Category Archives: WFTU

WFTU Message on COVID-19

18 Wednesday Mar 2020

Posted by in AIBDPA - BSNL DOT Pensioners, TUI of P&R, WFTU

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Dear men and women colleagues,

We live in a period of Pandemic, where the Coronavirus is spreading to the four corners of the world.

On behalf of the World Federation of Trade Unions, we want to congratulate the workers all over the world, because through their work they provide all goods for the survival of the Peoples. The workers are those who produce food, medicine, services, machines, transport, communication and everything. They deserve our warm “well done”.

We also congratulate all workers at Health sectors, who give a heroic struggle to treat the patients, at the risk of their own life.

This is the one side of the river, the ones who stand out for their humanitarianism, solidarity, social offer.

On the opposite side of the river, we see the filth, exploitation, thirst for capitalist profits. The monopolies, the international bourgeoisie are showing their true face. Speculation. Profits soaked with the blood and suffering of the ordinary people.

In Athens ten days ago, a simple face mask was sold at 1 euro and today it is sold at 10 euros.

In Turkey five days ago, a kilo of pasta was sold at one Turkish Lira and now it is sold at 12 Turkish Lira.

In Bangladesh ten days ago, a simple mask was sold at 20 Taka and now it is sold at 150 Taka.

In Madrid five days ago, a mask was sold at 2,5 euros and today it is sold at 25 euros.

In Africa, in Nigeria, the disinfectant liquid from 2 dollars, today it is sold at 8 dollars.

Off course, excessive prices and speculation also apply to meat, rice and all basic food products.

The multinationals utilize the Pandemic in order to lay off workers or cut their labor rights.

Dear fellow workers, unemployed and pensioners,

We call upon all trade unions to reveal and inform workers on the speculation strategy of the monopolies.

To demand necessary measures for the protection of the ordinary people to be taken by the governments and all competent parties.

We must demand immediate measures of social protection. Defense of our working and salary rights.

Only through our resistance and struggle we can defend our rights.

The big militant family of WFTU, which this year is celebrating 75 years of life and rich action, is present once more, at the forefront and until the final victory!

We wish all the best for you and for your People.

WFTU Declaration on the International Working Women’s Day 8 March 2020

05 Thursday Mar 2020

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WFTU Declaration on the International Working Women’s Day 8 March 2020
03 Mar 2020

WOMEN, WORKING WOMEN

On the occasion of this year’s March 8th anniversary, the World Federation of Trade Union addresses a warm militant greeting to every woman all over the globe, working or unemployed, self-employed, in the city or in the countryside, young mother, student, retiree, refugee or immigrant, life fighters of the everyday.

We all, stand on the side of the women who struggle with the WFTU and the international class-oriented movement, and strongly believe in the necessity of the organization of the women’s fight for real equality and do not limit our militancy and struggles just in one day a year.

2020 is the year that marks the 75th anniversary of the World Federation of Trade Unions’ struggle and action since its founding in 1945. 75 years in which we are constantly fighting for the true equality of women, for a system that will free them from the double repression of their gender and class, for a system without man-to-man exploitation.

In this struggle, men of our class are our allies, with whom we walk side by side in social and political action, claiming a life as we deserve, for us and our families: without wars and refugees, with constant and full-time work, with decent salaries and full insurance rights, with state infrastructures providing free public health, education, social welfare for all.

International Women Day is a symbol of struggle, sanctioned with the suggestion of socialist Clara Zetkin in 1911. It is a day dedicated to the strike of the New York women garment workers in 1857, demanding equal pay with their male colleagues, reduced working hours and human working conditions, and stood up to their employers and their state.

However today, 163 years later, all these are still demanded. Job intensification has increased, flexible forms of work tend to become the norm, in many countries women are still paid less than their male colleagues for the same job.

But not only that. Today, in 2020, with such development in science and technology, women still die during childbirth, due to lack of medical care, they do not go to school because of their gender, become victims of trafficking and are forced into prostitution, are drowning in the sea with their children in their arms, trying to avoid the bombs.

We, as the World Federation of Trade Unions, reject all policies aim to serve the large multinationals in order to continually increase their profits. This is the real reason behind every war, every anti-insurance law, every cut in wages and benefits, the shrinking of the social state. And finally, this is the real causality of inequality of the woman in every expression.

We believe that the best way to honor International Women’s Day is to continue our struggles against these policies and their perpetrators. Until the complete emancipation of every woman in every corner of the planet.

We will not stop until we do it!

May Day 2019: The wealth belongs to those who produce it! WFTU Call

25 Thursday Apr 2019

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The World Federation of Trade Unions, on the behalf of its 97 million members in 130 countries of the 5 continents, greets the celebration of the International Workers’ Day 2019 with the slogan: “The wealth belongs to those who produce it!”

