ILC
Intern@tional Newsletter No. 34
July 7th, 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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Table of Contents
- Presentation
- International campaign for workers rights in Iraq
- Situation in Iraq
- Kellog, Brown & Root, an American corporation in Iraq
- Toward the European meeting - Paris, September 20th and 21st
- Appeal from Greek, Yugoslav and Romanian militants
- Interview with Ngarmadjal Gami, General Secretary, Chad Teachers Union
(SET)
- Subscribe now
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Presentation: Toward the European Meeting of Sept. 21-22
Over the last 12 years, the people of Europe have experienced wars,
the break-up of states, ethnic cleansing, the mass elimination of jobs,
enormous waves of immigration and refugees, and foreign military
occupation in all its forms.
Based on this experience, but also on the resistance of the workers and
the people to these policies, we are responding to the call launched by
the International Liaison Committee of Workers for a European Conference.
This call arrived at a time in which the European Union has announced
that it is going to incorporate all of the Balkan countries. After the
entrance of Slovenia and Cyprus and after the designation of Romania,
Bulgaria and Turkey as candidates for entry, the European Council of
Thessalonica of June 19th and 20th of 2003 announced the opening up of
the integration process for the European Union to what they call the
"Western Balkans," that is to say, Croatia, Serbia,
Montenegro, Bosnia Herzegovina, the Macedonian Republic and Albania (it
should be remembered that Greece has been a member of the European
Community since 1981).
During the past weeks and months we have alerted the readers of the ILC
International Newsletter to the fact that the war unleashed on Iraq had
as its objective not just to question the interests and the rights of
the Iraqi people, but in fact was a war directed against all nations.
The break-up of nations has always been a weapon to destroy the
interests of the peoples, of the working class, as was unfortunately
demonstrated in the tragic example of the former Yugoslavia. In this
sense, each reader will be able to calculate the importance, in that
region desolated by war and ethnic cleansing, of the document drafted
jointly by Greek activists, Yugoslavian workers and Romanian as a
contribution to the European Conference of September 20th and 21st of
2003 that will take place in Paris.
We are proud to be able to introduce this document, also published in
the 1st issue of the Bulletin for the Union of Workers in the Balkans,
to our readers.
Please publicize its contents. Subscribe to the ILC International
Newsletter.
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Campaign for Labor Rights in Iraq
On June 14, 2003, in Geneva, representatives of US Labor Against War
(USLAW), the American labor movement against the war; as well as
representatives of the International Liaison Committee of Workers and
Peoples and from the International Confederation of Arab Trade Unions (ICATU)
met and decided to launch an "International Campaign for Labor
Rights in Iraq."
The call for this international campaign was presented to the
International Conference in Defense of the Conventions of the ILO and
for Labor Rights on June 15th in Geneva. This call was signed by the
delegates to the conference. It projects the organizing, at the
beginning of October, of an international labor delegation to Iraq.
The ILC International Newsletter will regularly inform its readers of
the developments of this campaign, of which they can become a part by
adding their organizational endorsements to those listed below.
We published this call in issue number 31 of the ILC International
Newsletter. Back orders can be sent upon request.
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
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Iraq: "Peace" While War Continues
"A war is on", said last week Republican Senator Joseph
Lugar, just back from a visit to American occupying forces in Iraq.
Senator Beldan, a Democrat, added: "There is a tremendous gap
between government forecasts and reality". It's an understatement.
On May 1st, in bomber jacket, President Bush proclaimed the end of
hostilities. Two months later, "war is on", and the number of
dead among American and British occupying forces exceeds sixty.
"Incidents" and clashes affect all Iraqi regions. Here it's a
guerrilla action, there a true popular uprising. In all cases, you can
find the Iraqi people's will to put an end to occupation.
American administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, a former intelligence agent,
points to "pockets of violence". But general Abizaid, second
commander of occupying forces, warns more soberly about "hard times
ahead for Americans".
Once Saddam was ousted by military force, and coalition forces settled
in Baghdad, what were the "forecasts" of American
administration, to use the words of the Democratic Senator?
There was no longer to be an Iraqi nation, no Iraqi people, there were
only Shiites, Sunnites, Kurds, having nothing in common but the
submission to military occupying authority, and of course they were
expected to show gratitude to liberators.
