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The International Liaison Committee for a
Workers' International (ILC) was set up in Barcelona (Spain) in
January 1991 at the First Open World Conference by delegates from
63 countries. These delegates represented various organizations
and various political currents in the working class.
Our purpose was to help unite the working class, youth and
oppressed peoples of the world to fight back against the onslaught
by global capitalism. Our program was clear and simple: No to
privatisation, deregulation and war. We adopted on this basis a
"Manifesto Against War and Exploitation."
Another central point of the ILC's platform was the defense of the
independent organizations of workers throughout the world,
particularly the trade unions.
The International Liaison Committee firmly believes that the
emancipation of the working class from the yoke of oppression
imposed by global capitalism will be achieved only by the workers
themselves. The history of class struggle has shown that every
gain has been won through the fight of independent working-class
organizations. Since that first meeting, the ILC has grown into a
multi-tendency regroupment of unionists and political activists in
94 countries.
The International Liaison Committee held three Open World
Conferences -- in 1991, 1993 and 1996. In February 2000, we held
an Open World Conference organized in common with the San
Francisco Labor Council (AFL-CIO). Six-hundred unionists and
activists, representing unions and democratic organizations from
56 countries, met in the Open World Conference in Defense of Trade
union Independence and Democratic Rights, expressing clearly in
their final declaration the goals of the Conference:
"Our aim is to improve living and working conditions and to
defend the rights and guarantees codified in collective-bargaining
agreements, labor codes and Conventions of the International Labor
Organization (ILO). These are the conditions for genuine peace in
the world. These are the conditions for a real democracy in all
countries, which can only be based upon the right of peoples to
self-determination and equality between races."
In February 2002, in Berlin (Germany), the ILC -- together with
the Continuations Committee of the San Francisco Open World
Conference and a broad Hosting Committee of German trade unionists
-- convened the International Conference Against Deregulation and
For Labor Rights for All. For the first time in decades, an
International Conference in Defense of Working Women's Rights took
place on the eve of the conference against deregulation.
Since its foundation, the ILC has been involved in a permanent
campaign in defense of ILO Conventions. That's why every year in
Geneva, on the occasion of the ILO yearly assembly, the ILC holds
a Conference for the Defense of ILO Conventions. The ILC is also
involved in a campaign against Child Labor, and we participated in
the various sessions of the International Tribunal Against Child
Labor and Slavery.
At the same time, we have organized various regional campaigns and
initiatives. We supported actively the International Tribunal to
Judge Those Responsible for the Murderous Course Imposed on the
Peoples of Africa. The first session of this Tribunal was held in
Los Angeles in February 2000 at the initiative of numerous Black
organizations in the United States. A permanent campaign has been
organized around the verdict pronounced by that Tribunal.
In the same way, we have organized multiple campaigns against
"Free Trade" agreements -- for example against NAFTA and
the FTAA in the Americas, and against the Maastricht Treaty in
Europe. The ILC has also organized many workers' defense campaigns,
demanding the release of activists jailed for their trade unionist
activity in China, Romania, Korea, Togo, and countless other
countries.
The International Liaison Committee does not intend to substitute
itself for the existing international worker organizations, nor
does it enter into competition with them. The ILC takes as its
historical model the International Workers' Association -- the
First International, founded in 1864 in London. The goal was then
as now to organize all the currents genuinely fighting for the
defense of workers, on the basis of workers' democracy, respecting
their diversity, to promote united action.
On January 23 -24, 2003, we organised an Emergency Conference
Against War and decided to build the "International Labour
Movement Against War."
This is a short summary of our campaigns and goals. Every week, we
publish an eight-page electronic bulletin in three languages with
invaluable international information concerning the ILC's
activities.
The ILC Newsletter is a weekly information dossier published by
the International Liaison Committee (ILC).
For more information, please contact:
International Liaison Committee -ILC, c/o Parti des travailleurs - 87,
rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis, 7510 Paris France
phone:(331)4801-8828 fax:(331)4801-8836
e-mail - eit.ilc@wanadoo.fr
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ILC Newsletter Issues Available
On-line
ILC Newsletter Issues
in Spanish
Debate over World Social Forums
Chittagong Conference
Asia Workers
Conference
South Africa
The Workers Party
and the CUT in Brazil
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Open
World Conference of Workers