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ILC INTERNATIONAL NEWSLETTER NO. 77
A dossier of weekly information published by the International
Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples
May 4, 2004
**********
To contact us:
ILC International Newsletter
International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples
87, rude du Faubourg Saint Denis 75010 Paris, France
PRESENTATION:
In this issue we publish an invitation from Luc Deley, in the name
of the Organizing Committee of the 11th International Trade Union
Meeting in Defense of ILO Conventions, For the Defense and Independence
of Workers' Organizations. This meeting will take place on June 13, 2004
in Geneva. (see page 5).
This invitation follows on the heels of the appeal launched by the
international delegation of the International Campaign Against the
Occupation and For Labor Rights in Iraq that travelled to the
International Labor Bureau (ILB) in Geneva on March 15, 2004 in Geneva.
It calls on the workers' and democratic organizations to endorse this
meeting and to offer their financial support to help workers and labor
activitists from Iraq, Latin America, Asia and Africa to attend given
that their finances are limited.
Also in the framework of the campaign for labor rights in Iraq, we
reproduce (see page 2) the declaration of the Federation of Worker and
Union Councils of Iraq (FWCUI) on the occasion of May 1st. The text
explains that "May 1st is celebrated by workers, the defenders of
liberty and equality throughout the whole world." This sentiment is
echoed by the All Pakistan Trade Union Federation (APTUF): "As
workers, we must remain united, and remain confident as to our
class." (See page 6).
The appeal of the local union of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) of
Torbay to all trade unionists in Britain to support the right of Iraqi
workers to join a union of their choice flows with this same
preoccupation. (See page 2)
Finally one will read with the interest the article from the Oakland
Tribune (April 23, 2004) that reports on the dropping of the charges
filed last year against the workers and activists arrested on April 25,
2003 at a demonstration in the port of Oakland against the war in Iraq.
Also in this issue is an Open Letter written in his individual capacity
by Dan Kaplan, higher education unionist in San Mateo, Calif., to the
initiators of a meeting organized to debate the holding of a U.S. Social
Forum in 2005. (See pages 7 and 8).
Support the fight for the International Liaison Committee of Workers and
Peoples.
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**********
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
p. 1: Presentation
p. 2: International Campaign Against the Occupation and for Labor Rights
in Iraq
*May 1st declaration of the FWCUI in Iraq
*The local union of the TUC of Torbay addresses all trade unionists in
Great Britain
p. 3: Draft Labor Code prepared by the Federation of Workers' Councils
and Unions in Iraq. (continued and end).
p. 4: Charges dropped against antiwar demonstrators in the Port of
Oakland. United States
p. 5: Invitation to the 11th meeting for the defense of ILO conventions
on Sunday, June 13, 2004 in Geneva
p. 6: May 1st in Pakistan
* Religion in a company serves to destroy a union in Sri Lanka
p. 7: Dan Kaplan, teachers' union, replies to an invitation to debate a
social forum in the United States.
p. 8: Dan Kaplan's answer continued
*Subscriptions
********************
IRAQ
May 1st: Day of Unity and International Solidarity
"The Workers are the World Defenders and Callers of Equality and
Freedom"
(Declaration of the Federation of Workers' Councils and Unions in Iraq)
On May 1st., workers, libertarians and equality defenders, all
around the world, celebrate.
On the international workers' day, the workers of the world awaken their
powers, and confirm to the world that they are a single human front
despite differences of color, language, religion, and national and
ethnic identities, and that what unites them is much stronger than any
political system.
The workers are the world defenders and callers of equality and freedom.
They are the defenders of civility and the termination of exploitation
of humans to their fellow humans. On the opposite pole of workers stand
the bourgeois forces, the capitalists, looter of society wealth, and the
controllers of people's means of living. These forces are consumed with
the accumulation of enormous wealth while impoverishing millions of
people, transferring the life of the greater section of society into
misery and destitution. They leave behind, through their looting of the
society's wealth, number of homeless and beggars, causing the creation
of crime and robbery and the selling of the body and other more barbaric
forms of social decomposition and disintegration.
The workers daily face this capitalist system and in all corners of the
world. One time they protest though demonstrating, demanding the
expansion of their rights and freedoms, and another by demanding their
participation to decide upon their own political fate in society. And in
the more advanced situations they claim conquer of political power and
their management of society, ending the control of a handful of
capitalists over the fate and lives of millions of people. In all of
these protests, workers offer grave sacrifices and face the conceit of
the heavily armed capitalists and sacrifice many souls in this stream of
conflict.
Today, we watch the massacres, wars, and conflicts that capitalism
commits against humanity. This proves the extent of the capital's panic
and terror and the extent of its harshness and brutality. Decades of
struggles between capitalism, right wing forces, forces of exploitation
and war-mongers as a pole, and the working class, forces of civility and
liberation as another pole which represents aspiration of humanity for a
better world.
Decades of struggles proved that the workers' alternative is the one
that ends exploitation, wars, tyranny, national enslavement, and all
religious and racial discrimination among human beings. It is the
libertarian alternative for the complete equality between women and men.
