compared to the alternative of placing the company into voluntary administration.

After due considerations by the Board of the options available to the Company, on 30th  April 2024 the Company signed a conditional Asset Purchase Agreement (Asset Purchase Agreement or APA) with entities associated with YAM (Purchasers), under which the Company agreed to sell to the Purchasers the business and assets of the Company (other than certain excluded assets which will be retained by the Company (Excluded Assets)), subject to certain conditions being satisfied (including obtaining the requisite shareholder approval) (Proposed Transaction).

A summary of the key terms of the Asset Purchase Agreement is set out in Attachment 1.

The purchase price payable by the Purchasers for the business and assets under the Proposed Transaction is A$27,000,000 (Purchase Price), which will be satisfied as follows:

* each of YAM (YAM Noteholders), accept the transfer of such business and assets to the Purchasers in satisfaction of YAM rights to receive a redemption payment under their convertible notes (this will be approximately A$23,975,509 as at 30 June 2024) (YAM Redemption Amount); and
 

* the remaining amount of the Purchase Price less the YAM Redemption Amount will be paid in cash to the Company at Completion.

Under the Proposed Transaction, on completion of the Asset Purchase Agreement (Completion) the Company will pay the other holders of Notes (i..e excluding the YAM Noteholders) (Minority Noteholders) a redemption payment equal to the principal plus interest on those Notes up to the proposed Completion date. The Company will then use the Excluded Assets, to cover certain remaining liabilities of the Company which are not assumed by the Purchasers as part of the Proposed Transaction (Excluded Liabilities). To the extent that the Excluded Assets are insufficient to cover the Excluded Liabilities and other post-Completion liabilities of the Company, the Purchasers have agreed to cover such liabilities up to an amount of A$1,000,000.

It is contemplated that shortly after Completion, the Company will be wound up by way of a members’ voluntary liquidation. We expect a small distribution to shareholders in accordance with the preference waterfall. This likely means only A3 shareholders will receive any return.

Having considered the current circumstances of the Company and the lack of other viable options in a difficult economic environment, the Directors are of the opinion that the Proposed Transaction is in the best interests of the Company as a whole as:

(a)  it would allow the business of the Company to continue to be operated under the ownership of the Purchasers;

(b)  under the APA, one of the Purchasers will agree to make offers of employment to substantially all of the employees of the Company;

(c)  as part of the Proposed Transaction, YAM will agree that the transfer of the business and assets to the Purchasers will be in full satisfaction of YAM rights to receive redemption payments that they would otherwise be entitled to upon Completion occurring, and YAM would waive any other right of payment under the Note Deed Polls;

(d)  the purchase price for the sale of the business and assets to the Purchasers have been negotiated on arm’s length terms and based on an independent valuation and the valuation cap;

(e)  the purchase price would include a payment of approximately $3 million by the Purchasers to the Company at Completion of the APA with an expected small distribution to shareholders;

(f)  following Completion, the Company would be able to be wound up in an orderly manner.

Following below is a summary of the key terms of the Asset Purchase Agreement.

Shareholder Approval Provided

Under the Shareholders Deed (clause 6.3.1), the Company must not effect, or authorise or approve, the sale, transfer or other disposition of all or substantially all of the Company's and its subsidiaries’ assets or intellectual property, taken as a whole, by means of any transaction or series of related transactions (except to a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company), without the written approval of the holders of a minimum of 65% of the Series A3 Preference Shares on issue.

The assets proposed to be sold by the Company to YAM under the Asset Purchase Agreement comprise substantially all of the Company’s assets and intellectual property, taken as a whole.

Accordingly, the Company sought and received the approval of the holders of a minimum of 65% of the Series A3 Preference Shares on issue to the Proposed Transaction for the purpose of clause 6.3.1 of the Shareholders Deed. There is no other approval required from other shareholders for the Proposed Transaction.

Next steps

TY and YAM are working through the various conditions precedent to close the deal. We expect that will happen no later than the 30th June 2024. Once the assets are transferred TY will be wound up via a Members Voluntary Liquidation. You will be notified once Completion of the Proposed Transaction has occurred, and your approval (as required by the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth)) for the Members Voluntary Liquidation will be sought at that time.

