ILC Intern@tional
Newsletter
No 33
June 30, 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
--------------------
Table of Contents
- Presentation
- Campaign for labor rights in Iraq
- Open Forum: European Constitution is dangerous. By D. Debunne, former
president of ETUC, Belgium.
- Towards European meeting -September 20th and 21st.
- Appeal to rail workers around the world in defence of Japanese rail
trade unionists imprisoned.
- An answer from Philippine rail workers
- Peru: Editorial of El Trabajo
- Paul Nkunzimana sends a message to Geneva International Meeting
June 15th, 2003. Press article about University of Burundi crisis.
- Subscriptions
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Presentation
The fight for democratic freedoms and for the right to form
independent organizations has always been an integral part of the
struggle of the international labor movement. This fight is more
necessary today than ever, when, throughout the world, democratic
freedoms are being destroyed, as the documents we are publishing this
week attest.
In Iraq, the consequences for the Iraqi people of the presence of the
occupying troops and the division of the country organized by the
American multinationals are dramatic. The international campaign
launched in Geneva is organizing "for the establishment of labor
rights in Iraq," for the rights of workers to organize freely and
for the preservation of workers' rights.
In Portugal, the conquests contained in the collective-bargaining
agreements and the very freedoms of the political parties are being
questioned.
In Japan, a group of railroad unionists have been imprisoned for seven
and a half months. Railroad workers in France, Germany and Japan have
called on railroad workers throughout the world to demand their freedom,
and the Filipino railroad workers sent a letter of support to the jailed
Japanese workers.
In Burundi, a strike of three months was necessary for the workers at
the university to win their fight to defend public education against the
attempts of the government to destroy the teachers' wages and their
labor code. It is with great satisfaction that we learned that our ILC
newsletter played a part in this struggle.
********************
The Campaign for Labor Rights in Iraq
The 131 delegates from 30 countries who met at the international
conference in Geneva in defense of the conventions of the ILO and for
peace [see issues 24 and 32 of the ILC Newsletter] supported the
international campaign in defense of labor rights in Iraq.
This campaign will lead to the formation of an "international labor
delegation to undertake an investigation and evaluate the situation of
the working class, labor rights and of trade union organizations"
in Iraq.
Each week, we will publish weekly information on the development of the
campaign and we will ensure the publication of excerpts of the White
Paper, published by US Labor Against War (USLAW) - the American union
coalition against the war - on the anti-worker and anti-union practices
of these multinationals (most of which are American), and which, the day
after the war, began extracting the wealth of Iraq.
Contact Information:
- US Labor Against War, PO BOX 153, 1718 M Street, NW
Washington DC, 20036 (USA).
E-mail: info@uslaboragainstwar.org
- International Confederation of Arab Trade Unions, PO BOX 3225,
Damascus (Syria) Fax: 963-1144-20323.
E-mail: icatu@net.sy
- International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples,
87, rue du Faubourg-Saint-Denis, 75010 Paris (France). Tel.:
331-4801-8828. Fax : 331-4801-8836.
E-mail : eit.ilc@wanadoo.fr
--------------------
Article reprinted from the website of The Nation
"A New Solidarity Front in Iraq"
by Tim Shorrock
In early June, as US soldiers in Baghdad fired on crowds of
demobilized Iraqi soldiers demanding back pay denied by the US
occupation forces, two trade unionists from California were in Europe to
support an international solidarity campaign that could create a new
relationship between Americans and Iraqis and open a new front in the
antiwar movement.
Making the trip were Alan Benjamin, representing the San Francisco Labor
Council, and Amy Newell, the national organizer for US Labor Against the
War (USLAW), a coalition of labor organizations that opposed the war. In
Geneva they presented a new USLAW report on US corporations in Iraq to a
meeting of the International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples (ILC),
a Paris-based coalition of trade unionists from more than sixty
countries
The conference was timed to coincide with the annual meeting of the
International Labor Organization. It was attended by many worker
representatives to the ILO, including Hacene Djeman, the general
secretary of the International Confederation of Arab Trade Unions, and
worker representatives from Algeria, Sudan and other Arab countries.
Subhi Toma, a former Iraqi labor leader living in exile in France, was
also there. The conference agreed to launch a Campaign for Labor Rights
in Iraq, focusing on restoring basic labor rights, particularly the
right to have genuinely independent unions and to work under safe
conditions.
USLAW's report "is our contribution to getting that campaign off
the ground," said Newell. "Its also a way of keeping the
momentum going on the international solidarity that developed to try to
prevent this war. We need to keep building to stop the next war."
The ILC is translating it into Arabic and four other languages, and said
the thirty-five-page report "will be brought to the attention of
the Iraqi workers, who need to know the record of these corporations."
"The Corporate Invasion of Iraq" is available at USLAW's
website, www.uslaboragainstwar.org. It details the labor, human
rights, environmental and political records of eighteen US companies
working under contract in Iraq. They range from the giant Bechtel Group,
which has the master contract with the US Agency for International
Development to rebuild Iraq's infrastructure, to minority-owned Creative
Associates, a small Washington, DC, firm that has an AID contract to
restore Iraq's primary and secondary educational system.
Gene Bruskin, USLAW's co-convener, based in Washington, said the report
is "important to the understanding of US workers and the labor
movement about what this war was all about, as opposed to what we were
told." US and Iraqi workers, he added, "now have a direct link
because our companies are over there, and these are people many of us
have first-hand experience with." Plus, "we have a President
talking about a Middle East free-trade zone, and we know from direct
experience that means jobs going abroad."
