Open World Conference of Workers

In Defense of Trade Union Independence & Democratic Rights

ILC International Newsletter Number 30
June 9, 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

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Contents:

- Introduction
- International Conference in Defence of Public Education, and preparatory
meeting.
- Information from Peru
- Germany, SPD convention
- May 21st , general strike in India.
- United States: about FTAA.
- Defending trade union activists: Cameroon
- "Tribune des travailleurs" a Moroccan newspaper.
- ETUC Convention in Prague
- Subscription

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Presentation

On Saturday the 14th and Sunday the 15th of June in Paris the International
Conference in Defense of Public Education and Against the Revision of
Recommendation 150 of the International Labor Organization (ILO) will be
held.

At the same time, in Geneva, the Conference in Defense of the Conventions
of the ILO and in Defense of the Independence of Labor Organizations will
be held at the initiative of the ILC.

Week after week, ILC International Newsletter has regularly published
exchanges, contributions, and preparatory texts for the conference in
Geneva, all of which have had broad resonance and whose success is already
assured. Proof of this is, among other things, the result of the call for
financial solidarity launched to the correspondents of the ILC, to
unionists, activists and workers around the world. We will report on this
in the next edition which will include the first elements of a report on
the discussions that take place in Paris and Geneva.

That is why, in order to ensure the continuation of the ILC fight, we ask
you to circulate this issue very widely around you and in your
organisations, to subscribe and propose subscription in order to support
"Informations Internationales"

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The International Conference in Defense of Public Education will be held in
Paris on June 14th and 15th.

In order to prepare the conference, a meeting of French education workers
was held.

In order to introduce the discussion, a proposal was presented by the
promoters of the Conference to launch a campaign in the 23 countries
represented at the meeting against the revision of recommendation 150 of
the International Labor Organization. This proposal for revision is to be
the object of a discussion at the ILO session in June of 2003.

The struggle that will be proposed to the conference on the 14th and the
15th of June is concentrated around the key question of the current
situation; the situation in France illustrates it well: the united front of
all workers' labor organizations, with complete independence from the
government and institutions that defend the interests of the bosses.

In an intervention at the meeting, the origin of this initiative was again
explained: in February of 2002, an International Conference in Defense of
Labor Rights, called by the International Liaison Committee, was held in
Berlin.

Participants emphasized the absolute necessity of making the fight to
defend public education part of the fight to defend the conquests of the
working class in general. This is what the strike in France today
demonstrates, the fight against decentralization is totally interwoven with
the fight of all workers against the Fillon plan on retirement.

The withdrawal of measures that affect education calls for a general
cross-profession strike called by workers' organizations.

A delegation from the International Conference in Defense of Public
Education will have a mandate then, to participate in the conference in
Geneva in defense of labor rights that will be held simultaneously with the
session of the ILO.

There will also be discussion of an international campaign in defense of
labor rights in Iraq and for the respect of the 57 conventions of the ILO,
which have been ratified since 1919 by this country.

This same intervention informed the educational workers of the immense
mobilization of the Peruvian education workers, with their unions, the
SUTEP, that has led the Toledo government to decree a state of emergency.
The meeting decided to direct a fax to the Peruvian embassy in Lima to
demand the lifting of the state of emergency. It was decided to collect
1,000 Euros to sponsor a Peruvian delegation to the International
Conference: at the meeting itself 200 euros were raised.

An institute student raised a question for the European unions: Why is
there not a general strike throughout Europe against all this? Why is there
such disinformation?

A report has been facilitated on the recent congress of the European Trade
Union Confederation in Prague:

This congress of the ETUC gave standing ovations and tributes to none other
than ... Valery Giscard d'Estaing, author of the project for a new European
Constitution, and Jacques Delors, promoter of all of the anti-worker plans
under the plural left, one of the main people behind the heinous European
directives. There the representatives of the bosses, the Ministers of
Labor, have expressed their wants. In summary, this event in Prague had
nothing to do with a union congress. In their resolutions, this congress
has approved the orientation of the European Union with regards to
education and "lifelong learning."

An amendment, proposed by some of the unions to demand the return of
certain privatized sectors to the public sector has been rejected!

