Open
World Conference of Workers
In Defense of Trade Union Independence & Democratic Rights
Final Statement of the Berlin Conference
The International Conference Against Deregulation and Privatization and For Labor Rights For All met on February 22-24, 2002 in Berlin, Germany. It gathered delegates of labor, trade union and political organizations who came from 51 countries.
Throughout these three days, 94 speakers, in their presentations to the plenary sessions, showed that despite the specific traits of their national situations:
- in all countries, workers are confronted with the consequences of the deregulation and privatization policies which attack workers' rights and social gains;
- in all countries, the independence of the trade unions is threatened by those who implement these policies;
- in all countries, workers are confronted with the same question: Can we resist, how can we resist, how can we defend and maintain past gains?
The framework of the Conference, established in the Conference Call by its organizers, was duly respected: We are not entering into competition with any existing labor organizations. We are not regrouped here to build a new organization. We are not here to vote for a line that would be compelling upon all participants in the conference.
We freely discussed and accepted the wide array of viewpoints and commitments that were presented because we consider that -- given the difficult situation workers are experiencing worldwide -- free discussion, the exchange of experiences, and the confrontation of initiatives are the only way to progress toward the solutions to the problems assailing working people the world over.
Many interventions underlined the fact that this Conference was not an ending point, but rather a step forward. Born from the collaboration between the San Francisco Open World Conference Continuations Committee (convened jointly in February 2000 by the San Francisco Labor Council/AFL-CIO and the International Liaison Committee for a Workers'
International/ILC) and the German Organizing Committee of the Berlin Conference (set up by a great number of activists and trade union leaders from across Germany), our Conference established a balance sheet that indicted the deregulation and privatization policies as well as all those responsible for promoting and implementing them.
The Conference, as such, represents an appeal to pursue and develop all efforts in all countries to stop these devastating policies.
Therefore we hereby decide to set up a standing International Committee Against Deregulation and Privatization and For Labor Rights for All. This committee is mandated by our Conference to:
- Publish the account of this Conference in a book in German, French, English, and Spanish.
- Follow up the proposals made at the Conference, including all the proposals made by the International Women's Conference (March 8 International Day of Action, initiative in June 2002 for the defense of ILO conventions on the occasion of the ILO yearly assembly).
- Circulate all the information sent by the National Committees, as well as all proposals and initiatives.
- Permit, in particular, a rapid circulation of information concerning international solidarity against repression.
- Gather and submit to the discussion of all the National Committees the proposals of initiatives coming from one committee or another.
The International Standing Committee is constituted by the previous Continuations Committee of the Open World Conference of San Francisco, the German Organizing Committee of the Berlin Conference Against Deregulation, the Presiding Committee of the Berlin Conference, and the organizers of the Preparatory Conferences for Berlin that were held in Durban
(Azania/South-Africa), Mexico City (Mexico) and Bombay/Calcutta (India).
Hence, the Standing Committee is made up by the following people:
- Jack Henning, Secretary-Treasury Emeritus, California Labor Federation (AFL-CIO)
- Walter Johnson Secretary-Treasury, San Francisco Labor Council (AFL-CIO)
- Nancy
Wohlforth, Executive Board, San Francisco Labor Council (AFL-CIO)
- Eddy Rosario, Executive Board, San Francisco Labor Council (AFL-CIO)
- Baldemar
Velazquez, President FLOC, AFL-CIO
- Alan Benjamin, Delegate, San Francisco Labor Council & member, San Francisco Open World Conference Continuations Committee
- Patrick Hebert, General Secretary,
CGT-FO Regional Federation of Loire-Atlantique (France)
- Daniel
Gluckstein, coordinator, International Liaison Committee for a Workers' International
- Dan
Moutot, International Liaison Committee for a Workers' International
- Manfred
Birkhahn, member of the leadership of the Ver.di Union Federation, Berlin
- Gotthart
Krupp, SPD, Ver.di, Berlin
- Klaus Schüller, DGB-Thuringen, leader of the Workers Commission of the SPD in Thuring
- Carla
Boulboullé, GEW, former member of Parliament, Northern Whestphalia
- Rubina
Jamil, General Secretary, All Pakistan Trade Union Federation, founding member and President of the Working Women Organization, Pakistan
- Louisa
Hanoune, spokesperson of the Workers Party, Member of Parliament, Algeria
- Paul
Nkunzimana, University Professor, STUB Union Federation, Burundi
- Maria José
Favarão, City Council member, Osasco (São Paulo), Workers Party, Brazil
- Lybon
Mabasa, President of the Socialist Party of Azania (Azania/South Africa)
- Nambiath
Vasudevan, Convenor, Trade Union Solidarity Committee, Bombay, India
- Luis
Vazquez, Trade unionist, Autonomous University of Mexico/UNAM, Mexico)
This Standing Committee, as an expression of the Conference, will function on the basis of consensus among all its members. For reasons of efficiency, three coordinators are in charge of its organization: Nancy
Wohlforth, Manfred Birkhahn, and Daniel Gluckstein.
- Berlin, February 24, 2002