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1)
Report on Asian Workers Conference in Mumbai (Dec. 6-7, 2003)
2)
Appeal in Support of the Chittagong National Convention to Save the Port
3)
Fraternal Letter to the Chinese Working people
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Report
on Asian Workers Conference in Mumbai (Dec. 6-7, 2003)
Statement of the Mumbai Conference
(6th-7th December, 2003)
We have met in a conference in Mumbai, India, on the 6th-7th
December, 2003 a conference in defence of the rights of the working
masses and of their organisations, in defence of national sovereignty
and unity of nations and states, of peace and solidarity between the
people of the continent.
Eighty-five delegates from different parts of India (Mumbai, Kolkatta,
Chennai, Delhi, Nagpur, Goa, Muradabad, Bharuch), Bangladesh (Dhaka,
Chittagong), Pakistan (Lahore), France, United States and South
Africa/Azania took part. We also received support and messages from
Philippines, Afghanistan, South Korea, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka.
At a time when everywhere world imperialism and its tools -- the IMF and
the World Bank -- attempt to pit peoples against each other in the name
of ethnic or religious differences, including organising wars and
massacres, those who took part wish to salute the fact that in the
conference held in Mumbai, workers and working class organisations of
India, Bangladesh & Pakistan came together to say beyond the
borders: NO! to WAR - common defence of working class rights and
gains made in each country, defence of independence of class
organisations!
Altogether we adopted unanimously this statement.
In the initial Appeal that was issued for the conference by Trade
Union Solidarity Committee, Mumbai, National Federation of Workers,
Dhaka (Bangladesh), All Pakistan Trade Union Federation, Pakistan, ILC, we
stated:
"Our starting point should be the interests of the working
masses and therefore the unconditional defence of the gains and rights
secured by the working class in each country.
"To defend these past gains, to consolidate the resistance and to
fight back the working class needs more than ever its own organisations,
and especially its trade unions. Trade unions are working class
organisations, built by the workers in the class struggle. Their
function is to defend the workers against exploitation. They cannot face
up to that task if in one way or another they dissolve themselves in the
so-called "civil society". Trade unions are a main weapon of
the working class in its struggle against exploitation.
"Only that defence can give a solid basis to the struggle for
democracy and social justice and therefore to a genuine struggle for
national sovereignty and independence."
A discussion took place. Is there any reason which could justify
that the labour movement gives up its long-lasting struggle on the basis
of class interests of the workers? It is a fact that the situation is
difficult and there are pressures to have the trade unions renounce to
act as trade unions and be co-opted to the government policies.
De-industrialisation process weakens the basis on which trade unions
operate.
In the same time consensus emerged in our conference that everywhere
the people try to fight back, and a delegate who referred to the
uprising of the Iraqian people against American occupation concluded by
saying "the game is not ended, the struggle of the people is going
on, it can overcome if we organise".
Together, beyond our diverse positions on other matters, we have
answered : The labour movement exists and must preserve its independence
as such. Workers have their own specific interests and they are entitled
to have their own organisations.
- We have listened to the delegates from Chittagong who explained
how the port of Chittagong which belongs to the Bangladeshi people and
which is useful for all the countries of the area must not be
privatised, sold to the American multinational SSA. It is the same
multinational which today controls the Iraqian harbours under the
supervision of the American army. We heard other delegates from the
Bangladesh, explain how 12 organisations from Chittagong met and
constituted a Defence Committee of port workers under the slogan "Chittagong
is not for sale! The country is not for sale". A National
Convention in defence of Chittagong will take place at the beginning of
2004. It is the task of the labour movement through its struggle against
privatisations to defend the sovereignty of the nation.
- We heard delegates from India who spoke about the large-scale
downsizing and closures taking place in different sectors of industry
like Textile, Engineering, Pharmaceuticals, Chemicals etc. Speaking
about the state of affairs in the pharmaceutical sector, a delegate said
that about 40,000 jobs have been lost in that sector in the last 5 years
and the employers are openly declaring about the success of
deunionisation by Piramal controlled Nicholas Laboratories in India in
total violation of ILO conventions. All this demonstrates that what is
first and foremost at stake is the existence of trade unions and
security of employment.