(Names changed, you can never be too sure)

[ifelllikeastar]

Cesar Chavez grew up on a farm in Yuma, Arizona with his two brothers and two sisters. His family owned a farm and a local grocery store. When Cesar was around eleven years old, hard times from the Great Depression caused his father to lose the farm, so his family packed up all they owned and moved to California to find work. Cesar's family became migrant workers. They moved from farm to farm in California looking for work. All the family members had to work, even Cesar. He worked in all sorts of different fields from grapes to beets, orchards and vineyards. The days were long and the work was very hard. Despite working so hard, the family barely had enough to eat.

Moving so often, Cesar didn't go to school much any more. In just a few short years he had attended thirty-five different schools. The teachers were tough on him. After graduating from the eighth grade, Cesar stopped going to school and the working conditions at the fields for Cesar and his family were horrible. The farmers seldom treated them like people. They had to work long hours with no breaks, there weren't any bathrooms for them, and they didn't have clean water to drink. Anyone who complained was fired.

When Cesar was nineteen he joined the navy, but he left after two years and returned home to marry his sweetheart Helen Fabela in 1948. He worked in the fields for the next few years until he got a job at the Community Service Organization (CSO). At the CSO Cesar worked for the civil rights of Latinos. He worked for the CSO for ten years helping register voters and work for equal rights. Eventually Cesar quit his job in the CSO to start a union of migrant farm workers and he formed the National Farm Workers Association.

One of Cesar's first major actions was to strike against grape farmers. Cesar and sixty-seven workers decided to march to Sacramento, the state capital. It took them several weeks to march the 340 miles. On the way there people joined them. The crowd grew larger and larger until thousands of workers arrived in Sacramento to protest. In the end, the grape growers agreed to many of the worker's conditions and signed a contract with the union. Over the next several decades the union would grow and continue to fight for the rights and working conditions of the migrant farmer.

Born Cesar Estrada Chavez on March 31, 1927 in Yuma, Arizona and died April 23, 1993 in San Luis, Arizona at the age of 66.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"In many ways, the Canadian Farmworkers Union (CFU) and its predecessor, the Farmworkers Organizing Committee (FWOC), operated like a trade union. The CFU executive chose three related areas on which to focus its organizing efforts: (1) improving working and living conditions, (2) eliminating the contractor system that further exploited already vulnerable workers, and (3) fighting to include farmworkers in the BC labour code, affording farmworkers rights to minimum wage and health benefits.

Working and living conditions constituted one of the main pillars that organizers rallied around to push their efforts. One story was often used in CFU documents as a rallying cry:

On July 16, 1980, little Sukhdeep Madhar lay sleeping in a cow stall converted into sleeping quarters when, unknown to her parents working in the fields close by, she rolled off her cot. The seven month-old baby drowned in a bucket of drinking water before being discovered. Ruling the tragedy as an accidental death, Dr. Bill Macarthur, Coroner, said that working conditions on the farm were like those found in Nazi concentration camps.

Further, while out in the field, workers found that many farms did not have running water or washroom facilities. Other farms did not have places for children who had to attend work with their parents (or for workers on breaks) to sit in the shade on hot days. In addition to unsafe working conditions in the field, workers who did not have enough money for housing would have to live in converted barn stalls on the farm where they worked. These stalls would often have simple hay and straw as flooring with small cots for sleeping. Some living quarters did not have running water, heating, or washroom facilities. Finally, it was not uncommon for farm owners and operators, or even for the contractors who acted as intermediaries, to withhold wages from workers until the end of the season (should they be paid at all).

Despite its small size, the CFU was relatively successful in improving working conditions, especially with regard to securing stolen wages. The first test for the FWOC was a dispute between Mukhiter Singh and the contractor that he had hired to provide a labour force. On 17 July 1979, workers contacted the FWOC to help set up a picket line after they discovered that Mukhiter was withholding $100,000 owed for six weeks of labour because he was unsatisfied with the pickers’ work. The FWOC immediately sent out “several dozen Committee members” and “joined two hundred workers on the picket lines.” After a tense standoff, Mukhiter offered to pay $40,000 in wages, but the farmworkers refused the offer. After roughly two hours of negotiations with Chouhan, Mukhiter paid the workers $80,000 and the dispute was settled. This incident was the first major victory for the FWOC.

