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ILC INTERNATIONAL NEWSLETTER NO. 83

www.owcinfo.org/ILC/NEWS/ILC_83.html

A dossier of weekly information published by the International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples
June 14, 2004

 

For the 11th consecutive year the ILC organized a meeting for the defense of ILO conventions in Geneva.

On June 13 delegates from Algeria, Benin, Belgium, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Ivory Coast, Germany, Spain, the United States of America, France, Guadeloupe, Great Britain, Italy, India, Iraq, Lebanon, Mauritania, Pakistan, Portugal, Serbia, Switzerland, Syria, Chad, Turkey and the Ukraine gathered and discussed.

The focal point of this meeting was the fight for the reconquest of workers' rights and gains.
This is true as concerns the normative system of the ILO conventions that has been undermined during these last years by the newly adopted Charter of Fundamental Rights.

This holds true in Iraq where the struggle of the Iraqi workers for the right to organize independently is the corner stone of the action for democracy, the right of the Iraqi nation to determine its own destiny, peace.

For several months international action has been sustained through the International Campaign Against the Occupation and For Labor Rights in Iraq. This has received strong encouragement with the registration by the ILO of the complaint lodged by the Iraqi unions to have conventions 87 and 98 respected; this support was confirmed by the dialogue instituted by the Workers' Group of the ILO.

In accordance with the traditions of the ILC traditions -- which regroups organizations, currents and militant who in their diversity place themselves in the fight for class independence -- the conference recorded a certain number of campaigns and proposals.

Each participant was at liberty to associate themselves or not, based on their agreement with each of the particular initiatives.

Finally, it is important to note that in accordance with the principles of independence of the ILC, this conference was self-financed.

Through the inscriptions paid by the delegates we were able to finance the hall, translation material and the trips of the Iraqi delegates that came from Baghdad to present their fight.


Proposals and information registered by the 11th Meeting of the ILC

1. Launching of a vast international support campaign by all unions of the complaint lodged at the ILO for labor rights in Iraq. Added to this is a proposal from the Turkish delegate to send health convoys.

2. Information on the holding of an International Conference for the Right of Return of Palestinians banished in 1947.

3. Support for the initiative in progress in Ukraine for the defense of the Labor Code.
4. Proposal to hold a worldwide conference for peace that will be held in Ivory Coast during the first quarter of 2005.

5. Information was given on the proposal of a conference for the return to public service of Entergie on the initiative of officials of Swiss unions.

6. A document was distributed to call attention to the revision of recommendation 150 of the ILO on strengthening human resources and professional training.

7. An international campaign will be organized to reply to Iraqi women claiming inclusion of specific rights in the Work Code and civil rights.

8. Solidarity campaign organized to oppose the repression against the militants of the UGTG in Guadeloupe.

9. Some delegates countersigned an appeal for solidarity with the workers of Color King Printing Press in Pakistan who were dismissed for having organized a union in their company.