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ILC INTERNATIONAL NEWSLETTER NO. 75
A dossier of weekly information published by the International
Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples
April 20, 2004
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To contact us:
ILC International Newsletter
International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples
87, rude du Faubourg Saint Denis 75010 Paris, France
PRESENTATION:
The International Campaign "Against the occupation and for
labor rights in Iraq" continues full throttle. On June 13 in
Geneva, at the initiative of the International Liaison Committee of
Workers and Peoples, the 13th meeting for the defense of ILO conventions
will take place and will pose the the urgent need that in Iraq ILO
conventions 87 and 98 guaranteeing the right of Iraqi workers to
organize unions and negotiate be upheld. In this framework, we publish
various reports on the situation in Iraq.
The "endless war" decreed by George W. Bush has consequences
within the United States that affect American workers: a gigantic wave
of layoffs, freezing of wages, reappraisal of the right to health care,
to social security, to education, and heinous laws such as the Patriot
Act that undermine democratic rights.
Local 10 of the ILWU (International Longshore and Warehouse Union),
AFL-CIO, launched an appeal, excerpts of which we publish below, to
organize a Million Worker March in Washington around mid-October. Local
10 is the dockworker local based in San Francisco. (See page 3).
We also reproduce the declaration by Louisa Hanoune, Workers' Party
candidate for the presidential election in Algeria, following the
election on April 8. (See pages 4 and 5).
Finally we publish, among many other articles and reports, excerpts from
the appeal launched by the General Union of Workers of Guadeloupe (UGTG)
following the sentencing to heavy fines and prison terms of 13 union
militants of the UGTG, for a vast international campaign of solidarity
against repression to which these militants have been subjected.
Subscribe to the ILC International Newsletter
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
p. 1: Presentation
pp. 2, 3: Declarations and Iraqi press clips
- An Appeal by ILWU Local 10 "to organize a Million Worker
March" -- United States
pp. 4, 5: Declaration of Louisa Hanoune after the presidential elections
- Press clips from Algeria
p. 6: An Open Letter to the participants of the World Forum on Education
in Brazil
p. 7: Tribune Ouvrière, newspaper of the Workers' Party of
Burundi
p. 8: Militant unionists of the UGTG Guadeloupe convicted
- Conference for the recognition of the union at the Daewoo-Mexico
company
- Subscriptions
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IRAQ
"Against the occupation and for labor rights in Iraq"
Dates of Reference:
June 14, 2003: on the occasion of a meeting in Geneva an appeal is
made "Against the occupation and for labor rights in Iraq" by:
* The International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples
* US Labor Against the War (USLAW)
* The International Confederation of Arab Unions (CISA)
June 15, 2003: The 12th meeting for the defense of ILO
conventions supports this initiative.
July 2003: The report drafted by USLAW on the American
multinationals that have become implanted in Iraq is translated into
Arabic and French.
October 3-10, 2003: An independent delegation goes to Iraq in the
name of the campaign "Against the occupation and for labor rights
in Iraq". It meets with union organizations that are trying to
organize and publishes an international report to alert the world's
labor movement.
October 24, 25, 26, 2003: The National Labor Assembly for Peace,
held in Chicago at the initiative of USLAW, decided to start a campaign
so that the U.S. congress hears a report on the violations of union
rights in occupied Iraq.
November 17, 2003: An appeal is launched to organize and
international delegation to the headquarters of the ILO so that the ILO
can organize an investigation into the situation of workers' rights in
Iraq.
January 15, 2004: A request for a meeting is addressed to Mr.
Juan Somavia, Director General of the International Work Bureau for
March 15.
March 15, 2004: The delegation took place at the ILO headquarters
and was composed of the representatives of three organizations who are
leading this campaign.
June 13, 2004: The 13th meeting for the defense of ILO
conventions will take place in Geneva, initiated by the International
Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples.
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IRAQ
Excerpts from Information Ouvrières No. 636 (France) April 14,
2004
The entire world's attention is turned on Iraq.
While triggering the infamous Middle East war, Bush believed the moment
had arrived when the peoples would accept the boot of American
imperialism.
But in their struggle, the peoples of Iraq are affirming that they are
part of one and the same nation. In the these last few days, we have
been subjected to more misleading reasoning seeking to explain that the
only solution for humanity would be to undergo imperialistic
exploitation, destroying national frameworks.
We are in the presence of the realization of the fighting unity between
Shiites and Sunnis. A step forward has opened toward the national
aspirations of the peoples of the entire world, and especially those of
the Near and Far East. This in spite of enormous present and future
difficulties and the delays that cannot be foreseen.
Press clips:
The International Herald Tribune (United States): "In
Iraq, time isn't on our side."
The U.S. press doesn't hide its bewilderment in the aftermath of the
press conference convened by Bush in the new situation resulting from
the violent popular uprising in Iraq and following the revelations by
Condoleeza Rice, National Security Advisor, who was pressured into
testifying before the 9/11 Commission.