The complete equality between human beings not from the formal and legal
standpoint but through the diminishing of class division among people
and the conversion of powers of social production for the purpose of
human development and for the achievement of a better world ..
The Federation of Workers" Councils and Unions in Iraq (FWCUI)
Baghdad, May 1st, 2004
*******************
GREAT BRITAIN
The Torbay and District Trades Union Council calls on all British
unionists to support the International Campaign Against the Occupation
for Labour Rights in Iraq
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I am writing to bring to your attention the appeal launched by the
International Campaign Against the Occupation and For Labour Rights In
Iraq.
I have been mandated to do so by Torbay & District Trades Council,
which has supported this campaign since it was launched in June 2003. It
is clear that, now more than ever, the issue of labour rights for Iraqi
workers and the continuing foreign occupation needs to be campaigned on
as widely as possible in the British labour movement.
The campaign falls squarely within the tradition of British trade unions
fighting, both individually and through Trades Councils and the national
TUC, for social justice, for progress, and now specifically for the
right of Iraqi workers to join the trade union of their choice, as
stipulated in Article 3 of ILO Convention 87, and for their right to
free collective bargaining under ILO Convention 98.
I would ask you to read carefully the enclosed report on the Delegation
which on 15 March 2004 was received by a representative of the ILO
Workers' Group in Geneva.
You will also find a copy of the Memorandum handed to the ILO Workers’
Group representative, as well as the Appeal launched by the Delegation,
which was composed of representatives of the International Confederation
of Arab Trade Unions, Iraqi trade unionists, US trade unionists, and
members of the International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples.
Please indicate your support for this campaign by returning the attached
form (please do not return the whole message).
All supporters will be kept regularly up to date with developments in
the campaign in Britain as well as at the international level.
Fraternally,
Charlie Charalambous
Vice President, Torbay & District Trades Council
(this appeal was sent out with 20 prominent endorsers)
*******************
IRAQ
Considering it is up to the Iraqi workers and their freely
constituted organizations to define their demands and to negotiate their
rights, we are certain that labor activists around the world will note
with interest the Labor Code prepared by the Federation of the Workers
Council and Unions of Iraq (FWCUI). The first part of Draft Labour Code
was published in ILC International Newsletter No. 76.
Draft of Labour Law Proposed by the Federation of Workers'
Councils and Unions in Iraq (Part 2)
Section 7. Provision at the workplace of modern childcare facilities
meeting standards that ensure the well being of workers' children. Two
half-hour breaks will be provided for the breastfeeding of children, and
these breaks will be included in the working hours of the breastfeeding
worker.
Section 8. Employers and the state are to take all appropriate measures
to prevent occupational illness and injury.
Section 9. Employers and the state are to provide all necessary tools
and equipment such as special footwear and gowns, gloves, goggles,
masks, and helmets, in order to prevent occupational hazards and to
minimize occupational injuries and illness.
Article III: Women's Working Conditions
Section 1. Pregnant workers are entitled to a 4-hour work day.
Section 2. Pregnant woman are entitled to sixteen weeks fully paid
pregnancy and confinement. Mothers are entitled to 18 weeks of fully
paid maternity leave in order to perform child care labour in her
domicile. Women are entitled to two days off during each menstrual
period.
Section 3. Workers who provide primary care for children are entitled to
not accept nightshift or overtime working hours. Pregnant workers are
entitled to perform only suitable work and to refuse unsuitable work.
Article IV: Wages
Section 1. A minimum wage will be set by the workers'
representatives.
Section 2. Automatic rises in the minimum wage will be made proportional
to economic inflation.
Section 3. Determination of the minimum annual raise in wage levels will
be made by a collective bargaining agreement at the national level, by a
group consisting of representatives of workers' organizations,
representatives of employers, and representatives of the state.
Section 4. Equal pay shall be provided to women and to men for
performing similar work.
Section 5. Prohibition of paying wages in-kind. Prohibition of delay in
wage payments.
Section 6. Prohibition of fines or any other deductions from pay under
any pretext. Full wages shall be paid for valid absences, periods of
illness and recuperation, strikes, or for the stoppage of production for
any reason, or for reasons due to the actions of the employer.
Section 7. Prohibition of linking workers? pay to any circumstances and
factors other than the actual labor itself (e.g., increased input,
productivity levels, disciplinary actions, production targets, etc.).
Workers? pay shall be paid in one periodic unit of payment as wages.
Article V: Leaves and Holidays
Section 1. Two consecutive days off each week, and a minimum 36-day
holiday leave each year. Workers are entitled to brief emergency leaves,
without reduction in pay, in order to attend to unforeseen personal
problems. Such emergency leaves are in addition to annual holiday
leaves.
Section 2. The first of May will be a public holiday, International
Workers' Day.
Section 3. The eighth of March will be a public holiday, International
Women?s Day.
Article VI: Social Welfare and insurance
Section 1. Adequate unemployment benefits, according to the wages level
last received by the worker, will be provided to every unemployed person
over 16 who is ready to work. Adequate unemployment benefits and other
necessary allowances will be provided to all those who are unable to
work for physical or psychiatric reasons.
