BY ERNIE MAILHOT AND GALE SHANGOLD
HAVANA, Cuba - More than l,200 people representing 400 trade union organizations from 6l countries took part in an international gathering here August 6 - 8. Titled "International Meeting of Workers Against Neo-liberalism and Globalization," the gathering was initiated by the Central Organization of Cuban Workers (CTC). It was cosponsored by trade union federations in a number of other countries.

Participants discussed the devastation the worldwide crisis of capitalism is inflicting on working people, especially in the colonial and semicolonial world, and adopted a resolution that includes demands aimed at uniting workers to confront this crisis. In fact, as the conference was preceding, unemployed workers in several cities in Argentina, were putting up roadblocks demanding that Buenos Aires provide relief from the depression conditions there.

The largest delegations outside Cuba came from Brazil and Argentina. Nearly 300 delegates came from Brazil, the majority from the United Federation of Workers (CUT), the largest trade union federation in that country. Many of the Argentine unionists were members of the Argentine Workers Federation (CTA), which organizes about a third of unionized workers there, mostly in the public sector.

Of the nearly 50 unionists attending the gathering from Canada, many were officials in some of the major unions in that country, including the Canadian Auto Workers and United Food and Commercial Workers.

Sizable delegations came from the General Labor Confederation (CGT) of France, one of the three major union federations there, as well as other countries in Europe. While participation from Asia and Africa was smaller, a number of unionists participated from India and from the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU).

More than 90 unionists and other activists attended from the United States, the majority of whom traveled with the Detroit-based U.S.-Cuba Labor Exchange. The U.S. delegation included Rick Farquharson, a newspaper striker from Detroit. A smaller group traveled with the U.S. Health Care Trade Union Committee of Local 1199 of the hospital workers union in New York.

CTC secretary general Pedro Ross welcomed the delegates. Osvaldo Martínez, member of Cuba's National Assembly and Director of the Center for Research on the World Economy, gave the opening talk.

"Of the 5.6 billion people who inhabit the planet today," Martínez said, "some 2.8 billion make up the economically active population, that is, people of working age. Of them, 1.14 billion - 41 percent - are jobless or underemployed throughout the world."

These figures prove the inhuman character and the bankruptcy of a world system that promotes "neoliberalism and globalization," Martínez said. Neoliberalism is a term widely used in Latin America to describe policies of capitalist governments that promote privatization of state assets, layoffs of workers, worsening of working conditions, cutbacks of social services, and other austerity measures pushed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other imperialist financial institutions.

The resolution delegates adopted says "that neoliberal globalization is a new moment in the development of capitalism characterized by economic concentration in the hands of transnational corporations, which, in their search to become competitive and cost effective, are trying to cut back, by all possible means, the cost of labor."

Many trade unionists at the meeting spoke about the crisis of unemployment in their countries and about labor protests demanding jobs. Roque Borons from Spain, for example, said in the plenary session that 3.5 million Spanish workers are jobless - 10 percent of the workforce. He also referred to a recent march of 50,000 there to protest layoffs and unemployment.

The final resolution calls for demanding "economic policies that foster more and better jobs," including through agrarian reform necessary in many underdeveloped countries; "higher wages and income for both permanent and temporary workers, sufficient to meet their basic needs;" "shortening the work shift without cutting wages;" and "substantial increases in health, education, social security, and housing appropriations."

A number of delegates pointed to examples of labor resistance and addressed the need for international solidarity. Rafael Cabarcas of the oil workers union in Colombia referred to a 40-day strike by oil workers in that country this year. Baron Hidrove of the Workers Federation of Ecuador described a labor uprising there that led to the resignation of president Abdalá Bucaram. David Sole, president of a United Auto Workers local in Detroit, got loud applause as he spoke about the newspaper workers battle against Detroit News and Free Press. And Betsy Stone, a member of the International Association of Machinists in Chicago, spoke about the UPS strike, which had begun just prior to the opening of the conference.

On August 4, the day the Teamsters struck UPS, Pedro Ross spoke at a workshop of young trade unionists at the 14th World Festival of Youth and Students, which preceded the trade union conference. "We have to show solidarity with these fighting men and women and others like them around the world," Ross said.

The ballooning foreign debt of third world countries was another topic of discussion and debate. Roberto Fornaris from the Argentinian CTA asked that the final resolution include a demand for "cancellation of the third world debt." Delegates from a number of countries, however, including those from India and other semicolonial countries who belong to political parties that are part of the ruling regimes opposed this proposal. The resolution adopted calls for "unmasking the unpayable and unfair external debt as a mechanism to rob the underdeveloped world of its wealth."

Another debate took over the question of the fight for national self-determination. A number of delegates from India raised that struggles for national independence cannot be supported in all cases. Their comments reflected their opposition to the struggle for Kashmir's independence from India. Nancy Exilas from the Confederation of Haitian Workers (KOTA) expressed a different view. "Support by trade unionists for national sovereignty can't be limited or cautious," she said. "We have to support unequivocally demands for national independence. The Cuban revolution, and our struggle in Haiti against domination by the United States, has shown this."

The resolution adopted calls for "defending the principle of the self-determination, independence and sovereignty of nations."

In their remarks, most delegates condemned Washington's economic war on Cuba and called for actions against the embargo-tightening U.S. Helms-Burton law. The final resolution calls on "all progressive forces in the world.. to express, by all means possible, their solidarity with Cuba and to oppose imperialist designs to sweep away by force the example of independence and social justice that Cuba represents."

Delegates also designated October 8 as a day for actions by trade unionists to press such demands. The date marks the 30th anniversary of the death of Ernesto Che Guevara, one of the central leaders of the Cuban revolution.

In his closing remarks, Ross thanked the trade unionists for their work during conference. "This meeting was not about Cuba, or the Cuban revolution," he said, "but about building a united front for action."

Delegates decided that the next such labor conference will be held in Brazil in l999.  
 
 
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