ILC International Newsletter
Number 24
April 29, 2003
Weekly information dossier published by the International Liaison
Committee -ILC,
Please contact : International Liaison Committee -ILC, c/o Parti des
travailleurs - 87, rue du Faubourg Saint-Denis, 7510 Paris France
phone : (33 1) 48 01 88 28 fax : (33 1) 48 01 88 36
e-mail - eit.ilc@wanadoo.fr
Contents:
- Introduction
- Speech by Gene Bruskin for U.S. Labor Against the War (USA)
- Invitation and contribution to the meeting in defence of ILO
Conventions and in defence of unions independence (attached)
- Presentation of International Committee Against Repression's Bulletin,
and excerpts
- Open Letter to Mário Soares (Portugal)
********************
Introduction
To all our readers:
This edition of the ILC International Newsletter has an exceptional
character. It includes as an insert a call from the International
Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples to the Conference in Defense of
the Conventions of the International Labor Organization (ILO), and the
Independence of Trade Union Organizations that will be held in Geneva on
Sunday, June 15, on the occasion of the 91st annual conference of the
ILO.
This ILC conference will be held in a context marked by the tragedy of
war that the American authorities have unleashed against the people and
nation of Iraq, and, in addition, against all peoples. Its consequence
is the destruction of the rights and the democratic liberties conquered
in the framework of the nation states.
Today, more than ever, the defense of the norms and the conventions of
the ILO take on a decisive importance.
Read this document, distribute it to others to read, send it out widely.
Also, please send us all the documents and information that you have,
the contributions, letters, and financial support necessary for the
organization of this 10th Annual ILC Conference in Geneva and in order
to help finance the travel of workers and unionists whose financial
means are too scarce. We invite everyone to Geneva on Sunday, June 15,
2003.
********************
The International Committee Against Repression (ICAR),
which fights in defense of union and political rights throughout the
world, and whose committee of honor is formed by political and union
activists, human rights activists and personalities from 30 countries,
publishes a monthly newsletter.
We are publishing excerpts from number 43 (April of 2003).
Editorial
There are circumstances in which words fail: The U.S. war against Iraq
has left a martyred Iraqi population, a country in ruins -- and now the
invading army has become an army of occupation. The Bush administration
is seeking to make the Iraqi people -- and all people -- accept the
establishment of an "interim administration," under the
authority of an American governor-general, with the help of "indigenous
troops," to use Bush's and the UN's own terminology. In the past,
these forces teamed up to impose an embargo which left a million and a
half dead, 500,000 of them children.
And the U.S. government dares to speak to us about the "defense of
civilization" and "democracy." They already look toward
Syria and Iran and threaten the people of the entire planet.
In the United States itself, union activists inform us of the brutal
denial of the exercise of democratic and labor freedoms, individual
methods of intimidation, of the repression of demonstrators by police
forces, causing numerous injured, or even the pure and simple
prohibition of the right to strike.
********************
UNITED STATES
Speech by Gene Bruskin for U.S. Labor Against the War in Frankfurt,
Germany, at the Easter March for Peace
(April 21, 2003)
I bring greetings of solidarity from the millions of people in the U.S.
peace movement and the U.S. labor movement.
I want to thank the organizers of the Ostermarsch for inviting me to
speak.
It is an honor to talk to the German peace movement, which was in the
leadership in the worldwide struggle to prevent the war in Iraq. You
inspired the people of the U.S.
It has been hopeful, beyond anyone's expectations, that tens of millions
of people would march in unity in countries around the world behind a
common demand: no war in Iraq. I think February 15 was a great and
historic moment that will live for many years to come.
And opinion polls and common sense showed that these millions and
millions of demonstrators, including many trade unionists, represented
billions of people who opposed the war, from virtually every country on
earth.
But there is something more going on here than opposition to the war in
Iraq. There is something very profound that the people of the world are
saying. I believe we are saying: we want justice, not war; we want
schools, not bombs; we want democracy, not domination.
We want to use modern communications technology to unify the people of
the globe into a single superpower, the world's’ second superpower not
to threaten other nations.
In the U.S., President Bush tells us that he represents our national
interest. But many trade unionists understand that Bush does not
represent our interests when he attacks a country that has not done
anything to our nation.
In fact, every day in the U.S., as well as in the rest of the world,
George Bush represents special interests -- interests that are bad for
working people in the U.S. and other nations. He represents the
interests of multinational companies who oppose better pay and pensions
for workers. He represents companies who want to pollute the U.S.
and the world. His goal is to privatize the entire government sector of
the U.S., and transfer that wealth to his friends that own huge
corporations.
Bush is destroying the Federal government budget in the United States by
giving billions and even, believe it or not, trillions of dollars in tax
cuts to his wealthy business supporters. At the same time, he is cutting
money for school lunches, medical care and education for poor children.