We greet workers throughout the globe, and their irreplaceable role in the production of all goods and services, necessary to cover all contemporary needs of the peoples internationally. We honor the history of the world working class, the great struggle of workers in Chicago in May 1886, who fought and achieved the establishment of the 8-hour working day, even by sacrificing their life.

The class oriented trade union movement, through the ranks of the World Federation of Trade Unions, firmly continues its struggles with demands for the essential improvement of the working and living conditions of workers and poor popular strata.

Nowadays, when 1% of the population possesses more than 80% of the produced wealth, while 4.5 billion people live in poverty and misery, workers must claim even more dynamically all the wealth we create, so as to put an end to the injustice and inequalities!

In countries of Africa, Asia, Latin America, monopolies exploit their immense natural wealth, giving peanuts to the peoples. The rivalries among the powerful imperialist states maintain tensions, outbreaks of war and open wounds in countries where interventions, wars and bombings have taken place in the previous years, where crowds of uprooted peoples, of migrants and refugees, were created.

Even in the so-called developed countries, the attack against salaries and pensions, against historic achievements of workers, is taking place in the name of the capitalist economic crisis, for the support of the profitability of big businesses. Poverty, unemployment, insecurity are on the rise, healthcare services are deteriorated, the governments try to limit the action of the militant trade union movement with fierce repression, by putting obstacles to trade union actions, to the right to strike.

The World Federation of Trade Unions calls on its members, friends, workers of the world, to hoist the flag of historic struggles of the peoples and to organize May Day’s strike for one more year, in a way worthy of the day when the world working class celebrates.
For peace, for the end of foreign interventions in internal affairs of the countries. For the right of the peoples to decide on their own about their present and future.

For the end of racism, fascism, xenophobia, which is promoted by capitalist exploitation. For the unity of all workers. For the end of imperialist wars, waged for the interests of a minority who exploit the toil of workers and bathe the peoples in blood.

For the end of capitalist exploitation, for a society with true justice and equality, where the wealth will belong to those who produce it, to workers, who are the driving force of all progress and achievements of humanity.

Since the first moment of its foundation and for the 74 years of its course and action, the WFTU firmly by the side of the workers around the globe, on the occasion of May Day 2019 expresses once more its solidarity to the peoples of Venezuela, Cuba, Palestine, Syria, Yemen, Libya.

We will steadily continue our struggles, aiming to make them stronger through new initiatives, activities and mobilizations! With internationalism and solidarity.

Let’s continue our efforts for the strengthening of the militant trade unions with many new members, with young people and women, with the enhancement of class characteristics and of the class unity of all workers.

By revealing the dirty role of reformists and of corrupted bureaucrats that turn trade unions into servants of the bourgeoisie.

We participate actively in the strike of May Day 2019!

Long live the International Workers’ Day!

The wealth belongs to those who produce it!

WFTU Presidential Council at Athens, Greece

04 Thursday Apr 2019

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Athens, Greece: The Presidential Council Meeting started its works today April 3rd, 2019
03 Apr 2019

EUROPE, GREECE, PRESIDENTIAL COUNCIL

The works of the first day of the WFTU Presidential Council Meeting started with great enthusiasm and participation on April 3rd, 2019 in Athens, Greece.

The WFTU President Mzwandile Michael Makwayiba declared the official commencement of the meeting and then the WFTU General Secretary George Mavrikos presented the introductory speech.

During the 2-days meeting, the presidential council members will discuss and determine the WFTU goals and priorities for 2019.

International Week of Fight against Privatization – 22nd to 26th October 2018

10 Wednesday Oct 2018

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In 2016 TUI-PS launched the international day against privatizations, aimed at strengthening and expanding unity in the action of workers and peoples around the world in defence of public services and social functions of the states. From 22 to 26 October, once again we will organize initiatives, demonstrations, strikes or other actions to increase awareness on the disastrous impacts of privatizations on the lives of workers, peoples and countries, seeking to strengthen the fight to prevent new processes and to reverse those that have meanwhile been implemented. The privatizing obsession is an essential feature of the character of the dominant world system, capitalism, even more so in a period when its crisis and contradictions heighten. The over-production and over-accumulation of capital, the destruction of productive forces, finantialization and investment only in what is solvable, the commodification and privatization of all public enterprises and profit-making areas, the establishment of mechanisms that compel states to guarantee private profits (public-private partnerships), mergers and acquisitions of companies with the objective of increasing profits with the resulting degradation of services, workers’ rights and cuts in employment, the appropriation of natural resources, leading to an unprecedented concentration and centralisation of wealth. A system in crisis, based on the hegemonic dominance of transnational corporations, has led to the seizure of scientific and technical knowledge (often produced by public institutions and with funds that belong to all), shaping their results and in particular the productive forces and the labour world to increase the exploitation of workers, creating more unemployment and immigration. A course made possible by a correlation of forces unfavorable to the workers and peoples and by the alliance between big business and state apparatuses, reducing the states to the role of bystanders in the production and distribution of the wealth produced (for its concentration). At the same time as taxes are increased for those who work and live on the income of work, pardons and tax incentives are granted to big business, capital flight to tax havens is facilitated. States are deliberately deprived of funds to ensure public services and state social functions of quality, universal and accessible, and thus binding them to debt – which feeds the greed for profits of financial capital. On the other hand, the growing concentration of political power in supranational structures aimed at the conciliation of positions by big business is being favoured, while suppressing any attempt by the peoples to define sovereign paths of emancipation, free from any external conditioning, an example of which is the European Union and also the so-called free trade agreements.