Let us recall that Ms. Rice is one of Bush's closest advisors, one who
is said to have pushed hard for the approval of the Sharon Plan. She
been obliged to unveil a confidential report issued one month before the
terrible events of September 11 that clearly warned the U.S. government
about the preparation of such threats on U.S. soil.
"We will stay the course until the bitter end," is what the
U.S. president declared, in substance. This means continuing the war
that has resulted in the 600 dead in Falluja, many of whom are women and
children -- but at an even greater rate. This is the green light to
massacres and "targeted murders" in Palestine; it is the
accelerated march towards chaos from which no peoples of the region will
emerge unscathed.
"In Iraq, time isn't on our side. We don't need a little more of
what has come before. We need something very different and a lot of that
something," Said Bob Kerrey, member of the Investigating commission
of 9/11 in an article in The Herald Tribune titled "Iraq was
a false answer."
"The United States asked for Iranian mediation, according to
Teheran," informs The New York Times (United States, April 15).
"The Foreign Minister of Iran, Kamel Kharrazi, declared on
Wednesday that the United States had asked Iran to mediate to ensure a
truce between the U.S. forces and the Shiite radicals in Nadjaf.
President Khatani declared: " Iran considers that all policies that
would increase the crisis in Iraq and threaten security are as bad for
Shiites and for Islam."
The following day the Secretary of the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad was
gunned down in the street. "Iran is on the front lines," title
of Le Figaro (France April 16), "for having wanted to pose
as mediator Š Iran finds itself suddenly on the front lines in Iraq,
driven by the logic of violence in the conflict, despite its efforts to
remain in the background."
For his part, considering that maintaining the occupation is the only
solution, Democratic Party contender John Kerry, is calling for the
United Nations to enter into the picture. This is also what Bob Kerrey,
the reporter for the Congressional Commission on 9/11 stated: "The
United States must swallow their pride and must ask for United Nations
assistance in Iraq. Washington should start by sharing authority with
the United Nations to help make the decisions on the manner of transfer
of power to a legitimate Iraqi government. Before, I was not in
agreement with this solution: I am now. Rather than send new U.S. troops
to Iraq or prolong the stay of those that are already there, the United
States needs an international occupation that consists of Arab and
Muslim forces."
The problem, as Le Figaro (April 14) explains at length, is that
one cannot see who would want to involve themselves in such a situation?
The families of soldiers in Iraq are showing an increasing anguish,
demanding the "return home of the troops." The
International Herald Tribune (April 13) worries about what it calls
the "Dover test", the name of an Air Force base in the state
of Delaware. It is here that the remains of American soldiers killed in
Iraq arrive. In the Pentagon jargon, the "Dover test" measures
the limits tolerated by U.S. citizens.
The title of the article in The International Herald Tribune
reads: "The bodies return backstage." "The number of
bodies arrived: on Friday 27 and nine more on Saturday Š on a normal
day there are five to seven people working in the Dover morgue. This
Easter weekend, there were over 100. ŠThe Secretary of Defense
continues to forbid photographs of the victims. This policy, combined
with the decision of President Bush not to attend military funerals, has
provoked a lot of criticism including from Republican members of
Congress such as Senator John McCain.
"The United States has started such a series of crises since Bush
took office that the nation is engaged in a very long change of
direction where everything that was once accepted is now being
questioned and where each hope turns into a question mark,"
concluded The International Herald Tribune in an editorial on
April 15.
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Worker Communist Party of Iraq
Statement of April 4, 2004
(excerpts)
Over last few days, an armed fight has erupted in many Iraqi cities
between Muqtada al-Sadr's group and the U.S. troops. This conflict has
so far claimed the lives of tens of innocent people in the residential
slums of Baghdad and the Iraqi southern cities. ...
Our party foresaw the dangerous outcomes of the U.S. war and ongoing
occupation of Iraq, and therefore stood firmly against the U.S.
policies. Events we are witnessing everyday prove our predictions that
Iraq would slip into the swamp of continuous wars, insecurity, and
political chaos. ...
The latest events prove that the U.S. project to build a state in Iraq
has failed. This failure is the outcome of building the state and
government on the basis of sects, ethnicity and recruiting the most
reactionary groups antagonistic to the aspirations of people. The
project of building a state on this basis in Iraq is only materializing
the grim scenario, which will constantly reproduce war and strife.
We repeat the demand of the masses for immediate withdrawal of the U.S.
forces from Iraq. We call for transfer of the task of security and
stability to a government formed of the representatives of the masses in
collaboration with multinational forces, excluding the U.S. and other
countries, which participated in the war coalition. This interim
government should disarm all militia forces and ensure security, freedom
and the requirements of a decent life and also provide suitable
situation to enable people to choose their government freely and
consciously.
The pain and sorrow of the Iraqi masses grows in the middle of the fire
between these two poles of terrorism. We call on the masses eager for
freedom and security to rally around this humanist and liberationist
alternative, to end the grim scenario and defeat the forces that created
it and rebuild the pillars of civic life in Iraq society.
**********
UNITED STATES
Call for a Million Worker March
The "endless war" unleashed by George W. Bush has meant
for U.S. workers an unprecedented wave of layoffs (more than 2 million
jobs with benefits have been lost over the past three years), wage
freezes, and drastic cuts in the budgets for healthcare, education, and
social services. At the same time, in the name of the "war on
terrorism," basic democratic rights are being jettisoned by a host
of new repressive laws such as the USA Patriot Act.
This is the context in which ILWU Local 10 (the dockworker local in San
Francisco) has issued a call to organize a Million Worker March in
Washington, D.C., in mid-October, on the eve of the U.S. presidential
election.
The ILWU Local 10 call states, in part: "Now is the time for
organized/unorganized labor, the interfaith and community organizations
to show solidarity and demand that all elected officials address the
needs of working people. As working class people, we know more than any
others the difficulties and limitations we face both in our communities
and workplaces. We shall therefore be representing ourselves during this
march, independent from all politicians, while putting forward to the
entire country, our program for the betterment of America's majority
working population."
The ILWU Local 10 call concludes as follows: "While we are in the
early stages of planning this action, we are urging organizations to
join us in making this march a reality."
In a separate statement, the Million Worker March organizers spell out
"a list of demands on behalf of working people in America."
These include:
- Universal single-care health care from cradle to grave that ends the
stranglehold of greedy insurance companies and secures health care as a
right of all people in America.
- A national living wage that lifts people permanently out of poverty.
- Guaranteed pensions that sustain a decent life for all working people.
- An end to privatization, contracting out, deregulation and the pitting
of workers against each other across national boundaries in a mad race
to the bottom.
- For workers' right to organize and for a repeal of Taft Hartley and
all anti-labor legislation.
- Repeal of the Patriot Act, Anti-Terrorism Act and all such repressive
legislation.
- Slash the military budget and recover the trillions of dollars stolen
from our labor to enrich the corporations that profit from war.
- Extend democracy to our economic structure so that all decisions
affecting the lives of our citizens are made by working people who
produce all value through their labor.
The Organizer newspaper, which presents the views of the
militants linked to the International Liaison Committee of Workers and
People reprinted the call and texts of the Million Worker March,
expressing its unconditional support for this initiative.
The Organizer newspaper also warned that enormous pressures to
derail this march into safe channels for the corporations and
politicians in their service are bound to bear down on the organizers of
this march if this call from ILWU Local 10 begins to galvanize working
people across the country. The only way to guard against all the
pressures, The Organizer newspaper continues, is to build unity
among the working class organizations at all levels and to keep true to
the independent, working-class mandate of the Million Worker March.
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ALGERIA
Declaration of Louisa Hanoune, candidate of the Workers Party in Algeria
in the presidential elections, on the results of the election of April
8, 2004
On April 8 the presidential elections were held in a climate of
anxiety. Were these elections free and democratic?
In the name of the Workers Party I reaffirm that in the absence of a
real peace and the resolution of the political problems that face our
nation, including the restoration of liberties and the lifting of the
state of siege, no vote can express the true will of the people.
Furthermore, this voting took place in a climate of increasing political
tension, confusion and uncertainty, having as its background an open
political crisis on all fronts. Fundamentally, this vote confirmed that
the crisis remains, that the difficulties are always there, and our
common fate remains uncertain.
While close to ten and a half million Algerians participated in the
election, there were eight million others who abstained, expressing
their mistrust with regard to the polls considering that each election
since 1992 has never, fundamentally and definitively resolved the
crisis, put an end to the bloodshed and stopped the social regression.
More precisely it is the Algerian youth, who, by their massive
abstention, expressed their immense despair.
And even though a slight progression was registered in Kabyle as far as
the turnout, this did not exceed 17% in Tizi-Ouzou, in mourning on the
eve of the election, and 15% at Bejaia, as several localities could not
exercise their right to free expression. Doesn't this confirm the urgent
need for a democratic solution to the problems engendered by the
criminal provocation of April 2001?
Certainly on the day of the election, the Algerian people, with its two
linguistic components, passed this historic test with responsibility and
wisdom, affirming their determination to preserve EL AMANA, avoiding
mortal drifts for the country. It is precisely for this major objective
that the Workers Party presented my candidacy in the presidential
elections in order to help the Algerian people with its two linguistic
components to clarify what is at stake, and making a final
national-saving effort to preserve what is essential: human lives and
the nation.
But the perils persist menacing Algeria as a nation.
Because in my capacity as candidate of the Workers Party, I consider
that the official results -- which are very strange, to say the least --
least strange of elections, as well as the various declarations of
Algerian and foreign political actors all translate the complexity and
gravity of the national situation as the product of the terrible world
events that reflect dangerously on our country.
These results indicate that if the worst has been avoided to date, the
greatest uncertainties still hover over the present and the future of
Algeria.
