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IFWEA MONTHLY BULLETIN January 2005 |
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Dear Friends, Welcome to the first IFWEA Bulletin for 2005.
Organising in the Global Economy – IFWEA seminar report The report of the seminar held in Eastbourne in October 2004 is now available in English at: http://www.ifwea.org/archive/IFWEA_2004_october_seminar_report_eastbourne.pdf This comprehensive report, produced as part of the Global Champions Project of the General Federation of Trade Unions in the UK, forms an important resource for workers’ education organisations concerned to support trade union organisation in the context of the global economy.
Tsunami reconstruction With trade unions around the world raising millions of dollars for tsunami relief efforts, the ICFTU and its Global Unions partners have launched an international trade union initiative to channel funding to sustainable rehabilitation and reconstruction work in the areas affected by the disaster. The initiative will identify reconstruction work where trade unions have a specific role to play and where union expertise is most needed, including rebuilding trade union infrastructure, and will help ensure maximum cohesion in the trade union movement's reconstruction activities. See: http://www.icftu.org/displaydocument.asp?Language=EN&Index=991221128 Meanwhile, Indonesian human rights organisations are calling for international support to tsunami victims in Aceh to be channelled directly through civil society organisations on the ground in Indonesia. See http://www.tsunamiaceh.org/ and http://tapol.gn.apc.org/ for details.
Solidarity Center report on China The AFL-CIO Solidarity Center has published a new report, Justice for All: The Struggle for Worker Rights in China. The report confirms China's blatant violations of the fundamental rights of its 800 million workers in both law and practice, and challenges the Chinese government to respect ILO core labor standards, to fully and effectively enforce the law, and to give workers a voice in their own labor system. The report is also an excellent education resource to stimulate discussion on what is arguably the most important workers’ rights question facing the contemporary labour movement. It is available in PDF format at http://www.solidaritycenter.org/publications/jfa_china.cfm
IFWEA at World Social Forum As reported in December’s Bulletin, IFWEA is responsible for the discussion on the informal economy in the Social Dimension to Globalisation debates on 27-30 January organised by the consortium of international unions and NGOs, as part of the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre. Speakers in the informal economy discussion include Juliane Bir (ETUC), Plamen Dimitrov (CITUB Bulgaria), Abdelkhader Azrai (CDT Morocco), Lameck Kashiwa (AZIEA Zambia), Pat Horn (StreetNet International), Karim Baloul (Global Progressive Forum) and Aminata Traoré (World Commission). Several IFWEA, Solidar and the Global Network is also to be well represented in the other discussion strands of the event. Details are available at: http://www.icftu.org/displaydocument.asp?Index=991221156&Language=EN. A report of will be circulated in next month’s bulletin.
Affiliation Fees Unless you have already done so, we urge all affiliates to pay their 2005 fee as soon as possible. If you have any questions regarding fee payment, please contact anne.webley@ifwea.org.
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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