Open
World Conference of Workers
In Defense of Trade Union Independence & Democratic Rights
URGENT APPEAL: JULY 10 -- INTERNATIONAL DAY OF
ACTION TO FREE THE LIAOYANG 5!
Dear Sisters and Brothers:
Throughout China, the number of strikes, demonstrations and protests by
the workers is growing. The workers are fighting against massive layoffs,
the non-payment of wages and unemployment benefits, and the terrible
social consequences of both the economic reforms carried out by the
Chinese government and China's agreement with the WTO, in a situation
where the workers cannot express themselves because they do not have
available to them independent organisations.
Since March, in Daqin and Liaoyang in the northeast of the country -- a
region where more than 540,000 layoffs are planned officially over the
next few months -- the workers have been demonstrating, holding mass
sit-ins, organising, electing their delegates.
Their strike is legitimate. They have the right to organise as they wish.
Around mid-March, in Liaoyang, the delegates who had been elected by the
workers to negotiate with the legal authorities sought to open
negotiations for the satisfaction of the following demands: payment of
wage arrears, compensation for layoffs and unemployment benefits. That is
when they were arrested. Since then, they have been charged with "organising
illegal demonstrations", and are awaiting trial. Those arrested
are:
- Yao Fuxin, arrested on 17 March
- Pang Qingxiang, arrested on 20 March
- Xiao Yunliang, arrested on 20 March
- Wang Zhaoming, arrested on 20 March
- Gu Baoshu, arrested on 16 April, since released but still under
charge
The workers' representatives currently imprisoned are being held in the
detention centre in the town of Tieling. Since then, demonstrations have
been held every day. The workers have added a new slogan to their
platform: Free our delegates!"
Between 25 and 28 May 2002, an international delegation of trade unionists
organised at the initiative of the International Liaison Committee for a
Workers' International (ILC) visited China.
This delegation brought with it the thousands of signatures of militant
activists and trade union and labour representatives that had been
gathered around the world endorsing an appeal launched jointly by the
International Liaison Committee and China Labour Bulletin -- a bulletin
that is published in Hong Kong by Han Dongfang, one of the founders of the
Independent Workers Federation in Tienanmen Square in 1989.
The delegation brought with it the following demands formulated in the
international appeal:
"The defence of the workers' rights recognises no borders or
exceptions. It is the duty of every organisation that stands for the
defence of the workers throughout the world to support and defend the
fight by the Chinese workers for their legitimate demands.
An attack on one of us is an attack on us all.
We demand the immediate release of the imprisoned Liaoyang workers!
The Chinese workers must enjoy the rights enshrined in ILO Conventions 87
and 98 -- the right to strike and the right to organise."
When it arrived in Liaoyang, the delegation was expelled by the
police, who banned the delegation from having any contact with the local
authorities or visiting the prison.
However, the Liaoyang workers have since made it known that they had been
informed of the arrival in their town of an international delegation, and
that this demonstration of solidarity had "greatly encouraged"
them.
This is a first step. But the Liaoyang worker delegates are still in
detention.
We the undersigned call on all trade unionists around the world to take up
the commitment formulated by the international delegation at the press
conference held at the offices of the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade
Unions (HKCTU):
"This international campaign will continue until the Liaoyang
prisoners are set free."
In Liaoyang, just as in Daqin, the Chinese workers are struggling for
the rights set out in ILO Conventions 87 and 98: the right of association,
the right to organise freely in the trade union of their choice.
Through these two fundamental ILO Conventions is expressed the question of
all the ILO Conventions in their normative, binding and universal
character, codifying not only general and abstract principles but also
precise and concrete rights applicable to everyone, whatever their
country, whatever their circumstances. What is at stake is the right to
strike, the right to negotiate, the right to organise.
It is a question of the fight by all the workers of the world who, without
codified rights, without independent trade unions -- which are necessary
instruments for the exercise and defence of those rights -- are easy prey
for the pillage and exploitation organised by the WTO and the institutions
of globalisation.
An attack on one of us is an attack on us all!
We call on every militant activist and trade union representative
around the world:
- Let us make July 10, 2002, a global day of struggle to free the Liaoyang
Five. On that day, in every country, let us organise gatherings and
delegations to the Chinese embassies; let us send many more telegrams and
faxes to the Liaoyang authorities.
- Let us take up the fight to free the Liaoyang workers, for the Chinese
workers to have the right to organise and to join the trade union of their
choice -- and for China to ratify ILO Conventions 87 and 98.
- Let us prepare a new international delegation of trade unionists in
order to express the solidarity of the workers of the whole world with
their Chinese brothers and sisters, to demand the freeing of the Liayang
prisoners, the freeing of all those labour militant activists who have
been imprisoned for striking and demonstrating.
---
[This appeal was launched on 16 June 2002 in Geneva, at the international
meeting held in defence of ILO Conventions by the International Liaison
Committee for a Workers' International, after the participants heard a
report given in the name of China Labour Bulletin on the situation in
Liaoyang, and after learning of the contribution by Lee Cheuk Yan, General
Secretary of the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions, following the
election of the ACFTU -- the official, government-backed Chinese union
federation -- to the International Labour Bureau.]
