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A dossier of weekly information published by the International Liaison
Committee of Workers and Peoples ----- Introduction: United States: The Workers Emergency Recovery Campaign (WERC) is organizing a Teach-in on May 9 in a context where the restructuring of the car industry is threatening thousands of jobs, the workers' pensions, and the very existence of the union. We are publishing excerpts from the April 2009 issue of the Unity and Independence publication. Mexico: On April 23, Mexico announced an outbreak of influenza. Today twenty countries are affected, according to World Health Organization (WHO). You will find an interview with Luis Villalobos Vasquez, editor of El Trabajo, newspaper of the Independent Democratic Workers Party of Mexico. Italy: We are publishing a correspondence concerning the fight against layoffs in Italy. Romania: You will find an interview with Constantine Niculaïe, publisher of "Tribuna sociala", the newspaper of activists of the ILC. Poland: "Thousands of railroad and shipyard workers protest against layoffs." We are printing a correspondence. China: May 1 and the fight for the right to organize freely. ----- Table of Contents: p. 1: Overview. ----- Contact Informations internationales ****************************** UNITED STATES
As we go to press, the government-appointed task force on the auto crisis, headed by investment banker Steven Rattner, has just announced a debt-for-equity restructuring plan at General Motors. It is said to be a last bid to avoid bankruptcy. In fact, it is part of a "controlled bankruptcy" plan aimed at destroying the autoworkers' union and further dismantling the U.S. auto industry. Under the plan, GM would shut 13 of 47 plants by the end of next year. Seven thousand jobs would be lost immediately, with an additional 14,000 jobs lost by the end of 2010. This would reduce GM's U.S. workforce from 61,000 to 40,000. The company also would cut its U.S. dealership network from 6,200 to 3,600, resulting in the loss of tens of thousands of additional jobs. GM bondholders have till May 28 to approve this plan; otherwise GM "will seek relief through the U.S. bankruptcy code." Most analysts note, however, that even if this plan goes through, bankruptcy is looming just around the corner. GM's restructuring plan would leave the government and a healthcare trust managed by the United Auto Workers union with 89% of the company's equity. This means that the UAW leadership would become a financial partner of the very financial institutions that are dismantling the industry and destroying the union.
On Jan. 12, the San Francisco Labor Council adopted an Economic Crisis Report that included the following recommendation in relation to the auto industry:
Eight days later, on Jan. 20, Inauguration Day, more than 500 unionists and activists sent a letter to President Obama calling for a Workers' Emergency Recovery Campaign. Point No. 5 of the 10-point platform demanded, "Stop the layoffs in auto and other industries across the country. Nationalize the Big 3 automakers. Re-tool the auto industry to build rapid mass transit, solar, and wind systems." The UAW must reject becoming a partner in the bosses' assault on their jobs and rights. To preserve a re-tooled auto industry and its workforce, to ensure that all laid-off workers can return to work immediately with a union contract at union scale, and to defend the UAW, the Obama administration must nationalize the Big 3 and place the management of the companies under the control of an elected labor-community board. The autoworkers, their union, and the entire labor movement must demand this. Anything less will mean the further destruction of jobs and entire communities. And it will mean a major blow to the entire trade union movement. We are publishing in this section excerpts from articles that shed further light on this devastating situation and the need for a concerted fightback in defense of independent trade unionism.
