Search

PDF version available for download (PDF help)

International Development Matters

Articles for inclusion in International Development Matters should be sent to at twarlock@tuc.org.uk

TUC News

Floods in Pakistan

TUC supports the DEC appeal

The TUC is supporting the DEC appeal and would like to invite union members and the general public to contribute generously to it. Read more

TUC International Fringes

Congress 2010

The TUC are running three fringe meetings at TUC Congress (13-16 Sept) this year being held in Manchester; one on the trade union role in international development for which we have secured the Secretary of State's attendance; one on the Playfair 2012 campaign and one on the Robin Hood Tax which is likely to include a campaign stunt/action for the media.

MONDAY LUNCHTIME 12.45-2pm

Working for a better world - the trade union role in international development

WEDNESDAY LUNCHTIME 12.45-2pm

London 2012: raising an honest sweat or a sweatshop bonanza?

WEDNESDAY EVENING 5.30-7pm

Can Robin Hood save our public services and protect the world's poor?

For more details

ACT NOW: support trade union rights in Swaziland

Trade unionists in Swaziland, a Commonwealth country in Southern Africa with the world's highest rate of HIV/AIDS and the longest state of emergency in Africa. Poverty and feudalism (the country is run by the King) are sustained by a dictatorship where unions are heavily restricted and activists are harassed, arrested and worse. Now, the Government wants to stop trade unionism from existing in the public services. In response, the TUC and ACTSA are organising activities on Tuesday 7 September as part of Swaziland Democracy Day, which unions around the world will be marking. The aim is to mobilise support for democracy, good governance and respect for human rights in Swaziland, and oppose the Public Services Bill. More details here

Robin Hood Tax Campaign

Launch of new initiative from the Robin Hood Tax Campaign: Saving Challenge

www.rht-treasury.org.uk

Today the Robin Hood Tax Campaign launches the Saving Challenge, a new initiative, aimed at reframing the public debate on the UK deficit by providing a viable alternative to the level of the proposed cuts.

Saving Challenge mimics the HM Treasury's crowd-sourced initiative, Spending Challenge, which seeks suggestions from UK citizens on which cuts should be made to reduce the deficit.

Instead, the initiative from the Robin Hood Tax Campaign asks the public to supply its views, via a website, on a tax on the financial sector, and to identify how the money that such a tax would raise should be used.

TUC President's message of solidarity to South African public sector workers

TUC President Dougie Rooney, currently on a visit to our sister federation COSATU in South Africa, addressed a strike rally of over 20,000 public sector workers in Pretoria on Tuesday 10 August 2010, conveying greetings and solidarity from the TUC. Read more here

Find out more about the South Africa Public Sector strikes from PSI

TUC backs Bangladeshi textile workers' wage demands

The TUC has joined trade unionists and campaigners around the world to demand better terms and conditions for 3.5 million Bangladeshi textile workers, who are striking and demonstrating for, among other things, a higher minimum wage of 5,000 taka a month - just £45. The current minimum wage in Bangladesh is 1,662 taka a month - about £15. This leaves textile workers, who are making clothes for sale in the UK, US and around the world, in dire poverty. The USA is the largest single market for Bangladeshi textiles, and the EU as a whole takes a massive 57% of them. Read more here

An EU trade policy for Decent Work

Europe's trade policy needs serious changes to deliver on decent work and development, and to restore the faith of working people badly shaken by an economic crisis they did nothing to cause. The TUC's submission to the European Commission's consultation outlines priority areas for change.

Read more here

TUC protests at Miami 5 prisoner's punishment

Since the TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber had written to the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, complaining about the treatment meted out to Miami 5 prisoner Gerardo Hernandez, the Cuba Solidarity Campaign reports that Gerardo Hernandez has been returned to the general prison population, as we were demanding. More details here

ACT NOW: defend Cameroonian journalist from deportation

Charles Atangana is a Cameroonian journalist who fled the country in 2004 after his life was threatened because of articles he had written which were critical of the authorities. For the last six years he has been an NUJ member in Glasgow. Details of the campaign are on the TUC Amnesty blog, and here is TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber's letter to Home Secretary Theresa May. The campaign to get Charles asylum will continue with a protest in Glasgow on Monday, organised by the NUJ. Rumours on Friday evening that he had been reprieved were premature, so please take action NOW.

Other International News

Iran: Union member freed

Saeed Torabian, of the Tehran Bus Drivers Union, was released from prison on 20 July. Thank you to everyone who took action. Amnesty and the ITUC are still demanding the release of Mansour Osanloo and the other trade unionists imprisoned in Iran. Find out more

Barclays Burma Scandal Shows Need to Tighten Sanctions

The announcement that Barclay's Bank has agreed with the US Department of Justice to pay a $298m fine for breaching sanctions on Burma and other countries shows yet again that international sanctions on Burma need to be made tighter and more comprehensive, according to the ITUC.