---
Initial Signatories: Han Dongfang (China Labour Bulletin); Cai
Chonguo (China Labour Bulletin); Olivier Doriane, International Liaison
Committee for a Workers' International; Daniel Gluckstein, Coordinator,
International Liaison Committee for a Workers' International (below is a
more extensive list of first signatories)
First Signatories: Algeria: KHERBACHE Zoubida, Member of Parliament
Workers Party, TAKDJOUT Amar, Member of Parliament - Belgium:
GIARROCCO Roberto, Trade unionist - Benin: AZOUA Gaston, General
Secretary CSTB - Brazil: BOITO Misa, Sao Paulo executive of the
Workers Party, TURRA Julio, CUT Nec - Burkina: NAMA Mamadou, USTB,
Sagnon Tolé, General Secretary CGT-B - Central Africa: SONNY-COLE
Théophile, General Secretary USTC - Chile: MESINA Luis, Banking
Union - Côte-d'Ivoire: YAO K. François, General Secretary SYNASEG
- France: GRANDVAUX Serge, Informations ouvrières,
DELALONDRE Clarisse, Trade unionist EDF, BESSE Pierre, Railworker Trade
unionist, LANGLET Denis, Steelworker Trade unionist, MEDJKAL Hamou,
Steelworker Trade unionist, CHEVREAU Bernard, University Teacher,
STOBNICER Maurice, Teacher, SHAPIRA Daniel, Workers Party, HEBERT
Alexandre, 'Union des Anarcho-syndicalistes', BILLAUDEL Marc, Workers
Party, RAGUIN Hubert, Teacher Trade unionist, PARIS Jacques, Teacher Trade
unionist, KATZ Jean-Philippe, Health Worker Trade unionist, SANDRI Geneviève,
SANDRI Roger, Retired Trade unionist, PEPERS Véronique, Trade unionist
chemical industry, ALLIOT Marie-José, GP, Trade unionist, SCHIDLOWER
Marie-Claude, Working Women Commission of the Workers Party, DORIANE
Olivier, Workers Party, BRUNET Marie-Edmonde, Teacher Trade unionist;
DAVANTURE Alain, Builder Trade unionist, DAL POZZOLO Albert,
Informations ouvrières, SYBELIN Yannick, SAINT-ANDRE Alain, Trade
unionist, STAGLIANO Marie, Teacher Trade unionist, THUILOT Rose-Marie,
Trade unionist Public Services, DUBOIS Jean-Paul, Public services Trade
Unionist, BARROIS Jean-Pierre, Workers Party, CRISTOBAL Miguel, Workers
Party, GLUCKSTEIN Daniel, coordinator of the International Liaison
Committee, Wokers Party, MOUTOT Dan, International Liaison Committee,
KERMIN Jean-Charles, Trade unionist EDF, BOYADJIS Maïté, 'Union des
Anarcho-syndicalistes', MARIE Jean-Jacques, Workers Party, SIMONNIN Michèle,
Trade unionist, ALLOUCHE Jean-Marc, MARQUISET Jean-Charles, Résistances
communistes, GIROD Jacques, Trade unionist - Germany: EISNER Udo,
DGB-IGM, FRIEDLANDER Bärbel, FREY Henning, Ver.di, SCHUSTER Anna, Ver.di,
BOULBOULLE Carla, german committee of Berlin Conference against
Deregulation, BECKER Heinrich, GEW, SAALMULLER Peter, Ver.di, SCHULLER
Klaus, DGB, PIPPART Peter, Ver.di, GERHOLD Karlheinz, SPD, Ver.di,
SCHUSTER Hans Werner, SPD, Ver.di - Guinea: FOFANA, Ibrahima,
General Secretary USTG - India: VASUDEVAN Nambiath, Trade Union
Solidarity Committee - Italy: DEFENDIS Rita, CISL-education, SOLA
Laura, Teacher, VARALDO Lorenzo, UIL-education, CARRETTONI Lorenza,
Teacher CISL - Mexico: ESQUIVEL Consuelo, SNTE - Pakistan:
JAMIL Rubina, APTUF - Portugal: LA SALETTE Silva - Romania:
COZMA Gheorghe, National Committee of the Workers - Spain: BEJAR
Jesus, POSI, CCOO, CALZADA Josep, UGT-FES, CUSO Manuel, Información
Obrera, CAMPS Andreu, POSI, COBO SANCHEZ Eva,Working Women Committee,
SORIA GARCIA Conrad, Public services Trade unionist, AGUILERA Rafael, UGT,
QUERO Josep, FSP-UGT, CABRERA Ana, FSP-UGT, LLORENTE Juanjo, CCOO - Switzerland:
PERRUCHONO Eric, UCPO, ANOR Alexandre, PSS, BARRIERA Claudio, UCPO,
CASAGRANDE Marco, UCPO, LICHTSCHLAG Micheline, SCHELLER Philippe, Teacher,
LONFAT Myriam, UPOP, SSP, DELEY Luc, Health Worker Trade unionist, Chair
Public Services Union Geneva Regional Committee, LICHTSCHLAG Charles,
Trade unionist, HOFER Daniel, Trade unionist, FTMH, MADDALENA SILVIA, CLI,
MAURER Monique, ANDRE Richard, Trade unionist, HERRANZ Sylviane,
journalist, HERRANZ Antonio, Health Worker Trade unionist, ARLE, ISELI
Pierrette, UCPO, ISELI Claude, UCPO, GINDRAT Michel, editorial board of Journal
of UCPO, SOLARI VICENSINI Costanza, UCPO, MEYLAN Georges, UCPO, ANOR
Catherine, Teacher, UCPO, SELAS Manuel, ROBERT Max, UCPO, JAUSSI Rudy, SSP,
FIASTRI Marzia, UCPO, VASTA Lorette, Teacher, MUÑOZ Chori, Health Worker
Trade unionist - Togo: GBIKPI-BENISSAN Norbert, General Secretary
UNSIT, LAWSON Messan, Workers Party,AMEGANVI Claude, Workers Party - UK:
CHARALAMBOUS Charlie - Venezuela: CERECEDA Carlo, Constituent Front
of Workers.