Reducing the work-week to 32 hours without loss in pay makes a lot
more sense because it saves jobs. Some may look over the full agreement
and conclude they have to vote for a bad contract because at least they
might be able to hang on to their job. But we know this isn't the first
set of concessions and it won't be the last. If we stand back and "look
at this picture," we know we cannot solve the economic crisis by
further cuts in our wages, benefits and working conditions. ... Chrysler: Stop the Concessions! 4/29/09 This is how I view the Chrysler concessions (not to say, armed robbery): As a Chrysler retiree, I look first at the VEBA. I recall that we retirees were assured in 2007 that it would last 80 years. Now we lose all dental and vision coverage as of July 1, 2009, and an independent expert says in the Free Press that the VEBA, our entire health coverage, will last only 6 years. We are to be reassured by the fact that the VEBA will own 55% of the equity in Chrysler, an "equity" which Daimler has already written down to zero on its own books. Madoff would be proud. It is an awesome thing to watch a Democratic Party president enforce such terms on us, while having unconditionally bailed out undeserving banks with $100 billion dollars. My heart goes out to the active workers who already work at punishing speeds. Their relief time will be cut back. After two hours of work they will get 13 minutes break instead of 16; after another 1.5 hours another 13 minutes rather than 16. Their attendance procedure will be more strict. Their work methods and organization will have to match Toyota's. Their seniority right to bid on individual jobs is cancelled, replaced by only the right to change work teams. The dates of two of their vacation weeks will be dictated by the company. No overtime premiums will be paid until the 41st hour worked in a week -- in other words, 12 hour days at straight time will soon prevail, especially for trades. Not to mention the wage freeze through 2015 and the loss of all supplemental pay such as COLA, Christmas bonuses and productivity bonuses -- all of which were themselves substitutes for what used to be, in the dim distant past, yearly 3 per cent base pay raises. The two-tier wage structure is frozen regarding wages and widened regarding hiring. All workers hired through September 2015 will start at $14 and remain there at least until 2015. The company is also freed to use TPTs as they wish. Workers under 20 years' seniority receive lesser and lesser steps of SUB pay. Options are reduced regarding right to decline distant job offers. The company achieves its long-sought goal of completely collapsing skilled trades classifications into Electrical and Mechanical only. Perhaps the item I most hate is that our right to decide on our own contracts is cancelled until September 2015. The 2011 contract will be decided by top-level negotiations and then if necessary by binding arbitration -- where the arbitrator is already directed to take into account the labor costs of the non-union transplant car companies. This is a slave labor contract. As the Canadian Chrysler workers said, the active workers must vote with "a cannon to our heads" thanks to government, banks, and corporate collusion, and thanks to a UAW leadership which leads us ever farther from the militant attitudes of those who successfully built our union. And our union was built in far more difficult days and circumstances. Solidarity,
ITALY Throughout Europe, join us for the prohibition of layoffs, for a break with the European Union Unemployment explosion In Italy, there were officially 370,561 additional unemployed in January and February ; 500 000 unemployed are announced over the coming months. The April 4 rally in Rome That day, 2.5 million workers, retirees and young people from across Italy demonstrated in response to the call of the CGIL to say: "No to the government policy, enough layoffs, we want to live ! In this rally, Epifani, Secretary General of the CGIL, told the government: "We need effective blocking of layoffd" for 2009 and 2010. He also said: "We are right, nothing can replace the national collective contract for us, it is a matter of principle. " Indeed, on January 22, 2009, the CGIL confederation was the only confederation that refused to sign the reform of national collective contract - which calls into question their national character in favor of company agreements. This position earned scathing criticism from the so-called European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC). Unions The Trade unions in Italy are the Italian Confederation of Workers
(CGIL), the Italian Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and the
Union of Italian Workers (UIL). The IMF, Italian Federation of Metalworkers,
is the largest federations of the CGIL. It was behind the rejection
of the "modernization" of the national contract, that is,
the defense of the national collective contract that applies to all