Thus, beyond the questions raised by the percentages reported in the
election and considering that the majority tendency that expressed
itself in the election is national, unifying the wilayas that are
arabophones and amazighophones, the only message we can perceive at the
present time is: the Algerian nation wants to live in the unity and
integrity of its two linguistic components, arabophone and amazighphone.
The Algerians that voted, including those who abstained, while showing
evidence of great vigilance said: Algeria must not sink into blood and
fire. Enough misfortunes! Enough mourning! We want to live in peace and
fraternity!
Beyond the nature of the elections and taking into account the
conditions under which they were held, through this double national
tendency that expressed itself through the voting and abstentions, what
is paramount is that the regionalism, tribalism and very specter of
dislocation of Algeria -- all of which have been nourished over the past
several months -- that were forcefully rejected by the Algerian people
in this election. The people showed their deep attachment to the unity
and fraternity in one and indivisible RepublicŠ
The people, moreover, rejected of all projects that question the
national legislative foundations and material bases that express
themselves throughout the national territory by the arabophones and
amazighophones populations.
Now more than ever, since the fate of the nation is at stake, it is time
to put forward a real solution to crisis, to preserve our country from
the storm, in the name of the Workers' Party, I address the elected
president so that he will immediately decree peace and that he will
convene an Algerian national convention regrouping parties and
institutions, including constituted bodies, influential personalities to
open a positive solution to the Algerian people, so that all agree to go
to work to free Algeria from violence and from all the dead ends. It is
necessary to restore the real peace, by bringing to public light all
political dossiers that were at the origin of the crisis and that
nourished it; that is, the files of the disappeared, of human rights
violations, of Tamazights and liberties, so as to guarantee bread and
dignity for all. Š
Algeria has 33 billion dollars in foreign exchange reserves, isn't it
time now more than ever, to open real perspectives of permanent
employment and housing, to ensure a dignified life to the immense
majority of people, to the lost youth, through the establishment of
planning missions and prerogatives and the control of the Algerian state
through public investments?
Isn't it urgent to start a plan of national reconstruction?
It is all about putting an end to all violence the Algerian people are
the victims of, in their two linguistic components, and to remove all
pretext to foreign pressures, and all established blackmail.
I address the elected president so that the political and social climate
can been cleansed by the restoration of the normal conditions of life
and the free exercise of politics for all without exception. The right
of expression must be returned to the Algerian people so that it can
decide for itself the form and content of the institutions that it needs
to exercise its full sovereignty. It is also necessary to resolve
democratically and nationally the problem of popular representation
generated by the serious crisis in which the wilayas of Kabyle remain
locked.
For its part the Workers Party considers that the real democracy implies
free elections to a Sovereign Constituent Assembly, possessor of all
powers, which designates a responsible government, creates a
constitution that enshrines control to the people over their destiny and
their resources, their rights, liberties, and national sovereignty.
That is why Algeria must live in the unity and integrity of its two
linguistic components, arabophone and amazighophoneŠ
I confirm it: beyond the results of the election and its official
justifications, which are more than questionable, and beyond the
legitimate concern that they cause in relation to multipartyism, the
Workers Party considers that it reached its political objectives when it
decided to participate in the April 8 elections and in all knowledge and
conscience of that fact they would not take place in normal peaceful
conditions, of serenity and absolute transparency.
The Workers Party, while awaiting the final count of the massive
recruitment recorded to our party since the beginning of the campaign,
has just marked a democratic note without precedent in the history of
our country insofar as it promoted a wide-ranging national discussion
regarding the status of women, including their right to full and
complete citizenship. The democratic resolution of this question is now
inescapable. The same is true of the recognition of Tamazight as the
national and official language -- which our campaign, through its large
national rallies, registered fully.
But there is also another indisputable victory -- namely that for the
first time in Algeria, in Africa and in a Muslim country, an independent
workers' party candidate stood for national office, defending the rights
of workers and their children, the small farmers, the civil servants,
the youth converted in pariahs, the disinherited and weakened layers,
against the devastating policies of the globalization led by the WTO,
the World Bank and the IMF and other institutions for the profit of
multinationals -- policies which are refracted in the horrors of
occupied Iraq and Palestine.
Yes, in this national mobilization campaign that we carried out, the
candidate and the militants of the Workers' Party introduced fundamental
national questions into the political debate. These questions, both
national and international, are directly tied to the terrifying world
developments. Our party alerted the Algerian people to the dangers ahead
while also establishing that solutions exists, that nothing is
inevitable from the moment that it is the very existence of human
civilization that is at stake.
Our campaign registered a conscious quest by the people for political
clarification and for ways and means to resist. This was expressed in
the massive turnout at 169 rallies and conference-debates that we held
in the 48 wilayas and that gathered hundreds and thousands of
participants.
That is why I declare with pride that the Workers Party emerges
strenghtened from these risky elections and more determined than ever to
fight tirelessly for the safeguard of the Algerian nation, the Algerian
Republic one and indivisible, with its political and social content, by
the restoration of real peace and the installation of democracy implying
the preservation of all conquests and gains of the Algerian nation, and
the preservation of its sovereignty.