It is truly an astounding fact, but in the middle of this war, Bush's
Republican Party proposed a budget that reduced funding for military
veterans' health care by billions of dollars -- even while the troops
were still in the field and his party is calling on all Americans to
support the troops.
Bush would like to see the federal and state budgets almost entirely
devoted toward military and security purposes.
Bush wants to take the programs that we do have and do away with them or
privatize them.
Bush wants the public schools of the U.S. to become private, for-profit
corporations. He wants our social security to be controlled by Wall
Street; he wants the prisons privatized.
Beyond that, Bush and his Republican Party want the wealth of the entire
world privatized. They want multinational companies to own the drinking
water in Bolivia so they can sell it to poor people, they want drug
companies to own the plants in the Amazon so they can control the rights
to make medicines for profit from these plants and, as we see in Iraq,
they are looking for an opportunity to turn over the oil wells to the
giant oil corporations, out of the hands of the Iraqi people.
It is a vision that believes that the governing principle for all
societies should be profit -- that greed should be the motivating
principle for humanity -- and I think that the many millions and even
billions of people around the world who opposed the war also opposed the
principle of greed as the guiding influence in life on our globe. We
prefer solidarity, compassion and hope to greed.
The trade union movement and the peace movement in the U.S. did not like
Bush and did not vote for him -- in fact he was not even elected by our
nation's majority but selected by a conservative Supreme Court.
When Bush came into office he immediately began to attack the rights of
workers and unions. He packed the Labor Department and related agencies
with anti-union appointees.
But it wasn't until the tragedy of 9/11 that Bush came into his own.
This was a traumatic event for people in the U.S. where, unlike
Europeans, we have been largely sheltered from wars on our territory,
since our Civil War in 1860s. The intensity of the attack, the
callousness, the obvious hatred connected with it, was terrifying to
Americans; everyone suddenly felt vulnerable everywhere, and this fear
is still in the hearts of many Americans. Their fear is understandable,
and these terrorist acts were deplorable. Osama Bin Laden and the Al
Queda network represent a reactionary movement; they are not progressive
in any way.
With the events of 9/11, and fear in the hearts of many Americans, Bush
saw an opening and took it. He immediately launched a war on Afghanistan
and put forth a National Security Doctrine; namely the right to strike
preemptively against anyone and any nation that his administration
decides is the enemy. He said: You are either with us or against us.
The plan to attack Iraq was first discussed days after 9/11.
The Democratic Party was paralyzed, not wanting to appear unpatriotic
and, in fact, sharing many of Bush's sympathies. The labor movement was
paralyzed as well, feeling like our nation was under attack, and we
needed to support our president.
It soon became clear, however, that Bush's plan would hurt a lot of
people in the U.S., as well as internationally, especially unions and
immigrants.
First he gave billions of dollars to help the private airline industry
after 9/11, but nothing for the airline workers who have been laid off.
He denied the right to a union to 170,000 Federal government in the new
Homeland Security Department, and did the same to 25,000 airport baggage
screeners.
In other words, rights for workers are bad for security. In other words,
we must give up democracy in order to protect democracy.
He began questioning and rounding up immigrants all over the country,
mostly Arabs, and putting them in prison without bringing charges
against them.
He passed a bill called the U.S. Patriot Act, which gave the government
expanded powers to spy on anyone for almost any reason. Now Bush is
working on a Patriot Act II, which will make it possible to lock up even
U.S. citizens and deny them legal protections and even possibly take
away their citizenship without an explanation.
In the summer of 2002, Bush intervened against the dockworkers' union,
and sided with their employers to weaken their contract.
At the same time Bush began talking about a war against Iraq.
At this point, the peace movement started growing rapidly, and the labor
movement became involved.
In the fall and winter of 2002, U.S. unions at the national, local and
regional level, representing more than 5 million workers, passed
resolutions against the war and began to take their members to
demonstrations and doing local teach-ins. In response to this grassroots
movement, the AFL-CIO -- the 13 million-member national umbrella
organization of unions -- criticized Bush's rush to war. This was
extremely significant because the AFL has a long tradition of supporting
U.S. foreign policy and military policy.
In the middle of this, US Labor Against the War, the organization that I
am here representing, was formed to represent the anti-war voices being
heard in unions all across the U.S.
This level of labor opposition to our government's foreign policy was
historic. There was a crack in what had been an automatic response of
patriotism on behalf of the labor movement for most of the 20th Century,
including the Vietnam War. The unions in US Labor Against the war
represent janitors, health-care workers, truck drivers, autoworkers,
teachers, social workers, communication workers, postal workers,
government workers.