companies from the North to the South of Italy. Since the fall of the Prodi government (which was supported by all parties "left", Democratic Party, Communist Refoundation Party and its various currents, including Sinistra Critica and PDCI), Italy has been ruled by a majority consisting of the party of Berlusconi and the Northern League of Umberto Bossi, who called openly for the break up of Italy. None of the parties who raise the banner of workers' interests are now represented in Parliament. The PD (Democratic Party) has MPs. It is a party that was formed during a merger of DS (formerly PCI) and the Christian Democrats. Report from workers in Turin In Italy, the Committee in defense of public services, defense of the unity of the Republic, and against the European Union has decided to run in the next provincial elections (which corresponds to the departments in France) on June 7, a slate: "Unity for the Prohibition of Layoffs" in the province of Turin (northern region). This list is made up of militants linked to the ILC, workers, trade unionists, and activists. To run a slate, you must collect 1,000 formal signatures, certified by an officer upon presentation of proof of identity. In a few weeks more than 1,200 signatures were collected at schools, markets, workplaces, at Fiat Mirafiori, Saint-Gobain ... The report that we were sent, conducted between April 28 and 30 at the doors of the Fiat Mirafiori factory in Turin, and major subcontractors, is a contribution to the event set to be held in Paris on May 16 for the prohibition of layoffs and for the break with the EU and its treaties that destroy everything. Fiat is the largest private company in Italy (82,000 employees, including 30,000 in the car industry), it is the bastion of the working class. In recent weeks, it has been at the center of a massive auto restructuring offensive, involving Italy, Germany and the United States. On April 30, U.S. President Obama formalized a partnership between Fiat and Chrysler, a company placed under the U.S. bankruptcy. The U.S. government forced the leadership of the UAW union to sign an agreement cutting the collective contract and social protection for workers at Chrysler. The CEO of Fiat, Sergio Marchionne, then entered into discussions for the acquisition of General Motors/Opel, based on the closure of one of four plants of Opel in Germany. As for the maintenance of Fiat plants in Italy, CEO Marchionne said in late March: "I can not give any response. " This was just before two million workers demonstratd in Rome, on April 4, in a protest called by the CGIL trade union, which includes the federation of metal, the IMF, which is at the center of the struggle today. At the gates of the Fiat Mirafiori factory in Turin This April 30, we were at the entrance of the iconic Fiat Mirafiori in Turin: the body, a strategic sector of the plant. There are a lot of workers. We began the discussion the discussions from this inquiry: "Sign for unity for the prohibition of layoffs." A worker takes the leaflet without stopping, reads it, and walks back to sign. In half an hour, 15 do this, in addition to the 1,200 who have already signed. That is what they say: "We have already seen layoffs for five
weeks. There is a need for the prohibition of layoffs, otherwise what
will we do if we are next? The discussion takes place: around what to do. The parties may, if they want, introduce a bill in Parliament. The slate is the way to organize for this solution. Discussion with Dario, CGIL delegate in a chemical shop The company of Dario, CGIL delegate, manufactures plastic components mainly for Fiat. Dario was in the Communist Youth, and in the movements, then in the Greens and he gave back his membership card. He explains: "At the event of the CGIL, April 4 in Rome, nobody thought that there would so many people. We must block the layoffs, that's for sure. We must defend the population. Berlusconi pays billions to the rich and taxes the poor. There is also a problem: the agreement signed between the CISL, UIL, Confindustria (the organization) and the government to destroy the national collective agreement. It is workers who pay the consequences. The CGIL has not signed. Luckily, it does not sit in Parliament and it can defend the prohibition of the dismissals. It is the only opposition force. It occupies a space that is not its own: in the political sphere. So there is a problem of political representation for workers. There is a serious crisis of the left-wing parties. There is a vacuum. Workers lack a political party representing the workers. I am an anti-fascist and I consider that these principles are still valid. In 1945, the struggles for the liberation of Italy were a turning point for the construction of the nation. We must return to this." He agreed on the following: "Unity for the Prohibition of dismissal, defense of national trade union confederations, defend the unity of the Republic, break with Maastricht and the union of free peoples of Europe. " The view of Vittorio De Martino, secretary of the FIOM-CGIL Fiat Mirafiori They were simply laid off. These are 500,000 workers. There is not only a social need to block the layoffs, but it is also a question of democratic balance. We must not forget that in the 1930s, Nazism and fascism were born of mass unemployment. The risks are many. There is also the question of maintaining the industrial fabric. Prohibit employers from dismantling the plants and the industrial fabric. Prevent layoffs. In Italy, there is no Left any more. It is a dramatic problem. What is left of the classical left? Not much! Franceschini (General Secretary of the PD) comes from the Christian Democracy, this has nothing to do with the movement. There is therefore a risk of an authoritarianism, fragmentation. The IMF-CGIL has not signed the "reform" of the national collective agreement. The workers understand that this agreement means the fragmentation of the labor contract and a decline in purchasing power. In addition, there is a system of waivers for a company, to sign an agreement to lower the national collective agreement! Without the IMF, the CGIL cannot continue to fight. The government and Confindustria want to destroy the IMF to incorporate the CGIL in a consensus. But we are an organized force independent. The PCI and the PS have disappeared. Without political support, the union is weak. We lack a party representing the working class. I add this: there is a huge job to be done to coordinate, at European level, the trade union struggles. But watch out for the ETUC, which is not a