The following year, a larger battle took place with a much larger grower: Jensen Mushroom Farms in Langley. On 18 July 1980, despite the grower’s assertion that “if they don’t like it [working conditions], they can quit,” Jensen Mushroom Farms became the first agricultural work site to be certified by the Labour Relations Board (LRB). While this did not mean the workers had a contract, the LRB ruling did mean that the union could negotiate on behalf of the workers. This was the first ruling of its kind in BC labour history. The first signed contract would come from a different farm, Bell Farms. The owner, Jack Bell, was relatively sympathetic to unions and did not offer any resistance to workers who organized for union representation. That LRB certification would come on 3 September 1980, and the first contract would be ratified on 18 November. While getting a certification was the first step, the process to signing a contract could be extremely drawn out. After nine months of negotiations at Jensen Farms with little progress, the CFU voted to strike on 14 April 1981. Here, Jensen demonstrated his resolve to prevent a union from entering his workplace. On the first day of picketing, an altercation between Chouhan and some of Jensen’s family members left Chouhan with a cut on his forehead, and each side pointed to the other as the instigator. A CFU organizer at the picket line, Sandi Roy, describes in a police report how Annie Hall, Jensen’s daughter, struck Chouhan in the head with keys, “causing him to bleed profusely.” Immediately after the altercation, Murray Munroe, Jensen’s son-in-law, “and at least three of the passengers of both trucks [that had transported Jensen’s family to the picket line] exited from the trucks and began running towards Mr. Chouhan and pushed him into a roadside ditch.” No legal action was taken by either party.

As the strike wore on, the CFU described “various forms of violence from name calling, to car pounding, to a physical scuffle, to telephone wires being cut, to trucks being chased at high speeds, to an attempt to burn down a trailer while a picketer was sleeping inside.” Despite ten workers scabbing (union strikebreaking) and extreme tension on the picket line, the line held strong until September 1981, when it was finally lifted. Formal contract negotiations would not recommence until May 1982, and on 30 July 1982, more than a year after the certification, a formal contract was signed. Getting a contract after a long strike was one matter, but managing to maintain certification with a stubborn owner was also a difficult task. According to the CFU, the fourteen remaining workers who returned to work at Jensen’s were evenly split on the issue of the union. In June 1983, ten months after the strike’s conclusion, the number of people who worked at Jensen’s had increased to forty seven, and the turnover rate was high. This meant that many of those who supported the union had left and that those who remained were now outnumbered in the workplace. Jensen also began to hire his immediate family members as employees to reduce the strength of the union. The family members intimidated workers who were worried about being identified to the employer as pro-union. When shop stewards were elected, Jean Hall – whose relation to the aforementioned Annie Hall is unclear – was elected for labourers and Rajinder Gill was elected for pickers. The CFU claimed that “the election of Jean Hall was orchestrated by Tove Nesbitt and Jens Jensen (Jensen’s daughter and brother).”

Clearly, Jensen was determined to break the union by inserting his family members into the union’s structure. Union meetings became difficult places to be and were reported by workers to be dominated by Jensen’s family members. According to the CFU, “at one time Jensen had nine family members working at the farm and on average there were seven.” Workers felt intimidated at meetings because they feared that their concerns would be passed back to Jensen and that they could be disciplined or fired. On 1 April 1983, Jensen’s employees applied to the LRB for decertification, and, despite the CFU’s confidence that the decertification vote would fail, on 8 July it passed by a count of 23 to 22. The CFU, understandably disheartened, put some blame on recent immigrants, who were “in awe of ‘authority’ figures” and did not want to appear pro-union to new employers.

During an investigation of Jensen Farms by the provincial government’s Ministry of Labour, R.F. Bone noted some troubling practices on the part of the employer. First, at the time of the strike, it was estimated that 90 percent of the workforce was South Asian and that most supported the union. During the strike, many of these workers left for other jobs because they needed to support themselves. After the strike, Bone noted: “all employees hired (approx. 17) have been non-East Indian, except for four young ladies, all related to the only two East Indians (Gurmit Kaur and Sukhbir Kaur) employed before the strike who then and still are strongly anti-union.” These hires were Euro-Canadians and Laotians. Since the mushroom farm had different greenhouses, Jensen had the Laotians working in areas away from the pro-union employees and had scheduled the pro-union employees to work during union meetings. This tactic allowed the anti-union workers who still attended meetings to elect Jean Hall and Gurmit Kaur, workers who scabbed during the strike, to be delegates for the CFU National Convention in April 1984. Both delegates were expelled from the convention after this revelation and were deemed members “not in good standing.” Finally, Jensen attempted to have the CFU barred from any certifications for one calendar year – an attempt that was denied by the LRB.