According to the ITUC-affiliated Federation of Trade Unions in Burma (FTUB), the announcement by the Burmese junta of the so-called elections on 7 November was made primarily to divert attention from a serious social and economic crisis brewing within the country. Discontent and divisions within the military over various issues, including financial problems, continue to mount.

The General Secretary of the FTUB, Maung Maung, has described the ongoing gross violations of fundamental human and trade union rights in Burma, as well as the Junta's efforts to foment ethnic tension. 'The regime uses slave labour, rape and torture to stay in power. Unions are banned and the jails are full with those who have dared to speak out.'

Read more

The time has come for the perpetrators of these heinous crimes to be held accountable. Instead of embarking upon uncritical engagement policies that could strengthen the regime, governments must finally bring the Burmese junta to implement the 12-year-old recommendations of the International Labour Organisation Commission of Inquiry on Forced Labour.

Bangladesh: ETI joins calls for a further increase to the minimum wage

ETI is joining trade union calls for the Bangladeshi government to make a further increase in the minimum wage to 5,000 taka (around £45) a month, and to speed up its implementation.

Workers in and around Dhaka rioted for several days after the government on 31 June announced its long-delayed decision to raise the minimum wage from 1,662 taka (£15) a month to 3,000 taka (£27), to come into effect on 1 November.

The new minimum wage falls far short of the 5,000 taka supported by Bangladeshi and international unions, which ETI considers a realistic target to work towards in Bangladesh.

Read more

What World INGO Tracker

The What World INGO Tracker Report is an monthly review and up-date on the activities of global campaigning and advocacy groups. The Tracker Report covers the campaign launches, industry news, and tracking of the main actions and debates within the industry.

Download current edition here

UN Recognises Water & Sanitation as a Right

In a welcomed move, the UN General Assembly finally officially recognised water and sanitation as a human right. While the resolution is non-binding, the resolution calls on members states to provide the necessary financial resources to developing countries to scale up efforts to achieve water & sanitation for all.

UN Development Forum Summary

The UN has published the President's Summary of the Development Cooperation Forum that took place at the UN HQ on the 29th and 30th June. More

ITUC Calls for UN Summit to endorse Financial Transactions Tax to help fund development and growth

The ITUC is calling on governments to commit to introducing a financial transactions tax (FTT) at September's United Nations Development Summit to help tackle global poverty and accelerate action on jobs and climate change. The UN Summit, to review progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), will take place against a background of growing global unemployment and inequality and major set-backs on economic development in countries across the globe.

Read more

Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) voice concern about workers rights in the commonwealth games

As the Commonwealth games are approaching, the Indian government has started clearance operations to remove vendors from street and pavements. Click here to read more about this. The National Alliance of Street Vendors (NASVI) reports about the World Class Cities for All campaign in India. Their main demand is that 'in the preparation of Commonwealth Games-2010 and beautification of cities, no vendor should be evicted without providing alternative space for vending'. Click here to read more about the campaign.

Post International Aids Conference 2010 Trade Unions Press for Rights-based approach to combat pandemic

The international trade union movement is calling for governments to push ahead with a rights-based approach to tackling the HIV and AIDS pandemic, following the 18th International AIDS Conference in Vienna at the end of July.

Stressing the importance of action at the workplace in fighting the pandemic, the trade union delegation at the Vienna Conference highlighted the adoption of a Recommendation on HIV-AIDS and the World of Work by the ILO at its June Conference this year.

Trade union participants from the ITUC, Global Union Federations and national representatives from across the world, including Argentina, Cameroon, Canada, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Guyana, Kenya, Nigeria, the Philippines, Tanzania, Uganda, the UK, Ukraine and Zimbabwe joined the ITUC's Austrian affiliate the OeGB which hosted the trade union delegation to the Vienna Conference, which was attended by more than 20,000 participants in total.

Read more

Bangladesh: Government Must Support Decent Minimum Wage, and Cease Harassment of Union Rights Supporters

The ITUC is calling on the Government of Bangladesh to support decent wages and living standards for the country's workers, particularly in the garments sector, and cease harassment of trade unionists and other worker-rights advocates. Thousands of workers in the ready-made garments sector, a key industry exporting to countries around the world, protested against a government announcement in July that the minimum wage would only be increased to Taka 3,000 per month instead of the 5,000 proposed by unions, and to delay implementing the increase until November.

The ITUC is particularly concerned over arrest warrants issued against leaders of the Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity (BCWS), who are currently in hiding. The government had already cancelled the BCWS registration as an NGO in early June, confiscated its property and frozen its bank account. A BCWS staff member was subsequently detained and severely beaten by security police before managing to escape. Factory owners supplying some of the biggest names in global retailing are thought to be behind the repression.