On the question of the revision of convention 150, will the 77 union
federations affiliated with the ETUC (European Trade Union Confederation)
and, among them, the French confederations: CGT, CGT-FO, CFDT, adopt an
attitude in accordance with their votes in the Congress or will they be led
towards opposition by the working class movement in France? Nothing is
decided, there is a battle to be won, and that is exactly what is being
proposed at the International Conference on the 14th and 15th of June.

A sister who was present intervened underlining the relevancy of the
question of the independence of union organizations, taking the example of
the question of the school exams in the framework of the strike in
progress. A national official of one of the unions of the FSU (1) who was
asked a question by telephone during a general assembly of strikers
responded that their union is not asking the ministry for the postponement
of exams, even though the educational workers continue in full strike, and
that neither would they wage a fight in the case that they are carried out.
In a situation in which the government threatens sanctions, the union is
leaving the educational workers abandoned to defend themselves. At the same
time, the leadership of this organization presents the postponement of the
vote on the decentralization law (without even having postponement of
application dates) as a significant setback...

Another participant in the meeting explained the mechanism for the
self-destruction of the services of the Minister of National Education that
is in progress, taking the example of the qualifications for diplomas,
which are written and granted by the universities. Autonomy is already
being thoroughly applied with the "European course-license of April of
2002". The structure of diplomas is aligned with the European norms: 3/5/7
or " L-M-D " (license-master-doctorate)

The requirements to validate a diploma are getting weaker and weaker, in
particular for the level of licenses that are increasingly being considered
equivalent to a reinforced high school diploma. The possibilities for the
"Validation of Acquired Experience" program [A program by which students
receive credit for life experiences rather than study - Ed.] including the
validation of experience gained through participation in associations and
charitable commitments...extends now to the entirety of a diploma...

A plan for the formation of university centers that would ultimately
eliminate universities of less than 15,000 students (half of the
universities in France) is being considered.

The whole structure of teaching in question, both secondary and primary, is
clearly being questioned if the very nature of university diplomas is being
altered.

This meeting decided:

To send 4 delegates to the International Conference and to organize the
financial campaign necessary to sponsor the Peruvian delegation,

Specifically on the basis of the published poster which reproduced a speech
by Anatole France, for peace and democracy.

(1) FSU: the federation of educational worker unions

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Germany

Interview of Jürgen Müller, SPD activist, member of the bureau of the GS
(Berlin)

"Oskar Lafontaine should be able to take the floor during the Party
Convention"

Why do you support the signature campaign "A place and speaking time on an
equal basis for Oskar Lafontaine, the former chairman of the Party during
the Party Convention"?

Jürgen Müller: I fully support the right for Oskar Lafontaine to be able to
speak during the coming SPD convention (since) today, (he) undoubtedly can
most convincingly support a guideline against the radical change of
orientation which Gerhard Schröder wishes to impose on the SPD. I place my
stakes on him.

Cancelling his invitation to celebrate the 140th anniversary of the SPD is
both presumptuous and outrageous. How can a former chairman of the party be
treated so off-handedly? This cannot and must not be the way of a working
class party.

You put down your name as "organiser of the vote among the members (1) in
Berlin" for the Tempelhof-Schöneberg federation. Gerhard Schröder has
several times warned against the referendum as a threat on the SPD
government's capacity.

Jürgen Müller: I totally reject that idea! What is more important, for a
party of social democrats than to listen to and heed the members' opinions?
Consulting the members has to be done. Otherwise, the majority of members
have few opportunities to have their say on the SPD's decision-making.

I became a member of the SPD 40 years ago, to the day. That move was
fraught with emotion because of Willy Brandt. However, as time went on, I
more and more felt it was important that the SPD should be the party
defending social balance, social justice. Today, I am quite dismayed when I
observe that the party is going quite the other way.

I am quite worried when I see that an impending split is threatening
between the SPD and the trade unions, and that the forces that give the
impetus are Gerhard Schröder and Franz Müntefering.

Consulting the members poses no threat to the governmental majority; agenda
2010 does; it outlines a policy that makes for members losing their trust
in the party and also the trade union members that voted for the SPD
because they wanted more social justice and the continuation of the social
state.