Section 2. Pensions upon retirement equivalent to the maximum wage
received by the worker during the worker's working years. Automatic
raises in pension wages will be made proportional to increases in the
general wage.
Section 3. Full insurance of workers against injuries and damage due to
work will be provided whether such injuries and damage occur inside or
outside of the workplace. The worker need not prove negligence on the
part of the employer or management to be so compensated. Full payment of
pensions will be made to workers who become incapacitated as a result of
injuries resulting from work.
Article VII: Fines and penalties
Section 1. Prohibition of fines, deductions from pay, or firing of
workers under various pretexts. Any form of punishment by employers
against workers are prohibited. Representatives of the workers are
responsible for investigating and taking appropriate measures against
any violations of the above.
Section 2. Formation of adjudication and arbitration councils, with
members elected by the workers.
Section 3. Drafting and enforcement of the internal regulations of
workshops, economic, and production units by workers' elected
representatives.
Section 4. Formation of workers' inspection commissions to supervise the
correct implementation of the labour law throughout the country in all
workplaces and establishments (including domestic service workplaces)
Section 5. Obligation of the employer to consult with the workers'
representatives on any decision that substantially alters the work
methods, working hours, the worksite, or the number of employees.
Section 6. Right of workers' representatives to inspect the books of the
enterprise in which they work. The employer is obligated to provide the
workers and their representatives with all the information they need
during the course of the inspection.
Article VIII: Right to Organization
Section 1. Full and unconditional freedom for workers to organize.
Workers are free to seek any form of organization to defend their
rights. Obstructing workers' endeavors to organize their ranks is
prohibited. Prohibition of forcing workers to join any organization. Any
organization endorsed by workers must be recognized and dealt with as
the workers' representatives before their employer and the state.
Article IX: Right to Strike and Protest
Section 1. Complete and unconditional freedom to strike. Strikes do not
require the prior permission of the state or any state authority. Full
payment of wages shall be made during the period of the strike. Equal
right of access to the media shall be made to strikers so that they may
state their case and respond to the claims of the state and employers.
Banning strikes under any pretext, such as "national and patriotic
interests," "state of emergency," or "war,"
shall be illegal.
Section 2. Prohibition against the employment of strike-breakers,
police, or armed personnel used to replace strikers, in all businesses
and enterprises, state and private.
Section 3. Right of workers to stop work during the period when their
complaints regarding actions of the employers and their officials,
including safety issues or unforeseen problems in the workplace, are
being addressed or negotiated.
Section 4. Freedom of picketing. Freedom for all to join picket lines,
whether or not they are employees of the enterprise concerned.
Note: this labour law is to be implemented in all workplaces in public
and private sectors, permanent and casual, industrial and agricultural
jobs, and also apply to domestic labor for wages (housework). Any
employer or official who violates the articles of this law will be
prosecuted.
The Federation of Workers' Councils and Unions in Iraq demands the
immediate adoption and implementation of the articles of this law in
Iraq. The Federation struggles for its implementation all over Iraq
through the intervention of Workers.
The Federation of Workers' Councils and Unions in Iraq call upon all
Iraqi workers, labour leaders, labour activists, and labour
organizations to join the struggle to implement this law all over the
country. It also announces that the General Assembly of Workers is the
only vehicle that can ensure the direct and collective participation of
workers in deciding their future and implementing this law.
********************
UNITED STATES
Charges Against Oakland 25 Antiwar Protesters Dropped
(For more information about this case, see issue No. 63 of the
ILC International Newsletter, January 27, 2004.)
Criminal charges filed against protesters arrested last year during an
anti-war demonstration at the Port of Oakland were dropped Thursday,
ending a year-long saga that added another blemish to the city's police
department.
Deputy District Attorney Julie Dunger announced the decision to drop
charges during an early morning hearing in which defense attorneys had
planned to push for the setting of trial dates.
Noting protesters demonstrating in subsequent rallies remained peaceful
and the police department changed its crowd control tactics, Dunger said
there was no reason to proceed with the criminal cases.
"It's been a year since that day," she said. "In that
time, there have been peaceful and lawful protests. During that time,
the Oakland Police Department has changed its procedures. In light of
these facts, the people, at this time, move to dismiss all
charges."
The half-dozen or so protesters attending the hearing gasped in
jubilation and began shaking hands as Alameda County Superior Court
Judge Don Clay read off each name followed by Dunger asking for
dismissal.
"This is a big relief," said Lindsay Parkinson, 24, one of the
24 protesters and a longshoreman who were arrested. "It was
something that was in the back of your head all the time."
Protesters were arrested on April 8, 2003, after a violent confrontation
with police who fired wooden dowels, bean bags and rubber bullets at a
crowd of more than 100 who were blocking the entrances at two maritime
terminals.
While police said they fired after protesters threw objects at them,
videotapes failed to prove that claim. In addition, many protesters had
wounds on their backs, indicating they were trying to run away when
police began firing.
Police reports obtained by ANG Newspapers last June suggested most of
the 90 officers sent to the port that day didn't see protesters throw
rocks, bottles or metal objects.
The incident sparked condemnations from newspapers across the nation.
