International Centre for Trade Union Rights

Global solidarityAuthor(s): JOE MARINOSource: International Union Rights, Vol. 2, No. 1, Sam Shilowa on union rights (1995), p. 6Published by: International Centre for Trade Union RightsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41936988 .

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OPINION □ JOE MARINO

Global solidarity

I

union

rights

Joe

human

starting

why

writing

respect

the

agreements

and

economic

write

If

inviolability

protection some

Marino

governments can

can

ICFTU

agreements

and

survey

other

cherished

life

into

into

for

point

insist

they

of

rights?

human

action

and

union takes

trade

trade

aims

such

GATT

their

as

the

not

for

for

on

of

a

a

can insist on

writing into GATT and other trade

agreements protection for some of their

cherished economic aims

why can they not write into such

agreements the

inviolability of human life and a

respect for trade union and human

rights? Joe Marino takes the ICFTU union

rights survey as a

starting point for action

JOE MARINO is general secretary of the Bakers, Food and Allied worfter* Union in Britain

THE Trade Violations

INTERNATIONAL Unions

of Trade - in

Union its 1994

Confederation

Rights Annual

says Survey

of Free of Trade Unions - in its 1994 Annual Survey of

Violations of Trade Union Rights says "The internationalisation of the economy calls

for greater international trade union solidarity. We must think globally when acting locally The real development of the Third World, within democratic systems based on economic and social justice, must become a priority for all trade unions. In addition to the moral reasons that mo- tivate us in the trade union movement, it is in the interests of the countries of the both North and South, as well as the transition countries of the east." This is a message our motion on human rights

tried to get over at the 1994 British Trades Union Congress. It was a message that received unani- mous support. As British multi-national companies cast their

avaricious eyes over the former Eastern Europe as an area for unbridled expansion, we need to be aware of the problems being faced by our sisters and brothers in that part of the world. It is very dangerous for trade unionists in the developed world to ignore the experiments being planned and carried-out there. We may well find to our costs that the results of these experiments will be visited on us with a vengeance. Thus we need to develop strong links with

unions in the former Eastern Bloc so we can assist them in the transformation of their economies. If we leave it to unbridled market force transforma- tion will become rape. Trade unionists need only cast their eyes to

places like Latin America to see the dangers. We in Europe, despite all our problems with with high unemployment, attacks on hard-won rights and infriendly governments have it relatively easy. Not for us do we fear the knock in the night. We do not see opponents of big business disappear. Nor do we see the operation of death squads and the ever present danger of torture. Yet as the ICFTU report shows this is the every-

day lives of millions of trade unionist throughout the world. We need to keep this issue before our own members so we can assist in very way possible our comrades facing these very real dangers. When the workers of Pepsi Cola in Guatemala

took union action to defend agreed terms and conditions of employment and trade union rights they were faced with disappearances, tortures, and the threat of death. Yet they stood their ground. Through interna-

tional action led by the International Union of Food Workers we were collectively able to put pressure on the American parent company to in- tervene with the local agent. Too often these multinational companies are

allowed to get away with hiding behind local franchisers and agents. We need to bring these matters home to the people of our own countries. Ordinary people in Britain, France, Germany, the

United States and elsewhere do not want blood on their cans of Pepsi. They will react if we campaign on the facts. There is an old trade union saying that "An in-

jury to one is an injury to all". That is true not only in the European Union, in the United States and elsewhere in the so-called developed coun- tries. It must be true world wide. If a worker is tortured in Asia it is our concern. If

a trade union is taken over by the armed forces in Nigeria we must show our disgust. If workers are murdered by death squads in Latin

America we must shout our protests from the rooftops. None of these abusers of trade union and human rights should ever be forgotten or for- given. We must face the fact that every disappearance,

every instance of torture and every murder of a trade unionists anywhere in the world weakens us if we ignore it. The question needs asking. If governments can

insist on writing into GATT and other trade Agreements protection for some of their cher- ished economic aims why can they not write into such agreements the inviolability of human life and a respect for trade union and human rights? I would appeal to all trade union centres, na-

tional asweil as international to respond to re- quests from fellow trade unionists who face these everyday attacks. We must let them know they are not forgotten and that we are ready to campaign ion their behalf. Nor only that we must keep constant pressure

on national governments and organisations such as the European Union as we deluge them with protests over every abuse of trade union and human rights rights that we take for granted in our everyday lives. A letter on its own may not do very much. Put

letters of protest from all over the world, the spot- light trained on one tyrannical regime, is worth the little effort if its saves one life. When the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers

Union protested to the Iranian government about human rights abuses in that country we were told we knew nothing about the internal political situ- ation in Iran and should keep out of what we knew nothing off. Well the comment on the level of our knowl-

edge about internal Iranian politics may well have been - and remain- true. But when we see cases of workers being tortured - we know it is wrong. When we see women flogged and stoned because they do not dress in a certain way - we know it is wrong. And certainly, when we see people shot in the street for the heinous crime of standing up for their trade union and human rights we know that is wrong. We hope all trade unionists think those things

are wrong and will, within their own unions, na- tional centres and international secretariats, begin to take action to redress the balance. □

INTERNATIONAL union rights Page 6 Volume 2 Issue 1 1995

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