(1) Ballot organised among the members to reject the policy imposed by
Schröder on the party and on the government. I was endorsed by 13 000 and
demands that 67 000 should endorse it by mid-July to be recognised as
valid.

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Excerpts from SOPODE

Newspaper of former SPD members and trade union activists


After the Extraordinary  Congress of the SPD

Schröder: "We need no longer wait"

Schröder's government's timetable is clear: we no longer need to wait. Near
repudiation of the main labour agreements - specially that of the public
sector -, the elimination of unemployment benefits, making lay-offs easier,
and last but not least, elimination of union representation in the National
Board of Employee Health Benefits.

That is what "Agenda 2010" means.

The extraordinary congress of the SPD had as a purpose passing in a hurry
this anti-worker agenda. Casting aside all historical parliamentary
procedure of the Party, 90% of delegates approved by hand vote this agenda.
These measures were clearly aimed at breaking the backbone of the SPD: the
workers'commissions.

Schröder pulled no punches: "there is no other way [S] I just came back
from St. Petersburg, where I met Bush; as soon as this congress finishes I
shall return to Evian [S] Europe looks at us and says to herself [S] German
Social Democracy is responsible for carrying out these reforms. We have the
joblessness problem. Structural joblessness at that, we are responsible for
fixing this problem. Our social democratic 'values' are indestructible, but
we must find other means besides the welfare state to effectuate these
values".

Schröder was long and repetitive. He got little in the form of applause
except when he talked about Germany's position on the war. This is stunning
given the fact that this was a special congress blackmailed into voting
submission to which Schröder said "après moi le déluge".

Any opposition came almost solely from Sttmar Schreiner, President of the
National Commission on the Worker Question (AfA). (The AfA is the direct
representative of the German unions inside the SPD - NDT). He fought with
determination. "No one is against reforms and no one wants the right wing
in the power" - he told Schröder - "but Agenda 2010 will solve none of the
problems we have; instead, il will aggravate unemployment; the decrease in
the employers' share of the contribution to the stat funds will not create
a single job; cutting back the welfare state will not create a single job;
I reject the concept of mixing unemployment benefits and welfare benefits;
one has nothing to do with the other; unemployment insurance is paid for by
the workers themselves. We are making the have nots pay for everything. We
must have the courage to make the haves pay; that is the issue: who dares
to say that someone who after thirty years of working in a given company
should find themselves unemployed because the company folds, should then
resort to welfare? We must put more money into schools. That will create
jobs; Agenda 2010 breaches our promise to our voters. I'm against it. I
will vote against it."

Schreiner got an applause from the gallery - reserved to 500 randomly
invited guests from the rank and file of the party; the day before, the
press predicted that the initiators of the referendum would stop their
activities on the eve of the congress and fold. They didn't; they met again
the evening after the congress.

About forty people attended: Pronol and Barthel (Bavarian representative),
Waltraud Wolf (Mecklenburg representative) as well as delegates from
Hamburg, Bavaria, Berlin, Mecklenburg, the state of Hessen. It did not take
them long to decide to continue the struggle! The next step is a nationwide
conference in Frankfort on June 15th to decide how to prserve the fight
against the destruction of the SPD.

Correspondent

(The extraordinary congress of the SPD was called by Schröder like in a
situation of disaster, to stop the proposal of a referendum among the
membership of SPD, launched by twelve leaders demanding to break up with
Schröder's policies)

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Information from Peru

On the situation:

The Toledo government decreed the state of emergency nearly a week ago. The
CGTP leadership called for a national day of struggle on Tuesday June 3rd
against this decision.

On that day a huge, nation-wide mobilisation was staged: 100,000 took to
the streets in Lima, some 8,000 to 10,000 in Lambayeque, In Puno, Arequipa,
across the country there were huge demonstrations. In Lima, the
demonstrators marched to the Government's Palace. In all the
demonstrations, the slogan "Lift the emergency state! Meet all the demands
of the SUTEP (teachers union)!" were chanted.

Headlines read, "The CGTP challenges the state of emergency"

The day before, Monday June 2nd  the "National Compact" that regroups the
parties that support Toledo had convened; the CGTP participates, alas, in
this Compact. The purpose was to pressure the CGTP leaders into giving up
the appeal to the national day of struggle against the state of emergency.
They refused.