Hence, I address all those in the 48 wilayas who, regardless of the
official election results held April 8, supported the program on the
basis of which the Workers' Party presented my candidacy, to join the
ranks of the Workers Party and to reinforce the national independent
mobilization in defense of the Algerian nation, in the unity and
integrity of its two linguistic components.
Louisa Hanoune
Algeria, April 9, 2004
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Press clips
The presidential election in Algeria was held on April 8. Mr.
Bouteflika, the current president, was re-elected on the first round
with 85% of the votes. His main competitor, the former Prime Minister
Benflis, candidate of the powerful National Liberation Front (FLN) who
was presented as the only serious adversary and who made it into in the
second round, only received 7% of the votes.
Louisa Hanoune, candidate of the Workers' Party, received 118,700 votes
(that is, 1.5%). It is necessary to point out that the Workers Party of
Algeria has been the object of numerous attacks as indicated in the
following press clips.
In Liberation (France, April 8), Ms. Garcon, Algerian
"specialist," writes the following remarks: "Louisa
Hanoune owed a certain popularity in the peripheries to her radical
speech and a relative benevolence of power given that she refused an
international inquiry into the deaths during the dirty war."
Let us overlook the elegance with which Ms. Garcon designates the
"peripheries" -- that is, the hard-working masses of Algeria.
Let us focus on the remark according to which Louisa Hanoune didn't
appeal to foreign interference and the intervention of the big powers in
Algeria. It would appear from this remark that for Ms. Garcon and for Liberation
the "solution" would entail the
"internationalization" of the Algerian situation. It is known
that Liberation supported foreign intervention from Afghanistan
to Iraq, not to mention Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
For Ms. Garcon and Liberation the "solution" is not in
Algeria and is not the purview of the Algerian people.
The Workers Party never stopped explaining that the resolution of the
crisis had to be found out in Algeria, between Algerians. It has always
explained that the examples of Somalia, Iraq and Yugoslavia were
actually counter-examples -- not to be followed.
Finally, choosing her words, Ms. Garcon speaks of "benevolence of
power" in regard to the Workers Party. Mrs. Garcon is certainly
well placed to know about what she writes. The Workers Party, on the
other hand, is not looking for "benevolence" or approval from
the Algerian authorities, nor from any of the great powers. Its sole
interest is to help the Algerian people defend the nation and their
hard-won gains.
The Algerian daily L'Expression, which is not close to the
Workers Party, summarizes Louisa Hanoune's campaign, under the title of
"An ambitious program" in its April 6 edition. The article
states, in part:
"In her campaign, she was able to attract big crowds who were more
and more interested in her realistic imprint and her message, which
responds to the peoples' expectations. From Souk-Ahras, place of her
first rally, to Tipaza, where she closed her campaign, the Workers Party
candidate proposed clear alternatives to those offered by the ruling
powers. Solutions to the multiform crisis that hits the country were
thus proposed.
"Faithful to her party line, 'the iron lady' made the recognition
of the amazight language, the fight against privatization and the
stability of her country her battle cry. Contrary to all the other
candidates, Hanoune opposes privatization, notably in the hydrocarbons
sector, arguing that it will benefit foreign countries and corporations
to the detriment of Algerian workers. The only way to protect the
interest of the workers is to relaunch the public sector, she explained
time and again.
"She spoke out squarely against the agreements signed with the WTO
and the European Union, all of which, she said, open the way to the
plunder of the country's resources. She proposed in this context the
immediate convening of an Algerian National Convention where all
political actors, including constituted bodies, would be called upon to
enact emergency measures to lead the country out of its crisis. The
officialization of the amazight language is also an essential condition
for the stability and unity of the country. She promised in her program
to officialize it without passing a referendum, to cut the grass under
the feet of those who use this language issue to destabilize Algeria.
*******************
BRAZIL
The open letter we publish here was distributed in Sao Paulo,
Brazil between April 1 and 4, 2004 on the occasion of the planning
meeting of the World Forum on Education that will take place in Porto
Alegre in July.
Considering that the questions raised in this letter are totally
current, we decided after having received the signatures of teachers
from several countries to republish it. The objective is to pursue the
discussion that we consider indispensable on how to defend free and
secular public education, at all levels in the face of the destructive
offensive that seeks to get rid of it.
Open Letter to the Participants of the World Education Forum in São
Paulo, Brazil
Comrades,
As trade unionists and activists involved in education, we call on you
to become involved in a dialogue that we believe is necessary.
Between April 1st and 4th a meeting of the World Education Forum will
take place under the banner of "Citizen's Education for an Educated
City."
It's obvious that we currently live in a world that is facing an
offensive to destroy civil rights and peoples' sovereignty. It comes
disguised under the slogan of "globalization" and has the aim
of preserving the privileges of the big owners of the means of
production and pushing humanity toward war. It is a step backwards for
society and threatens all the rights achieved by the struggles of the
workers and peoples.