Read more

Unions pursue ratification of core ILO conventions in Thailand

Thailand is one of the founding members of the ILO. Despite this status so far the country has not ratified the two fundamentally important ILO Conventions 87 and 98. There are around 1,300 registered unions, twelve trade union national centers organizing less than 3 per cent of workers in Thailand.

Two years ago at the IMF seminar Thai affiliate TEAM raised the idea of pushing for ratification of the core ILO Conventions. Arising from this and in conjunction with the IMF global campaign against precarious work, TEAM launched a campaign to demand for ratification of these ILO Conventions.

Soon, the campaign gained momentum and support from a coalition of trade unions under the banner of the Thai Labour Solidarity Committee. For more information on the TEAM struggle against precarious work and the situation in Thailand read the IMF report published in the magazine Metal World

Read more

Radio Labour

The Solidarity Report

Thirty minutes of labour news and features from around the world. Made available on Sunday mornings.

Latest edition: August 22 - 28 contains:

• More than a million on strike in South Africa
• Thousands protest labour law changes in New Zealand
• General strike called in India
• Brutal crackdown on garment workers in Bangladesh
• Global march for democracy in Swaziland
• IFJ fights for journalists in the Philippines
• Sanitary pads for Zimbabwe women
• And more.

Stand Up and Take Action 2010

Campaigning

On 17-19 September, people across the world will take part in the 'Stand Up 2010' mobilisation as a breakthrough plan to end poverty when world leaders gather at the United Nations for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Review Summit in September. More details here

Each month ACTSA produces an update on the current affairs and news from Zimbabwe

The update covers issues facing trade unionists, the youth and students of the country, women, church and faith groups and possible human rights violations to inform and inspire our campaigners. Subscribe to the Zimbabwe Update now.

Or download the latest edition here: Zimbabwe Update: July 2010 (Word)

IFI NEWS

World Bank Adds To Food Speculation Debate As Prices Soar

As wheat, cocoa and some other food commodity prices have once again surged in recent weeks, the World Bank has released a research paper that, according to a Dow Jones news report (copied below), claims that "investment flows from financial speculators may be a key driver of short-term volatility in food prices". Read the report

See the WDM campaign

IMF to MDGs Summit: Scaling Up Aid is NOT a Good Idea

Ahead of the MDG review summit A new IMF Working Paper recommends that it is best for countries to not spend any new increases of foreign aid and instead to stockpile the aid as reserves. It suggests that until countries can use their aid in the most efficient way, it may be best for them to put it aside as foreign exchange reserves in their central banks (1). The de facto message to donors is very clear: No need to scale-up aid.

This is a very worrying message ahead of this important summit in September.

Global Calls to Action

Union leaders kidnapped at M&S supplier, India

Labour Behind the Label

Take action now to call for the safe release of two union leaders kidnapped from outside an M&S supplier factory this morning.

http://www.labourbehindthelabel.org/urgent-actions/itemlist/category/247-viva-global-action

At 9:30 am this morning 60 workers from the Viva Global factory in India were brutally attacked as they made their way into work. Sixteen women workers were severely beaten and two union members were kidnapped by thugs, who were waiting for them as they approached the factory. The whereabouts of the two kidnapped workers remains unknown.

Viva Global workers are now demonstrating outside the factory in protest at the assault on their colleagues. Anannya Batterchjee, the president of the Garment and Allied Workers Union is on indefinite hunger strike until her colleagues are returned.

Take action today and write to the owner of Viva Global to express your concern at this morning's event. Go to: http://www.labourbehindthelabel.org/urgent-actions/itemlist/category/247-viva-global-action

More information: Just a few weeks ago the Observer produced an expose on the Viva Global factory, revealing the appalling conditions faced by workers there. You can read the article at http://www.labourbehindthelabel.org/urgent-actions/item/840-ms-vivaglobal

Support Mexican workers at Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas (SME)

SME has asked for international assistance and that we make our concern clear that the Mexican government reinstate the thousands of fired workers, recognize the legally elected union leadership and drop all charges against workers who have been involved in this dispute.