While the Bush Administration claims the war was fought to bring
democracy to Iraq, the USLAW report says, "We can be sure that its
definition of 'democracy' does not include workers' rights and strong
independent unions. Bush and his cohorts have waged a relentless assault
against organized labor and working families in the US. We would expect
nothing different in their treatment of unions and workers in Iraq."
Evidence of abuse, the report claims, recently surfaced in Basra when a
Kuwaiti subcontractor for the Kellogg, Brown & Root subsidiary of
Halliburton--Vice President Dick Cheney's former company--decided to use
Asian rather than Iraqi workers to perform repair and reconstruction
work. That incident triggered a demonstration by 500 Iraqi workers,
illustrating the "resurgent labor movement" in Iraq, the
report says.
The report traces that movement to a 1927 strike by railway workers, and
describes the important role played by Iraqi trade unions in the
overthrow of the monarchy in 1958. But in 1987, Saddam Hussein outlawed
independent unions, banned most strikes and kept unions out of
state-owned enterprises, which are now being privatized by Bremer's US
administration in Iraq. "Meanwhile, we're fighting privatization
here like mad," said Bruskin. "There's a potential here to
connect and build real solidarity in a way that people haven't done
before."
More than half the companies profiled in the report are privately owned
and don't have to account to public shareholders or file financial
reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The majority are
non-union, and "several have well-established records of hostility
toward unions and workers who seek to organize them." (According to
the report, only ten of Halliburton's 530 facilities in the United
States are unionized, while Bechtel, which has 40,000 employees, is
"largely non-union.") The report is filled with incidents of
cost overruns, accounting irregularities, health and safety violations,
environmental contamination and other problems at companies now raking
in millions of dollars in contracts.
One of the most outrageous is the $30 million contract awarded by the US
General Services Administration to MCI WorldCom to build a wireless
network. The contract, USLAW argues, amounts to bailing out a corporate
criminal: Last year the company filed the largest bankruptcy in US
history after admitting to fraudulently misstating $11 billion in
earnings. In May the SEC imposed a $500 million penalty on the company--which
was then awarded its contract to build nineteen cell towers to be used
by US reconstruction officials in Iraq
This fall the ILC will send a fact-finding mission to Iraq to evaluate
the condition of workers and the status of the labor movement. That
decision was made after the ILO's government and employer
representatives voted down a proposal by its worker representatives to
send an official ILO delegation to investigate labor conditions in Iraq.
The ILC delegation, which USLAW plans to join, will determine if the
right to organize is being respected, what kinds of salaries are being
paid by US employers, how much labor has been imported to replace Iraqis,
and health and safety conditions. "Right now, Iraq sounds very
chaotic, people don't have jobs and there's mass unemployment,"
said USLAW's Newell, who spent twenty-two years as an organizer with the
United Electrical Workers Union. "We want to help Iraqi workers get
out of this terrible situation that they're in.
--------------------
STEVEDORING SERVICES OF AMERICA (SSA) is one of the multinationals
sharing Iraq under the cover ot military occupation
SSA is the largest stevedoring company in the U.S. and the fourth
largest in the world. SSA is a family-owned and privately held
company with $1 billion in annual revenues, and has been expanding
rapidly since 1989. Jon Hemingway is President and Chief Executive of
SSA. His grandfather founded the Company in 1949. SSA now operates in
150 locations in 13 countries. Most of the expansion has been in Latin
American countries where labor unions have had diminishing influence.
Both in the U.S. and through its international operations, SSA has a
reputation for working to undermine union contracts. For years, SSA
has attempted to undermine the International Longshore & Wharehouse
Union (ILWU), which represents workers at the West Coast ports in the
U.S. During a contract dispute in 2002, SSA was the main roadblock in
negotiations between the ILWU and the Pacific Maritime Association - an
association that represents the companies that control the West Coast
port operations.
Humanitarian pretext
Though it has never worked in a war zone before, SSA was the first
company to be awarded an USAID contract for rebuilding Iraq. The
yearlong contract is for $4.8 million to manage and repair Iraqi ports,
including the country's major deep-water port in Umm Qasr. Under the
contract, immediate repairs and improvements are being carried out at
port operations reportedly to facilitate humanitarian aid shipments. SSA
will also be responsible for longer-term rehabilitation at the ports
that will allow full-scale operations on a commercial basis.
SSA sees its contract in Iraq as an opportunity to establish itself in
the region and to garner other contracts in the Middle East. On June 2,
2003, it was reported that U.S./British military administration at the
Port of Umm Qasr, had transferred control of the port to SSA. John Walsh,
an SSA spokesman stated the following regarding SSA's operations in Umm
Qasr, "I am excited about humanitarian aid, but I am more excited
about the commercial [opportunites] Commercial [business] will be paying
the bills." According to Walsh, only humanitarian cargo is
currently being shipped into the port. Walsh said $11.5 million will be
needed for capital expenditure on repairs and equipment, and an
additional $4 million will be needed for payroll, services, and office
equipment.
Political ties:
While there are no direct ties between SSA and the Bush
Administration, the husband of U.S. Senator, Maria Cantwell (WA-Democrat),
is a former SSA executive. The company's lobbyist in Texas is Reginald
G. 'Reggie' Bashur, who was once an aide to then-Governor George
W. Bush.
(1999 to 2002) SSA political contributions totaled $24,825 (77 percent
to Republicans) $1000 to George W. Bush's presidential campaign.
Social Responsibility Record:
On April 7 of this year, Oakland, CA police attacked 500 peaceful
antiwar protesters who were picketing in front of the SSA and American
President Lines (APL) gates at the Port of Oakland to protest the
companies' involvement in Iraq. The assault was perpetrated police to
intimidate and discourage other protests after company officials, who
were stationed at the police command post, had conferred with the police
commanders.