Aggression and war are increasingly the policy of the imperialist powers, as well as the militarisation of international relations, the attack on International Law, the sale of arms, the appropriation of natural resources, markets and energy routes. On the other hand, we are witnessing the restriction of freedom and democratic rights and the growth of extreme right and fascist forces, promoted by big business, to open the way to even more reactionary policies and denial of the right to progress and social justice. The result of the private appropriation of what should be public (belonging to all) is increasingly in view. Workers and peoples are denied their inalienable right to essential goods as well as to healthcare, social security, education, housing, transport, justice, culture, etc. Prices are rising, redundancies are increasing, recruitment is decreasing, degrading contracts and conditions of work and provision of services, closing down of services and establishments, quality and the rights of workers and users are reduced. The attack on the rights of Public Administration workers has a double effect, degrading their working and living conditions as well as the services and social functions provided. Denial of the right to employment, cuts in wages, freezing of careers, blocking collective bargaining and contracting, limitations on freedom of association and other collective rights – in particular the right to strike – increased working time and the proliferation of precariousness is detrimental to both workers and users. The consequences and dangers of privatizations are transversal, affecting both the so-called rich and poor countries, as was the case of the collapse of a bridge in Italy (Genoa) – a paradigmatic example – exposing the full dimension of these processes. With the promotion of this week against privatizations we want to denounce its impacts and seek to broaden and deepen the struggle for their reversal, defending public services and social functions of the states as a way to combat the glaring social inequalities and to implement rights. But at the same time we will place on the agenda that it is necessary and possible to have a system that rationalizes production to serve society and not to serve private profit. The actions carried out by the trade unions in this area aim to strengthen the struggle in each country as the most fertile ground for the broader struggle of workers and peoples around the world, respecting their specificities.

Hence, the trade unions of TUI-Public Services and other participating trade unions will strive for unity in action to defend the rights and aspirations of workers and peoples:

– Opposing the externalisation and privatization of public services and social functions of the states; – Advocating wage increases, reducing working hours and overall improvement of the working and living conditions of workers; – Demanding the end of precariousness and the principle that every permanent job must correspond to an effective working link

– Defending the maintenance and creation of jobs with rights and with quality;

– Defending trade union freedom and the right to collective bargaining and contracting;

– Rejecting charitable policies and advocating a fairer distribution of wealth through the creation or improvement of public services and social functions of states;- Advocating the end of the free movement of capital and the closure of all tax havens, as well as the so-called free trade agreements;

– Fighting against all wars of aggression and the militarisation of international relations, defending peace and internationalist solidarity, the end of interference in the internal affairs of states and the blockades, the principles of International Law.

TUI-PS is a sectorial and autonomous structure of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), which represents 23 million civil servants and carries out its activities in the central, regional and local Public Administration sector, in public and similar services on all continents.

WFTU Legal Committee meets at Athens.

16 Monday Jul 2018

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The WFTU Legal Committee Meeting started its works on July 16th in Athens, Greece

Today, July 16th the WFTU Legal Committee meeting started its works in Athens under the slogan “Justice in the Service of the International Working Class Interests”.

Twenty lawyers form all the five continents of the world are gathered in Athens and discussing about the strengthening of the class struggle and the contribution of the militant lawyers in this cause.

The keynote speech was addressed by Janaka Adikari, member of the WFTU Presidential Council.

In the meeting the WFTU leadership is represented by the WFTU General Secretary George Mavrikos and the WFTU Vice-President Valentin Pacho.

