First of all, we would like to extend our solidarity greetings through this Newsletter, which sees the light of day today and will be published every two months.

We want INFOR CARIBE to be an information and dissemination tool for the problems, struggles, claims and victories of workers and their organizations.

That is why we need you to send us information on the main tasks that are being carried out by the workers of your sector, organization and country. We want all workers to be well-informed and be able to share, actively and unanimously, the struggle and victories of our Movement.

We also need you to send us your comments, standpoints and recommendations, in order to upgrade this Newsletter.

We want you to disseminate and distribute it to the entire Board, cadres, activists and affiliates of your organization. You can also send us the e-mail or mailing address of the people or institutions in your country that you think must receive this information.

We convey you our wishes of success in this stage of work and our solidarity message, on behalf of the CWC and CARISFORM Boards. n

 

CWC meeting in Santo Domingo

From April 23rd to 27th, the city of Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic, hosted a Meeting of the Caribbean Workers Council Board, with the participation of 15 Workers’ leaders representing the different language speaking countries of the Region.

During the meeting, the main problems facing the countries of the Region and their workers were analyzed: the increase in poverty levels, unemployment and low income, the proliferation of child labor, discrimination against women in the workplace, migrations and exploitation of migrants for employment, among others. The internal problems of the Workers’ Organizations were also analyzed, the activities carried out in 2002 were assessed and finally, the Council Board was reorganized as follows:

 

The WFTU was born as a unitary and pluralist trade union International embracing the Allied countries during World War II. Then, it became a pro-Soviet Communist International during the Cold War.

In 1945, at the end of the War and upon the initiative of English and Russian trade unions mainly, a new trade union organization is created, affiliating almost all the great trade unions.  The US American Federation of Labour (AFL) did not follow the other trade unions, given that it condemned the unions dependent on the State (the Soviet ones), just like the International Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (ICCTU), which did not want to dissolve and therefore, lose its identity.  The great issues of this International were the struggle against imperialism, the defense of the workers’ economic and social rights and the implementation of communism world-wide.

The WFTU had seen the light of day during the post-war unification of the Allies, which together, fought against the Nazi Germany.  It was a honeymoon between Washington and Moscow.  Later on, they divide and create the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU).  The WFTU – Americas becomes then the regional organization for the Americas, with headquarters in Havana-Cuba.

 

INTERNATIONAL CONFEDERATION OF FREE TRADE UNIONS - ICFTU

In 1949, the Cold War starts and the social-democratic trade unions of Europe and Latin America and those of the United States and Canada split.

The CIOSL was founded after the separation of the US Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) and the British Trade Union Council (TUC) and other organizations of the World Trade Union Federation. The arguments that justified the separation were:

a)                 The implementation of the Marshall Plan in Europe.  The Soviet trade unions were against the Marshall Plan, while the trade unions of the democratic countries supported it.

b)                 The defense of the trade unions’ independence from the State.

c)                 The autonomy of the Trade Internationals.

However, what hastened the division was the start of the Cold War between Washington and Moscow.

It can be said that since then, the CIOSL adopted a completely anti-communist standpoint.  It did so mainly because of the pressure exerted by the two American trade unions AFL-CIO, which reunited in 1955 and organized everything to defend the US foreign policy.

The CIOSL’s regional organization for the Americas is the Inter-American Regional Organization of Workers (ORIT). It was founded in 1951. It was based in Mexico until June 1994, when it moved to Caracas, Venezuela.

 

THE WORLD CONFEDERATION OF LABOR - WCL

Created under the name of ICCTU, the WCL is the oldest organization.

In 1919, in The Hague, Holland, the Christian trade unions of some Western European countries (such as Belgium, Germany, France, Austria, Italy, Yugoslavia, Holland, the Czech Republic, among others), founded the International Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (ICCTU). This decision was the result of the talks among these organizations since 1908.

This was a purely Western European organization, which found their inspiration in the successive Social Encyclicals of the Church and the Christian Humanist thinking.  It was against a general State influence on the companies and believed that the economy was to be developed in order to promote the well-being and development of human beings and society.

During World War II, this organization was persecuted, repressed and eliminated in the countries occupied by the followers of Fascism, Nazism and Stalinism.

After the War, the ICCTU resumes its activities and abandons its “Western European” emphasis, in order to develop, steadily, in dozens of developing countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa. Finally, it becomes the WCL.  Nowadays, the WCL has 115 trade unions in 108 countries.

 

From the ICCTU to the WCL

During the Luxemburg Congress in 1968, the International Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (ICCTU) became the World Confederation of Labor (WCL).  However, its Humanist Principles, Values and Objectives did not change: to struggle for workers to be seen as comprehensive and transcendent humans, to foster the freedom of association, the right to organize, the improvement of the living and working conditions of workers, a comprehensive democracy (at the political, economic and social levels), a productive economy, social justice and above all, human dignity.

The regional organization for Latin American and the Caribbean is our Latin American Confederation of Workers (CLAT). It is Latin American and pro-Latin American, and was born in Santiago de Chile on December 8th 1954, with the participation of 62 trade union leaders coming from 12 Latin American and Caribbean countries. It was first based in the Caribbean, and in January 1967, it moved to Venezuela.n