SSA has also been at the center of controversy in Bangladesh where it
has proposed to build a $500 million containerized terminal in the city
of Chittagong. The project has faced intense opposition from local trade
unions and their members, who fear that the new terminal would result in
large job losses. Workers have staged hunger strikes, work stoppages and
other actions to dramatize their cause.
Last year, the U.S. Ambassador to Bangladesh, Mary Ann Peters, spoke out
publicly in support of SSA, implying that the country would pay a price
if the project did not go forward. In news reports, Peters said that
future U.S. investments in Bangladesh might be threatened if the SSA
project was not approved. In November, the High Court of Bangladesh
ruled that the project was illegal because of inadequate feasibility
studies, but the company could appeal that ruling to the country's
supreme court.
SSA has also been involved in labor and political conflicts in New
Zealand and Panama.
The Corporate Invasion of Iraq:
Profile of U.S. Corporations Awarded Contracts in U.S./British-Occupied
Iraq
Prepared by U.S. Labor Against the War (USLAW)
for The Workers of Iraq and The International Labor
Movement
----
Corporations Profiled in this Report
Halliburton
Kellogg, Brown & Root
Bechtel Group Inc
MCI WorldCom
Stevedoring Services of America
Abt Associates Incorporated
Black & Veatch Holding Company
Creative Associates Incorporated
DynCorp/Computer Sciences Corporation
Fluor Corporation
International Resource Group
Louis Berger Group
Menlo Worldwide Forwarding
Parsons Corporation
Perini Corporation
Research Triangle Institute
Skylink Air & Logistic Support
Washington Group International
[Note: You can download a copy of this 36-page report for
free from the USLAW website at www.uslaboragainstwar.org . Hard copies
can be obtained -- in the United States -- for $5 from USLAW, P.O. Box
153, 1718 M St., NW, Washington, DC 20036. Send $8 for a copy for all
foreign orders.]
********************
Belgium: Open Tribune
We are publishing, with authorization, a text on the new "European
Constitution" by Georges Debunne, former secretary general of the
General Federation of Belgian Workers (FGTB) and former president of the
European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and the European Federation of
the Retired and Aged (FERPA). In it he expresses his opinion on the
dangers of this Constitution.
It seems to us to be an important contribution to the debate going on in
Europe. We invite our correspondents to distribute it as extensively as
possible.
"This European Constitution is dangerous!"
It is not surprising that this European Constitution has been
greeted with "euphoria" by right-wing heads of state and
governments. They have been freed of their social obligations.
It is necessary to do everything possible so that this Constitution is
not adopted so long as the vote by unanimity, with the right of veto, in
the social and financial sphere is included in the text. There will
always be an anti-social government among the 25 States of the European
Union that will impede all social progress.
Social rights must be guaranteed formally in the European Union's Letter
of Fundamental Rights that is now integrated into the Constitution. Some
juridical instrument should allow for the negotiation of European
collective-bargaining agreements.
There are three points that are essential if we are to prevent the
expanded Europe from causing a considerable decrease in the standards of
living among us, in the West, without, however, improving the standards
of living and working conditions for most of the inhabitants of Poland,
Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania, Estonia, Slovenia and
Latvia.
And they have to stop telling us that they have done what they could and
that it could have been worse!
The worst scenario is right there -- the Constitutional process is now
leaving the hands of [former French President and Constitutional
Commission chair] Valéry Giscard d'Estaing to pass over to those of [former
Italian Prime Minister] Silvio Berlusconi, who will still have the
opportunity to modify the European Constitution before it is adopted by
the heads of state and government, which is predicted to happen in
December of 2003.
This European Constitution will take precedence in each country and on a
regional basis over the national constitutions - all of which will be
have to be revised to put them in agreement with the European directives,
as has already happened on multiple occasions. The Constitution will no
longer permit progressive parties on a national level to adopt socially
progressive laws. On the contrary, the reinforcement of the rules of
competition and the drastic dictates imposed by the European Stability
Pact give all the power to the right-wing parties to pursue policies of
social and fiscal dumping in order to support savage capitalism and the
limitless exploitation of workers through gutted labor statutes, low
wages and the generalization of temporary work, without any obligation
for the employer to assume the risks of age, unemployment or illness.
This is a return to the 19th century!
Those States whose national constitutions evoke God are demanding that
God be imposed as a supreme value on all Europeans. What other back-room
deals will the intergovernmental Commission that drafted this
Constitution produce next!
The fact that some believe they can impose God on the rest of us only
shows that this European Constitution can be rewritten whenever there is
a strong demand for it. From today on, let us gather all our forces to
demand that we, too, recover the collective social property that was
stolen from us by the European Convention between 2000 and 2003.
For more than 10 years, the leaders of the Christian unions at the head
of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) have reneged on their
responsibilities by not sufficiently alerting the workers to the dangers
of the European laws. Much too frequently, they have accepted the role
of transmission belt of the capitalist interests. In my capacity as
president of the European Federation of the Retired and Aged, I have
sounded the alarm as much as I have been able to, inside and outside of
the ETUC, but I have been neither listened to nor followed.
Practicing the "empty chair" policy at the congress of the
ETUC, the General Federation of Belgian Workers (FGTB) showed its
audacity and will to recover the objectives of free trade unions when we
decided, after the Second World War to organize on a European scale in
order to create a counter-power in the face of the rules of competition
and a single European market in order to defend the interests of working
people.