90 years since birth of Che Guevara – WFTU statement

16 Saturday Jun 2018

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WORLD FEDERATION OF TRADE UNIONS
Athens, Greece – 14 June 2018
WFTU Statement on the 90 years since the birth of Che
“People may die but never do their ideas” Today, June 14, 2018, is the 90th anniversary of the birth of one of the greatest
revolutionaries of the twentieth century, Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, known
throughout the Latin American continent as “Che”. For the big class-oriented family of the WFTU, the figure of Che remains a guide for
the struggles of the present and the future. Although the US imperialists managed to
kill him, they will never succeed, no matter how hard they try, to sully his pioneering
action, his immense contribution in the struggle against capitalism and its lackeys. For us, for all the simple and class-oriented unionists, the emblematic figure and the
ideas of Che will never lose their validity and vigor. Che was a revolutionary who
fought imperialism with the weapon at hand and never gave up; and this can not be
erased by the falsifiers of history. At this very moment when imperialists prepare new wars for the distribution of natural
resources, waves of refugees are uprooted by imperialist aggression and thousands
of workers are being sacrificed on the altar of capital gains, the path that Che traced
is an example to follow. Because imperialism has not died yet. Because there are
thousands of militants of the WFTU throughout the world who continue to fight
against the domination of capital and keep alive the spark and hope for a new world, without exploitation of man by man. For the WFTU, the words of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro are the wish that we
share with all our class brothers and sisters throughout the world: “If we want to express how we want our children to be, we must say: WE WANT
THEM TO BE LIKE CHE!

Quim Boix, Secretary General TUI(P and R) speech at ILO

09 Saturday Jun 2018

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107th ILC: Speech of Quim Boix, Secretary General of the WFTU TUI Pensioners, presented to the Plenary Session
07 Jun 2018
Receive a greeting from Pensioners and Retirees from all over the planet.

I speak to you on behalf of the only global organization that groups them.

We are united by the same just demands, analyzed from a class perspective, which is to say, as Karl Marx analyzed, from the reality of the confrontation of social classes that capitalism generates.

We know that the audience, in the annual Plenaries of the ILO, is, as long as we do not change it, made mainly of defenders of capitalism as a system. But this system goes from crisis to crisis (which are structural and systemic, that is, inescapable) until its final crisis.

We are supporters of socialism, which will be the future in all countries of the planet, even if pro-capitalists try to delay this change. The experience of the former socialist countries has made it possible to learn from the mistakes made and for that reason the second stage of extension of socialism will be the final one.

While we do not recover the advantages of socialism for the majority of human beings, we will continue to organize ourselves within capitalism.

Today I can announce that we are going to hold our Second World Congress of Pensioners and Retirees class organizations, at the beginning of next year, in a country in Latin America. In this area of ​​the planet there are large organizations, with millions of members, who defend Pensioners from class positions.

We have already organized the Pensioners in the 5 continents and we have already demonstrated our ability to fight in defense of our just demands with several actions coordinated worldwide.

We will continue supporting the Pensioners and Retirees in the struggles, country by country, so that in the end all the legislations will recognize that every person over 60 must receive a pension that ensures a dignified life, that is, with potable water in a habitable dwelling, with sufficient healthy food, and free public attention to the needs of health, culture and local transport.And this regardless of whether the pensioner quoted sufficiently during the period of active life as a worker. If you did not quote it was your fault, those who run capitalism, who did not give you the job you asked for. You, the pro-capitalists, prefer that there are millions of unemployed people in order to lower wages, based on the false “laws of the market”, which are only applied to those who do not own the means of production.On the other hand, to the owners of the means of production, you grant them all the advantages and subsidies (tax havens included). By “you” we mean the managers of capitalism, the owners of the multinationals (representatives of whom there are many in this room), those who extract the benefits of this exploitation, very well analyzed by the Marxists.But little by little the majority of the population will stop voting for political parties that promise one thing and do the opposite. The lie is the basis of the false bourgeois democracy, and although for decades it has been deceiving the voters, that will soon end.We know that there is enough wealth on the planet to ensure that pensions are paid by the budgets of the states. It would be enough by stopping allocating 2% or more of the Gross Domestic Product of the capitalist states to wage war (as it’s been ordered by NATO) and to allocate those resources to facilitate a dignified life for all the people in the world.We pensioners are on track to be 30% of the voters and from our class organizations we are going to ensure that no vote goes to political parties that defend capitalism.We are going to transmit to the new generations our important experiences of struggle against the exploitative businessmen. In these experiences there are the achievements of the working class, in the past decades and thanks to the WFTU, achievements that have represented great improvements: holidays, labor rights, safety at work, public health and education, as well as pensions.In addition, we have more than 100 years of experiences of good functioning of labor rights in the countries that tried to build socialism. Today, its inhabitants regret having lost the individual rights they enjoyed for decades and will surely enjoy again in the future, when we end the exploitation of man by man.Know that pensioners and retirees will fight, alongside the working class, for our just rights, until the last day of our lives.

LONG LIVE THE WORKING CLASS!LONG LIVE THE WORLD FEDERATION OF TRADE UNIONS!LONG LIVE SOCIALISM!LONG AND DIFFERENT LIFE FOR PENSIONERS AND RETIRED!