Even the U.N. Commission on Human Rights joined the fray, placing
Oakland in the same category as Indonesia, Burundi and China as a
government that wrongly used excessive force.
Despite the national outrage, city and police department leaders
continued to defend their actions, saying the filing of the charges
proved they acted correctly.
"It's a good thing they did (file charges). It vindicates our
deployment and shows we did things the way they should have been
done," police Lt. Howard Jordan said at the time.
"The mayor has full confidence in the police chief ... and feels
(police commanders) are reasonable and compassionate people," a
representative for Mayor Jerry Brown said a day after the confrontation.
But on Thursday, those who supported the police the loudest remained
silent. The mayor said through a representative it was "premature
to comment."
Police Chief Richard Word also declined comment and deflected calls to
Deputy Chief Pete Dunbar, who said the district attorney's decision was
no reflection on how police acted.
While declining to say the department erred in its handling of the
incident, Dunbar said it has changed crowd-controlpolices and has since
worked peacefully with protesters.
Last December, Word instituted a ban against using wooden pellets and
motorcycles as ways to break up large crowds. That change included a
restriction on the use of bean bags and established "protest
liaisons," who meet with protest organizers before an event.
Defense attorneys said that ban probably helped the district attorney
make the decision to drop the charges. Many speculated the only reason
the criminal cases dragged on were an attempt to give the department
political cover.
"They finally realized they didn't really have any evidence,"
defense attorney Bobbie Stein said. "The only reason they were
charged was political pressure."
Stein said much of that evidence, which included transcripts of police
communi-cations and video tapes, showed officers arrested protesters
without saying why.
Defense attorneys said they were not surprised by the decision to drop
charges given the evidence, the costs involved and work associated with
setting trial dates for two dozen defendants.
But while protesters said they were pleased the case was dismissed, some
said more needs to be done to hold police accountable.
"I feel liberated but I feel frustrated too," said Kevin
Kachadourian, 48, who was arrested. "The district attorney and the
Oakland Police Department need to be held more accountable. They should
be the ones charged with something."
While the possibility of either being charged is remote, protesters will
have a chance to argue their case through a federal lawsuit filed
against the department and the city.
That case, filed by the National Lawyers Guild and the American Civil
Liberties Union of Northern California, seeks monetary damages for
medical expenses, lost wages, interference with school, damage to career
and numerous civil rights abuses.
Lawyers representing clients in that case said Thursday's dismissal of
charges does not legally affect their civil rights case but could put
additional pressure on the city and police department to settle.
In addition, with criminal charges dropped against the protesters, those
charged can now join the civil suit, lawyers said.
Karen Boyd, a spokesperson for City Attorney John Russo, said city
attorneys have been working with the protesters lawyers in hopes of
creating a settlement similar to that in the Riders case.
In that case, the city agreed to a unique $20 million settlement in
which half went directly to citizens who were falsely arrested and the
other half went toward revamping the police department.
-----
(This article is reprinted from the April 23, 2004 issue of the Oakland
Tribune. It was written by staffwriter Paul T. Rosynsky.)
*****************
EUROPE
Invitation to the 11th Trade Union Meeting of the ILC for the defense of
the ILO conventions, for the defense of the independence of labor
organizations
Sunday, June 13, 2004 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. in Geneva
Dear friends, dear comrades,
For the 11th consecutive year, the International Liaison Committee of
Workers and Peoples has taken the initiative to convene a meeting on the
occasion of the yearly ILO Assembly. This meeting will be held in Geneva
and will gather trade union leaders and activists from all over the
world.
* One of the central points of this meeting this year will be the
pursuit of the International Campaign Against the Occupation and for
Labour Rights in Iraq decided last year in Geneva. As you know, an
international delegation travelled to the headquarters of the
International Labour Bureau (ILB) in Geneva on March 15 to deliver a
memorandum on the situation of the labour movement in Iraq. In this
report we read as follows|: (1)
"We call upon labour organisations the world over: Can a labour
organisation accept that Iraqi workers be excluded from the benefit of
universally acknowledged ILO Conventions?
"Can a labour organisation accept that after a so-called 'war for
democracy' -- organised in fact on the basis of State lies concerning
the alleged existence of weapons of mass destruction -- all the measures
taken by the former regime against workers and their trade unions are
perpetuated and enforced by the occupation authorities?
"Is it possible to talk about sovereignty when the American
commander in chief of ground forces in Iraq, Ricardo Sanchez, announces
publicly that the coalition forces will stay in Iraq for at least one
more year?
"We call upon labour organisations the world over and ask them to
join our campaign for labour rights in Iraq. We call them to circulate
as widely as possible our Memorandum, especially on the occasion of the
March 20 initiatives and to endorse it. We call upon all to circulate it
widely in their own trade unions, in their factories, among workers.
....
"Considering that in the next annual assembly of the ILO, the Iraqi
issue should be discussed, we call all the worker delegates at the ILO
assembly to support our Memorandum, and to intervene to obtain answers.
"We will present in the name of our organisations a report on the
campaign for labour rights in Iraq to the 11th Conference for the
defence of ILO Conventions (Sunday 13th, June 2004) called by the
International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples.