Dear brothers and sisters and dear friends: To banish war, dictatorship,
and racism; and to ensure the organization of a solidarity society that
protects and emancipates for the good of all; to pursue the development
of the individual, the refinement of human relationships and a higher
quality of life - all of these were and continue to be the fundamental
objectives of a generation of socialist union leaders who have become
main characters and proponents of European integration. We have fought
for it; we have conquered social rights and collective bargaining
agreements for the improvement of living and working conditions for most
of the European countries. We wanted it for us, but also for our
children and our grandchildren and for the whole of humanity.
We must now admit to the facts, nothing is conquered forever. The
governments have displaced the decision-making powers to the
European-wide level. It is there that we must continue the struggle so
that we do not have to start from zero."
Georges Debunne,
Former general secretary of the FGTB,
Former president of the ETUC and of the FERPA
----------
FGTB: General federation of Workers of Belgium
FERPA: European federation of Pensioners and Aged
********************
Toward a European Conference
on September 20-21, 2003 in Paris
Portugal :
Can we accept measures that legalize the destruction of the April 25th
Revolution [of 1975] and of the Portuguese nation?
Appeal from the POUS (Workers Party for Socialist Unity) against the
reform of the party system
The Constitutional Tribunal just gave the green light to the reform
of the labor code and the law on political parties. The first permits,
among other things, the overturn of all the conquests of the
collective-bargaining contracts. The second does away with the freedom
of political parties. At the same time, the government is announcing the
privatization of the entire public administration and a new "management"
for the hospitals. Š In this situation, the following appeal was
launched.
Can we accept measures that legalize the destruction of April 25th and
of the Portuguese nation?
- Transforming the rights contained in the conventions and collective
bargaining contracts into worthless paper;
- Imposing on working mothers work-weeks of 60 hours, 12 hours a day;
- Imposing on all workers the dislocation of their workplace, whatever
damage may cause it;
- Considering night shift work to begin after 10 p.m., instead of after
8 p.m.
These are some of the articles of the labor code that the Constitutional
Tribunal has accepted, to the joy of Durão Barroso and his Minister Bagão
Félix.
Can we accept this verdict?
Can the workers and their organizations accept an attack this big, now
dressed up with its "constitutional legitimacy?"
Isn't it urgent that the union federations unite -- putting in the
minority those who opt for division and for accords and "agreements"
with the government -- in order to achieve the defeat of similar attacks
against the Portuguese workers?
The same Constitutional Tribunal just gave the green light to the reform
of the party system. This is a reform that allows that the parties that
have deputies in the Assembly of the Republic be financed in euros by
each one of their voters and that, at the same time, eliminates parties
that have less than 5,000 members or 15,000 votes in two consecutive
elections for the Assembly of the Republic.
The POUS is among those parties. It is an organization of activists who
have always been proud of their independence, who have never given up
defending socialist politics and the conquests of April 25th, and the
unity of the workers and peoples of all of Europe (which are
incompatible with the European Union, founded as it was on the power and
interests of the big multinationals).
The institutional parties will be able to adopt many laws and to make
all the political deals, but they are no longer able to hide the process
of destruction of the rights of the workers and of the people, the
process of destruction of the country's economy and of the Portuguese
nation itself.
In this situation, isn't it necessary -- for all the workers and all the
activists, whatever organization they may belong to -- to close ranks
and to attempt, through a democratic dialogue, to respond in a united
and effective way?
Is this not how we will be able to find proposals for a solution, to be
able to preserve what we have left of the positive, to recover the
production and the control of the basic sectors of the national economy,
to find means of collaboration with the workers from Spain and other
European countries, on the road to the formation of a free union of the
nations and workers of Europe, founded on the defense of the sectors of
health care and social security, public education, and of jobs with
rights for all? Every democratic organization is necessary for this
convergence and mobilization of energy and wills
The POUS is one of those organizations, it doesn't accept being
arbitrarily excluded from the democratic party system.
Help us to preserve the POUS!
Affiliate to the POUS!
The issue 32 of International Newsletter published the
appeal to a European meeting in Paris, September 20 and 21. As we
announced, herewith the list of signatories for that appeal.
Belgium: Roberto Giarrocco, delegate CGSP (FGTB) local and
regional government workers, Verviers; Philippe De Menten, president
Cocof area Brussels CGSP (FGTB), regional education Brussels; Philippe
Larsimont, coordinator, MDT; Evelyne Lemaux, delegate CGSP (FGTB),
government workers Wallon region; Nadine Negleman, president Schaerbeek
local, CGSP (FGTB); André Nélissen, delegate Graphic Arts SETCa-FGTB;
Antoine Ruggieri, former official FGTB Cockerill (steel industry),
member inter-professional body FGTB Liège and Wallon interregional of
FGTB - France: Jean-Marc Allouche, trade unionist CGT; J.-P.
