By Jane Carolan
Morning StarAugust 22, 2002
OF ALL the issues that confront trade unions, one of the most difficult for the average member in branches to understand can often be trade union involvement in international issues. For those working on the ground, dealing with grievance and discipline and the bread and butter work of service conditions issues, international trade union work can be dismissed as junkets for the general secretary and the high head yins or as irrelevant to the everyday work.
Yet, politically, the narrow boundaries of the nation state are becoming increasingly irrelevant in a world where real power lies with multinational corporations and the forces of globalisation.
On one level, there is a need for trade unionists to come together to realise their political strength against such forces and to co-operate for common goals such as international trade union rights and for wider and better standards of living. On the other, there is the basic trade union belief in solidarity with our fellow workers, wherever they are and the fundamental principle of standing together. International work by trade unions has the power to focus on the need for a radical social and political agenda.
Whatever level of work is being carried out, there is a need to make it accessible to and understood by the members. By such education it is possible to learn more about our own day-to-day situation. If the importance of an international trade union conference is judged by the weight of paper sent to the delegates before hand then the Public Service International Congress to be held in Ottawa from September 2-6 is going to be very important.
The PSI is the international trade union federation for public-service workers, representing public-service trade unions in 134 countries. It covers some 20 million workers and is the officially recognised non-governmental organisation for public-sector workers within the ILO. Delegates to the congress come from all over world, with UNISON, the FBU, PCS, the GMB and others representing Britain.
Like most trade union conferences, the PSI is a mixture of reviewing past work and debating motions on contemporary issues with the usual set-piece presentations. However, any trade unionist reading the agenda would be struck by the similarity of the issues being discussed at Ottawa and the motions being passed by our own conferences over here.
From the point of view of UNISON, for example, which is characterised as a typical left-of-centre British union, the agenda for the PSI conference is one that would generally be supported. A major conference theme will be the trade union response to globalisation, recognising that it is a product of economic and political forces pursued by the agreement of the developed world and multinational enterprises.
The congress recognises the effects of this on poverty, privatisation, trade union rights and the need to challenge the terms of globalisation itself. It sets itself the task of organising workers, building alliances and working on the principles that there must be a fundamental commitment to social justice and sustainability. And, as an amendment from the FBU puts it, "All too often governments choose not to use state power to regulate the activities of global capital at country and international levels.
"To be effective, we need to combine action at national and international levels and to convince governments of the need to do the same if the benefits of increased investment and trade are to be used for the people." At the same time, Canadian workers urge increased links between all workers to struggle for progressive public policy and working with social justice organisations.
Related to the campaigns against globalisation are a raft of motions on strategies to protect public services, calling for quality adequately funded public services designed to meet social objectives and the reversal of the trend toward privatisation. In particular, the problems associated with water privatisation are addressed, not just in opposition to privatisation per se but linked to the ecological concerns around the world about water supply and the control of the water supply.
A major concern of the conference is obviously establishing basic workers' rights, which unfortunately includes condemnation of those regimes where trades unionism and trade unionists are subjected to criminal and inhuman treatment up to torture and death.
Discussions at PSI level are confined to a few, though the pursuit of the agenda being debated will need to encompass the trade union movement as a whole. But international work has the capacity to be real, to be practical and to be meaningful for every trade unionist who wants to be interested and is concerned just as much with the agenda for peace and social justice.
Most workers still join a trade union as a guarantee of collective protection. International work has the capacity to demonstrate that collective protection expands beyond the boundaries of the direct workplace. It is at the grassroots of the trade union movement, rather than in the TUC hierarchy, that the Stop the War campaign really took off and it is at grassroots level that it will be seen again if the US continues with its imperialist war aims - though, within individual unions, a more progressive stance on peace is now emerging.
It is important, however, that individual trade unionists take part and are seen to take part in anti-war activities. The record of the trade union movement is, on the whole, more honourable with regard to the issue of Palestine. The STUC, under general secretary Bill Speirs has given a lead to the whole movement in this regard, advocating the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and to live in peace.
This has involved advocacy on behalf of the Palestinian cause at all political levels and providing appropriate support for the Palestinian trade unions, activities in which many trade unions have also participated. This support has seen unions sending delegations to Palestine to observe for themselves the effects of Israeli terror and the disruption to Palestinian lives, but, more importantly, to bear witness to the truth of what is happening there when they return and to use that information politically and to educate their members.
Trade unionists have not only worn ribbons in the Palestinian colours to show solidarity but have been at the forefront of campaigns to get aid into the occupied territories. Assistance has been given to campaigns such as Medical Aid for Palestinians, to try to ensure basic services on the ground. For the average union activist practical fundraising - actually doing something to help - strikes a chord.
Unity at this level is more than a gesture, it recognises that the struggle in which we are involved knows no boundaries.
More practical support of this kind is well illustrated by the success of the Salud campaign. Working with the co-operation of the Cuban TUC, Salud has worked to provide material aid denied the Cuban people due to the US-imposed embargo. Salud prides itself that it works through an army of volunteers, trade unionists who offer their own skills and expertise or who persuade employers to provide materials and services.
The measure of its achievements is in each of the ship loads that have been sent to Cuba. Aid has included hospital transport, medical equipment and assistance in rebuilding the Cuban ambulance service, but also encompasses a children's project and the development of Cuban football. As it attempts to put together the next delivery, due to be shipped in October, efforts are again being made to send ambulances and medical equipment, but, thanks to the labours of the FBU in Scotland, 42 tons of fire and rescue equipment will also be delivered. The campaign to fill the shipment continues.
Trade unions are in a unique position to show that solidarity and internationalism are more than words or meaningless gestures. Throughout our structures, we have an ability to educate, inform and make a genuine difference. It is, however, a power that is too rarely exercised. Our internationalism should be part of our everyday trade union work.
Anyone wishing to provide assistance to Salud should contact PO Box 673, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE99 1EN.
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