In fact, there is one people bound together by refusal of occupation.
In Fallujah - where on April 28th American forces killed 17 unarmed
civilians and wounded 70 - there have been many attacks. "We are in
Sunnite country, we are told, there are Saddam followers because he
belongs to Sunnite minority".
But, as the International Herald Tribune establishes, "Violence
extends to Shiite areas south of Baghdad. It's just there, in the town
of Maja Al Kabir, that six British soldiers were killed after they
opened fire against a demonstration".
The International Herald Tribune draws this conclusion: "The
upsurge of violence points to a danger that occupation may feed
guerrilla warfare".
The French paper Le Monde quotes an American soldier: "We
wish only to leave this country and go home". As the American trade
unionist Gene Bruskin, one of the USLAW coordinators, said: "The
Iraqi people want an end to the occupation. We must support this demand".
**********
"Weapons of Mass Destruction": A Crude Falsification
Six British soldiers were killed on Thursday June 26th, near Bassra.
They were part of the American and British occupation forces in Iraq.
They came on orders of the Bush and Blair governments, who launched the
Iraqi invasion while workers and peoples in the United States, in
Britain and the world over opposed it.
The pretext was Saddam's alleged storage of "weapons of mass
destruction". This accusation had already been the basis for
Resolution 1441 unanimously adopted by UN Security Council, declaring
Iraq "presumably guilty". UN inspectors found nothing, but it
was up to the Iraqi governmen to prove that it held no weapons which did
not exist.
"The bigger the lieŠ". Colin Powell hammered a thousand times
that these weapons held by Saddam were an immediate danger to the planet,
that his intelligence services had produced evidence.
Blair went further, mentioning a "secret report". Such a
report turned out to be a crude falsification made from a college paper
more than ten years old. The British Parliament voted for war on the
basis of a falsification, as it is now acknowledges.
Foreign Affairs minister Jack Straw, and Tony Blair's adviser, Alastair
Campbell, stick obstinately to half confessions and confused
explanations.
Shame on those who participated in this felony, in the USA as well as in
Britain and elsewhere!
**********
(From USLAW's Corporate Profiles White Paper)
KELLOG, BROWN & ROOT (KBR)
Halliburton purchased Houston construction giant Brown & Root in
1962, and Dresser Industries, an integrated services provider in the oil
industry, in 1998. Dresser had acquired M.W. Kellogg, a petroleum
technology company in 1988. From these companies came Kellogg, Brown,
& Root (KBR), the Engineering and Construction Group of Halliburton.
KBR works on everything from energy to prisons to stadiums and highways.
In 2002, Halliburton underwent restructuring after filing for Chapter 11
bankruptcy, thereby protecting KBR from further claims on a $4 billion
asbestos class-action liability suit.
Many of KBR's contracts come from the government, particularly the
military. From building warships during World War II to constructing
bases in Vietnam, Kuwait, Diego Garcia and the Balkans to building the
prison camp at Guantanamo, Cuba for captured Taliban fighters to
fortifying the U.S. embassy in Uzbekistan, KBR has profited handsomely
from its government contracts.
Contract(s) Awarded:
On March 25, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, using a no-bid contract,
awarded KBR $71.3 million in work orders to repair and operate oil wells
in Iraq. That contract has a two-year duration with a spending ceiling
of $7 billion.
As the Army's sole provider of troop support services, KBR received work
orders totalling $529.4 million related to the wars in Afghanistan and
Iraq under a 10-year contract with the potential profit for KBR worth up
to $490 million. There are no cost-controls in the contract that also
has no spending ceiling - it pays KBR a minimum of one percent and up to
seven percent of whatever it spends. The company will be evaluated only
twice annually. "The amount Halliburton could receive in the future
is virtually limitless," said Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.).
"It is simply remarkable that a single company could earn so much
money from the war in Iraq." Under similar contracts, the Army paid
KBR $1.2 billion from 1992 through 1999 to support U.S. troops, mainly
in the Balkans. An extension of that contract from 1999 through 2004 is
projected to cost $1.8 billion.