traditional trade union! " Here are the views of Passarino Pietro, a member of the secretariat of the FIOM-CGIL Turin: "On February 13 and April 4, we demonstrated by the millions in Rome to block the layoffs, to defend national collective agreements in the private and the public sector. No party has argued in Parliament in support of these demands. There is no political voice for workers. We are experiencing the worst crisis that we have known and there is no Left alternative (...). How we will rebuild the labor movement is important: the defense of the national collective agreement is essential. The challenge is either a union that accompanies the destruction, or a union that defends the demands of workers, and that is what we do. This is valid both in Italy and Europe. " The view of Giorgio Airaudo, general secretary of the FIOM-CGIL Turin and a member of the National Leadership: "Without a national contract, workers are weak. The national contract is a conquest of the Steelworkers. In this crisis, no plant should be closed because once it is closed, it is never re-opened. Fight to block the layoffs, this is the only guarantee for the future. " Discussion in front of the factory Saint-Gobain, Savigliano The Saint-Gobain plant in Savigliano, has been closed for a month as a result of a management decision. The plant manufactures glass for the automotive industry, especially for Fiat. For the past month, twenty-four hours a day, workers and trade unions have organized at the plant against the 500 job cuts that have been announced. We attented and the meeting was held under a tent erected in front of the factory. With Labor News (France), I explained the situation in France and the meaning of the struggle for unity for a law to ban layoffs. Workers want to know what is going on with Sarkozy, what happened at Continental, Caterpillar, and about the kidnappings. The workers responded: "Tell the workers in France that this is the real Italy. We organized a day for a boycott of French products in a supermarket, not against the French workers, but to make our struggle heard and to try to lift the censorship. We are in solidarity with the French workers. We are victims of the same system. We did not want globalization. We know that Saint-Gobain wants to close all its plants in Italy. They have received millions of public money to and now they close! All governments in the countries of Europe do the same thing: destroy jobs and workers' rights. We need unity of workers in Europe to say: Basta! " - A delegate ICFTU: "No person must be laid-off. This week, we will demonstrate at the headquarters of Saint-Gobain, in Milan and then to Rome; we asked to be received by the Minister of Industry. " - CGIL delegate: "We pay the policy of all governments that have sold out Italy. We need laws to control business. Laws that can prevent relocation. Strikes are fragmented and fail. In an extraordinary situation like this, to end "layoffs", full unity is needed." The view of a trade unionist of the FIOM-CGIL Fiat Mirafiori: "There is a problem of democracy: they do not worry about the opinions of workers. The IMF-CGIL did not sign the national contract. We held our own referendum: Millions participated: 90% said no to reform. At Mirafiori, there was a unique thing never seen before seen. The workers left their jobs to come and vote no by 97%. Yet the agreement has been signed by CISL and UIL leaders! How can we work to impose the will of the workers? The rapprochement between Chrysler and Fiat benefits the company, not the workers. We remain in uncertainty as to the continued operation of plants in Italy. An example: 500 employees of the research center here in Turin have been on technical unemployment for 13 weeks. And after? We cannot rely on political parties to defend the blocking of layoffs. Political parties are divided and pulverized. Franceschini, the secretary general of the Democratic Party (PD), was present at the April 4 event in Rome. It's positive, but it must be clarified. Currently, the PD can not introduce legislation to prohibit the dismissal, because its positions are contradictory. Who struggles to prohibit layoffs? We are seeing resistance like 1945: On April 25, a day of national holiday to commemorate the liberation of Italy, Marchione (Fiat CEO) decided to force the workers to work. The IMF called for the strike and it was very well attended. On May 16 in Turin, at the call of the IMF, there will be held in Turin a national demonstration to defend the jobs at Fiat. " ************************* ROMANIA Workers reject a 10% cut in the public budget Interview with Constantine Niculaïe, publisher of "Tribuna
sociala," the ILC: How is the global crisis affecting Romania? Romania has experienced the third highest inflation rate in the European Union countries (6.7% over the year, compared to 1.3% in the EU according to figures of Eurostat). On March 25, Romania signed an agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Union for a loan of 19.95 billion euros, in exchange for a 10% reduction all public expenses. ILC: What are the consequences for workers? For teachers (who begin their career at 230 euros per month and are often victims of late payment of wages - not to mention the general price increase), the Government announced on April that it would only pay a 5% increase, while the powerful strikes of September forced parliament to vote unanimously for a 50% increase. A few days later, the Minister of Education announced that there would be no increase at all. Four teachers union federations have decided to call a strike on May 5. They also withdrew their agreement on the strategy of education and research that they had agreed to in October 2008. Over 80% of teachers supported the strike, which falls