Barrois, militant against war; Pierre Besse, rail workers trade unionist;
Christiane B¦uf, trade unionist; Joachim Salaméro, trade unionist
freethinker; Daniel Chalier, on behalf of FO centre hospitalier
universitaire; Clarisse Delalondre, trade unionist CGT EDF; Olivier
Doriane, Workers Party; Jacques Girod, on behalf of departmental union
FO Paris; Daniel Gluckstein, ILC Coordinator, National Secretary of
Workers Party; Pascal Grasso, trade unionist CGT; Patrick Hébert, trade
unionist; Luc Lamy, trade unionist CGT RATP; Denis Langlet, metalworker
trade unionist; François Le Pivert, trade unionist CGT; Jean Markun,
trade unionist mines and underground CGT; Jean-Charles Marquiset,
Manifeste des 500 for trade unions independence; Jacques Paris,
Education trade unionist; Véronique Pepers, chemical industry trade
unionist; Régis Rave, trade unionist CGT; Pascal Samouth, trade
unionist; Alain Saint André, trade unionist CGT; Christian Savidan,
trade unionist CGT; Marie-Claude Schidlower, ILC Working Women's
Commission; Yannick Sybelin, trade unionist CGT; Patrice Sifflet,
Manifeste des 500 for trade unions independence; Michèle Simonin, trade
unionist - Germany: Karlheinz Gerhold, trade unionist Ver.di, SPD;
Klaus Schüller, trade unionist DGB Thuringe, SPD; Henning Frey, trade
unionist Ver.di; Gotthard Krupp, SPD-KV, Ver.di-Bezirksvorstand; Manfred
Birkhahn, Ver.di, Stellv., Bezirksgeschäftsführer; Udo Eisner, IG
Metall; Bodo Fast, SPD, Mitglied in der Gemeindevertretung, Ver.di; Jürgen
Müller, SPD, AGS-Vorstan; Olaf Timmermann, SPD, Ver.di; Rainer Döring,
Ver.di-Bezirksvorstand, VL-Sprecher; Carla Boulboullé, ehem.
Landtagsabgeordnete in NRW, GEW; Axel Zutz, SPD, AfA-Landesvorstand;
Horst Raupp, SPD, AfA, DGB-Kreisvorstand; Michaël Altmann, SPD,
AfA-Bezirksvorstand, Ver.di-Bezirksfachbereichsvorstand; Ivica Granicz,
Juso-Sprecher; Silke Seitz, SPD-Stadtverordnete; H.-W. Schuster, SPD,
AfA-Landesvorstand, Ver.di; Cornelia Matske, ehem. Landtagsabgeordnete
in Sachsen; Gaby Hahn, SPD, AfA-Landesvorstand; Matthias Altmann, ver.transet,
Gewerkschaftssekretär im Regionalteam Südost; Hartmut Limbeck, Ver.di
NRW; Max Koroschetz, SPD, AfA-Landesverstand, IG BCE - Great Britain:
Andy Ballard, secretary, Somerset regional committee and member of
national leadership of university union ATL; Dr. Jeffrey Boss, member,
university union AUT, University of Bristol; Collette Bradford, on
behalf of trade union council of Calderdale; Stefan Cholewka, editor, The
Link; Robert Corfe, Labour Councillor Bury St. Edmunds; Warren
Elison, on behalf of trade union council of Calderdale; Mark Holinrake,
delegate TGWU, Labour Party Rochdale branch; Bill Holdsworth, union
Amicus-AEEU retired workers section, member of national retired
convention; Helen Peters, London University, vice-president of NATFHE
section; Robin Rankin, Labour Party Rochdale branch; Christine Talyor,
women commission secretary, Labour Party Rochdale branch; Sue Wilks,
researcher, University of Leeds - Italy: Renata Emanuel, teacher,
Turin; Vanna Ventre, teacher, Turin; Rita Defeudis, Education trade
unionist CISL-scuola, Milan; Guido Montanari, Architecture University
Teacher, Turin; Lorenzo Varaldo, Education trade unionist, UIL-scuola,
Turin - Portugal: Carmelinda Pereira, former deputy in the
Constituent Assembly, teacher, POUS; Aires Rodrigues, former deputy in
the Constituent Assembly, former leader of Socialist Party, POUS; José
Julio Santana, member, Lisbon Workers' Commissions - Romania:
Florin Constantin, Tribuna Sociala paper; Tiberiu Cozma, National
Workers Federation; Constantin Cretan, mine trade unionist LIGNITUL
Rovinari; Cretan Ileana, member, local council Rovinari; Marian Tudor,
Association for Workers Emancipation; Paul-Gabriel Vasile, Movement of
Revolutionary Youth - Serbia: Jacim Milunovic, Izvrsni odbor
Nezavisnog sindikata DD "Morava", Cacak; Dragan S. Savic,
Nezavisni sindikat DD "Morava", Cacak; Srecko Albic, SPRS
"Nezavisnost", Cacak; Milan Duric, SSS "Zelnid",
Smederevo; Jovan Andelkovic, Glavni odbor Sindikata prosvetnih radnika
Srbije "Nezavisnost", Belgrade; Vesna Kobiljski, Nezavisni
sindikat "Minos", Novi Sad; Perovic Miodrag, BIP-PIVARA, Cacak,
poverenik Nezavisnog sindikata; Nebojsa Komanovic, RPS, Belgrade; Milan
Katic, SSS JKP, Jagodina; Vranic Sendo, Nezavisni sindikat JP "Komunalac",
Cacak; Tutunovic Ljiljana, Nezavisni sindikat JKP "Cacak",
Cacak; Cvetic Miodrag, Izvrsni odbor Nezavisnog sindikata "Sloboda",
Cacak; Slobodan Bojovic, sekretar IO SSS OO "Grafopromet",
Cacak; Toma Repec, NS "Froteks", Uzice; Urosevic Mirjana,
Izvrsni odbor Nezavisnog sindikata "Sloboda", Cacak; Kovaevic
Predrag, Izvrsni odbor Nezavisnog sindikata "AD Tehnos", Cacak;
Plazinic Ilija, Izvrsni odbor Nezavisnog sindikata "AD Tehnos",
Cacak; Pavlusko Imsirovic, Radnicki politicki savez, Belgrade; Ana
Imsirovic, Studentska federacija, Belgrade; Bosko Ljubinkovic, SSS BU,
Belgrade - Spain: Rafael Aguilera, civil service trade unionist
UGT, Barcelona; José Almela, trade unionist MCA UGT Castellón; Antonio
Amaro, health care trade unionist Sevilla; Antonio Bautista, public
function trade unionist, member Confederal Committee, CCOO; Jesús Béjar,
metalworker trade unionist CCOO; Ángel Campabadal, trade unionist;
FES-UGT Barcelona; Francisco Cepeda, Graphic Arts trade unionist, CCOO;
Alberto Elosúa Alvarado, trade unionist FeS-UGT Basque Country; Luis
González, healthcare trade unionist CCOO Sevilla; Luis Lozano, civil
service trade unionist UGT Valencia; Mª Ester Malpartida, trade