Executive Compensation:
Robert R. (Randall) Harl, Age 52, President and CEO, Kellogg Brown &
Root: $425,000 salary, $166,134 bonus.
Connection to Bush Administration:
Dick Cheney, former CEO of Halliburton and current Vice President of the
U.S., still gets deferred compensation of $160,000 annually. Lawrence
Eagleburger, on the Board of Directors at Halliburton, was Secretary of
State under George H.W. Bush and had various assistant positions to
Henry Kissinger under Presidents Nixon, Carter, Reagan, and George H.W.
Bush.
Political Contributions:
(On behalf of Halliburton) $708,770 (95 percent to Republicans). $17,677
to George W Bush
Social Responsibility Record:
Halliburton has agreed to pay about $4 billion in cash and stock to
settle more than 300,000 asbestos-related personal injury lawsuits filed
against its DII and KBR subsidiaries. As result, Halliburton has
reorganized Dresser and KBR under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and
plans to dispose of its non-core assets.
But Halliburton and KBR have reason to be optimistic that George W Bush
will take a particular interest in the issue and pass legislation that
will ease this litigious burden. Cheney and Halliburton have given
heavily to congressional sponsors of asbestos legislation. According to
the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the company and its former chief
executive gave a total of $157,500 in political donations to 49
co-sponsors of the asbestos bill in the House and to 14 co-sponsors of a
similar measure in the Senate. A spokeswoman for Halliburton told
reporters that the campaign contributions to asbestos-friendly
candidates were "purely coincidental."
"Despite its apparent connections with terrorist states," Rep.
Waxman says, "Halliburton appears to be one of the main companies
profiting from the war on terror. In May 2001, KBR was awarded a
five-year $300 million contract to provide logistical support to the
Navy. As of August 2002, the Navy had reportedly given KBR $53 million
in work orders over the past 15 months, including $37 million to build
detention cells at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where terrorist suspects
captured in Afghanistan are being held."
Government auditors and other investigations have documented a history
of Brown & Root overcharging the taxpayer. GAO has found serious
problems with contract work that KBR did for the Army in the Balkans. In
1997, it found that the Army "was unable to ensure that the
contractor adequately controlled costs." For example, KBR was
charging the Army $86 to fly in $14 sheets of plywood from the United
States.
In 2000, GAO found more evidence that KBR was inflating the government's
costs - and its profits - by, for example, overstaffing work crews and
providing more goods and services than necessary. KBR was the subject of
a criminal investigation for overbilling the government on another
contract. The company paid $2 million to settle that case in 2002.
In report dated October 16, 1998, a group of activists called
Environmental Rights Action based in Harcourt, Nigeria which was
protesting environmental destruction from a pipeline KBR was building
there, implicated KBR/ Halliburton in violence that left one protestor
dead and many wounded, saying that the company was in collaboration with
the police.
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.]
********************
Toward the European Meeting
Paris, September 20th and 21st, 2003
Observations
The European Meeting "for Peace, Democracy and Workers Rights, for
the free and democratic union of the free nations of Europe."
Where did this proposal come from?
In Geneva, this past June 15th, on the occasion of the 10th
International Conference in Defense of the Conventions of the ILO, a
call was launched for the European Conference "for Peace, Democracy
and Workers Rights, for the free and democratic union of the free
nations of Europe."
This proposal was raised as a response to one of the labor activists who
spoke in the opening of the Conference. Emphasizing the tenacious
resistance throughout Europe against the anti-worker plans of the
European Union and the numerous obstacles that the resistance runs up
against, the unionist addressed the ILC declaring: "I hope that the
ILC takes the initiative to contribute to this resistance."
The call launched as a response to this initiative was signed by 131
unionists and labor activists from Germany, Belgium, Spain, France,
Great Britain, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Switzerland and the Ukraine (last
week we published the list of the first signatories).
When and where will it take place? In Paris, on September 20th and 21st
of 2003.
How can you sign on to this call and receive information about the
conference? You can do so by contacting the ILC at 87, rue du Faubourg
St. Denis, 75010 Paris, France. Tel. 33 1 48 01 88 28 - Fax 33 1
48 01 88 36 - E-mail: eit.ilc@wanadoo.fr.