on days of examinations. Despite a hysterical campaign in the media, they are supported by their students and the public. ILC: The railways have also seen protests ? Indeed, March 20, the Minister of Transport announced the removal of 12,139 jobs for Romania Railways (CFR). But the minister failed to convince the railway unions to accept the plan accompanying it. They have instead declared their rejection of the plan and called on railway workers to protest on April 29 in Bucharest. There were 8,000 to 10,000 workers at the North Station in Bucharest, it was the largest trade union action since the Dacia strike (Renault) a year ago. ILC: You are the editor of The Social Tribune newspaper. The Social Tribune is the newsletter of the Association for the emancipation of workers (AEM), which supports the ILC. The AEM and the National Labor Federation came together to commemorate May 1st, International Day of struggle of the working class, in a gathering that brought together 150 workers in the mining town of Rovinari. The appeal was unanimously adopted as follows: "They lied to teachers and now the teachers are rising up (...). The strike has been brought on by those who refuse to pay wages, not the teachers. They lied to the railroad workers and the railay workers have now decided to enter the fight (...). This situation is repeated throughout the industry. There is talk of hundreds of thousands of layoffs. To prevent them, we must follow the path opened by the railway and go to battle. We are told that we must make further sacrifices. We are told that we must make sacrifices because the stability pact adopted by the EU imposes a drastic reduction of the budget. Our answer is a categoric no! " ***************************** POLAND Thousands of railroad and shipyard workers protest layoffs The European Commission requires the liquidation of the shipyards. On Wednesday April 29 in Warsaw, thousands of railroad and shipyard workers demonstrated outside the Palace of Culture and Sciences, where the Polish Prime Minister participated in the congress of the European People's Party (EPP). Around noon, 5,000 railway workers marched in response to the call of the Solidarity trade union. The railway workers are demanding that the government help to company Panstwowe Koleje Polskie (Polish Railways) to absorb their debt and ensure the protection of jobs. Layoffs are taking place without even respecting the law on mass layoffs. At 5pm hours, there was a demonstration of some 2,000 workers in the Gdansk shipyards, in protest against the Polish government and the European Commission. The demonstrators demanded that the government act to protect the famous shipyards (the cradle of Solidarity in the early 1980s) against the decision of the European Commission to close them. Remember that in November 2008, the European Commission considered that the subsidies granted by the Polish government to shipyards in Gdynia and Szczecin were "illegal". The European Commission also finds public funds when it is time to bail out the banks. Brussels has given an ultimatum to the government that by June it must sell the two sites and to dismiss all workers. Brussels requires that revenue from this sale be used to "repay illegal state aid." The property was divided into shares and sold by pieces. This means that there is no guarantee that private investors will continue the production of boats. This is therefore a threat against the very existence of the shipbuilding industry in Poland. The event ended with brutal police repression (batons, tear gas): At least 25 trade unionists were injured, 10 protesters hospitalized, and two sent to intensive care. **************************** MEXICO The origin of the swine flu epidemic On April 23, Mexico announced an outbreak of influenza Twenty countries have been affected, according to World Health Organization (WHO) Fifteen-years of NAFTA and the dismantling of the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) and the entire public health service have deepened poverty and created the conditions for the development of the swine flu epidemic. We publish below an interview with Comrade Luis Vasquez Villalobos, editor of El Trabajo, journal of the Democratic Independent Workers Party. Interview ILC: How have the authorities responded to the epidemic? On Thursday April 23, at night, the Minister of Health, Cordoba Villalobos, acknowledged the existence of the epidemic of influenza caused by H1N1 virus, ten days after the first case. This is a new and serious problem for the Mexican people and the nation. "The health crisis faced by Mexico and some parts of the United States," said the newspaper La Jornada, "is in itself a risk factor for the national and global economy. It is worth recalling the estimates by the World Bank on the fact that a pandemic flu would mean the loss of some $ 30 billion and a fall of 5% of GDP." Based on this analysis, it appears that the focus of our concern should be the loss of 30 billion dollars (how many billions have been lost in the current crisis?) and not the loss of human lives. So far, there have been more than 100 deaths and over 1,600 people infected. What is central is that the spread of this epidemic in the country, the continent and beyond may cause much greater destruction of human beings, primarily poor people, who are in the worst conditions (hygiene, physical stamina), as consequences of poverty. The government spokesman Calderon presented the problem as purely natural and inevitable. A "new" virus made its appearance, which was unknown until now. This explanation is a half truth, i.e. a lie. ILC: What are the consequences of free trade agreements with the United States and Canada? In 1994, Salinas de Gortari said that with NAFTA Mexico would come