This battle had an underlying racist tone. As demonstrated by Jensen’s practices after the strike, Jensen was actively avoiding South Asians. Other anti-union employees also hinted at an ethnic divide. Fred Forman, a white worker hired after the strike, suggested: “if I had a grievance, I don’t think it would work because I’m the wrong colour.” Farmers, including Jensen, used the idea that the CFU was an exclusively South Asian union to discourage membership among newly hired Laotians and whites as well as to discredit the union among its current members."

- Nicholas Fast, ““WE WERE A SOCIAL MOVEMENT AS WELL”: The Canadian Farmworkers Union in British Columbia, 1979–1983,” BC Studies. no. 217, Spring 2023. p. 41-44.

[garbage-empress]

She's got that Pripyat Penis (yeah!)

It's radioactive (oh?)

A grower not a shower

It's cold it's contracted

[tomorrowusa]

Ron DeSantis wants to "Make America Florida".

So Ron, does that mean you want to spread malaria? 🦟

DeSantis spends a lot of time outside the state bloviating about "woke" instead of minding Florida's business.

Ron DeSaster has presided over Florida's worst citrus harvest in living memory.

Florida citrus growers have had their worst growing season in 100 years

And the malaria outbreak is another crisis DeSantis should be tending to instead of spending inordinate amounts of time in New Hampshire, Iowa, and South Carolina.

Five cases of the mosquito-borne infection malaria have been detected in the United States in the past two months, marking the first local spread in the country in 20 years. Four of the cases were found in Florida, while the fifth was logged in Texas, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

One of the five malaria cases was in Texas? So was Ron DeSantis. Perhaps a malarial mosquito hitched a ride to the Lone Star State in his pudding. 😱

The World Health Organization says in 2021 there were an estimated 247 million cases of malaria worldwide. Of those cases, an estimated 619,000 people died from the disease. And it could get worse around the world, according to a scientific study published by The Lancet in 2021, which found that climate change will increase the suitability for both malaria and dengue, another mosquito-borne illness. "Rising global mean temperature will increase the climatic suitability of both diseases particularly in already endemic areas," according to the study's authors. "The predicted expansion toward higher altitudes and temperature regions suggests that outbreaks can occur in areas where people might be immunologically naive and public health systems unprepared."

Climate change is making locally spread malaria more likely in the United States – and Florida in particular. DeSantis is a hardcore climate denier. That makes him pro-malaria.

DeSantis dismisses climate change, calling it ‘politicisation of weather’

Malaria is spread by mosquitos. You can't get malaria from humans. The overwhelming number of cases of malaria in the US currently are people who contracted it while outside the US in malaria-prone countries.

If DeSantis succeeds in "making America Florida" then we'll have malaria outbreaks in Des Moines, Columbus, and Boise.

[levynite]

Why Oil-Rich State Sparked $14 Billion Battle Between Malaysia and Philippine ‘Royal Heirs’

By Andreo Calonzo, Ravil Shirodkar and Kok Leong Chan

14 April 2023 at 7:00 am MYT

Surrounded by three seas, the Malaysian state of Sabah, at the northern end of Borneo island, boasts picturesque beaches, stunning mountains — and a rich supply of palm oil and crude reserves. This idyllic place, however, has long been a source of friction with the neighboring Philippines — home to claimants to the throne of the defunct Sulu Sultanate — over the question of ownership. While the Malaysian government has rejected the would-be heirs’ claims, and even branded one of them a terrorist, a European court has ordered Malaysia to pay some $14 billion as compensation. While the legal battle continues, new governments in both countries are figuring out how to possibly resolve the pesky issue.