- We heard also about two workers of the Indian conglomerate, Tata,
burning themselves in front of the company because of the refusal by the
employer to make workers permanent in spite of their serving the company
over 15 to 20 years. We heard the rampant use of cheap contract labour
in the power sector and the miserable plight of 5,000 workers in a
company known as BSES in Mumbai, owned by Ambani's Reliance group.
In India an unprecedented wave of privatisations is
growing day after day. The very fabric of industry in India is being
torn apart. After the destruction of the manufacturing sector, the new
targets are vital public services, financial services, communications,
energy.
The existing labour laws -- and especially the section of those laws
which protects to a certain extent the rights of the workers in relation
to lay-offs, retrenchment and closure -- are under attack. The fightback
of the workers regrouped around the trade union movement, achieving on
this point the unity of all the main trade unions, has up to now
prevented the destruction of those legal barriers to over-exploitation.
In the present economic scenario, globalisation, privatisation and
liberalisation policy has forced hundreds and thousands of workers
working in textiles, engineering, pharmaceuticals, chemical, industry,
etc., to lose their jobs and live in starvation. Conditions of
unorganised workers constituting 92% of the total workers in India is
continually put to innumerable hardships. Often they work under bonded
and forced Labour conditions without having any social security
measures.
The workers of the unorganised sector are entitled to the same laws,
regulation of employment, minimum wages, health services, education,
pension like all workers in the organised sector. All workers must
benefit from the same rights. The struggles of the workers of the
unorganised sector is part of the struggle of the whole working class
for the defence of the labour force, for the organisation of all
workers.
This Asian Conference feels, that the trade unions have a historical
role in this respect. The Conference took note of the feelings expressed
by the delegates on the pitiable conditions of the unorganised labour
force and felt the need to integrate them to the Trade Union movement to
create a more vibrant and electrifying movement of the working class.
Therefore, it is the ability of the working class to organise and to
fight which has become the target. After the recent strike of the Tamil
Nadu State government employees for their rights and against their
arbitrary dismissals, the Supreme Court of India ruled that employees in
the public services have "no right - fundamental, legal, moral
or equitable", to go on strike.
- We heard the delegates of Pakistan who explained how the
trade unions were threatened and harassed by the government, how the
laws on collective bargaining are being trampled upon.
In Pakistan majority of workers have no right to form unions and to
collective bargaining. If a union activist has been dismissed from
service due to trade union activities, he or she can go to the court but
the court has no right to order reinstatement and the court can only
grant him or her 20 or 31 months wages.
Bonded and forced labour is a big curse widely prevailing in Asia.
Conference representatives resolved to fight for the end of bonded and
forced labour in Asia and against child labour for the implementation of
the relevant ILO conventions.
_ We heard in this conference delegates the assessment of delegates
from the labour movement that the workers and the people in India,
Pakistan and in Bangladesh are opposed to war and are ready to struggle
together for peace and fraternity between peoples.
- We heard that women constitute 50 percent of the working
population but, 9 out of 10 women are still in the unorganised sector.
Even those in organised industry, such as textiles, mines and pharma are
faced with job losses. Whenever retrenchments are made, the first victim
is women workers.
In this situation the Asia Conference affirms the need to bring women
into TUs, to strive for their identity, dignity and self-respect at
home, and at the work place. It is the historical role of TUs as
democratic organisations to work for equality and full development of
working class women.
- We heard the delegate from South Africa/Azania who
explained that in spite of the fact that the Constitution now negates
apartheid, a huge majority of industrial wealth was still in the hands
of 7 white families heading major enterprises. He also underlined that
the land was still occupied by those who stole it from the African
people and has not been returned yet to its legitimate owners, the Black
farmers. No democracy is possible until that question is solved.
In those conditions, to try to give a "black face" to an
economy that is in fact dominated by a white minority, there is
propaganda about so-called "Black economic empowerment".
However, this does not build any factories nor does it create any jobs.