Teachers participate in the resistance of the workers and peoples
against this destructive offensive.
It is a resistance that recently manifested itself in Spain when, after
the barbaric terrorist attack that we all condemn, the workers, the
youth and the people as a whole removed Aznar from the government and
elected a new government with a clear mandate of bringing back home the
troops that are in Iraq and reestablishing the civil and worker rights
that were trampled upon by Bush's ally.
Education that is public, free and secular on all levels -- a major
social conquest -- is also the target of the destructive offensive. The
forms of their planned destruction include cuts in public funding for
public education, privatizations, threats to free and obligatory
education, and the elimination of diplomas and certificates.
The call by the Organizing Committee of the World Education Forum (WEF)
of São Paulo states:
"Educators from the entire world are seeking to unite their efforts
in order to build a platform of struggle that defends education as an
inalienable social gain that is never subject to cuts due to market
conditions. Being guided by the principles and objectives of the World
Social Forum, the World Education Form constitutes itself as a great
movement around a common cause: another type of education is
possible."
We ask if there is a way of understanding education as "an
inalienable social gain that is never subject to cuts due to market
conditions" other than that of the struggle for the unquestionable
right to free and public education?
For us, and we believe for every educator that is committed to democracy
and social progress, evidently the answer is no.
The first question that is posed, therefore, is why, in the appeal of
the WEF of São Paulo, that speaks of a "project of global
education" and that "another education is possible",
there is no explicit mention of the defense of public education?
We all know that the multinational corporations consider education as a
billion-dollar market that even today escapes from its total control.
Precisely because of this the most steadfast opposition is necessary to
the privatization of public education and to its breakup, whatever the
form may be: private schools; vouchers for public schools; the
association of the public universities as private businesses; as NGOs;
public funds for private educational institutions, etc.
Why then is there this omission? In the very appeal we can read what
seems to indicate a reason:
"The framework of this forum is that of the efforts to guarantee
the civil rights of all people, by means of emancipatory programs in the
various formal, semi-formal and informal schools with the objective of
education for the citizens in the construction of an "Educational
City."
What does this mean?
The words have a certain meaning, and here we revert back to the
language of the World Bank, the WTO, the OECD and all the governments
that apply the policy of the destruction of public education -- that is,
promoting "various formal, semi-formal and informal schools."
For example, in the report of the OECD about education in 1998 it is
said, "[I]t is understood that learning takes place in multiple
contexts, both formal and informal." The report goes on to state
that "globalization -- economic, political and cultural -- makes
obsolete the institution that is implanted locally and rooted in a
specific culture that we call a 'school' and along with that a
"teacher'."
If the "formal" spaces include private education (where
obviously education is a commodity), the "not formal and
informal" spaces, by definition, are outside of any public
regulation and scrutiny, with the goal of destroying public education as
an institution. In that way, capitalist enterprises, churches, and NG's
are called upon to be players in the informal educational endeavors,
relieving the government from its duty to guarantee public, secular and
free education at all levels.
As for the "informal" schools, what is to be understood by
that other than proposals for "schools during a whole
lifetime" -- which is discussed in the WTO with the enthusiastic
support of the capitalists? In such a concept individuals would be
subordinated to the needs of businesses and the stage would be set for
the "flexibility" of their rights. It is a policy that
questions the right to public education and favors child labor. It is a
policy that questions the universal right to a formal public education,
which guarantees diplomas and training that make the labor force more
valuable.
For Public and Free Education. Public Funds only for Public Schools.
Among the 60,000 participants that the organizers are expecting at the São
Paulo meeting which is preparing for the Third World Forum on Education
in Porto Alegre next July, there will be trade unionists and
professionals that stand together in the defense of the workers and
their right to education that is public, secular and free at all levels.
We direct ourselves to our fellow activists to alert you to the danger
that exists in this so-called type of "Forum" which bases
itself upon the "principles and goals of the World Social
Forum."
While class distinctions are blurred or even eliminated in the so-called
"civil society" -- a concept that includes everyone from the
large multinational companies, the private foundations, the World Bank,
governments, NGOs, to even the unions of the educational workers -- the
"principles and goals" of the World Social Forum can be summed
up in the slogan "to give a human face to globalization"! We
should not try to humanize capitalism, fellow educators, but rather
struggle against it.
And today the struggle is to defend what we have fought for and won
against a destructive fury never seen before. This includes the defense
of formal, public and free education, with the public funds necessary to
compensate professional educators and attend to the right of every
citizen to a quality education.
The policy of the "civil society" and the "Citizen's
Education", which omits the defense of public schools, creates the
fertile ground for the spreading of the ideas and the proposals of the
"emancipatory programs in the various formal, semi-formal and
informal schools."
From there everything is possible. Public schools can be
"emancipated." A course to recycle labor that is offered by
businesses can also take place. Unions, for example, instead of
concentrating their energies on the demand for free public education and
public funds only for public schools, are invited to become involved in
their "projects" of "emancipatory education."