Our movement in the U.S. has been a grassroots movement in union halls
across the country. At the same time, the city councils in hundreds of
communities passed resolutions against the war. Movie stars, scientists,
religious leaders, even New York fashion models came out against the war.
We have not seen a movement before like this in the United States;
especially one that developed in a few short months.
Many people understood that Bush's policies would not make anyone safer;
the world is not a better place because the U.S. and Britain invaded
Iraq. The German people and the German government were right, and we
thank you. The peace movement in the U.S. and around the globe was right.
February 15 was a truly inspiring day for the people of our planet.
Now, the people of Iraq have taken to the street to demand an end to the
U.S. occupation -- we must join them in that demand.
Meanwhile, at home in the U.S. we are in an economic crisis. The budget
for military spending and other security related needs is creeping
toward an incredible 1 trillion dollars a year.
In many states in the U.S. today the government is laying off teachers.
We have all the money we need for military and security purposes, but
very little for human needs.
It has been said in our country that poverty is a weapon of mass
destruction. Racism is a weapon of mass destruction. Lack of medical
care is a weapon of mass destruction. Hunger is a weapon of mass
destruction.
So the peace movement in the U.S. today is now beginning to connect our
rights and needs as Americans with the rights and needs of the rest of
the world's people. The peace movement has a simple lesson to teach for
both of these needs: War Is Not The Answer!
Two weeks ago, there was a large demonstration at the port in Oakand,
California, and the dockworkers refused to cross a picketline at the
dock. The picketline was set up to protest an anti-union company, SSA,
that is getting a huge contract from Bush to rebuild ports in Iraq. The
police fired on the demonstrators with rubber and wooden bullets and
tear gas and shot 40 people, including nine dockworkers. The labor
movement and the peace movement are outraged.
George Bush already is preparing for the next war -- perhaps with Syria,
maybe with Iran or North Korea.
And if the U.S. has the right to strike first, then perhaps India can
attack Pakistan, Israel can attack Syria, North Korea can attack South
Korea -- all nations must also have the right to strike first. We say
no.
We, the billions who support the global peace movement, are living in an
historic moment in history. We are fighting to determine the shape of
our world in the 21st century. We want this world to be shaped based on
human needs, justice, compassion, environmental sustainability, equality,
human solidarity, and friendship between nations. We have a serious
struggle ahead of us.
But it is our world. The U.S. government, or any government, does not
own it; multinational corporations do not own it. We are all
determined to shape it the way we want it. We are powerful. We are very
intelligent. We have massive human resources at our disposal. We are
determined and will not stop until we achieve our goal.
Being here today reminds me -- although the task is difficult, the
stakes our high -- together, all together, we will succeed. I urge you
to continue to demonstrate, continue to stand up for what is right, and
we in the U.S. will join you.
WE SHALL OVERCOME!
Thank you
**********
Togo
Interview with Claude Ameganvi, spokesperson for the Workers Party of
Togo, initiator of the group "What Solution For Togo?" who was
just freed in Lome after his arrest and arbitrary detention for six
months
Claude Ameganvi: Before anything else, I wanted to express my sincere
appreciation to the members of the International Committee Against
Repression (ICAR) and to all of those who waged the campaign for my
liberation.
The active solidarity of ICAR in the face of repression already has a
long history. In the course of the past years, ICAR and its officers,
have on many occasions -- every time it was necessary -- taken up
initiatives directed at the government of Togo and its various
representatives in order to obtain the freedom of victims of arbitrary
actions and repression in my country.
Q: Can you tell us about the circumstances of your arrest?
C.A.: My arrest took place in August of 2002, when I left an audience
with the Minister of the Interior to ask for the freedom of two Togolese
democrats, detained simply for having distributed a leaflet calling for
the commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the assassination of Tavio
Amorin (the leader of a democratic organization in Togo). It must be
clear that, from the beginning to the end -- in my arrest just as in the
two trials that took place -- arbitrariness reigned.
Our rights have permanently been trampled upon and mocked. My experience
and that of other activists and democrats arbitrarily arrested, detained,
and condemned after months and months, shows the importance of permanent
action to defend the exercise of labor and democratic freedoms not just
in Togo, but also in Africa and throughout the world.
Labor rights and democratic freedoms are questioned -- in varying
degrees -- throughout the planet.
In Africa, the wars organized by multinationals that loot the riches of
our continent, the dictates of the IMF, the World Bank and of those who
support them locally, gravely undermine the basis of our civilization.
In this context, the various international institutions and their allies
wage their attacks against union activists, politicians, and human
rights activists. In a word, against all of those who want to defend the
rights and future of their people.
But it is not only the African continent that is in the eye of the
hurricane. One can see that clearly with the war organized by the
American government against the Iraqi people.
Q: In recent years, you have frequently taken an active part in the
campaigns of the ICAR.