1. How did this start?

The dispute originates from a commercial contract signed in 1878 by the Sulu Sultanate — an archipelago stretching across the Sulu Sea in Southeast Asia — with two European merchants who later formed the British North Borneo Company. There’s still debate on whether the sultan leased or ceded the area of Sabah under the agreement. The state fell under British control after World War II, and residents voted to join Malaysia when the country gained independence in 1963 — shortly after the sultanate ceded its sovereignty to the Philippines. The Malaysian government agreed to continue annual payments of 5,300 ringgit ($1,200) to the sultan’s descendants. In early 2013, Malaysian planes bombarded Sabah and sent ground troops after an armed clan from the Philippines invaded to try to reclaim territory. They were followers of a self-proclaimed sultan, Jamalul Kiram III. Dozens of people were killed, and the payments stopped after that. Kiram III, who died later that year, was an indirect descendant of the last uncontested sultan, Jamalul Kiram II, who died in 1936 with no heirs. 

2. Why is the Philippines involved? 

Malaysia’s neighbor has retained a dormant claim on Sabah derived from the Sulu Sultanate, most of which is now Philippine territory. (The sultanate’s royal capital of Maimbung is located in what’s now the province of Sulu in the southwest.) Over the years, Philippine presidents have vacillated between reviving the claim to letting sleeping dogs lie so as to smooth ties with Malaysia. Sultan Mahakuta Kiram was the last to be officially recognized by the Philippine government, under the dictator Ferdinand Marcos. The sultan’s reign ended with his death in 1986, around the same time Marcos was deposed. The Philippines hasn’t recognized anyone since. But the issue of Sabah’s ownership lingered. In 2020, the issue again sparked another diplomatic spat, with top officials sparring on Twitter. 

3. Why is Sabah important?

Besides being a popular tourist destination with beaches and diving sites, the rain-forested former sultanate — more than 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) across the South China Sea from peninsular Malaysia — accounts for more than a quarter of the country’s crude oil reserves and has lured oil and gas investments from the likes of Shell and ConocoPhillips. Sabah is also Malaysia’s biggest palm-oil producing state, while the country’s is the world’s second-biggest palm oil grower. 

4. How did the dispute end up in Europe?

Years after Malaysia stopped its payments, the Sulu heirs hired lawyers to pursue legal action based on the original commercial deal. The claimants are bankrolled by a global litigation fund, Therium Capital Management Ltd. After being blocked in the UK and then Spain, another former colonial power, they ended up in an arbitration court in Paris. The arbitrator last year ordered Malaysia to pay 62.59 billion ringgit ($14 billion) to the sultan’s descendants as restitution and compensation. (The issue of sovereignty was not addressed.) Malaysia obtained an order from the Paris Court of Appeals staying enforcement of the ruling. The Sulu heirs challenged it but the stay was upheld in March 2023. Shortly before that, bailiffs appeared at the Malaysian embassy and staff residence in Paris, seeking details about the property. The bailiffs, who appeared to have acted on instruction from the Sulu claimants, were turned away. Malaysia’s Special Sulu Secretariat said it plans to bring the Sulu heirs to court over the maneuver. Meanwhile, Malaysia’s state-owned oil and gas company Petroliam Nasional Bhd., known as Petronas, confirmed in February that it had been served seizure orders on two units in Luxembourg, as part of the Sulu claimants’ efforts to enforce the arbitration award. Petronas said the action was “baseless” and vowed to defend its legal position.

5. What’s the strategy now?

Malaysia’s new government under Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, elected in November, plans “to go on the offensive” against the Sulu group, a change from the previous strategy of “firefighting,” Khairul Dzaimee Daud, director-general in the law ministry, said in April. In a first step, Malaysia classified one of the Sulu claimants — Muhammad Fuad Abdullah Kiram — as a terrorist under the country’s anti-money laundering and terrorism laws. The person is one of the Sulu group’s eight members claiming to be heirs of the Sulu sultan, according to the government. A lawyer for the Sulu claimants described Malaysia’s move as an attempt “to pressure foreign courts,” adding that his client is “no terrorist.” Malaysia also approved the hiring of a UK-based public relations firm and sending the home minister to the four countries — France, Spain, Luxembourg and the Netherlands — involved in the arbitration. Back home, Anwar and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. — the former president’s son, who was elected last year — agreed in March to hold in-depth talks. 

The Reference Shelf

Malaysia’s virtual repository for information related to the Sabah case, and another website maintained by lawyers for the claimants.

A succession flowchart of the Sulu sultanate provided by the Philippine government.

The website of the Sabah state government.

A former Philippine chief justice opines on the Sabah legal claims.

A 1908 book, History of Sulu, from the Philippines.

(click on main link for photos and graphics)