unionist MCA-UGT B; Ventura Montalbán, building trade unionist
Valencia; Blas Ortega, civil service trade unionist UGT; Jesús Mª Pérez,
trade unionist chemical industry UGT, Basque country; Alfonso Porras,
trade unionist Graphic Arts CCOO, Madrid; Enrique Sánchez Collado,
trade unionist UGT Castellón; Conrad Soria, civil service trade
unionist, UGT, Catalonia; Roberto Tornamira, trade unionist FES-UGT
Madrid; José Miguel Villa, services trade unionist, UGT, Madrid - Switzerland:
Alexandre Anor, Socialist Party member; Alain Charbonnier, Socialist
Party member of Parliament; Guy Chassagnon, metalworker trade unionist
Geneva; Luc Deley, civil service trade unionist; Michel Gindrat,
editorial council of UCPO's Journal; Jacques Robert, building trade
unionist; Max Robert, Education trade unionist; Françoise
Schenk-Gottret, Socialist Party member of Parliament; Jean Clivaz,
former president of rail workers union; Vincent Leggiero, trade unionist
city transport; Daniel Hofer, metal trade unionist (FTMH); Christian
Brunier, Socialist Party member of parliament (Geneva) - Ukraine:
Liudmila Chekalenko, Education trade unionist.
********************
Appeal to rail workers around the world
We, the undersigned, rail workers from France, Germany and Japan
appeal to all rail workers around the world.
Our Japanese comrades have informed us of most serious attacks
organised by the Japanese authorities against the independence of the
Japanese Rail workers Union (JRU).
These attacks breach the provisions of ILO Convention 87, of which Japan
is a ratifying member, and which states:
" Workers' and employers' organisations shall have the right
to draw up their constitutions and rules, to elect their representatives
in full freedom, to organise their administration and activities and to
formulate their programmes. The public authorities shall refrain from
any interference which would restrict this right or impede the lawful
exercise thereof (article 3). In this Convention the term organisation
means any organisation of workers or of employers for furthering and
defending the interests of workers or of employers (article 10).
Under the pretext of a minor incident, the Japanese authorities
used the criminal law to detain seven members of the JRU, thereby
breaching the provisions of both ILO Convention 87 and of the Japanese
law which bans any interference by the state authorities into trade
union affairs.
Those JRU members have now been detained for seven and a half months.
On 12 June, the union's offices were searched by the police, who
confiscated trade union documents.
We call on railworkers all over the world to organise an international
campaign for the release of the seven members of the JRU by addressing
motions, petitions, telegrams to the Japanese authorities:
- For the immediate release of the JRU 7!
- Drop all charges against the JRU 7!
- Comply with the provisions of ILO 87!
First endorsers
Pierre Besse railworker, trade unionist France, Alain
Saint-André railworker,trade unionist France, Klaus Schuller
Railworker, trade unionist DGB Thuringe Germany, O Yomono General
Secretary Japanese Railworkers Union JRU
Contact address:
Commission Cheminots du Parti des Travailleurs, 87 rue du Faubourg Saint
Denis, 75010 Paris France,
E mail: daniel.collin@wanadoo.fr
This appeal was launched by railworkers participating in the
International Conference of Trade Unionists In Defence of ILO
Conventions, held in Geneva on 15 June 2003 at the initiative of the ILC
********************.
Philippines
Solidarity letter of Philippine rail workers to Japanese rail workers
Mr. Yuji Oda
President, JRU
(Japanese rail workers union)
Dear comrade Oda,
We are ver sorry that police harass your organisation and your leaders,
to the extent of labelling you as extremists. I remember that JREU was
also the victim of harassment and Mr. Matsuzaki himself was physically
attacked when we visited you in Japan.
I believe that the authorities have got bad information or else they do
not know what extremism is. Yes, you are an extremist for warmongers, as
in the case of unjustified war on Iraq; you are an extremist for those
who do not believe in peace for this world; you are an extremist for
those who do not share your principles and your ideas. God, master of
this globe, created a world of men equal and free.
Rail workers of Philippines are convinced that you do not deserve the
police harassment you and your organisation are the victims of. We know
you are unjustly persecuted because we have known your organisation for
a long time by now and, in your actions, as well in Japan as abroad we
have never seen, anything which could justify the accusation of being
extremists.
What we do know is that we are united to demand peace in the world and
we supported your appeal against the attempt of the Japanese government
to change the Japanese Constitution and suppress Article 9. We the
Philippine have been the victims of unfair war; many of our fellow
citizens suffered at the hands of Japanese aggressors, hundred of
thousands innocent people were killed, that was a loss of precious human
lives.
I went to Hiroshima and I saw the photos of victims of the A bomb
dropped by Americans. Innocent civilians having no part at all in the
Japanese government decision to enter war and attack so many countries
became the victims of the American counter-attack. It was not the
Japanese government that suffered when bombs were dropped on Hiroshima
and Nagasaki, but innocent men, women and children that had nothing to
do with war.