----------
Greek, Yugoslav and Romanian working class militants inform the ILC of
an appeal, as a contribution to the preparation of the European meeting
"for peace, democracy and workers' rights, for a free and
democratic union of free nations of Europe"
Call from Worker Militants from Greece, ex-Yugoslavia, and Romania
We direct this appeal to all of the people, particularly in Eastern
Europe, who were told that entry into the European Union would be a
factor for peace, social progress, economic development and democracy.
What is there to this claim?
We should remember that the European Union played and continues to play
a primary role in the break-up of Yugoslavia and the military occupation
that is still going on.
In Greece, twenty-two years of belonging to the European Union has
translated into the privatization of public companies and services (in
particular telecommunications, petroleum and electricity) at the demand
of the European directives. It has also translated into deregulation of
labor relations, introducing part-time work into the public and private
sector; the attack on the eight-hour day and the violation of national
collective bargaining agreements by way of "local employment"
agreements; all plans imposed by the European Union in the name of the
fight against unemployment.
Those twenty-two years also translated into the closing or moving of
factories, processes that sped up with the expansion of the European
Union. They translated into the austerity measures imposed by the
criteria in the Maastricht treaty and the stability pact, and the high
cost of living that has worsened dramatically with the introduction of
the euro. The list must also include the PAC [European Agricultural
Community], which for Greece has meant the destruction of small and
medium sized farmers and more generally the degradation of living
conditions in the country.
The workers in the city and the country in Greece have the
responsibility to alert the workers and people of the other countries in
the Balkans: This is the balance sheet of the European Union in our
country, judge for yourselves!
With respect to the candidate countries (Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey),
they are already subject to the demands of the European Commission, in
the framework of the supposed "admittance negotiations." In
particular, they have been forced to carry out fraudulent privatizations
of the majority of public companies and services in the name of opening
up those sectors to competition -- at the benefit of the large
multinationals or the local mafiosi. The preparation for admittance into
the EU has also translated into serious cuts in public spending and
brutal attacks on the rights and conquests of workers.
And what does it mean for the European Union to incorporate these "countries"
that were recently formed on the basis of the break-up of Yugoslavia?
It means to definitively legitimize the fragmentation of the
ex-Yugoslavia into artificial "nation states," created on the
basis of wars and ethnic cleansing; on the basis of the NATO bombing
under North American leadership.
It means to legitimize the destruction of national wealth and economic
resources, the destruction of businesses, the unemployment to which
millions of workers are condemned, and the fate of hundreds of thousands
of refugees.
It also means to legitimize the destruction of workers rights and the
social conquests of the people, and the imposition of anti-worker laws.
In other words, the imposition of a total loss of national sovereignty,
the break-up of nations into "districts," the permanent
presence of foreign troops, the permanent maintenance of centers of
crisis and conflict, which permits new "international arbitrators"
to enter the region at any time. It would mean the legitimization of the
entrance into the European Union of Kosovo, protectorate of the UN,
militarily occupied by NATO troops under the aegis of the United States.
The Balkans fragmented by war and torn by ethnic cleansing, military
invasion and the permanent threat of intervention; is this the future
that the European Union, with the blessing of the United States, intends
to "offer" the people of the region?
The entrance of Cyprus into the EU means the legitimization of the
division and regionalization of the people of Cypress by ethnic criteria,
maintaining its submission to the occupation by foreign troops and the
maintenance of autonomous territories put at the disposal of the British
bases.
We ask: Could the incorporation of the fragmented, torn and occupied
Balkans by chance prefigure a balkanization of all of Europe? No one
could accept this.
It is not by chance that the European summit of April of 2003, which
approved the extension of the European Union and led to the European
Constitution project (approved in June of 2003), coincided with the
unleashing by the United States of a war to destroy the Iraqi nation,
and which threatens the existence and the sovereignty of all nations.
It is important to point out that -- except in part in the case of
Turkey -- all of the governments in the region, members of or candidates
for admission in the European Union, have offered their services to the
United States government in the war against the people of Iraq. In our
name, the governments of our region have contributed militarily to this
war. The old bases in Greece and Turkey, as well as the installations
recently offered by Romania and Bulgaria, were used as points of
departure and transportation for the deadly North American offensive.