The only thing it does is to make sure that the white business maximizes
profits in the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE).
- We heard a leading activist of the Trade Union Coalition US
Labour Against War from the United States who explained how
Bush's war in Iraq was also an internal war against the American
Workers. He informed the conference about the huge demonstrations
against the war which took place in the US. He informed about the Trade
Union delegation which went into Iraq and the campaign against the
occupation and for the workers rights in Iraq and the preparation of a
delegation to ILO's office. It was reported that the US occupation
authority still enforces a decree of the previous regime prohibiting
unions and collective bargaining in the public sector and state
enterprises.
- We heard the delegates from France, mandated by
the European Conference in defence of the independence of the trade
unions who explained how the so-called European Constitution aims at
dismantling the nations to destroy all the workers' gains and rights
which have been achieved in the framework of different nations. Against
the will of the people and workers of Europe, in the name of a European
Constitution and its fictional European Parliament attempts are being
made to smuggle into European countries labour codes favouring bosses
and co-opting trade unions into position of compromise. The European
institutions and those who support them want to co-opt the working class
organisations to the implementation of those plans.
The conclusion we draw from those debates is to launch a
clear appeal to all working class organisations in Asia and beyond Asia.
The Labour movement has the right to exist as such. The interests of the
workers and of the bosses are contradictory. The working class exists
only through its organisation. Everywhere the workers are entitled to
have their own organisations built by the workers, independent from all
states and imperialist international institutions and bodies.
The aim of our conference is to help in that struggle.
Aware of the fact that the defence of working class organisations is
vital to the defence of humanity and civilization, we took our
responsibilities: we called and held the Mumbai Conference.
We are fully conscious that the broadest unity is necessary to fight
back the onslaught against our rights, against the independence of our
union.
Our effort is not in opposition or in competition with any initiative
taken on an independent class basis.
Therefore, the unanimous will of this conference is that all the
organisations of the workers' movement must take together a broad
initiative along the lines of the defence of class independence, defence
of trade union right, defense of independent of nation, sovereignty to
the people.
In conclusion the conference took the following decisions.
- To help in the struggle to defend the labour movement to form a
liaison bureau of working class organisations. We decide to publish on a
monthly basis a 4 page bulletin which would be inserted in the ILC
Information Bulletin so as to publicize the resistance of the labour
movement.
- Conscious of the importance of the defence of the gains and conquest
of the Chinese workers, of the defence of the unity and sovereignty of
the Chinese nation the conference decided to address a fraternal letter
to the Chinese working people.
********
To implement the decisions of the conference a liaison bureau was formed
comprising:
India: Y.V. Chavan, N. Vasudevan, M.A. Patil, D. Thankappan,
(Mumbai) ; Shyam Shinde (Chiplun, Maharashtra); V. Chandra (Nagpur,
Maharashtra), M. Subbu, Sujata Mody (Chennai), Subhash Naik George
(Goa); C.K. Sanyal (Kolkata), Shashidharan (Delhi)
Bangladesh: Badruddoza Chowdhury, Tafazzul Hussain, Shariat Ullah,
Ms. Saleha Sattar;
Pakistan: Gulzar Ahmed Choudhary, Ms. Rubina Jamil, Nasir Gulzar,
Yasir Gulzar.
Trade Union Solidarity Committee (Mumbai), India
National Federation of the Workers of Bangladesh, (Dhaka) Bangladesh
All Pakistan Trade Union Federation, (APTUF) Pakistan
International Liaison Committee
**************
I endorse publicly the statement of the Mumbai conference: yes / no
on a personal capacity : yes / no in the name of my organisation yes /
no
Name : ... Surname: .
Organisation:
Address::
ZIP : .. Town : . Country : .
Email address: . Fax :
I wish to be a correspondent of the bureau of liaison : yes / no
**********
For all contact :
India : N. VASUDEVAN, Joint Convenor,
TUSC, 6, Neelkanth Apartments, Gokuldas Pasta Rd, Dadar E. Mumbai
4000014 Inde
Phone : 24102252 or 24150750 - Fax 24150750 - email :aibef@vsnl.net or aibef@yahoo.com
Bangladesh: Hussain TAFAZZUL, President, BANGLADESH JATIYO
SRAMIK FEDERATION (Bangladesh National Workers Federation), 15A. Purana
Paltan (3rd floor), Dhaka-1000. Bangladesh.