Because of these experiences peoples around the world must work hand in
hand to oppose each and every war and to fight for peace. JRU and JREU
are among the brave organisations struggling for peace. Instead of
attacking you, people should be grateful that there are organisations
and militants like you striving their hardest in favour of peace; they
should support you.
Edmund Burke, the famous Irish-born British statesman said "the
only way for evil to win is that philanthropists do nothing".
Indeed, we are not philanthropists but what we are doing is for
everybody's good, because we do not want our lives to be ruined again by
the evil of war. No, never more. Good luck for all your struggles and
please receive our support.
Best wishes,
Edgar P. Bilayon
General Secretary,
Philippine rail workers union
*********************
Peru
"Toledo government, sold out to IMF, launches economic war on
workers and nation"
Editorial of El Trabajo, open tribune of class struggle, issue 179,
April 2003
While Bush's imperialistic government decided on its own to
bomb Iraq, leaving aside the facade of the UN and of world governability,
now collapsed, while the Anglo-Saxon / North American coalition invades
and terrorizes the Iraqi people, slaughters children and elderly and
tears apart this nation amid the protest of millions of workers and
citizens that scream "No to the War!"; while the installation
of a puppet government is prepared to force Iraq into becoming a
protectorate, a North American military viceroyalty, a new international
model that is today being tested out in the Persian Gulf, in continuity
with Kosovo and Afghanistan. Simultaneously, here in Peru, the
Toledo-Silva-Ruete government, bought off by the IMF, launches an
economic war against the workers and the nation through the Program
Letter of March 17, sent to Horst Kohlen, Director General of the IMF.
According to the Program Letter itself (in continuity with the Letters
of Intention that Fujimori approved) this one contains "the
policies that will be adopted", that will be applied in 2003, it is
fair to say, to the benefit of the IMF and at the cost of the Peruvian
people and the workers.
What is the substance of this new Letter of Intention that is so much to
the liking of the IMF?
Point 3 glorifies the selective tax on the consumption (ISC) of
petroleum derived products". (Translated this means taxes on
gasoline).
Point 4 outlines the continuation of privatization policies via the
Program for the Promotion of Private Investment (PPPI) but using
regional governments to complete the dismantlement of the national
wealth and public services: water, health, public education, etc.
Point 8 orders "No Increase in Wages." And in this same goal
decrees the punctual payment of the foreign debt to the IMF and
prohibits "the accumulation of back payments of external public
debt" (2,200 million dollars in the 2003). Thus the fight for wages
should be positioned as a fight against Toledo and the IMF, that is to
say, anti-imperialist.
Point 11 mandates the elimination of regional exonerations.
Point 19 determines the continuation of the reduction in the "average
tariff level" on the path towards the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the
Americas) in 2006, thus destroying the national market in favor of the
North American multinationals.
And point 20 reconfirms that "the government will continue working
in favor of the strengthening of governability." It is safe to say
that this refers to the National Agreement on Governability signed on
July 22 by all of the "official" parties that were represented
at the Congress of the Republic, the CONFIEP and the majority leadership
of the CGTP.
What did the heads of the political parties, the congressional
representatives and the presidents of regional government say about the
Letter to the IMF?
Nothing! They are convinced that "into a closed mouth, no flies
will enter" [folk saying-i.e. they are better off keeping quiet)
and that their silence will help the Toledo government stay in power
until 2006.
The new Letter of Intention clearly illustrates that the IMF demands
that the government accelerate the war and exploitation of the workers
and of the entire nation.
But the IMF and the government have done the balance sheet of the
"Arequipazo," the National University Strike and the National
Civil Construction Strike and they know the deep fragility and the
incapacity of the governing party "Peru Possible" of
controlling this tendency of the masses to head towards social
convulsion. It is to counterbalance the political weakness of the party
in power that they need the help of the leadership apparatuses of all of
the "official" parties, the CONFIEP and mainly the CGTP to
"try" to establish minimal stability on the Toledo regime
until 2006.
This is why they are betting on the reinforcement of governability (that
is to say the policies of the "National Agreement").
Governability to continue executing the anti-national and famine-causing
General Budget of the Republic.
Governability to direct the "Taxes on gasoline."
Governability to facilitate privatizations
Governability to block union pressures for wage increases.
Governability to achieve the faithful payment of the foreign debt.
Governability to impose the elimination of regional exonerations.
Governability to ratify the FTAA.
It is fair to say that this governability is aimed at destroying the
conquests of the workers and the nation and that the method of
regionalization is one of its resources.
What should the majority leadership of the CGTP do then, inside this
trap of the National Agreement for Governability? "El
Trabajo" says that the leadership of the CGTP should
definitively leave the National Agreement and occupy its place in the
independent terrain that has marked the "Arequipazo" and the
fight of the Civil Construction workers, the sugarcane workers of
Pucala, Casagrande, the farmers of the center of the country and the
truck drivers.
It is to help this independent process of the workers and to discuss the
necessity of constituting an Independent Labor Party based on the CGTP
and the fronts of defense, that the signatories of the motion approved
on October 19 in the National Assembly of the CGTP, met in Lima on May
31. The had been encouraged by the experience of the Brazilian masses
that placed the PT in the government in order to break with the policies
of the IMF and to satisfy the demands of the workers and the nation.
*******************
Burundi
"Crisis in the University of Burundi"
Article from the New Visions newspaper
The crisis that has shaken the University of Burundi for almost
three months has just reached a happy outcome for the workers in the
heart of the Union of Workers of the University of Burundi (STUB).
