Open
World Conference of Workers
In Defense of Trade Union Independence & Democratic Rights
Please Organize Delegations to Chinese Consulates/Embassy in Your Cities on July 10!
Dear Friends and Supporters of the OWC:
Last week, we sent you a copy of the Urgent Appeal for a July 10
International Day of Action to Free the Liaoyang 5, which was issued by
the China Labour Bulletin and the International Liaison Committee for a
Workers' International (ILC) at the June 16 ILC Conference in Geneva.
We in San Francisco are organizing a labor/community delegation on July 10
-- headed by Walter Johnson, secretary-treasurer of the San Francisco
Labor Council (AFL-CIO) -- in conjunction with a press conference and
protest rally at 12 noon at the Chinese Consulate. Our delegation will
convey to the Chinese authorities our demand for the immediate and
unconditional release from prison of the five unionists in Liaoyang,
northeast China, and will express our strong-felt concern that China
should ratify and implement ILO Conventions 87 and 98, which call for the
right to strike and to form independent trade unions.
As you can read in the two articles on the preparations of the delegation
to the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco, the Chinese authorities have
taken a hard line stance against the Liaoyang 5 and their supporters. Yet
despite the Consulate's initial refusal to receive our delegation, we will
keep calling them to insist that they receive us.
We call on unionists and supporters of labor rights the world over to
organize similar labor/community delegations to Chinese Embassies and
Consulates on July 10. (If you have the possibility of organizing protest
actions in conjunction with anti-globalization activists, that would also
be tremendous.)
It is especially crucial that the loudest possible voice in support of the
embattled Liaoyang workers be raised from within the United States. After
all, it is our government which pressed China to join the World Trade
Organization -- a decision which is sure to have a devastating effect on
the Chinese population, and on the workers in particular.
Also, we call on you to endorse the Appeal for the July 10 Day of Action
[see coupon below] and to circulate this Appeal widely for wider
endorsement.
The independent union movement in China has embraced a slogan that is
close to the struggles and traditions of the labor movement of this
country: "An Injury to One Is An Injury to All!" Let us help
make this slogan a reality for the fighting unionists in China.
Thanks in advance for your support,
In Solidarity,
Alan Benjamin and Ed Rosario
OWC Continuations Committee
San Francisco, Calif.