IFWEA International Conference 2009
Published: 22 October 2009
Professor David Finegold (Dean SMLR, Rutgers University) welcomes participants
to the conference at the university campus. Karl-Petter Thorwaldson (ABF Sweden)
opens the conference by emphasising the importance of international meetings
especially for workers education associations.
Sue Schurman, IFWEA President welcomes the delegates from all over the world.
Furthermore she calls out that it is „Time for the theory to catch up with the
practice“. Her keynote deals with the global challenge of workers' education
especially from the U.S. perspective since it plays an important role internationally
and gives a good overview. She calls out „the end of wokers' education“, then
postulating she actually means that WEAs might have lost their end already, not
knowing where to go, confusing the how and the why. The education became means-focused,
from workers education to labour education later transforming to labour relations
training. Furthermore, she stresses the importance to building for both, collective
or individual development, not separating the two.
Paula Voos and Conny Reuter congratulate Sue on her keynote address. They
agree that it is culturally and politically important to build bridges between
the collective and individual. Moreover, it is necessary to involve new media
e.g. the internet in education and communication since it offers possibilities
that need to be used especially from workers.
For more please download the conference PDF document.
Speaker Presentations
Prof. David Bensman
Restructuring of Working Conditions in the Road Freight Industry
Tracy Chang
Internationalism and Workers' Education
Sally Alvarez
Gender, Organizing, and Community Unionism
Rey Rasing
LEARN
Juan Carlos Vargas
@learning for workers
Khalid Mahmood
Organising youth in the militarised zone of Pakistan
Janice Fine
Worker Centers
Jorma Turunen
A Holistic Approach to Adult and Continuing Education in Europe
Conny Reuter
Education Populaire
Eddie Cottle
The Building and Wood Workers International 2010 World Cup Decent Work Campaign
