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IFWEA MONTHLY BULLETIN January 2004 |
| Dear Friends New Year's greetings from the new IFWEA Secretariat. I am looking forward to working with you in the coming years, and feel very optimistic for IFWEA's future. On behalf of everyone in IFWEA, I would like to give my sincere thanks to our colleagues at the Workers' Education Association of Norway (AOF), for their invaluable work at the Oslo-based IFWEA Secretariat between 1996 and 2003, which has now transferred to our new permanent offices in Manchester; and to my colleagues at the Workers' Educational Association of England & Scotland, where I was the International Programmes Officer for nearly ten years, before taking up my new IFWEA role on January 1st. You will find all of our new contact details at the bottom of this page. We intend to produce this brief Bulletin every month - and hope you find it useful. Please do not hesitate to send us news and information from your organisation for inclusion in future Bulletins. We intend to provide the Bulletin in several languages, initially French, Spanish and Arabic, and hope to add Chinese, German, Russian and Portuguese over the next few months.
IFWEA Operational Plan My first major task as IFWEA General Secretary will be the construction of an operational plan for the next few years, putting into practice the policies adopted at the our 2003 General Conference (full report to be circulated within a few weeks). Priorities will include the further development of regional organisation and activity, and the creation of new IFWEA programmes on trade unions, workers' rights and globalisation, workers' education in the informal economy, women workers' education, and basic skills in workers' education programmes. These will be supported by planned new global education programmes, building on the success and experience of the International Study Circles. We are currently consulting with a range of donor organisations to secure support for these programme activities. We are also continuing to work in close partnership with Solidar to develop the Global Network programme.
Cairo Conference IFWEA was very well represented at the conference organised by the Center for Trade Union & Workers Services (CTUWS) on "Labour Standards and Conditions in the Present Global System", held on 11-13 December 2003 in Cairo. Conference papers are available on the IFWEA web site in Arabic and English. The conference was attended by Egyptian trade unionists, members and supporters of CTUWS, and representatives of workers' education organisations elsewhere in the Arab region. Other organisations represented included: CCOO (Spain), CGIL (Italy), Labour Research Service (South Africa), PSI (Arab Region), ATTAC (France), the Rosa Luxembourg Foundation (Germany), Grassroots International (USA), Global Network and IFWEA. The conference provided an excellent opportunity for discussion of current problems of labour rights in Egypt, and a chance for Egyptian trade unionists to engage in conversation and debate with foreign organisations.
IFWEA Arab Regional Initiative The Cairo conference also offered an opportunity for a meeting of IFWEA members and potential members in the Arab region. It was agreed to explore a new IFWEA regional project, develop workers' education organisations and programmes in support of the democratic and independent labour movement in the region. The founding partners of the project will be the Lebanese Trade Union Training Centre, the Amman Center for Human Rights Centre, the Women Organisation to Combat Illiteracy in Jordan, the Working Woman Society for Development (Palestine), the Democracy & Workers' Rights Center (Palestine), the Centre for Democracy & Trade Union Services (Morocco), and the Center for Trade Union & Workers' Services (Egypt). The new project, hopefully to be launched in late 2004 or early 2005, will focus on training in democratic workers' education methods, sharing of experience and expertise within the region, and the development of a formally constituted new regional organisation of IFWEA.
ICFTU / IFWEA Co-operation A new initiative is underway between the ICFTU and IFWEA to strengthen joint activities in support of international trade union education. The first of these, currently under discussion, is a proposed joint ICFTU / IFWEA conference for trade union education specialists, organised in close co-operation with the Global Union Federations, hopefully to be held at the ILO Training Centre in Turin in 2004 or 2005. Further details will be circulated in the coming weeks.
ICFTU Congress 2004 The ICFTU Congress this year will be held in Japan, in the week beginning December 5. It is expected that a significant number of IFWEA affiliates will attend. During a recent visit to Japan, I had a number of meetings with the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (RENGO) during which we explored some ideas for an IFWEA meeting with RENGO representatives during the ICFTU Congress week, and the involvement of the Japanese union movement in IFWEA activities.
Global Union Federation representation on IFWEA Executive Committee After consultation between IFWEA GUF affiliates, Alana Dave has been nominated to represent the GUFs on IFWEA's Executive Committee. Alana is the Education Officer for the International Transportworkers' Federation (ITF), and was formerly a staff member of IFWEA, responsible for the co-ordination of the International Study Circles project. The first meeting of the newly elected Executive Committee will take place on 5-7 March 2004.
IFWEA Web Site Over the next few months, with the help of the Workers' Education Association of Finland (TSL), IFWEA will revise and update the web site to start developing new information services recommended by the General Conference held in Portugal in October. If you have views or ideas on how the site could be improved, please contact the webmaster - jouko.muuri@tsl.fi.
Affiliation Fees For the first time in IFWEA's history, you now have a full-time Secretariat established independently of any 'host' member organisation. The existence of the Secretariat is now financially totally dependent on your affiliation fees, and we urge all affiliates to pay their 2004 fees as promptly as possible.
Dave Spooner This Monthly Bulletin is produced from the IFWEA Secretariat. Contributions and news from affiliates and fraternal
organisations are most welcome. Please send all items to
bulletin@ifwea.org. |
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