The North American senator and member of the Senate Commission on
Foreign Affairs of the United States, George Allen, recognized it
clearly:
"The port city of Constanza is located almost halfway between
Berlin and Baghdad. There, on the friendly edge of Europe, Romania
welcomed more than 1,000 U.S. troops deployed to disarm and liberate
IraqŠ. The war was also won with the assistance of Bulgaria, where U.S.
forces utilized an airbase at Sarafovo on the Black Sea. ... But, the
deployment of U.S. forces in Romania provides a window into the future
regarding the way the U.S. may reallocate permanent force structures in
Europe.
"In that context, the execution of the Iraq war invites an
important question as we plan for future conflicts that may arise: Do
our bases in long-time NATO countries by themselves provide the best
possible location of our forces. Certainly, we should retain forces in
the long-standing NATO nations. However, after Iraq, it is clear that we
must seriously consider new options that are available to us, including
in southeastern Europe. (International Herald Tribune, May 7,
2003).
We note that if the Greek government is not cited by Senator Allen, it
is at its own request, as the Greek daily Ta Nea reveals (May 30, 2003):
"The Greek government has asked North American president George
Bush that he not publicly thank it for its contribution to the war in
Iraq, explaining that this would put it in an extremely difficult
position with respect to Greek public opinion, which is opposed almost
in its totality to the war."
One has to ask, then, if the Europe of tomorrow should form this
permanent base from which the North American military giant can launch
its deadly offensives against the people of the world, as it has done
against the Iraqi people.
The situation of occupation and displacement in Iraq already directly
threatens the integrity and sovereignty of Turkey and creates a new
source of displacement in the Balkans.
All of these processes go against the will expressed by the majority of
our people in favor of peace, and also in the streets, with
demonstrations of hundreds of thousands, yesterday against the war,
today for the immediate and definitive departure of the occupying
forces.
And the European Constitution, what does it mean? It is an instrument of
destruction of democracy and popular sovereignty, one that opens the way
for the destruction of the nations of Europe. The European Constitution
does not recognize a single principle of popular sovereignty, and
enthrones as the exclusive source of legislative and executive power the
European Union's own authority.
The incorporation into the European Constitution of the "Letter of
Fundamental Rights" puts at stake all of the guarantees, social
conquests, democratic, labor and human rights inscribed in the national
frameworks; a move which threatens the break up of all of the nations of
Europe.
In the place of democracy, the Constitution institutionalizes the
collaboration of social agents, that is to say, the destructive
integration of the independent union organizations and "participatory
democracy" in the form of "consultation" by organizations
of the supposed civil society by the European authorities.
The European constitution submits Europe to the United States' policy of
permanent war, including in its articles the complementary nature of
NATO, military organism dominated by the United States, the European
military missions to "reinforce international security" and
"solidarity against terrorist threats."
We, activists of the Balkan countries, direct ourselves to the workers
of Europe on the basis of our common experience: all of Europe is
threatened by balkanization.
But we also want them to know that in all of the countries in our region
this policy of war, national and social dismantlement have provoked
important resistance movements.
In the republics of the ex-Yugoslavia these mobilizations, strikes and
demonstrations multiply. They seek to defend something that is shared by
the workers of the ex-Yugoslavia, now divided into different states: the
conquests that are left of the social property of Yugoslavia.
In Bosnia-Herzegovina, on June 11, 400 miners from the city of Zenica
began a hunger strike to protest the fact that their wages have gone
unpaid since March. The Minister of Energy justified the non-payment of
these wages by citing the indebtedness of the mining company, thus
preparing its privatization-elimination.
In Serbia, the workers of the electricity company are on strike to
maintain the public character and the unity of the company against the
governmental plan to divide it into three entities, leveling the road
toward privatization.
In Croatia, the three union federations threaten to wage a general
strike against the reform of the Labor Code demanded in the framework of
the "negotiations" with the European Union and the IMF.