Please take action in support of the workers here

Focus on Trade Unionists

Supporting domestic workers in Nepal

Interview with Deepak Danuwar, Domestic Worker in Nepal

'Before this training, I could not talk to other people. Now I don't feel any hesitation; when I introduce myself, I am proud to say I am Deepak Danuwar and I work as a domestic worker. And now I participate in various campaigns to make domestic work into decent work.' Read more here

ITUC Spotlight interview with Ana Bertha Navarro Munoz (CTRN - Costa Rica)

Progress is being made with the unionisation of migrants in Costa Rica

In March 2010, Costa Rica passed new legislation providing greater protection for migrant workers. Much remains to be done, however, to ensure full respect for the exercise of their trade union rights. The ITUC-backed Trade Union Centre for Migrants, linked to the bilateral trade union cooperation agreement with Nicaragua, provides training and legal assistance. Read more

ITUC Spotlight on Marissa Begonia (J4DW/Unite/TUC - United Kingdom)

Domestic work: 'The worst torture is not seeing your own children'

The adoption of an international Convention on Domestic Work and accompanying recommendation was approved in principle at the last International Labour Conference. This is a welcome step forward for the many trade unions fighting to defend this particularly vulnerable group of workers. One of these unions is 'Unite the union' (1) in the United Kingdom, which supports the group 'Justice for Domestic Workers'. Marissa Begonia, a member of the group, describes its activities and the reality of life as a migrant domestic worker. Read more

Events

International Swaziland Day of Action - 7 September 2010

On 7 September 2010 TUC are organising a number of events in collaboration with ACTSA on the occasion of Swaziland Democracy Day to mobilise support for democracy, good governance and respect for human rights in Swaziland.

Plans are underway to hold a small demonstration in front of the Swaziland High Commission, 20 Buckingham Gate, London SW1E 6LB, from 12.00 to 13.00 on 7 September 2010.

The activities will complement, and coincide with, similar action to be organised by affiliates of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) in their countries and by the Swaziland Democracy Campaign and the Swaziland trade union movement in Swaziland and South Africa.

For further information, please, visit http://www.actsa.org/page-1223-Swaziland.html

Quien Dijo Miedo

Thursday 9 September 2010 (7.00pm - 9.30pm)

Congress House

SERTUC Film Club presents a screening of Quien Dijo Miedo (Who is Afraid?), which follows René Guillermo Amador Padilla during the Honduran people's resistance against the military coup of June 28, 2009. There will also be a live panel discussion with René Guillermo Amador Padilla. Read more

TUC Seminar: International Development

Seminar: Collaborating on successful overseas projects: achieving goals, avoiding pitfalls

Monday 20 September 2010, 12.30pm - 5.00pm

Congress House

The TUC will be organising a series of three events between September 2010 and January 2011 to share good practice in a range of areas concerning international development. This event will be the first in the series and will focus on setting-up and running successful overseas projects with trade union partners. Confirmed Speakers from: DFID, ITUC Africa,TUC, NUJ, NUT, UNISON,UNITE and ONE World Action. More details here

Euro-demonstration

"No to austerity - Priority for jobs and growth! " 29 September 2010, Brussels, 1.00pm

The European Trade Union Confederation is staging a European Day of Action on 29 September next. This Day of Action follows a decision by the ETUC Executive Committee on 1 and 2 June. It will be made up of a Euro-demonstration in Brussels and trade union actions in the various European countries. The European trade unions will be demonstrating against the austerity measures adopted recently by many European countries, and to demand recovery plans in favour of quality jobs and growth. The Euro-demonstration is under preparation. The information given on this page will be updated progressively.

World Day for Decent Work

The trade unions of the world is mobilising on 7 October

Since 2008 the ITUC has been organising the World Day for Decent Work (WDDW) on 7 October . This is a day for mobilisation all over the world: one day when all the trade unions in the world stand up for decent work . Decent work must be at the centre of government actions to bring back economic growth and build a new global economy that puts people first. The TUC will be hosting an event in London for all UK trade union activists, details to follow in the next IDM.

Violence Against Women

Seminar on Saturday 9th October 2010 (10.00am - 1.00pm)

Location: Leeds

The Yorkshire and the Humber TUC ,Amnesty International Leeds and the Leeds Trade Union Council are working together to hold a half day seminar on Saturday 9th October 2010 on Violence Against Women. This event will include speakers, workshops, actions and a conference pack for campaigners/trade union representatives looking at regional/national and International issues. The seminar is free of charge. More details here

Challenging Poverty in Changing Times, the 2010

TUC Poverty Conference

Congress House, Monday 18 October, (10.30am - 4.30pm)

This year's TUC Poverty Conference will discuss the campaign against poverty in the context of the most serious threat to social security for decades. In the morning, participants will prepare questions on disability benefits, organizing, the impact of cuts on child poverty, the causes of in-work poverty, alternatives to cuts and unemployment and benefit levels. In the afternoon, we will put these questions to a panel of people who decide or influence important decisions. More here

Cuba Solidarity event - Miami 5 US Embassy Vigil

Tuesday 19 October 2010, 6pm-7.30pm

United States Embassy, Grosvenor Square, London (Bond St tube)

Full details of the vigil and speakers:

http://www.cuba-solidarity.org.uk/events.asp?EventID=313

Useful websites

There are a number of websites with useful information for trade unionists, policy makers and campaigners. Details here: Useful websites

Newsletter (3,600 words) issued 26 Aug 2010