Indeed, the highest authorities in the country have just broken their
silence, urging the Rector of the University of Burundi, Didace-Olivier
Nimpagartise to satisfy the main demands of the workers.
Thus, through a letter dated May 28, 2003, the head of the Civil Cabinet
of the Presidency of the Republic, Ambassador Aloys Mbonayo, just
recommended to the Rector of the University that he enact four main
measures. They are:
… To reinstate the personnel of the University Works Administration to
their former positions, with the cooks on the Mutanga campus possibly
being moved provisionally to the other university restaurants on the
Kiriri and Kamenge campuses;
…
… To manage the UB library according to the procedure in place
previous to the strike that began in February 2003;
…
… To pay wages for the months of March, April and May to all
University staff and, finally;
…
… To establish a permanent structure for consultation and dialogue to
prevent misunderstandings and to allow the University to return to
normal functioning.
…
Immediately after the publication of these measures, the workers
returned to work.
The crisis in the University of Burundi had reached such proportions
that it had taken on an international dimension. In that sense, the
International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples, headquartered in
Paris (France), on Faubourg-Saint Denis Street, had published in their
International Newsletter of May 12, 2003 a petition on the threats
against Mr. Paul, President of the STUB. The petition that had started
with the STUB, concludes with the formulation: "Hands Off Paul
Nkunzimana and the Strike Committee!"
The strike that paralyzed the activities in the University of Burundi
originated with the consistent practice of only increasing the wages of
the educational workers, to the other workers' detriment. The measure
improved the wage base for the superior categories by 70% and the lowest
categories by 30%. The objective of the measure was what the academic
authorities have called the "stabilization" of the careers of
educational personnel. And as a result the minimum load of academic
hours for an associate professor and for an ordinary professor has
increased by at least 30 hours.
Also, on May 19, 2003, the current Minister of National Education,
Prosper Mpawenayo, after a long period of silence, organized a meeting,
supposedly to "reestablish the dialogue between the STUB and the
Address of the University." The meeting finished with a patent
failure. From then on, the STUB has never ceased implicating the
Minister of Security in the bad administration of the dossier.
With the recommendation that emanates from the Presidency of the
Republic, it has been Paul Nkunzimana who has "left, head raised
high, through the big door", while the Rector of the University,
Didace-OIivier Nimpagaritse as well as the Minister of Security, Prosper
Mpawenayo have come out humiliated, as they have been, essentially,
de-authorized by the Chief of State.
In other places, they would face the logical consequences that come from
bad administration and resign before they are plain and simply fired
from their respective functions, since, in other places, their behavior
is called incompetence. But, in this country, things generally don't
work that way.
Juvénal Nzeyimana
(Wednesday, June 4 of 2003)
----------
Message to the International Meeting in Defense of ILO Convention, in
Defense of Trade Union Independence, held in Geneva on June 15, 2003
Paul Nkunzimana, president of the Free Union of the Workers of the
University of Burundi (STUB-COSYBU), sent a message to the International
Conference in defense of the conventions of the ILO and in defense of
the independence of labor organizations, in Geneva, on June 15 2003.
Having been forbidden to travel by his country's authorities as a
reprisal for the three-month strike that has taken place in the
University of Burundi, he was not able to participate in the conference.
The message below explains the conditions of the strike and the victory
of the workers in winning their demands.
I had wanted to participate in this conference to which I had been
invited by the Union of Circles for Workers' Policies in Switzerland and
the International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples, but at this
time I am the victim of a measure prohibiting me from traveling, issued
by the authorities of the University of Burundi.
This prohibition is, in fact, a reprisal measure as a consequence of the
strike in the University of Burundi that has lasted three months (from
March to May of 2003) and at the end of which the workers achieved the
satisfaction of their wage and statute demands through a decision by the
Presidency of the Republic against the Minister of National Education
and the leadership of the University of Burundi.
This first victory in the terrain of the struggle for the defense of the
public university has only been made possible by the mobilization of the
workers of the University of Burundi in unity with their union - STUB -,
the support of the unions of Burundi, in particular those from the
National Education sector who threatened to give a strike notice on the
same demands, and the support of the International Liaison Committee of
Workers and Peoples and the organizations affiliated to it.
The experience of the struggle for the satisfaction of our demands and
for the defense of the social conquests and public services of Burundi
shows that we have raised the imperious necessity of union reunification
in the COSYBU (Confederation of Unions of Burundi) for the defense of
these demands, of union independence and of the conventions of the ILO.
Brothers and sisters, the genocidal war undertaken by American
imperialism in Iraq has had no objective other than the physical
destruction of the Iraqi population and nation, the destruction of their
norms and social conquests, and the control of the petroleum by the
multinationals, led by the Americans.
In Burundi, the genocidal war and the dislocation are founded on the
execution of the devastating plans of the World Bank, the IMF, the
European Union, the multinationals, of the global powers and of the UN,
with more than 300 000 dead since 1999, it destroys the norms and the
conventions of the ILO.
Thus, in favor of the privatizations and of payment of the foreign debt,
in a country in which more than 80% of the population lives in
conditions of extreme poverty, the government seeks to destroy the very
existence of independent labor organizations through the restriction of
union rights and the limitation of the right to strike in the public
sector (law number 1/015 of November 29, 2002 that regulates the
exercise of union rights and the right to strike in the public sector).
The Burundi labor movement, in whose center the COSYBU is located, has
the urgent task of fighting for the repeal of this law.
Fraternal greetings
In Bujumbura, June 13 2003
Paul Nkunzimana,
President of the Executive Board of the STUB-COSYB
********************
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