In Romania there are dozens of strikes, above all in the industrial
sector, that sometimes lead to confrontations in the street. The workers
have thus expressed their resistance and indignation to the plans that
affect their wages, eliminate their jobs, threaten their future and that
of their children. In Brasov, the workers in the truck and tractor
factories have held united demonstrations several times against the
nonpayment of their wages and the programmed elimination of their
companies. In Bucharest, the workers in the Republica factory (one of
the largest producers of tubing) have gone on strike and have protested
for the reverse of the privatization of their company, which has
resulted in the nonpayment of their wages for months now. In the past
years, governments have not hesitated to inflict hard prison sentences
on the unionists who oppose these plans, as occurred with the leaders of
the miners' protests in 1999, among them Miron Cozma, who is serving a
punishment of 18 years hard time for various "crimes against the
state."
The workers and the people of Greece have mobilized by the hundreds of
thousands in national strikes and demonstrations throughout the country
against the war being waged by the United States and its allies, and
against the use of the North American and NATO bases in the war against
Iraq, in the same way that they mobilized, several years ago, against
the NATO war in Yugoslavia. Two years ago, they confronted the "reform"
of the Social Security system with a general strike and a labor
demonstration that were some of the most important in the recent history
of the country.
We must also mention as well the massive demonstrations against the war
in Turkey, the strikes in Bulgaria for social demands, etc.
In all of the Balkan countries, the workers, are daily defending their
rights and their lives and they seek the path toward the unification of
their efforts and forces.
We direct this to the workers and the activists of the countries of our
region and beyond, to all of Europe.
Are we right to consider that the expansion of the European Union and
the European Constitution mean the aggravation of the looting of our
countries, the elimination of what is left of our social property and
the privatization of public companies and services?
Are we right to consider that this expansion means the worsening of the
offensive against our rights and conquests and the fragmentation of the
region?
Are we right to consider that all of this also means the extension
throughout the continent of the work that the North American government
initiated in the Balkans?
For our part, we oppose this policy of displacement, of war and misery
with the unity of the workers and the people of the Balkans in action
against the offensive of destruction and privatization of companies and
social services, in defense of labor conquests and social conquests.
We oppose it with the perspective of the free union of free peoples and
nations, the union of the independent and sovereign republics of the
Balkans, which guarantee the rights of the nations, the people and the
national minorities. For us this means the struggle on a European scale
for the free union of nations and sovereign republics.
There can be no sovereignty of the people and the nations with the
presence of foreign occupying troops, of the NATO military bases, the
maintenance of the fragmentation of the protectorates in our region, the
oppression of the national minorities, the attacks against democratic
and social rights, and against all of the conquests of the workers.
Since then, the "safe zone" of North American bases, which is
to extend from the Baltic region to Iraq is not the road to guarantee
peace and labor for the workers and the people of Europe and the world.
The path to peace runs through the terrain of defense of all of the
conquests and rights achieved in the class struggle in each country and
the struggle against the U.S. policy of permanent war in the United
States.
- We unite with the millions of European workers and those of the entire
world that have mobilized against the war on Iraq.
- For the withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq!
- Foreign troops and military bases out of the Balkans!
- NATO get out!
- Stop the privatization-destruction and deregulation plans of the IMF,
the World Bank and the European Union!
- For peace and sovereignty of the peoples!
We invite the workers and activists of the labor movement and democratic
movements of the Balkans to prepare with us the European labor
conference of September 20th and 21 of 2003 in Paris and to contribute
to the open discussion contributions that we will publish regularly in
our Balkan bulletin.
This call was published in the first issue of the: Bulletin for the
union of workers in the Balkans, published at initiative of the
International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples
Correspondents:
Greece: ILC committee members
Yugoslavia: Political Labor Alliance (SSR)
Romania: Association for the Emancipation of Workers (AEW)
For more information contact International Liaison Committee of Workers
and Peoples: 87, rue du Faubourg St. Denis, 75010 Paris. France,
Tel. 33 1 48 01 88 28 - Fax 33 1 48 01 88 36 - E-mail: eit.ilc@wanadoo.fr.
**********
Chad
Interview with Ngarmadjal Gami, general secretary of the Union of
Teachers of Chad (SET), founding member and spokesperson of the Workers
Party of Chad.
Can you give us a summary of the current situation in Chad?