Next July, there will also take place in Porto Alegre the Fourth
Convention of Education International (EI), an organization with unions
from all continents with the theme "Education for Global
Progress." Evidently the questions raised in this open letter will
be present in this meeting.
For this reason, fellow activists, we send these thoughts to you and we
believe that the unity of the educational workers and their unions is
more necessary than ever. We say:
- No to the Privatization and Deregulation of Education
- Defend Public and Free Education as an "Obligation of Government
and Right of the Citizen"
- Public Funds only for Public Schools!
- Money for Schools and Public Services, Not for War and the Payment of
the Foreign Debt!
São Paulo, March 26, 2004
[Follows a list with 45 signatories]
********************
BURUNDI
Tribune Ouvrière, the newspaper that fights for the constitution of a
workers' party (No. 43, February 2004)
EDITORIAL:
The primary teachers joined the secondary teachers' strike in unity
with their unions to demand the application of agreements concluded with
the government in 2002. The strike has lasted two months.
Over one hundred farmers of Gatakwa (Rumonge Township) did a sit-in
lasting over a week before the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock
demanding the lands confiscated from them be returned.
The magistrates with their union the SYMABU threaten to take up the
strike movement again if the government doesn't fulfill the agreements
concluded with the union.
The population of this country knows some conditions where survival is
seriously questioned under the effects of the policies of privatization
and the repayment of the foreign debt.
However in spite of the 'discussions' in Amsterdam on January 18-21, 204
between President Ndayizeye and the Palipehutu-Fnl, the former never
suspended the attacks and confrontation with the regular army which
increased especially in rural Bujumbura, causing the death of civilians
and the 'displacement' of several thousand people.
The Palipehutu-Fnl declared on February 13, 2004 that it decided to
break off talks with President Ndayizeye and to 'restart' the war since
he had not respected the agreements reached in Amsterdam while
intensifying the attacks against the troops of the Palipehutu-Fnl.
Under these conditions one must ask these questions:
* Why is the criminality intensifying with populations being massacred,
assassinations, plundering, rape of women, etc.
* What is the sense of the ultimatum given by the summit of heads of
state of the region on 16/11/03 ENJOINING THE Palipehutu-Fnl to 'stop'
the attacks and that expired on 16/02/2004?
* Why the 'general states' of the Frodebu (February 14-15, 2004) joined
the teachers' unions? In the name of what democracy do the workers and
their union organizations need to sell their independence while
attaching themselves to a political party?
The elections and the institutions that we speak of and the parties and
institutional movements will result in peace if the workers, the youth
and the workers debate sovereingly about their deep aspirations, the
institutions to be established and their content.
- The Editor
-----
The cycle of strikes against privatization
The Sugar cane society of the Moso (SOSUMO), one of the public
corporations that this country has, supplies the population with sugar
and the surplus that is exported to the countries of the sub-region.
This enterprise is particularly prosperous and draws the appetites of
privatizers on the orders of international financial institutions for
which the public sector, meaning the nation itself, must disappear. With
the means at hand and in difficult conditions the workers of the company
fight tooth and nail for the defense of their working conditions and of
the SOSUMO itself as a public enterprise. The defense of public service
is the defense of the sovereignty of the country.
The 2003 harvest that started on July 3, 2003 ended on November 24, 2003
with a production of more than 20,000 tons of sugar against 17.600 tons
in 2002 and 18,177 tons in 2001.
The 2003 harvest was marked by a cycle of strikes.
From July 19 to 20, two weeks after the beginning of the harvest, the
cane cutters stopped work to insist the management of the company raise
their daily pay that wasn't over 550 FBU. But their movement failed. At
the same time, relations between management and the other workers
deteriorated because of the worsening of work conditions. This situation
was the origin of an important strike movement started in October 20 to
22, 2003 during the harvest, around the following demands:
1. The resignation of the general manager.
2. An increase in wages.
3. The revision of the statute governing the personnel since the one
that is in forced is constantly violated.
4. The generalization to all the workers of the harvest bonus at present
only received by management.
5. The granting of lots and the access to credit for the first home etc.
Let us recall that these demands are added to the others posed since
2000.
In his letter SG/02/02/2000 No, the head of the union of workers of the
SYTIS sugar cane industry had asked for the organization of the
formation of administrators and agents of the SOSUMO, denouncing the
poor conditions of lodging of the SOSUMO agents in categories 1, 11 and
111, the precarious health care, the considerable gaps between the
different categories of workers with regard to business expenses, the
poor recruitment where families are left by dead workers, the process of
privatization, etc.
Since then, union representation dove into total silence due to the
undisclosed interests and the situation has worsened to the detriment of
the workers. The new team heading up SYTIS at the time of the recent
elections hasŠpain sur la plancheŠbecause it finds itself under an
obligation to channel all these aspirations to safeguard the interests
of the workers and the enterprise, starting with working people.
- Antoine Manuma
*******************
GUADELOUPE
13 union militants of the UGTG receive heavy sentences
Repetitious processes have taken place in Guadeloupe against the
members of the General Union of Workers of Guadeloupe (UGTG), whose
headquarters issued a communiqué on the sentences pronounced and made
public on April 1:
"The governments of France follow themselves and look alike when
it's about anti-union repression. The Chirac-Raffarin-Sarkozy government
undertook a ferocious police and judicial repression, resulting in penal
sentences against the workers and union representatives of the UGTG.
Jail terms of 27 months, 75 months of suspended sentences, 120 159,50
euros fine or 787 044 F, were applied against 13 militants and leaders
of the UGTG union.
Following is a list of the 13 militants convicted among whom are:
Guy Suzanon, member of the legal council of the UGTG union, Head of the
UTC-UGTG (Union of Workers of the Collectives), sentenced to four months
in jail with suspension and 6 000 euros fine for being present on a
barricade on the occasion of a strike of the local workers.
Francois Montantin, personnel delegate of ECOMAX, (graduate) sentenced
to six months in jail with suspension and 5 607 euros fine, according to
the testimony of a shop steward who recognized him among the strikers
that occupied an ECOMAX store.
Michel Madassamy, member of the council of the UGTG and the UTPP (Union
of petroleum workers), sentenced to 10 months jai, and 53 000 euros for
damages and interest accused without proof of having broken the
windshield of a truck belonging to TEXACO that also dismissed three
drivers for going on strikeŠ
The UGTG affirms that French justice in Guadeloupe will not annihilate
the natural right to resistance to oppression the fighters for liberty
have lived through, men and women of the slavery period, that makes the
workers of Guadeloupe their worthy heirsŠ
The UGTG calls on all its adherents, along with the workers, the
people of Guadeloupe, the organizations beholden to justice, to
international opinion, to gather in various ways a vast solidarity
against the anti-union repression that victimize the unionists of
Guadeloupe.
*******************
MEXICO
Campaign in Defense of the Daewoo
Maquiladora Workers in Mexicali, Mexico
Support the April 24 International Conference in
Mexicali in Defense of the Daewoo Workers!
In Mexicali, last October, about 40 workers at the Daewoo Orion de
Mexico (DOMEX) company organized themselves to form a union. They
submitted their union registration application to the National
Reconciliation Board. Soon after, Daewoo management began to harass the
workers who had signed onto the union, taking away bonus points for
punctuality, productivity, attendance and loyalty -- which was
tantamount to a wage cut of 200 pesos per month, a considerable sum
considering their incredibly low wages. When some of the workers
protested this abuse, they were fired.
The five fired workers who took the lead in organizing a genuine union
at Daewoo are Juan Carlos Espinoza Bravo (interim general secretary),
Victor Ortega (interim organizing director), Rita Soltero (interim
recording secretary), and Rogelio Torres and Alan Lechuga Moreno of the
interim executive board.
The Daewoo maquiladora factory produces TV screens for the U.S. market.
It is owned by a Korean multinational corporation. It employs more than
800 workers. For the past four years, workers have received no wage
increases, even though management got numerous raises. The rate of job
injuries has increased dramatically during this period due to speed-up.
Meanwhile the Reconciliation Board has ignored the Daewoo workers'
petition to form a union, even though formally they must announce their
decision to certify a new union 60 days after the application is filed.
The Daewoo workers, together with workers in other maquiladora plants in
the Mexicali region, have launched a new organization -- the Movement
for Freedom and Labor Rights for Workers in the Maquiladora Industry (MOLDELTIM)
-- and are calling on the trade union movement in the United States and
across the Americas to support their struggle for independent unions and
labor rights. They insist that workers in the maquiladoras must be
granted at least the same labor rights as all workers throughout Mexico.
At the Western Hemisphere Workers Conference Against the FTAA held in
Sao Paulo, Brazil, on December 12-13, the Mexican delegation brought a
proposal to the conference to constitute an International Commission of
Inquiry that would travel to Mexicali to investigate the living, working
and union conditions of the maquiladora workers at the Daewoo and other
plants.
The Open World Conference Continuations Committee supports this effort
and, in coordination with the MOLDETIM organizers, is calling on labor
officials, unionists and activists in the United States, Mexico and
Canada to participate in a one-day conference in Mexicali on Saturday,
April 24, to listen to the testimonies of the fired Daewoo workers and
other workers in the maquiladora industry, and to promote a wider
solidarity campaign on their behalf, including a much-needed financial
campaign, as the fired workers have been blacklisted and no maquiladora
will give them work.
Please fill out the coupon below if you are interested in participating
in this Conference in Support of the Maquiladora Workers in Mexicali on
April 24th. Also, we ask all supporters of labor rights, whether you are
able to come to Mexicali or not, to please send statements to Daewoo
management and to the authorities in the state of Baja California
protesting the repression and demanding the immediate reinstatement in
their jobs of the five fired workers.
Thanks, in advance, for your support,
Eddie Rosario and Alan Benjamin,
Co-coordinators,
OWC Continuations Committee
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