"We call on all the international labour movement to develop the
struggle against the occupation, to wage the struggle so that the Iraqi
workers can set up the unions of their own choosing.
"Our initiative is not opposing or challenging any other
initiative. We are not in competition with any organisation; the aim of
our campaign, in full respect of the prerogatives of each organisation,
is to provide a contribution to the struggle for workers' rights in
Iraq, which are part and parcel of democracy."
The June 13 Meeting in Geneva will therefore have to discuss, based on
the report that will be presented, the manner in which Iraqi workers and
their unions "can benefit from universally recognized ILO
conventions."
* At the same time, the June 13 Meeting in Geneva will discuss the draft
revision of ILO Recommendation 150 on Professional Development that
appears on the agenda of the 91st Annual Session of the ILO. It will
take note of the answers obtained by a delegation of teachers unionists
who went to the ILB in June 2003 and were received by Ms. Lene Olsen in
the name of the Bureau of the ILO Workers' Group (ACTRAV).
This meeting followed a request for an appointment addressed to ILO
Director General Juan Somavía with the purpose of reviewing the results
of the activities of the Commission on Human Resources of the ILO. This
delegation drew attention to the danger of counterposing
"professional development" linked to a labor work and
"profession development" tied to the so-called "lifelong
education" -- a concept that begins with the principle according to
which workers should accept throughout their life an undetermined number
of different jobs, interrupted by as many periods of unemployment.
These are the two questions, therefore, that will be at the center of
the discussion during the June 13 Meeting in Geneva.
We will send you in the following days, other documents pertaining to
the discussion that will take place at the time of the yearly session of
the ILO.
We therefore invite you to participate in this conference and we call
upon you to reserve the date of June 13 so that you can join us. As of
today, you can already register for the 11th International Trade Union
Meeting, and you can send us some very-needed financial support to help
defray the cost of organizing the Meeting as well as help toward the
financing of the trips of unionists and labor activists whose financial
means are limited from Iraq, Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
We thank you in advance for your interest and support, and we hope to
see you on Sunday, June 13 in Geneva.
In the name of the Organizing Committee,
Luc Deley
---
(1) These documents on the international labour delegation to Geneva
were published in ILC International Newsletter issue No. 70 on March 16,
2004.
June 13th Meeting Organizing Committee:
Luc Deley
Ch. J. - E. Gottret,
12 1255 Veyrier (Suisse)
Tél/ Fax : (41) 22 784 24
Postal Bank Account : 30-340450
E-mail: dellu@bluewin.ch
[ ] Please send me more information about the campaign in defence of
the ILO Conventions and about the preparations for the International
Trade Union Meeting of the ILC on June 13, 2004
[ ] In my personal capacity
[ ] In the name of my union/organisation
[ ] I pledge ____ to help defray the costs of the International Meeting
NAME:
TITLE:
CITY/COUNTRY
EMAIL
Please Note: The International Campaign Against the Occupation and
For Labour Rights in Iraq needs your financial support to help finance
the travel expenses of an Iraqi labor delegation to Geneva. Please make
your cheques or money orders payable to CMO. Bank transfers can be sent
to (IBAN): FR76 3093 8000 34000 5122 7000 317 - LUBPFRPP
*****************
PAKISTAN
"May Day ties workers with each other no matter what country,
colour, religion or nation, they belong to"
Dear Comrades,
On International Labour Day, the All Pakistan Trade Union Federation (APTUF)
would like to extend solidarity greetings to all of our comrades.
We salute workers and their leadership who are struggling under very
harsh circumstances. Capitalist attack on workers' rights, conspiracies,
unjustified sanctions by USA and their allies, cannot stop the workers'
struggle. We admire workers' significant resistance against imperialist
and fascist powers all over the world.
On May Day, it is important as ever to remember that we, as workers,
must stand united to develop our confidence and strength as a class. We
want a world free from poverty, prisons and war. We believe that through
united struggle we "workers" will overcome exploitation and
colonialism and will bring equality, justice, peace and prosperity for
every one.
This, May1 we take this opportunity to share with you that APTUF is
organizing a demonstration on May Day. The government has imposed a ban
on workers' rallies or any kind of demonstrations, but we are determined
to shout against the government's anti-worker policies and celebrate May
Day with its actual spirit. May Day spirit, which strongly ties workers
with each other no matter what country, colour, religion or nation, they
belong to. This spirit makes us very close to workers of the world.
Long live workers' unity!!
In Solidarity,
Gulzar Ahmed Choudhary
General Secretary
All Pakistan Trade Union Federation
******************
SRI LANKA
"Workwear Company Attempts to Use Religion to Break the Union"
Thousands of workers toil and live in the shantytowns of the Special
Economic Zone of Biyagama in the the outskirts of Colombo, the capital
city of Sri Lanka.
Anton Marcus, Joint Secretary of the Free Trade Zones & General
Services Employees Union has sent us a copy of a letter which his union
has sent to one of the multinational corporations, Workwear Co.
Letter from Anton Marcus to Mr. Mustafa Mussa Kassam Somji:
Mustafa Mussa Kassam Somji,
Managing Director
c/o Zakir Abdi
Workwear Lanka (Pvt) Ltd.
78. Biyagama Export Procesing Zone
Walgama, Malwana
Sri Lanka
Dear Mr. Mussa Kassam Somji,
I am contacting you with regard to the anti-union campaign currently
underway at your Work wear Lanka factory. Workers are legally entitled
to join the union of their choosing and exercise their right to bargain
collectively. As Managing Director of Work wear Lanka you must ensure
that these rights are respected and see that no obstacles are created to
prevent workers from exercising such rights.
I understand that approximately 100 workers have been fired (under the
pretense of being casual laborers whose services are no longer needed)
because of their support for the Free Trade Zone & General Services
Employees Union (FTZGSEU). This is unacceptable; the workers must be
reinstated. Additionally, those union branch office-bearers, committee
members, and activists who have been placed on suspension must be called
back to work. I understand that some union members have been transferred
and demoted simply because they have attempted to participate in union
activities. These workers must be restored to their earlier positions.
Further I learned that the company is attempting to cause religious
dissension to break up the union.
I urge you to take steps to see that any activities on the part of
management that infringe upon the workers’ union rights come to an
immediate halt. The right to freedom of association and collective
bargaining are among the most fundamental of workers rights. The ongoing
anti-union campaign at your factory is an attempt to curtail those
rights and constitute unfair labour practices under the provisions of
Sri Lanka’s Industrial Dispute (Amendment) Act. No. 56 of 1999, must
come to an end. For your reference, I am also contacting the companies
who have chosen to produce their gloves at Work wear Lanka to inform
them of my concerns.
Please keep me updated on any measures you take to correct the situation
at Work wear Lanka.
(letter sent Wednesday, March 17, 2004)
Sample Letters to Support the Campaign of the Workwear Workers
To whom it May Concern:
It has been brought to my attention that one of your Sri Lankan
suppliers is engaged in activities that violate workers union rights and
Sri Lankan law. I encourage you to investigate this matter immediately
and urge your supplier to come into compliance with the law.
According to reports from the Free Trade Zone & General Services
Employees Union (FTZGSEU), since a branch union was set up in December
2003 at Work wear Lanka, your supplier located in Sri Lanka’s Biyagama
Export Processing Zone; workers have been subject to an intense
anti-union campaign.
Specifically, workers (approximately 100) have been dismissed, demoted,
transferred, and suspended because of their union membership or
sympathies. Workers have routinely been pressured to resign from the
union or face dismissal. Apparently they have been told that the factory
will close down if there is a union. All these actions are clearly
unacceptable. In addition to violating International Labor Organization
conventions 87 and 98, such actions on the part of Work wear Lanka
management also qualify as unfair labor practices under the provisions
of Sri Lanka’s Industrial Dispute (Amendment) Act. No. 56 of 1999.
Further I learned that the company is attempting to cause religious
dissension to break up the union.
I urge you to contact your supplier today to convey to them the
importance of respecting workers rights to free association and bargain
collectively. I am NOT asking you to cut your orders with this factory
that would only punish the workers who are trying to exercise their
legal rights. Instead I hope that you will follow up on your
responsibility to support workers’ rights and work with management at
Work wear Lanka to see that they put a halt to any anti-union
activities.
Thank you for considering these concerns. Please keep me informed of any
action you take on this serious matter.
Sincerely,
(please sign your name. Send copies of your letter to Anton Marcus at ftzunion@diamond.lanka.net)
*******************
UNITED STATES
A number of organisations in the United States sent out a letter of
invitation to a planning meeting for a possible U.S. Social Forum in
2005. Dan Kaplan, a higher education unionist in San Mateo, Calif., was
invited to attend this planning meeting. Brother Kaplan replied to the
organisers of the planning meeting in a letter that he forwarded to the
ILC. Because the issues he raises in his letter are of great importance
to the international labour movement, we are reprinting the letter in
its entirety.
Invitation from Cynthia Mellon to Dan Kaplan dated April 13, 2004
April 13, 2004
Attention: Dan Kaplan
California Federation of Teachers
Dear Brother Kaplan:
We wish to invite your union to join a broad range of U.S.-based social
justice organizations to an open meeting to discuss possibilities for
holding a United States Social Forum (USSF) in 2005.
The meeting is being viewed as a pre-planning meeting in order to gauge
the level of interest on the part of labor and/or social justice
organizations in the U.S. and to evaluate the possibilities and
challenges surrounding an undertaking of this magnitude.
The meeting will take place in Washington D.C. on April 26 and 27,
beginning on the afternoon of Monday, April 26. Further details about
the meeting location and schedule will follow shortly.
Since space at the meeting is limited, and Grassroots Global Justice is
committed to supporting the leadership of grassroots community and
member-based labor organizations at every stage of planning a U.S.
Social Forum, we ask that each organization send no more than two
representatives, at least one of whom should be a member/leader of your
organization.
We have attached a background document, providing information on the
Social Forum concept and GGJ’s participation in the process to date.
If you are interested in attending the meeting, please RSVP no later
than April 12.