The situation can be summarized in three points:
On the political level, since 1990 Chad entered the theoretical era of
democratization characterized by a multi-party system, with more than 80
parties and the proliferation of diverse associations.
It is a democracy in theory because the opposition parties have no means
with which to exercise their politics, they are not financed by the
state, and they are only left with the possibility of making alliances
with power. This does not please the population and the activists. The
greater part of the parties have become satellites of power and they
distance themselves from this at election times, something that we as
the public condemn.
The constitution gives 2 5-year terms to the president, but currently
there is a high risk that it will be amended to allow president Idriss
Deby to run again for a third term or even more.
It would be easy for him to amend the constitution because his party
makes up 80% of the members of the assembly.
On a social level, after the devaluation of the CFA frank in 1994, which
had as a consequence an increase in prices, Chad has been subject to a
structural adjustment program.
Now then, to talk about structural adjustment programs is to talk about
privatizations, layoffs, wage freezing, etc. which is now the situation
for the workers of Chad.
The consequences: the population does not have access to a modern health
care system and is obliged to return to traditional ancestral cures:
bark, roots, charms.
There is a lack of educational infrastructure to attend to the country's
urgent schooling needs. The official student/teacher ratio is one
teacher per 71 students, but in several regions there are classes with
more than 100 or 150 students, which makes any efforts from the
professors laudatory. Recently a reform of the public system has been
undertaken, characterized by promotion by a merit system and a reduction
of the promotion steps that translates into a wage reduction. Employees
who achieved 90 points every two years (9,000 CFA franks, that is to say
90 French francs) now receive 45 points (4,500 CFA franks, 45 French
francs) every two years.
The SET (teachers union of Chad) launched a demand on this issue and the
government has promised to revise the clauses of the reform in the
manner demanded by the SET. This is in substance the content of the
accord that was reached on February 24th between the government and the
SET.
On an economic level, Chad, which is an agricultural and cattle raising
country, has just become one of the oil countries thanks to the
discovery of oil fields whose exploitation should begin in July of 2003.
The people of Chad think that the petroleum will improve their living
conditions, but we can see that it also creates problems because there
is an oil field located between Chad and the Centro-African Republic and
it has already increased the tension among the two chiefs of state and
the noise of boots can be heard in the oil field.
What impact does the war in the Ivory Coast have on Chad?
There is not a direct impact. Due to the previous stability of the Ivory
Coast, many intellectuals from Chad graduated from the universities of
that country, which is why the people of Chad are not indifferent to the
situation in the Ivory Coast. Above all, keeping in mind that this war
is presented as a war of exploitation of the resources of that country
and that Chad acquires economic importance due to its petroleum. The
people of Chad fear suffering the same consequences as the Ivory Coast
because of the multinationals.
In January you participated in the Emergency International Conference
against War and Exploitation. What was your evaluation of it?
I congratulate the International Liaison Committee of Workers and
Peoples and I am proud of it because of the initiatives that it
undertakes and of the opportunities it provides.
To say no to the war against Iraq that was being prepared was to say no
to the exploitation of all the peoples of the world, and as such, that
experience was of interest to all of the parties and unions that
represent the interests of the populations.
It satisfies me to see that many countries pronounced their opposition
to that war.
The weakness of many international organizations is that they mobilize
their members, they hold international conferences or colloquiums, they
make resolutions, and then nothing more is heard of it. The
particularity of that conference against the war was in fact the
proposal of constituting an International Permanent Committee against
War and Exploitation.
The importance of this committee resides in the fact that it must
guarantee the decisions made at the conference, since the participants
foresaw that the war would not stop in Iraq that would extend like an
oil stain, which is why the committee must guarantee the pursuit of the
evolution of the international struggle against the war, everywhere that
it is developing.
I support and am part of that committee, with which I identify myself
fully.
Now you have come from Geneva, where you participated in the
International Conference in Defense of the Conventions of the ILO and
for the Independence of the Labor Organizations. Can you tell us your
view?
It is necessary to connect the defense of the conventions of the ILO
with the fight against the war imposed on the entire world by
imperialism. Because when a country is the victim of war it no longer
has time to devote to human rights and national legislations on the
rights of the workers and of the people.
**********
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