IFWEA - International Federation of Workers' Education Associations

News & Articles

23 December 2009
Appeal to support families of Comrades died in accident
We have lost our four most brilliant comrades Abdul Salam, Najma Khanum, Rehana Kausar and Wahid Baloch in a road accident on 13th December 2009 near Ormara, Baloachistan. They were in the coastal region, one of the most deprived areas of the country, to organize the home based women workers (HBWW) on one plate form. They held two focus group meetings and a wider consultation on 11-12 and 13 December in port cities of Pasni and Gawadar. They also formed core groups and clusters of local HBWW and planned to organize more meeting in the region in month of January next year.

11 December 2009
SEWA's Studies on Childcare
We believe that Childcare is an important component of social security. Childcare has been very important to our members who are poor working women. Therefore, we have tried to provide childcare services through our Child Care Co-operative. In the last three decade of our work, we have found that child care makes a big difference in the lives of the mothers and of the children. We have documented some of our experiences, which can be directly accessed from the links below:

15 December 2009
Loss of stalwarts from the Pakistani and International Labour Movement
Loss of stalwarts from the Pakistani and International Labour Movement Three team members of the Labour Education Foundation (LEF) in Pakistan and their driver died in a road car accident near Pasni in Baluchistan on 13 December, while a trade union leader received serious injuries. Najma Khanum, Rehana, Abdul Salam from Labour Education Foundation (LEF) Karachi office and Rafiq Baluch central president of National Trade Union Federation were returning after a meeting of home based women workers when their car turned ups side down.

20 November 2009
Declaration of the National Summit on Workers’ Education unanimously adopted by the delegates at the closing session
DITSELA South Africa hosted a National Summit for Workers’ Education in South Africa on 12 – 13 November 2009. The summit was the culmination of months of preparation and attended by senior activists from the country’s four labour federation, local and international workers’ education labour service organisations and progressive academics. The summit helped create a platform for a long overdue debate on the meaning of workers’ education and highlighted its role in the context of the challenges confronting the working class locally and globally. Click here for the Summit Declaration (attached).

20 November 2009
The EU must Walk the Talk on Corporate Responsibility Initiatives
Brussels, 16 November 2009 - Following last week’s Swedish Presidency announcement that it is looking to operationalise the Protect, Respect and Remedy framework1 on corporate accountability, workers from developing countries and representatives from the EU, NGOs and business will gather at a seminar in the European Parliament to debate what steps the EU needs to put in place to ensure that European businesses are made accountable for human and labour rights abuses in their supply chains.

20 November 2009
EU Trade Strategy Needs Major Overhaul to Ensure Decent Work and Sustainable Development In and Outside the EU
Brussels, 17 November 2009 - As the European institutions gear up to revise the Lisbon Jobs and Growth Strategy and the European Parliament prepares to take on new powers in trade policy making, labour leaders and activists from around the world will meet EU representatives in Brussels to discuss how trading rules can be changed to put a stop to jobless and unsustainable growth and instead ensure decent work and decent lives for all.

20 November 2009
Morocco: Allow Human Rights Activist Aminatou Haidar to Return to Western Sahara
Brussels, 19 November 2009 - Last Friday Aminatou Haidar, human rights activist and 2007 SOLIDAR Silver Rose Award winner¹, was arrested upon returning to Morocco from New York and deported to the Spanish island of Lanzarote. Her passport was confiscated and she is now on a hunger strike in front of Lanzarote airport. SOLIDAR, a network of social justice NGOs, calls upon the Moroccan Government to give Aminatou Haidar back her passport and allow her to return home to her family in the Western Sahara.

29 September 2009
Briefing on floods in Manila from IFWEA Affiliate LEARN

As you very well know, metro manila and the nearby provinces was hit by a typhoon beginning saturday. This cause a lot of flooding which basically affected 80% of metro manila and some of them up to now have been submerged in flood waters. For six hours of heavy rain, the amount of rainfall that was generated is equivalent to a month of rainfall already according the weather bureau and to think that it is only signal number 1.

29 September 2009
Palestinian activist known by many in the SA Palestinian solidarity network arrested

On September 22, Mohammad Othman was arrested by soldiers on the Allenby Bridge Crossing, the border from Jordan to Palestine. He is now being held in Huwara prison as a prisoner of conscience, arrested solely for his human rights work.

25 September 2009
Hugh Masekela receives special labour media award

Sahra Ryklief

Hugh Masekela, South Africa’s world class legendary musician received a special Labour Media Award at the cultural event of Cosatu’s 10th national congress at Gallagher Estate in Midrand. The award was presented to Masekela for his song “Stimela” which tells about story about migrant workers from neighbouring countries who travel on the coal train to work on South Africa’s mines. The song, a popular favourite and a regular on Masekela’s concert repertoire is heart-wrenching as it tells about the hardships and conditions that these mineworkers faced on the mines, living in flea-ridden compounds – especially during the Apartheid era.

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