A registration form is attached. Please reply by e-mail to: cynthiaggj@cvhaction.org.
In solidarity,
(letter was sent out in the name of 15 signatory organisations)
Reply by Dan Kaplan
April 26, 2004
Dear Sister Mellon:
Thank you very much for your invitation to participate in the meeting
today and tomorrow to discuss the idea of holding a U.S. Social Forum in
2005. I will not be able to attend, but would like to take this
opportunity to let you know my thinking on the subject. Even though I
was authorized to speak in the name of the California Federation of
Teachers at an international conference in defense of public education
last summer in France, and also spoke for the CFT at a meeting of the
International Liaison Committee in Geneva last June 15, I am not in this
letter speaking in the name of the CFT, but only as an individual. I
will, however, bring the views contained in this note to the attention
of the leadership of the CFT.
I have very serious concerns about the World Social Forum process taking
hold in the United States. In fact, in view of all of the political
problems that have been noted by people who have been following with a
critical eye the World Social Forums that have been held in Porto Alegre
and in Europe, I think that it would be disastrous for U.S. trade union
and social justice activists to use the WSF as a good precedent or point
of reference that should be adopted here. Please allow me the
opportunity to explain why I say this.
Let me begin by saying that I would not, of course, be opposed to an
international forum being created that genuinely seeks to defend and
advance the interests of working people against the global corporate
agenda. I simply do not believe that the World Social Forums has this
agenda. I believe that the World Social Forums has a totally different
character and content.
At the recent European Social Forum, for example, there was much
discussion of promoting the notion of General Interest Services (GIS).
What is a GIS? According to a directive submitted by the European Union,
it is a "service provided to the public whose providers can be
organized either as a private corporation, a public entity, a mixed
private-public entity, or an inter-communal enterprise."
Every government in Europe today is creating these GISs by placing
heretofore public services in competition with private services, thereby
privatizing one sector of the public services at a time and transferring
them to private corporations or NGO-type associations. In the process,
the public sector workers, who were unionized for the most part, lose
their civil-service status, their union rights and their jobs. In
addition, entire sectors of public services are eliminated -- as they
are deemed "unprofitable."
The European Social Forum opened with a forum whose keynote speakers
loudly promoted the GIS device to dismantle public services. Mr.
Nikonoff, chairman of the ATTAC (Tobin Tax) coalition and one of the
main organizers of the European Social Forum, stated publicly that the
matter of moving rapidly to devise and implement a whole system of
General Interest Services is at the core of the entire European Social
Forum process: "It is decisive that trade unions form an alliance
with alternative globalization activists in support of GISs," he
told the daily French newspaper Le Monde last November.
In this same vein, the Organizing Committee of the World Education Forum
(WEF), which will be held this summer in Sao Paulo, Brazil, is promoting
explicitly the "various formal, semi-formal and informal
schools" that are popping up as an "alternative" to
public schools.
The World Education Forum organizers are not alone in pushing this
perspective. In a 1998 report on education published by the Organization
of Economic and Cooperative Development (OECD), the authors state,
"[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'."
The OECD, like the WTO, explain that "formal" spaces include
private education (where education is transformed into a commodity). The
"semi-formal and informal schools," by definition, are exempt
from any public regulation and scrutiny.
Thus, the orientation put forward by the organizers of the World
Education Forum allows corporate interests, churches, and NGOs to become
players in all aspects of education, relieving the government from its
duty to guarantee public, secular and free education at all levels.
I also would like to make reference to the criticisms of the World
Social Forum process that have been made by two well-known activists,
Naomi Klein and James Petras. Klein has written that she was not
impressed with the first World Social forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil,
where she found "the organizational structure of the forum so
opaque that it was nearly impossible to figure out how decisions were
made or to find ways to question those decisions. There were no open
plenaries and no chance to vote on the structure of future events."
I think that Klein's comment points to the lack of democratic
decision-making in the WSF process. Democracy means not only a
recognition of differences, but a decision-making structure that
concludes with agreed-upon action proposals. Democracy means, in other
words, discussion and voting. The consensus principle is in reality
undemocratic. It means that decisions are really made in small circles
behind closed doors. I am convinced that a de-facto leadership which is
not accountable in any way to the tens of thousands of activists who
have attended the various WSF events has been in place.
I think that a large part of this particular problem has to do with the
ban on political parties participating in the WSF. The ban is, in fact,
hypocritical since political parties are not only participating anyway,
but are also playing a leadership role. Many of the organizers and
speakers at WSF events are member of political parties with specific
political goals. There is nothing whatsoever wrong with this, but it
should be open and transparent. Every activist of the Social Forum
movement has a right to know which parties are participating in the
movement, and who is a member of which party.
James Petras has written that even though the organizers of the WSF
process have spoken the language of continuing mobilizations, he feels
that "their main thrust was toward lobbying and elite negotiations
with the World Bank and other international financial institutions to
secure promises of 'humanizing globalization.'" He further notes
that the talk about "another globalization" really just
implies "adding human rights clauses, and a place at the table
among the imperial powers and their bankers and CEO's." Petras also
argues that all of the WSF organizers talk about "civil
society" is really just a way "to pressure the existing
imperialist powers to secure greater regulation; limitations on
speculative capital (i.e. the Tobin tax), and greater trade
regulation." In other words, a "reformed" imperialism and
a "regulated" capitalism.
