#wftu

By Lev Koufax

By Cheryl LaBash

April 9 — We just received the sad news just that a dear friend of workers in the U.S. and around the world has died. Gilda Chacon Bravo served for many years in the International Department of the Cuban Workers’ Central Union (Central de Trabajadores de Cuba) and the World Federation of Trade Unions.

Workers who traveled from all parts of the globe to celebrate May Day in Havana met Gilda in the hallways of the Convention Center at the May 2 International Solidarity Conferences. She often attended the U.S.-Cuba Labor Exchange Conferences in Tijuana, Mexico.

In spring 2011, the U.S. labor movement vibrated with the massive upsurge in Wisconsin to defend workers’ rights. Although CTC representatives couldn’t directly get visas to tour the U.S., Gilda also represented the WFTU. Together with Pipino Cuevas Velazques of the Sindicato Mexicano De Electricistas — the Mexican Electrical Workers’ Union — she traveled to Los Angeles, San Diego, Pittsburgh, Detroit and other cities.

In Madison, Wis., she met with Voces de la Frontera, organizers for immigrant rights. In Washington, D.C., the AFL-CIO International Department met with her.

Arriving by car in Baltimore from New York shocked her. She intently videoed real-life conditions of life under U.S. capitalism as she traveled. Gilda intended to share these hard images with her son and other Cuban youth bombarded by the false glitter of capitalist life.

In addition to her role as a Cuban union leader, Gilda was also an elected representative from her neighborhood in Havana.

WFTU solidarity statement with the women in Kyrgyzstan

The World Federation of Trade Unions, representing more than 100 million workers from 132 countries on five continents strongly condemns the new incident of violence and oppression against organized women in Kyrgyzstan. 

The new unacceptable incident took place on March 8th in the capital of the country, Bishkek, while women were gathered to stage a march for women’s rights on the occasion of International Women’s Day. The protesting women were attracted by masked men, tearing apart their banners. A few minutes later policemen appeared on the scene and they provocatively arrested and proceeded to detain about 50 activists. Both attacks, from the masked men and the unreasonable arrests from the police, are clear attacks against the people’s rights and the freedoms of association and the right to protest. 

WFTU Declaration on the International Working Women’s Day 2019 

The World Federation of Trade Unions honors the International Working Women’s Day on 8th March 2019, under the slogan:

“The WFTU against all forms of inequality, against all forms of exploitation”.

162 years after the first uprising of women textile workers in 1857 in New York, claiming the increase of their miserable salaries, the reduction of working hours, equality in payment and social rights, the situation for the working, unemployed and young women, is extremely harsh: unemployment, flexible work, lack of free and high quality health services and healthcare for them and for their children, psychological pressure and violence mainly inside but also outside the workplaces.

Poverty, misery, the wars waged for the interests of the big monopolies, have created and continue to create millions of refugees, 50% of whom are women and girls who run the risk of violence, prostitution and abuse, during their travel and upon arrival at the destination countries.

The World Federation of Trade Unions, since its foundation, has been firmly struggling for working women’s equality and for the improvement of their position in all areas of their social life. For one more year, we join our voice with the working women and support their demands:

“-Reclaim our rights! Hit back the capitalist onslaught! Defeat fascist forces! – Decent work and dignity at work – Equal pay for equal work – Maternity benefit to all – Social benefit to all – Health and safety at the work places!”

The struggle for the fulfillment of these demands, as well as for the protection against prostitution and human trafficking, are always at the centre of the world class oriented trade union movement.

We always highlight the importance of organization of more and more working women to their trade unions, accordingly to the place and sector they work, the importance of their participation in militant initiatives with a substantial role, with their appointment to the Administrative Boards of their Organizations.