Though it was faced with mobilisation, the government did not give in, it
sticks to the state of emergency.

For the time being, the CGTP leaders do not follow up on the struggle to
get the emergency state lifted.

The SUTEP appeals to continue the strike and announces new demonstrations
in every town next week.

We are fighting for "an extraordinary emergency convention of the CGTP with
all the labour and democratic organisations". A letter was drafted to that
effect. A campaign is launched to have it endorsed.

Teachers have been on strike for 4 weeks (since May 12th ). Tuesday
evening, the government appointed an ombudsman without lifting the
emergency state. Obviously an agreement has been passed with the CGTP.

It should be noted that the military did not fire; actually they failed to
enforce the emergency state.

On May 31st, in Lima, the National Meeting on the Charter of Principles for
a Workers' Party Based upon the CGTP was held.

The following delegations were present: rank and file and union leaders
from Lima, Chimbote, Lambayeque. Delegations from Puno and Arequipa who
could not come due to the state of emergency sent messages. As starters, a
message from the ILC was read; it was cheered and much appreciated. It
should be noted that support messages came in response to the ILC's appeal.
After a debate, the decision was made to adopt the charter of principles
together with the proposed amendments.

A campaign will be launched on the basis of this charter to gather 3,000
endorsements.

The principle of a campaign in preparation of the continental labour
conference against FTAA was also agreed on.

It was decided to back and send a delegate to the Conference sponsored by
the ILC during the ILO session.

A co-ordination of 6 comrades union leaders was set up, one from Chimbote,
one from Puno, Cieza, teachers' union leader (SUTEP) who goes to the
International Geneva Conference, one from Lima and one from Lambayeque.

Decision was made that the newspaper "El Trabajo" would report on this
movement.

The endorsers of the Charter should meet nationally on August 23rd- 24th.

All the documents will be published in the form of a brochure.

Two comrades of an organisation from Ecuador, members of the International
Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples participated in the Lima meeting

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

Recording a phone conversation with our correspondents June 4th 2003 (2
p.m.)

India

General Strike on May 21, 2003

Against the pro-capitalist economic and anti-labour policies of the
government,  national trade union federations like AITUC, CITU, HMS, UTUC,
UTUC (Lenin Sarani), AICCTU, several federations of government employees,
banks, insurance, docks, transport, power and independent unions gave a
call for a nation wide strike on May 21.

40 million workers throughout the country participated in the strike in
several sectors. Strike by banks &  Insurance employees paralysed economic
and commercial activity in the country. Docks were lifeless. Government
offices gave a deserted look. Production in public sector and private
sector factories came to a halt.

States like West Bengal, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tripura and Jharkhand
observed total closure. Everything came to a standstill in these states. 
Rail and air services could not be operared in many areas.

Main focus of the strike was against proposed anti-worker labour laws,
privatization of profit making public sector units, increasing contract
labour, curtailment of  interest  on Provident Fund and demand was for
comprehensive protection and social security law to 92% of the total
workforce existing in the unorganized/informal sector.

This strike is yet another warning to the Federal government to change its
policies.

On Februry 26 this year over 300,000 workers had marched to the Parliament
House to demand reversal of government policies.

N. Vasudevan

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USA

The government of the USA intends to expand the North America Free Trade
Agreement to all the America

AFL-CIO calls to oppose that plan, before the ministers conference in
Miami, in November 2003

Press review

President George W. Bush intends to extend the North America Free Trade
Agreement to all the Americas.

The new agreement, FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas), should set up a
continental free trade zone, suppressing all customs duties, except those
concerning Cuba.

NAFTA provoked in our country the loss of 750,000 actual or potential jobs.
FTAA, embracing 800 million people living in 34 countries, could have
consequences even worse for employment in the United States.

FTAA is being prepared with considerable discretion. When Congress will
take the matter, it will be only to vote yes or not to the whole draft
agreement.

In face of that, workers, their families and all the activists are coming
together to say: No to FTAA, it is a bad choice for workers and their
families.

Multinationals are plotting so that this agreement - which would be a
disaster for millions of workers and their families - be implemented
without any democratic process. But you can send your ballot paper to say
No to FTAA. The ballot papers will be delivered in Miami, when ministers
will meet there in november 2003 to discuss about the agreement.

Sending your ballot paper you will say to those ministers and to your
elected reprsentatives that FTAA is a bad choice for jobs, for workers'
rights and for environment.

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Cameroon

Benoit Essiga and Ekoman have just been freed!

We demand the lifting of the legal charges against the unionists.

A new protest by the ICFTU.

Two months after the liberation of a half dozen unionists by strong
international protests, the authorities in Cameroon are backsliding. The
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) today is
protesting actively against the new detention of M. Benoit Essiga,
president of the CGT-Liberte, formerly the CSTC, along with 14
collaborators in the afternoon of April 23rd.

These detentions occurred when Essiga went to visit his wife, who had been
imprisoned since April 17th of 2003, after having been accused by the
Railroad company Camrail. After Benoit Essiga and his colleagues were
forced to spend the night on the floor of the office of public security for
Camrail, they were transferred to Ngoumou, a location situated 70
kilometers from Yaunde. Afterwards, all communication with them was
prevented and it is practically impossible to visit them, says the ICFTU.

In a letter addressed to the authorities in the country, the secretary
general of the ICFTU, Guy Ryder, attests that "these new detentions
demonstrate clearly that the authorities act in connivance with the
employers of Camrail. Their objective is to take strong actions against
some union leaders who are doing nothing but defending the interests of the
workers they represent."

The ICFTU suspects, then, that the authorities have begun a wave of
persecutions in order to destabilize the union leaders in question at a
moment in which there is a conflict between the leaders of Camrail and the
Railroad workers union in the Mfoundi department, of which Essiga is also
president.

From his office in Brussels, Guy Ryder has also asked the Cameroon
authorities to facilitate immediate access to the detained union leader's
lawyers, so that they can "assure his defense against all the accusations
against him."

Harboring serious fears in connection with the security of Essiga, his wife
and of their colleagues, the ICFTU has launched a call to its human and
labor rights committee and has requested that the director general of the
International Labor Office, Juan Somavia, intervene at the highest levels
of the Cameroon State, to request the immediate liberation of the detained
union leader.

The ICFTU represents 158 million workers in 231 affiliated organizations in
150 countries and territories. The ICFTU is also member of global unions:
http://www.global-unions.org

For more information, contact the press department of the ICFTU at 32 2 224
0232 or at 32 476621018

Brussels, April 25 2003 (ICFTU on-line)

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Intervention of the International Liaison Committee

Paris, May 7, 2003

To Sir Ambassador of Cameroon, 77 rue d'Auteuil, 75016 Paris

Regarding: Immediate Liberation of M. Benoit Essiga and all of his
companions

Sir Ambassador,

We have been informed that M. Essiga Benoit, president of the CGT-Liberte,
formerly the CSTC, was detained again on the afternoon of April 23rd, two
months after being freed from his first arrest.

Indeed, according to an official statement of the International
Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), after having been detained
under inhuman conditions at the Public Security offices of Camrail, he was
transported to Ngoumou, a town located 70 kilometers from Yaunde, his place
of residence, where he is being prevented from freely receiving visits from
members of his family and colleagues.

M. Essiga had been detained when he went to visit its wife, an employee at
the railroad company CAMRAIL, imprisoned since April of 2003, 17 after
having been falsely accused by the company of embezzlement, and who was
liberated on April 23, the same day that her husband visited her.

M. Benoit Essiga is, then, being detained along with three of his
colleagues at CAMRAIL, waiting to appear before a judge, together with 11
other colleagues who, up to now, have not been imprisoned. The charges that
are being filed are the following: property destruction, assault, making
death threats.

It seems clear that the detention of M. Benoit Essiga and of his
colleagues, as well as the unfounded legal persecutions undertaken against
them, have no other aim than to repress them for the actions that they have
taken against the privatization of the railroad company of Cameroon and in
defense of the interests of the railroad workers there.