But is that what the current situation requires of activists interested
in truly creating another kind of world? Like Petras, I believe that we
need to "totally displace the current corporate elite and their
international financial institution benefactors. We must reject the
demands for places at the table of the World Bank as a cooptive strategy
in which the financial and structural ties to the imperial states and
multi-national corporations make co-participation a dead-end that
enriches only the NGO's at the expense of the people."
As Petras has written concerning the organizers of World Social Forum of
Porto Alegre in 2002, "their minimalist program, and the emphasis
on moderate notables are not likely to build resistance to the U.S.
imperial offensive. The scope and depth of U.S. militarism cannot be
confronted by sporadic protests of NGOs without organized popular
support."
I think that the program that we need to organize around should include
the demand to cancel the foreign debt of the oppressed nations of the
world, as this debt has already been paid back many times over. We
should also demand the abolition of the International Monetary Fund, the
World Bank, and the World Trade Organization.
But these are not the programmatic demands of the World Social Forums
now being held around the world. Why? I think that a large part of the
answer may be found in who is financing these meetings. The third
installment of the World Social Forum that was held in Porto Alegre in
January, 2003, was given $500,000 by the Ford Foundation. The NGO Oxfam
gave the WSF organizers $400,000.
According to documents released by the French government (Le Figaro,
Aug. 22, 2003), the European Social Forum cost more than US$4.5 million
-- 87 percent of which came from public funds from the French and other
European governments.
In fact, the organizers of the World Social Forums now being promoted
around the world are receiving financial support from the IMF and the
World Bank. James D. Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank, sent warm
greetings to the delegates at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre in
January, 2003, under the title: "A Better World Is Possible!"
He wrote in his note: "For the last decade, we have held an active
dialogue with the organizations of civil society, including through the
projects that we are financing." And this is accurate: thirteen
percent of the World Bank's loans serve to finance the
"participation" of the NGO's. "The role of civil society
organizations at the local and world levels will continue to grow,"
adds Wolfensohn, who ended his message with these words: "My
colleagues and I have followed the debates of the last two World Social
Forums and we will discuss with interest the ideas and proposals that
will emerge this yearŠ.We can work together much more closely."
Let me give one example of what the consequences are of receiving
funding from the IMF and World Bank. The first Porto Alegre World Social
Forum was the international showcase for the now famous
"participatory democracy budget". Let me briefly take a look
at this project. Upon examination, it turns out that the
"participatory budget" that was implemented in Porto Alegre by
the municipal authority in 2000 had one major problem. The discussion
that took place about the construction of the municipal budget only
occurred after the money required to pay the regular installment
of the foreign debt and the interest payments on that debt had been
taken out of the municipal Treasury!
The December 2000 issue of the quarterly journal "Finance and
Development" that is published by the IMF and edited by the World
Bank's Chief Economist had high praise for this "participatory
budget": "The provisions aiming to improve the functioning of
public and social institutions are favorable for both growth and equity
insofar as they reduce the administrative and social constraints on
economic activity and social mobility. The participation of the
communities in the setting of budgetary priorities---which we have seen
one example in Porto Alegre, in Brazil -- can help to focus public
action on social priorities."
"Social priorities" that are dominated, of course, by payment
of the debt before anything else is considered! For the IMF, the
"participatory budget" therefore allows the "reduction of
the administrative and social constraints on economic activity."
The IMF and the World Bank invariably use this term to refer to public
services and more broadly all social regulation. I can understand why
"participatory democracy" should interest at the highest level
the upholders of the capitalist class. To this end, they are willing to
organize and finance with all pomp and circumstance the World Social
Forums of Porto Alegre and elsewhere, which can have an enormous media
impact and are capable of drawing to them hundreds of thousands of youth
and demonstrators, the vast majority of whom sincerely want to fight the
injustice of the capitalist system.
The World Social Forums project is not situated on the ground of the
labor movement and the independence of labor organizations. Rather the
World Social Forums, I think, are an attempt to incorporate the trade
union organizations, at least their most combative sectors, into an
alliance with a sector of the ruling class in an attempt to detach these
organizations from the trade union movement as a whole and of drowning
them in a forum with NGOs and various other "social
movements."
To attempt to convince the trade unions, the organizations that the
working class has built, to submit to the diluting and destructive
framework of the World Social Forums, is to dismantle the existence of
the independent working class by integrating the labor organizations
into this project. Even if this is done while trumpeting about
anti-globalization, it helps the plans of those who are constructing the
new imperial system of corporate-driven globalization.
Please be so kind as to share with those assembled in Washington D.C.
today and tomorrow the content of this letter.
In unity,
Dan Kaplan,
Executive Secretary, AFT Local 1493
San Mateo Community College Federation of Teachers
cc: Alan Benjamin,
Open World Conference of Workers
In Defense of Trade Union Independence and Democratic Rights
c/o San Francisco Labor Council
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