Aiming at a more active involvement of working women in the life and action of trade unions and at the strengthening of coordination and mobilization for the women’s issues, the WFTU organized last year, from 8 – 10 March 2018 in Panama, a World Working Women Congress, where the new WFTU Women’s Committee was elected. Such activities gave the opportunity to exchange experiences on the working and living conditions of women of the 5 continents, and decisions for coordination and militant initiatives were taken, such as the Conference organized last November in Bahrain for the working women of the Arab countries and such as the International Meeting of Working Women of Central America, that will take place in Mexico on 11-12 March 2019.

The WFTU expresses its solidarity to the working women and to the peoples of Venezuela, Palestine, Syria, Cuba, Nicaragua, Bangladesh, to all the peoples who are fighting against capitalist exploitation, against imperialism and foreign interventions. We greet the liberation of Ahed Tamimi, the girl who became a symbol of the Palestinian struggle, and also the liberation of Julia Amparo Lotan, member of the WFTU Presidential Council from Guatemala.

We greet all working women on the 5 continents, who struggle through their trade unions and within the ranks of WFTU, for stable work with rights, for a world without exploitation, imperialist wars and poverty.

We call upon all the WFTU affiliates and friends to honor the International Working Women’s Day, by organizing activities and events to stress the necessity to defend their rights, the necessity to protect their social role, the necessity to struggle for the end of exploitation and of capitalist barbarity.

WFTU launches international solidarity campaign with Venezuela

14 Feb 2019

The WFTU calls its affiliated organizations and friends, every militant and class-oriented unionist, to join the international campaign in solidarity with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

Take pictures in groups with the poster that we spread and then send them to the WFTU emails.

Hands off Venezuela!

Dear comrades, brothers and sisters,

The United States and its followers from European countries, such as France, Britain and their proxies in the region such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and others, have been staging provocations  against Syria to carry out their agendas on Syrian territory since their terrorist war against Syria began eight years ago.

These days we are witnessing the fabrication of alleged evidence, the latest example of which is the fabricated fiction of the Eastern Ghouta hit by chemical weapons used by the Syrian Arab Army. These colonial powers have always used the UN Security Council and its instruments to strike sovereign states by using illusory and fabricated pretexts to achieve their goals, such as the famous fiction of Colin Powell in the UN Security Council used to strike Iraq.

The chemical fiction was staged in Douma when the terrorists experienced the victories of the Syrian Arab Army that liberated  eastern Ghouta, which contributed to the safety and tranquility of the people of Damascus who had suffered a lot from  the terrorists raining the capital Damascus with dozens of missiles and rockets.

The more the Syrian Arab Army achieves victories on the ground, the more the terrorists urge their paymasters  to save them, as happened when they fabricated the chemical incident in Khan Sheikhaun.

This time, US President Trump, French President Macron, and British Prime Minister May accuse the Syrian government of using chemical weapons in Douma on the basis of evidence and fabricated false videos of the so-called White Helmets, who are the medical wing of the fascist terrorists Al-Nusra in Syria.

They have held meetings of the UN Security Council in order to issue resolutions to strike the only legitimate Syrian government, one that fights terrorism in the world, despite the assertion of a member state in the Security Council, Russia, that the Douma area was free of any chemical traces after the Russian experts entered Damascus, refuting their claims.

The Syrian government has asked the experts of the International Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to enter and verify the incident, but Trump and his assistants from European and Gulf Arab countries blocked their ears and decided to proceed with their lies and threats.

We at the General Union of Trade Unions in Syria declare our stand with our Syrian government and Syrian Arab Army under the leadership of President Bashar al-Assad, alongside whom we have faced terrorism and its sponsors for eight years. We affirm that we are confident of victory. These American and European threats constitute a flagrant violation of the UN Charter.

We call upon all honorable people from the World Federation of Trade Unions, the International Confederation of Arab Trade Unions and all Arab and international organizations to speed up the campaign of defending Syria by sending messages of solidarity and support to Syria and organizing marches and sit-ins in front of the American embassies in the world, condemning this blatant American aggression, to save the world from Trump’s ruthlessness.

