Open
World Conference of Workers
In Defense of Trade Union Independence & Democratic Rights
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By MYA SHONE and ED ROSARIO
In mid-February of the year 2000, the San Francisco labor movement will host the Open World Conference of Workers in Defense of Trade Union Independence and Democratic Rights (OWC).
The call for the OWC stresses the need to defend the independence of the trade unions against all the "Social Pacts" and "Roundtable Agreements" through which the corporations and governments in their service seek to integrate/co-opt the unions into the very fabric of globalization - thereby breaking the power of the unions and demobilizing the workers. Fighting to preserve the independence of the unions, the OWC call states, is a precondition for fighting back effectively against the scourge of Global Capitalism.
The OWC call takes a clear stance against the UN Summit of the Year 2000, which seeks to enshrine these "Social Pacts" the world over by bringing together all the players in the so-called "civil society" (employers and workers alike) into a common framework to promote more "democratic" and "participatory" free trade pacts and other anti-worker policies.
The UN Summit of the Year 2000 follows directly on the heels of the World Summit for Social Development, which was convened by the UN in 1995 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The Copenhagen Summit was organized by Juan Somavia, current director general of the International Labor Organization (ILO).
To understand why the OWC call takes issue with the UN Summit of the Year 2000 it is useful to examine the final documents - particularly the Ten Commitments and Program of Action - adopted by the 1995 World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen.
A careful reading of the Ten Commitments and Program of Action reveals it to be part and parcel of the Social Pacts/Roundtable Agreements effort. For instance, the Final Declaration of the Summit commits signers to, at the national level, "promote dynamic, open, free markets" and the mechanisms to ensure the stability of those markets - the very markets that, under the guise of globalization, have wrought such horrible depravation upon the many in recent years, while continuing to enrich the few.
Moreover, Commitment 7 of the Final Declaration accepts the very framework of the IMF/World Bank Structural Adjustment Plans, committing signers to "[i]mplement, at the national level, structural adjustment policies, which should include social development goals, as well as effective development strategies that establish a more favorable climate for trade and investment, give priority to human resource development and further promote the development of democratic institutions." These Structural Adjustment Plans have ravished the continent of Africa and the least-developed countries, always putting the "favorable climate for trade and investment" - the interests of Global Capital - ahead of the needs of the great majority of people in these nations.
Further, Commitment 3 of the Final Declaration establishes that signers will "freely promote respect for relevant International Labor Organization conventions, including those on the prohibition of forced and child labor, the freedom of association, the right to organize and bargain collectively, and the principle of non-discrimination."
In other words, the Summit rejected calling for an outright ban on the horrible scourge of child labor throughout the world - as had been proposed in an amendment from people in several less-developed countries to the Preparatory Committee. And the Summit embraced toothless language - "freely promote respect" for ILO conventions - rather than amendments calling for the "defense and implementation" of the ILO conventions. These amendments were considered too constraining for the employers, whose "rights" clearly came before those of the world's children and the world's workers.
The stance taken by the Western Hemisphere Workers Conference Against NAFTA and Privatizations (San Francisco, November 1997) and by the June 12, 1999, Geneva Conference in Defense of the ILO Conventions is altogether different.
The Final Declaration adopted by the Western Hemisphere Workers Conference, for example, rejects the very premises of the Structural Adjustment Plans and "free trade" agreements, considering them incompatible with workers' rights and democracy.
The Western Hemisphere Conference Declaration concludes:
"Through NAFTA and the other free trade agreements, employers and governments seek to undermine the independence of trade unions that stand for the defense of working people and our interests. ...
"In summary, NAFTA, MAI, and the other 'free trade' agreements, along with structural adjustment, are an affront to democracy, to the rights of workers, to the rights of people to determine their own destiny."
The orientation projected by the WHC Final Declaration and the OWC Appeal establish the framework for an effective workers' fightback in defense of trade union independence and democratic rights.
It is impossible to defend workers' rights within the framework of the UN Copenhagen Summit's Program of Action, which seeks to "liberalize" employment in the interests of greater flexibility for the employers. Workers have learned through bitter experience that promoting "dynamic, open and free markets" does not serve the interests of the world's trade unionists.
(Mya Shone and Ed Rosario are co-coordinators of the Open World Conference in Defense of Trade Union Independence and Democratic Rights/OWC, which will be held in February 2000 in San Francisco.)