into the developed world. Fifteen years later, we see how this treaty, which has meant the surrender of the country to imperialist multinationals, led to the dismantling of the peasantry and industry and consequently the development of poverty and malnutrition for key sectors of the Mexican people. In these conditions of increased poverty, is it strange that viruses have better conditions to reproduce and wreak havoc on the population? Throughout the last twenty-five years, all governments of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, and now the National Action Party, made the payment of public debt (external and internal ) - the debt that people have not contracted and which are not received - the priority of the national budget and they penalized ever more social spending. In recent years we have witnessed the gradual dismantling of the Institute of Social Security and Social Services for State Workers (ISSSTE), the IMSS, the Department of Safety (now called Health); there are institutions where a lack of drugs is common, with insufficient medical personnel to treat the thousands and thousands of patients, and where, for a consultation, it takes months. Is it strange, therefore, that the country is exposed to this type of epidemic? ILC: What is the solution? Beyond the present confusion and fear, the working people of Mexico will draw the necessary conclusions and to continue to develop resistance to this destructive policy that imposes a government completely subservient to imperialist interests. "It is necessary," say Lopez Obrador (candidate defeated by fraud in the presidential election of 2006 - Ed) "that the people continue to organize." Today, there is an urgent need to take the necessary measures to save people's lives, restore effective health services, and distribute medicice. To do this it is necessary to stop the payment of the debt and demand the return of money given to bankers and speculators. These are measures of national sovereignty which require a break with subordination to the North American imperialism and NAFTA/ ----- An extreme case: the Caroll company The multinational North American Smithfield Foods Inc., which is headquartered in Virginia, ceased any business activity in the United States because of the contamination of its pig products. The Mexican press reports that the company moved to Mexico in 1994, just before the introduction of the free trade agreement. The population of the town of Perote, in State of Veracruz (Mexico is a federal state) has, for many years, complained to the courts against this company because of the contamination produced by the farms located in a district of the city. On March 20, 2009, when the flu epidemic had not yet been declared, the municipal district of La Gloria (the town of Perote) requested assistance from the Ministry of Health of Mexico after finding that 60% of the population of this district were carriers of influenza symptoms. This area is adjacent to an artificial lagoon of a mix of animal excrement
and the carcasses of dead rotting animals. The regional delegation of
the Ministry of Health in Veracruz has announced that the origin of
the virus could very well come from this place.
Paris Appeal of May 1st 2009. * Everywhere throughout the world workers are faced with the consequences of the crisis of a system which is on no account their own system. No continent is spared. Whether it be the United States where 25,000 jobs are axed every day- according to official figures - or Brazil, where 300,000 jobs have already been lost, or France where 3,000 jobs have been lost every day since November. Everywhere labour is being destroyed; * In China by February 20 million migrant workers had been laid off
or were still looking for another job. Two months later that number
was estimated to have soared to 30 million; We have been informed that In China as a result of this situation the number of industrial disputes
has increased dramatically. Chinese activists report that not a day
passes without strikes and demonstrations: strikes in Chongqing and
Guangdong in the south of the country, conflicts in Linfen or Hebei
in the north Š * Real solutions will not be found unless the conditions of workers,
their families and the peoples are taken into account as a crucial question; We declare that * Workers wherever they live cannot be indifferent to the fate of
their Chinese brothers and sisters, to the fate of 350 million workers; We, labour activists, trade unionists, friends of the Chinese people,
gathered today on the eve of May Day, International Workers' Day, decide
to launch an international appeal for the creation of a "Committee
for Workers 'Rights in China" - by any means at our disposal communicate the information on workers' actions in China. - respond to any international appeal to solidarity with Chinese workers. - support any initiative that provides practical help for the Chinese labour movement as it is seeking its way. The "Committee for Workers 'Rights in China" being founded is independent of all governments and international institutions. It does not compete with any other organization. It will act on the basis of the strict observance of the international traditions of the labour movement, which require that workers give each other mutual help in solidarity beyond borders. First signers ALLIOT Jean-Pierre (journalist) * BESSE Pierre (syndicaliste cheminot)
* CHONGGUO Cai (China Labour Bulletin, France) * DELALONDRE Clarisse,
unionist EDF * DENIZO Alain (China Inquiry Comittee) * DESTENAY Jean-Louis,
unionist * DORIANE Olivier (ILC) * GAUDY Gabriel (unionist, Paris) *
GIROD Jacques (unionist, Paris) * HAYON Samy (unionist, Paris) * HOLZMAN
Marie * WEIJINGSHEN.
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