We ask  you to send letters to officials of the United Nations and the United States of America, stressing that the American president will lead to a new world war that will drag the whole world to further chaos, destruction and poverty and increase the number of refugees from the wars waged by the United States against sovereign states in the world.

Long live the Syrian people in its war against terrorism

Long live international solidarity with Syria   

May Day 2018: With Internationalism and Solidarity!

The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) in the name of its more than 92 million affiliates all over the world salutes, on the occasion of this great day, all the workers who live, work and struggle in every corner of the world. May Day was, is and will be a beacon for the struggles of yesterday and tomorrow despite our enemies’ efforts. May Day has to be a message of resistance against bourgeoisie, imperialists and their international alliances’ policies.

At the same time, the workers’ blood which was shed in Chicago on 1886 reminds us of our duty today; it reminds us that nothing is given for free; every right or freedom that was conquered by our class has been won through sacrifices, conflicts and organized struggles.

Today, whilst technology and scientific progress have contributed to the increase of the produced social wealth, our class’ living conditions have been deteriorating. In every capitalist country, the bosses attack our class achievements: they are sweeping through salaries, pensions and social security; they are privatizing everything, they don’t hesitate to attack even the sacred right to strike! Strike is the most powerful weapon we have in our hands and we are not going to allow anyone to limit, confine or convert it to a dead letter!

At the same time, they are intensively preparing and conducting regional wars.They pave the way for new massacres that will maximize their profits, for new imperialist interventions that will destroy nations, spill peoples’ blood and deprive them of their natural resources. The ongoing imperialist intervention in Libya and Syria, the growing aggression against Venezuela, the US decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the massacre of Saudi Arabia against Yemen, the tension on the Korean peninsula, they are all indications that multinationals have smelled new profitability areas; and every time this goes through the dead bodies of workers.

Under the current conditions of the deep economic crisis of capitalism and intense competition among various imperialist centers to control new markets, our most powerful weapons are INTERNATIONALISM and SOLIDARITY. No worker must feel alone. All together, we must move on with Solidarity and Internationalism, building the Unity of the working class to give practical effect to Karl Marx’s motto “proletarians of all countries unite”.

In this context, and on this anniversary, the WFTU expresses its solidarity with our persecuted brothers, the immigrants and refugees, who either because of imperialists’ bullets or because of poverty and misery generated by this system, are forced to leave their homeland. The WFTU will continue to be on their side, fighting for a world without exploitation and refugees. Immigrants must become an integral part of unions, unite with local workers and fight together for wages, rights, against wars and interventions.

We join our voice with the heroic Palestinian people in order to gain their own independent and democratic homeland.

At the same time, we stand by the side of the struggling female worker, the one who suffers from double exploitation. The WFTU female members, at the recent World Women’s Congress in Panama, declared loud and clear that they want equal rights to work, society and life. The WFTU also fights and will continue to fight for this equality. It’s the same orientation that we follow for the the youngsters, as the new generation of workers have the task to honor the best May Day struggle traditions.

This year, the WFTU, by giving its hand to anyone who has stood up, has announced the year of trade union education and training. Our purpose is that the new shifts of workers be insubordinate, militant, enemies of class compromise and collaboration. We honor the year of trade union training and we call on every union to contribute to the militant truth, revealing the true meaning of May Day and the sacrifices the working class made for it. By rescuing the past, the very memory of our movement, we leave a legacy for tomorrow’s struggles and we also have a tool for the future. It is a duty to know the history of our movement.

The WFTU takes steps forward, strengthens and grows: and that’s what frightens our opponents. There is no other way than to make it present everywhere, in every corner of the world, so that there is no longer a hungry, dismissed, hunted or persecuted worker. The WFTU must be a “trench” of struggle for a future without exploitation of man by man. This is how the vision of the first Secretary General of the WFTU, Luis Saillant, envisioned in 1945 will be brought to life: “The WFTU for the workers of the whole world!”

LONG LIVE MAY DAY!