Phone. 8802-9559093 Fax. 8802-8312358 E.Mail. thussain@citechco.net
Pakistan : Gulzar CHUDHARY, general secretary, APTUF,
14 N, Industrial Area, Gulberg, Lahore, Pakistan - Tel :
92-42-6686382/6686519 Email: aptuf@brain.net.pk
ILC - c/o Parti des travailleurs, 87, rue du FG St Denis, 75010
Paris, France
Phone : (331) - 48 01 88 28 - fax : (331) 48 01 88 36 - email: eit.ilc@fr.oleane.com
************
Further, the Mumbai conference of December 6 and 7, 2003:
* has been informed of the decision to form an International
Labour Committee in support of the Chittagong Conference to save
Chittagong, to save Bangladesh, launched jointly by the American and
Bangladeshi delegations.
* endorses the appeal of the American coalitions against war to hold
demonstration against war and occupation of US in Iraq and calls upon
workers and unions to hold simultaneous demonstration in all countries
on March 20, 2003.
* supports the campaign in defence of Jack Heyman, one of the leaders of
the dockers in the west coast of United States harassed by the police.
Jack Heyman is a member of ILWU Local 10. He is facing charges for
alleged mis demeanour for carrying out his duties as an union official
during a demonstration against war. The Oakland Police fired so called
non-lethal weapons at the request of shipping bosses such as SSA.
* notes the endorsement by many delegates of the Joint Appeal issued by
USLAW and the ILC, against occupation and for workers rights in Iraq and
to prepare an International Delegation to the ILO.
* notes the endorsement by many delegates of the International Appeal in
defence of the Palestinian people for their right to return in their own
land.
* supports the proposal made in a common appeal by women of Bangladesh,
India and Pakistan to make the 8th March, 2004, the International Women
Day, a day of struggle against war.
* supports the struggle of Nicholas, Tata & BSES workers against
deunionisation , for security job and for job permanency.
********************
2) APPEAL IN SUPPORT OF THE CHITTAGONG NATIONAL CONVENTION TO SAVE
THE PORT
The harbor of Chittagong is the lifeline of Bangladesh. It is also
essential for trade in all the region.
50,000 port workers directly depend on the harbor activities. But many
more working class families depend on the existence of the harbor, which
is today a state enterprise under the control of the Chittagong Port
Authority.
The disappearance of Chittagong would therefore spell disaster not only
for the Chittagong people but in the whole of Bangladesh.
Today, the Bangladeshi government has reached a decision to privatize
the Port of Chittagong.
What does that mean? The American company Stevedoring Services of
America (SSA) will establish a new harbor with a new modern terminal.
The main center of communication and trade with the outside world of
Bangladesh is therefore supposed to be the private property of an
American multinational which will be free to hire, dismiss and impose
its rules to Bangladeshi workers.
No job will be secure. The previous collective contracts will no longer
operate.
When one is aware of the record of SSA in the U.S.A. and worldwide,
Bangladeshi workers can fear the worst. SSA was the main roadblock in
the negotiations between International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU)
West Coast dockers and the Pacific Maritime Association. Last spring,
during contract negotiations, SSA promoted an agenda that sought to move
as much work away from unions as possible.
SSA has systematically moved several hundred ILWU jobs off the West Cost
docks in recent years.
On April 7, 2003, nine longshoremen were shot by so-called non-lethal
bullets at the Port of Oakland by the Oakland police. This unprovoked
attack took place while peaceful demonstrators were protesting the
profiteering from the war on Iraq by shipping firms such as SSA. Several
demonstrators were also injured.
The port workers at the Port of Chittagong, the population of
Chittagong, and the people of Bangladesh oppose the takeover of a port
which belongs to the people of Bangladesh.
At the initiative of the port workers' trade union, a broad committee
uniting representatives of several organizations is calling for a
national convention under the demands:
The country is not for sale!
Chittagong is not for sale!
That is why after meeting at the Mumbai Asian Conference on December
6-7, 2003, we jointly call upon the world trade union movement, all
international confederations and federations, all trade unions in each
country and especially the port workers and longshore unions to support
the struggle of the Chittagong workers and to support the national
convention in defense of the harbor against privatization and SSA.
We call for the building of an international labor committee to support
the Chittagong convention and its preparations.
SHARIAT ULLAH
General Secretary
Chittagong Port Workers' Union
(Chattagrambandar Sramik Union)
Room# 129, PAB
P.O. Bandar, Chittagong Bangladesh
Email - thussain a citechco. Net.
CLARENCE THOMAS
ILWU - LOCAL 10
SAN FRANCISCO
San Francisco, California
USA - 94133
Fax. - 1 (415) 441- 0610
********************
3) Fraternal Letter to the Chinese Working people
December 7, 2003
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We send you our fraternal greetings.
We are meeting in a conference of Workers Delegates of all Asia in
defence of national sovereignty and unity of nations and states, of
peace and solidarity between the people of the continent held in Mumbai,
India on the 6th and 7th of December 2003. Trade Unionists and activists
from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, France, USA, South Africa have been
discussing the situation created by the general onslaught against
rights, jobs, living conditions and sovereignty and unity of all
countries in the world.
All of us felt the need to write to you to exchange information so to
organise our common struggle.
Since September 11, 2001, in the name of a "Never Ending War"
against Terrorism. Asia has been a main target of the attacks of the
Americans government and multinationals.
The invasion and the military occupation of Afghanistan followed by the
invasion and occupation of Iraq has meant a tightening grip of American
Imperialism on the whole of Asia. China, the Chinese people, the Chinese
workers have been at the center of that attack.
Brothers & Sisters,
You are aware of the great expectations for all the people of Asia which
developed as a result of the Chinese revolution in 1949.
We want you to know that we are on your side when you oppose the
attempts of the American Government and the multinationals to impose
their law. In spite of all that has happened since and the need
therefore to discuss freely the balance sheet, it remains for all the
people of Asia and beyond that the 1949 revolution showed that it was
possible to break the imperialist domination and to give hope for all
the people.
Now the attacks are at all levels. At the level of economy, imperialism
is calling for the destruction of the State Sector in the name of
"market economy". When the United States was moving to a war
against Iraq, Colin Powell the American State Secretary, said that
"China has to totally respect the WTO rules". We are all aware
through our bitter experience of the dramatic consequence for our people
and the workers of implementing WTO requirements. At a military level,
China is surrounded now by American military bases, and the Pentagon has
listed China among the countries which would be target of a preemptive
nuclear strike.
What capitalism is aiming at would be the greatest privatisation in the
world leading in fact to the destruction of Chinese economy, to the
dismantlement of the Chinese nation.
Brothers & Sisters,
As we fight against privatisation in our own countries we are on your
side when you defend the social property of the main industrial branches
of production by defending your jobs, by requiring that your wages be
paid, by defending your right to pensions.
We know that you are fighting back around those issues, that there are
strikes and demonstrations. We are on your side. The Chinese workers
have the full legitimate right to organise to defend themselves.
There is no reason, no arguments that can justify the fact that the
Chinese people and workers should accept that state enterprises which
belonged to the Chinese people be sold out to foreign investors and
private speculators.
If one listens to the main media in our countries, one will hear the
enthusiastic shouts about the fact that the China today is the engine
which pulls along the world's economy and that it has become the
"workshop" of the world.
China is now the privileged destination of foreign investment. Billions
of dollars are invested in order to reap a fast profit by
over-exploitation of the Chinese workers; funds which would disappear as
fast as they came as was shown by the experience of South Korea and
other Asian countries in 1997. 84% of that investment goes to one part
of China, creating the basis for the explosion of the country. China has
become a favourite zone of outsourcing of imperialist powers because of
its "low labour costs". In other words this position is based
on the worst attacks against the Chinese working class.