For this reason, the International Liaison Committee of Workers and
Peoples, stands in solidarity with the position of the ICFTU and with their
general secretary's letter, M. Guy Ryder, to M. Paul Biya, president of the
Republic of Cameroon, fiercely protesting against the repression of these
union activists who are only defending their rights.

Committed to the respect of democratic rights and freedoms, we also demand
from the authorities in Cameroon the unconditional and immediate liberation
of Benoit Essiga and of all of their colleagues, as well as the dissolution
of the charges against them.

Daniel Gluckstein, National Secretary of the Workers Party

Coordinator of the International Liaison Committee

The members of the ILC grouping in Cameroon give their thanks to the labor
organizations for their solidarity.

Communiqué

The member partners of the grouping of the International Liaison Committee
of Workers and Peoples of Cameroon express their frank gratitude to all the
labor organizations, in particular to the CICR and the International
Liaison Committee of the Workers and Peoples, for the campaign that they
have undertaken for the liberation of brother Benoit Essiga and Ekoman,
union leaders employed by CAMRAIL (the railroad company of Cameroon).

We have appreciated the value of the solidarity that you have shown to
these workers, who are being persecuted for working for their liberation.

We point out to you that this liberation, which occurred last Wednesday,
May 14th of 2003, is only provisional and the legal procedures undertaken
against the hard-working unionists (there are 13) at CAMRAIL who defend the
rights of the workers are still pending. Therefore, the fight for the
triumph of justice is still not over.

We believe that we can count on the CICR, the ILC and the organizations
that participate in their activities, to give the persecuted comrades their
constant solidarity and support until the end of this matter.

Dear brothers and sisters, please accept our sincere gratitude.

  Fraternally,

Martin Mbille

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

Morocco

La Tribune des Travailleurs

(Workers' Tribune)

Published by the Moroccan affiliate of the International Liaison Committee

Editorial

This new series of the Workers' Tribune reaffirms our will to continue to
do what we had promised our militants and readers we would do.

In spite of the difficulties presented in publishing an independent working
class journal, workers and youth need more than ever a journal that enables
them to seize the class struggle while defending their threatened
democratic, social and political rights.

Who are we

We are militants from all political tendencies within the workers movement,
seeking to reverse the national political situations, characterized above
all by the ever present offensive against the gains of the workers,
democracy and the sovereignty of the Moroccan nation.

A similar discussion on the world situation is taking place, also
characterized by the unprecedented collapse of all social and political
regimes built upon private ownership of the means of production. This
forces US imperialism to launch massive military interventions under the
pretext of the anti terrorist struggle, or the destruction of weapons of
mass destruction, or the liberation of people's from dictatorships!

In debating these facts, the facts of the class struggle at the national
and international scale to form a Moroccan Committee of the International
Liaison Committee, with the purpose of helping in uniting in combat the
workers and the young of this nation to build an independent working class
political organisation. Without such an organisations, not only will the
working class have difficulty obtaining new gains, but in fact will have a
very difficult time defending its gains, specially the gains of the UMT
(the Moroccan Workers Federation).

The ILC arose from an international workers conference in Barcelona en
1991, where a 53-country regroupment - from all five continents - took
place; these groups adopted a Manifesto against war and exploitation.
Thereafter the ILC had a series of conferences, to wit:

. Paris 1993 and 1996 (...)

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

European News

Congress of the ETUC in Prague, May 26 to 29th

Presentation

The main impression that results from this congress is that of an immense
contradiction. Contradiction between the strikes and demonstrations that
have shaken Europe these last weeks, particularly in France, Austria and
Germany, and the character of the debates during those four days,
culminating with the standing ovation given by the congress, with almost
the entire body on its feet, to greet Jacques Delors.

Delors, the former president of the European Commission, the man of the
Maastricht treaty and of the opening up to privatization of all the public
services, was the uncontestable star of the applause meter...

Certainly this doesn't mean that the heat of the movements underway in
Europe has not been felt at all. The representatives of the DGB (union
federation in Germany) presented an "initiative proposal" demanding a "new
examination of the stability pact", an emergency motion that, although it
had majority support, was not adopted, as it did not obtain the necessary
two thirds vote.

A representative of the DGB explains: "There have been big demonstrations
in France, Italy, Austria and in Germany. The governments have not given a
social response to this crisis. No to the deterioration of the social
conquests and yes to an economic policy directed at getting the European
Union of this crisis."