C.A. Indeed, I would like to emphasize in particular the long and
difficult fight that led to the liberation of the poet and Syrian
activist Faraj Bayrakdar, who was imprisoned for fourteen years.
Remember that, at the beginning, the Syrian authorities declared: "We
don't know any Faraj Bayrakdar." We saw what happened in reality.
The repression is constant. In Cameroon, Benoit Essigo struggled for the
defense of the railroad workers in his country. He was arrested but was
freed thanks to a campaign. In Togo, two of my comrades were detained
for having defended the cause of fired workers. They were freed as a
consequence of a national and international reaction. We can also see
what happened in China and in the ex-USSR, when workers try to form
independent unions. ...
Q: Any other message for the readers of our newsletter?
C.A.: I want to say to all of the friends of ICAR, to all of those who
are committed to our struggle, that I know I can count on them _ but
also that they can count on me.
**********
"Kazakhstan: Three years of prison for the two Jounoussov brothers"
"The last edition of the International Committee Against Repression
called attention to the repression which three leaders are currently
being made victims of (and not for the first time), among them Sakem and
Rousten Jounoussov of Solidarnost, an organization in opposition to the
regime of President Nazarbajaiev in Kazakhstan.
The essential reason for these persecutions is that this organization
has declared its support for "the nationalization of industrial
factories, commercial banks and mines, and the end to closures of the
these latter," and because its activists, some of whom belong to
the Kazakhi CP and act within it as opposition to the leadership,
intervening against privatizations of companies or mine closures. For
two years, they have been accused of being at the origin of a strike of
miners in Karaganda, a mining region north of Kazakhstan, where this
organization has the largest part of its activists.
After a long trial, in which the rights of defense were systematically
ignored and made a mockery of (non-communication of the regulatory copy
of the act of accusation against the accused, etc.), the two Jounoussov
brothers were sentenced to three years in prison. The punishment is
certainly inferior to that which the prosecution demanded (six and seven
years). But it is not thus less scandalous. Both of the accused have
appealed.
We propose that a telegram be sent with the following text: "We
protest the sentence of three years in prison that is being imposed on
Saken and Rousten Jounoussov after a trial of opinion."
Send to: District Attorney of the province of Karaganda, and the Court
of the province of Karaganda - Prospekt Stroitelei dom 28 4700000
Karaganda, Kazakhstan."
********************
European News
Portugal:
Open Letter to Mario Soares
Last week we presented excerpts from a monthly publication of the
Workers Party of Socialist Unity (POUS) of Portugal. In these excerpts
there was a report on the legislative initiative that threatens the
existence of political organizations in Portugal.
Aires Rodriguez Pereira, ex-deputy of the Socialist Party, leader of the
POUS, and Carmelinda Pereira, ex-deputy of the SP, leader of the POUS,
have sent an Open Letter to Mario Soares. We are publishing it in its
entirety here and are requesting signatures of endorsement the world
over.
"Comrade Mario Soares:
We do not normally direct ourselves to you in a public manner to request
that you act on a decision taken by the government, one that puts the
democracy of our country in danger.
For years, the Portuguese people have seen all of the conquests of our
revolution of April 25, 1975, disappear one after another.
We think it necessary to list them:
· The agrarian reform that began to create collective property from the
production units and the cooperatives;
· Regulated work;
· The nationalization of the banks and the essential sectors of the
economy;
· The democratic administration of public services: schools, hospitals,
etc.
· National health care services;
· Universal and public social security;
· Workers' rights, guaranteed by the Constitution and written in
collective bargaining contracts (now negated by the new labor code),
etc.
Can we passively accept what Durao Barroso wants to impose: a reform of
a political system that would reintroduce anti-democratic laws from the
era of the Salazar dictatorship?
Comrade Mario Soares:
The revolution of April 25, 1974, gave all of us an unshakable respect
for the liberty of free speech and its corollary, the right to the free
organization of political parties. It is incredible that after the
revolution of April 25, 1974, in a country that undid the black
dictatorship of Salazar, the government has chosen precisely the moment
that we celebrate the 29th anniversary of the revolution to adopt
anti-democratic measures against all of the parties. They would have all
of the parties that don't have a minimum number of 6,000 members and
15,000 votes considered illegal organizations.
Comrade Mario Soares:
You know well that the two of us who are writing this letter contributed,
together with many others, to inscribe into the Constitution the
conquests of the revolution of April 1974.
Signed/
Aires Rodriguez, ex-deputy of the Socialist Party, leader of the POUS
Carmelinda Pereira, ex-deputy of the SP, leader of the POUS
P.S. In amazement, the Portuguese people discovered that the
parliamentary group of the Socialist Party proposed and voted in favor
of a law about political parities. Incredible.
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