For instance the media inform that a huge American multinational
Wal-Mart is now present in China and that it is banning the existence of
any trade union in its enterprises, saying that was their rule. Indeed,
in the United States, Wal-Mart destroyed the trade unions. It is also
known for having violated 1956 times the American laws on Child Labour
and in 28 different states it has been charged for not having paid over
time wages to workers.
Who could accept that in the name of the WTO agreement that firm and
others could have the right to act in that way with the Chinese workers?
It has been made public recently that the Chinese authorities were
studying the possibility of opening the purchase of land by foreign
investors in spite of the fact that the Chinese Constitution states,
that Chinese land is, an inalienable property of the Chinese people.
The laws which were enacted after 1949 revolution gave pregnant women
workers the guarantee that their wages and the medical expenses would be
covered by the enterprise for which they work. But now it is said that
because of the needs of market economy such a guarantee should be
eliminated.
No one can accept that the rights of the Chinese women be trampled upon
because of the requirements of the WTO.
In our conference we discussed the ways and means to organise the fight
back of the working class. We were all conscious that your fight to
defend your jobs against the destructive consequences of privatization
was essential for our own struggle.
If we write to you it is because we regard that your struggle to defend
the very existence of China as a united and sovereign nation, your
struggle to defend your existence is fully legitimate.
The dismantlement of the Chinese nation would have terrible consequences
for all our continent. Today Sri Lanka is threatened by a division of
that country. In Indonesia and in the Philippines there are moves to
carve up the country in relation with oil and gas resources. The
conflict between India and Pakistan over Kashmir is used against the
interests of the Pakistani and the Indian people. In the same time
American imperialism increases its pressures and strengthens its
position in India and in Pakistan. Bangladesh is threatened with
division of the nation. To defend the unity of the Chinese nation is to
defend unity and sovereignty of all our nations.
By acting to defend your rights you stand up to defend the very basis of
China sovereignty. You defend the Chinese agriculture which is
threatened by a major disaster and you are also protecting the state
enterprises sector.
By doing so you are fighting for what was at stake in the great Chinese
revolution in 1949, you are fighting to preserve the existence of China
as a united and sovereign nation which cannot be separated from the
conquest and the existence of the Chinese revolution.
It is in that spirit that we send you our warmest greetings and we hope
that this will be the beginning of an exchange on the consequences of
privatisation and the struggle to fight back in China and in our
countries.
Our conference decided unanimously to form a delegation which would go
to China with the mandate to discuss with you, to enquire about the
situation and to report to the Asian Labour Organisations.
This letter was unanimously supported by the Conference and gave mandate
to those who called the conference to issue it.
Trade Union Solidarity Committee, (Mumbai), India
National Federation of the Workers of Bangladesh, (Dhaka) Bangladesh
All Pakistan Trade Union Federation, (APTUF) Pakistan
International Liaison Committee
For all contact :
India : N. VASUDEVAN, Joint Convenor,
TUSC, 6, Neelkanth Apartments, Gokuldas Pasta Rd, Dadar E. Mumbai
4000014 Inde
Phone : 24102252 or 24150750 - Fax 24150750 - email: aibef@vsnl.net or aibef@yahoo.com
Bangladesh: Hussain TAFAZZUL, President, BANGLADESH JATIYO
SRAMIK FEDERATION (Bangladesh National Workers Federation), 15A. Purana
Paltan (3rd floor), Dhaka-1000. Bangladesh.
Phone. 8802-9559093 Fax. 8802-8312358 E.Mail. thussain@citechco.net
Pakistan : Gulzar CHUDHARY, general secretary, APTUF,
14 N, Industrial Area, Gulberg, Lahore, Pakistan - Tel :
92-42-6686382/6686519 Email: aptuf@brain.net.pk
ILC - c/o Parti des travailleurs, 87, rue du FG St Denis, 75010
Paris, France
Phone : (331) - 48 01 88 28 - fax : (331) 48 01 88 36 - email: eit.ilc@fr.oleane.com
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