But, apart from this, all the amendments to the main document adopted by
the congress, titled "Action Program" that attempted, as minimal as those
attempts were, to break out of the institutional framework of Europe were
rejected, thus confirming that the standing ovation given to Jacques Delors
was not the fruit of chance, but rather the essence of the nature of the
ETUC.

---

Tuesday, May 27, Giscard, president of the European Convention and the man
in charge of drawing up the future European Constitution, spoke widely
before the congress of the ETUC. In the following excerpts of Giscard's
speech, the representative of big capital, is able to gauge to what extent
the ETUC is integrated in the joint writing of this Constitution:

"I have been able to gauge all your commitment in the debate in the heart
of the Convention, not only from the numerous contributions that you have
made to the Convention, but also for the excellent participation and the
commitment that your representative, Emilio Gabaglio, has demonstrated in
the heart of the Convention, from the beginning of our work. The social
agents, the ETUC and UNICE, have indeed demonstrated so much in the course
of our plenary sessions as well as in the work groups in which they
participated, that the social agents constitute an essential component of
the mechanics of the Union (...)

The Letter of Fundamental Rights will become an integral part of our treaty
(...)

Another innovation, the title of our Constitution, will deal exclusively
with democratic life. It will organize, in particular, the consultation
with civil society, with all its components, and it will solidify the role
of the social agents and the importance of autonomous social dialogue (...)

Finally, among your priorities is the maintenance in the Constitution of
the role of the social agents. The Convention has confirmed that the
Constitution should recognize their role explicitly and that included in it
should be some appropriate arrangements with regards to consultation,
maintaining the relative existent arrangements for the negotiation of
social agreements (...)

I thank you for the efforts that you have made in that respect and for your
help in the realization of a democratic, modern and social Constitution,
for Europeans and for Europe!"

Two amendments to the Action Program were rejected by congress:

- On the question of public services, an amendment by the Belgian unions
FGTB and CSC proposes to "withdraw them from the rules of competition",
and, above all, proposes to "anticipate the possibility of a turn from the
regime of private property to that of public". Rejected.  Therefore, for
the ETUC, what has been privatized should remain as such.

- On the question of the relationships with the European Union, where the
text of the Action Program explains: "To increase the visibility and the
autonomy of the ETUC, to reinforce the available resources and to use them
as efficiently as possible", an amendment from the FO proposes to change
this formulation to: "The credit of the ETUC goes inevitably towards its
independence with regards to the institutions of the EU and the
clarification of its actions with respect to workers". Amendment rejected.

- Thus, the Action Program of the ETUC clearly indicates that it is
contradictory to independence from the European Union. Nothing more need be
saidS

-----

Documents

The ETUC as it sees itself

On the eve of its congress, Emilio Gabaglio, the general secretary, has
published a book titled: What is the ETUC?

We find, in particular, this juicy passage:

"Contrary to the national unions, the evolution of the ETUC doesn't come
from the class struggle, but from the institutionalization of European
politics."

It could not be expressed better, and the person speaking is an expert - he
has been the general secretary of the ETUC over twelve years, from 1991 to
2003.

The Letter of Fundamental Rights: A regression in relation to the
conventions of the ILO.

The main "demand" of the ETUC is that the Letter of Fundamental Rights
adopted at the summit of Nice, in December of 2000, under the joint
presidency of Chirac and Jospin, be integrated into the future European
ConstitutionS

"In social matters, the regressions are very clear in relation to several
national laws; in relation to the Social Letter from the European Council
and in relation to several conventions of the International Labor
Organization (ILO). Thus, the right to social protection is reduced to a
"right to access to Social Security benefits and to social services," and
labor rights reduced to "the right to work" and to "access to a free
relocation service," the right to housing becomes that of getting help
finding housingS The rights of workers are the object of vague arrangements
that don't offer any guarantee (union rights, collective bargaining
negotiations, employee consultations, sanitationS). Emilio Gabaglio had to
fight for weeks to make them integrate the right to strike. The free
circulation of goods and capital, is, on the other hand, recorded in the
preamble."

Correspondents

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