GLOBAL SOLIDARITY FORUM

Issued on September 02, 2010 at 09:58 AM

Jack O'Connor gave a personal and emotional report from his visit to Colombia.

International Trade Union Solidarity and Climate Change on the agenda

On the 27th and 28th of August Congress held its Global Solidarity Forum in ASTI's Head Office in Dublin. 57 trade unionists from the north and south of Ireland met to listen to interesting speakers and discuss how to develop our international trade union solidarity work.

Congress' Assistant General Secretary, Sally Anne Kinahan opened the Forum and emphasised how hard the economic crisis has hit the global south, where millions of people have been forced into extreme poverty after losing their jobs. She said that the international solidarity work is of utmost importance and was happy to see so many trade unionists coming to the Forum.

Colombia was the first issue on the agenda. ICTU's President Jack O'Connor gave a much appreciated personal and emotional report from his visit to Colombia some weeks ago. Jack took part in an international delegation which included several trade union leaders and members of the European Parliament. The delegation met with the new President of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos who told the delegation that the situation regarding human and trade union rights has improved a lot recent years. But President Santos' view was completely contradicted at many other meetings with trade union leaders and human rights lawyers and activists in Colombia. Jack O'Connor said that the truth is that situation is worse than before. For example, more trade unionists have been killed than last year, but the Colombian government is extremely active in their lobby work to spread a positive view vis-à-vis Europe and United States to ensure the approval of the Free Trade Agreements with the EU and US. Jack O'Connor said that he had asked for a meeting with the Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheal Martin to tell his own fist hand account of what is really happening in Colombia.

Mass grave in La Macarena

Jack O'Connor also took part in the delegation's visit to the Macarena mass grave, containing more than 2,000 corpses buried in the municipality La Macarena located about 280 km south of Bogota. The bodies were allegedly taken there by the Army and "identified" as combat casualties. The reality is that all these people were completely innocent citizens that had been killed by the army and rightwing vigilante groups, then dressed up in guerilla uniforms and photographed so as to look as if they had been killed in combat. Jack O'Connor met with several parents who for many months had been looking for their missing sons and daughters only to finally know the horrible truth after the discovery of the mass grave in La Macarena.

Liam Craig Best of Justice For Colombia in the UK spoke about the campaign against the Free Trade Agreement between EU and Colombia. He emphasised Irish Congress' lobby work on this issue and said that Ireland is the first country where all the Members of the European Parliament had signed their names in support of the trade unions' position against the agreement. Liam also spoke in favour of a campaign to free political prisoners in Colombia (trade unionists) and he asked Congress to "adopt" some political prisoners and start a campaign for their release. A vivid discussion followed with many questions to Jack and Liam on how we can develop the concrete solidarity work.

Clean Clothes Campaign

The Forum continued with a session on the Clean Clothes Campaign. The film "Race to the bottom", about the extreme exploitation of garment workers in Bangladesh, was shown. Milan Begocevic spoke on behalf of the Clean Clothes Campaign in Sweden. Milan, who is shop steward in the trade union IF Metall, gave a comprehensive background to, and presentation of, the CCC work in Sweden. He stressed the importance of a broad alliance between trade unions, NGO's and youth organisations in their network. He said that both the retail workers' union "Handels" and the metal workers' union "IF Metall" have gained a lot of knowledge and further strengthened their solidarity work thanks to their involvement in the Clean Clothes Campaign.

The CCC in Sweden is dedicated to improve working conditions and supporting the empowerment of workers in the garment and sportswear industry in the global south. Local groups of CCC are focused on educating and mobilising consumers in Sweden. When consumers demand that their clothes and sportswear is produced under decent work conditions, things can start to change. The CCC-Sweden, and especially the trade union member organisations, is lobbying Swedish companies like IKEA and H&M, asking them to respect workers' rights. Milan Begocevic also reported from his own visit to garment workers in Cambodia. He said that he knew before that they were poor and exploited, but what he saw was much worse than he had expected. This experience gave him a lot of motivation for his work in the Clean Clothes Campaign.

After Milan Begocevic's presentation the preparatory group of the Irish CCC network made short statements; Kate Nolan on behalf of the Ethical fashion group Re-Dress, Alison Leahy on behalf of the development NGO Comhlamh, Brian Forbes on behalf of MANDATE and Stellan Hermansson on behalf of ICTU Global Solidarity. A short message was read from the fifth member organisation in the Irish CCC network; Trocaire, whose representative Kim Wallis could not be present. The preparatory group is planning to launch the Irish Clean Clothes Campaign on the 7th of October, which is the World Day for Decent Work.

It was also noted that an important struggle for decent wages is now in progress in Bangladesh. The garment workers strikes have been met with repression and violence. The importance to protest against the government in Bangladesh was highlighted. (Plese use this model letter - click here).

Palestine

The first day at the Forum ended with a session on Palestine and Congress' campaign for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel. Mags O'Brien SIPTU gave a background with a report from the ICTU delegation that visited Palestine/Israel in November 2007 and the motions supporting BDS at Congress' Biennial Delegates Conferences in 2007 and 2009.

ICTU's Assistant General Secretary Sally Anne Kinahan presented the plans so far for Congress' BDS campaign.

Owen Tudor, Head of the International Department of the Trade Union Congress in UK informed the participants about TUC's work on boycotting products produced in the illegal settlements. This position was adopted by the TUC congress last year.

Several participants took the floor in the debate and emphasised the importance of Congress' BDS campaign and said it now has to go from decision to concrete action. Freda Hughes, Chairperson of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Hilary Minch of SADAKA, gave their full support to ICTU's campaign and underlined the great importance of having the trade union movement on their side on this issue.

ITUC and Climate Change

On Saturday the Forum participants listened to a report from the International Trade Union Confederation's 2nd World Congress in Vancover in June. Congress' delegate at the World Congress; Joe O'Flynn SIPTU was not able to attend the Forum so Owen Tudor of the TUC made the report. It was followed by a lively debate on how the international trade union movement can and must communicate with the grassroots.

The Forum's last theme was Climate Change and the Trade Union movement. Georgios Altintzis of the International Trade Union Confederation made the introduction saying that it is absolutely necessary for the trade union movement to get involved in the work and campaign against Climate Change. He highlighted ITUC World Congress' resolution on this issue and the importance of a just transition to green jobs and energy. Georgios also welcomed that the letter of Congress Global Solidarity Committee had been approved by the Executive Council on the establishment of an ICTU working group on these issues.

Sustain Labour's film on Climate Change was shown and the participants demonstrated their approval of this inspiring film with a long applause.

Stop Climate Chaos Coalition

Colin Roche who represented the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition introduced the Climate Change issues in Ireland as well as the lobby and campaign work of the Coalition. So far the Coalition has 30 member organisations, but not one single trade union among them. Colin said that it would be very important to get the trade union movement involved in this issue.

The Forum participants showed a real interest and asked several questions to Georgios and Colin. There is no doubt that the Irish trade union movement from now on will be much more involved in Climate Change issues and take part in the international trade union mobilisation for a Just Transition.

Moira Leydon concluded the Forum saying that Congress' Global Solidarity work has developed a lot in recent years, with its focus on both development education and concrete international trade union solidarity work. The written evaluations of the Forum by the participants were very positive and several of them asked Congress to organise more events of this kind.

Global Solidarity

News & Events

Issued on September 02, 2010 at 09:58 AM

International Trade Union Solidarity and Climate Change on the agenda

Read more about the themes of the Forum here: