Open
World Conference of Workers
In Defense of Trade Union Independence & Democratic Rights
ILC Hosts Ninth Annual Conference in Geneva on June 16, 2002
"In Defense of the Conventions of the International Labor Organization (ILO) and In Defense of Labor Organizations"
On June 16, for the ninth consecutive year, the
International Liaison Committee for a Workers' International (ILC) will be
hosting a conference in Geneva, Switzerland "In Defense of the
Conventions of the International Labor Organization (ILO) and In Defense
of Labor Organizations." This ILC Conference has been held for the
past nine years at the time of the official Yearly ILO Conference in
Geneva.
This year's ILC Conference will focus on the need to reconquer ILO
Conventions that have been dismantled in recent years (in the name of
"revising" them) under pressure from the Employers' and
Government Groups of the ILO -- both acting at the behest of the World
Bank, WTO and World Bank. Specificially, the ILC conference will center on
the need to reclaim ILO Convention 103 (on maternity rights) and ILO
Convention 138 (on the prohibition of child labor). It will also deal with
the ILO conventions dealing with the prohibition of nightwork for women in
industry.
In the last issue of the OWC Supplement, we published the Final Appeal of
the International Women's Conference in Defense of Working Women's Rights,
which was held in Berlin, Germany, on February 21, 2002. That appeal laid
out some of the main themes that will be developed at the ILC Conference
in Geneva on June 16. A "Memorandum" of this International
Women's Conference - which contains the transcription of all the
presentations by the delegates from 25 countries - will be delivered in
advance of the official ILO Conference to the International Labor Bureau (ILB)
by a delegation from the Berlin women's conference with the aim of
highlighting the mounting threats against the rights of all working people,
particularly those of working class women the world over.
Indeed, the attacks by governments and employers' associations against the
ILO conventions are proceeding at a rapid pace, and the results have been
sweeping.
To date, for example, the new ILO Convention 183 - which revised downward
ILO Convention No. 103 on maternity rights - has been introduced
officially in three countries: Bulgaria, Italy and Slovakia. The Italian
government has since stricken ILO Convention 103 from the books, meaning
that the new watered down ILO Convention 183 will henceforth serve as the
legal benchmark for national legislation regulating maternity rights. This
will result in a massive loss of rights. In every country, the employers
want to be able to fire pregnant women at will, denying them maternity
leave and/or insurance. [See previous OWC reports and postings with the
charts comparing these two conventions on maternity rights.]
There is an imminent danger that many other countries will soon ratify ILO
Convention 183 and proceed to "adjust" their national laws
accordingly. Moreover, the ILO's Administrative Council has placed on the
agenda of the upcoming ILO Conference a text that openly campaigns for
countries that have ratified ILO Convention 103 to rescind their
ratification.
Hence the need to alert labor and women's organizations the world over to
this danger and to wage a massive, united action campaign to prevent
governments from overturning the hard-won maternity rights enshrined in
ILO Convention 103.
Concerning the prohibition of night work for women in industry, the
International Labor Bureau's Administrative Council is considering a
proposal that would rescind pure and simple ILO Conventions Nos. 4 and 41,
which ban such work. Again, this is being done in the name of making laws
more "flexible" for the employers. Just as with ILO Convention
103, there is a concerted effort under way to pressure the countries that
currently endorse ILO Conventions Nos. 4 and 41 to rescind them.
We invite all supporters of international labor rights to learn more about
these efforts to defend ILO Conventions which represent a key reference
point for the fighting and independent labor movement on all continents.
Please visit the web site of the Open World Conference (owcinfo.org) to
read major excerpts from a comprehensive text prepared by the ILC titled
"Contribution on the Present and Future Threats menacing the ILO and
ILO Conventions." This text describes the broader developments
affecting the entire ILO conventional system, as well as the present and
the future of the institution itself. In addition, it provides a detailed
analysis of the "revisions" of ILO Conventions that have taken
place and the immediate (and devastating) consequences these revisions
have had in country after country.
Most important, this "Contribution" underscores the corporatist
dangers that threaten the independent trade union movement, as the
attempts by the WTO and IMF to co-opt the unions into implementing their
destructive agenda make further headway.
As the "Contribution" notes, toward its conclusion:
"Intense pressure is being exerted upon the ILO system to 'open it up
to the new world' Š of the Davis World Economic Forum and the Porto
Alegre World Social Forum. Accordingly, enforceable labor rights, codified
in collective-bargaining agreements and national Labor Codes, are to be
replaced with general standards, codes of conduct, flexible methods
inherent in a 'solidarity economy,' and the like - all of which are simply
means by which the multinational corporations can take advantage of the
news forms of deregulated labor. Š
"The path that all people struggling for the survival of their
conquests, and for their sheer survival, must travel to impose "a
different world" is not well trodden. The answers are not simple. The
road is complicated. But one thing is certain: The path leading workers
and people to their emancipation cannot be separated from the defense of
all the social and political gains wrenched by the class struggle -
especially the need to defend the unrevised ILO Conventions - and the need
to preserve the independence of all working class organizations. Without
such independence, it will not be possible to wage a consistent fight to
defend and advance the separate and specific interests of the working
class and all the oppressed in opposition to those who own and control the
major means of production."
For more information about the ILC Conference in Geneva on June 16, please
contact Luc Deley at deley@informaniak.ch
or Tel/fax: 011-21-22-784-2421.