Unionists Against Corporate Tyranny(UACT)
PO Box 348, Broadway,NSW, 2007
Email [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Dear Comrades
We are writing to announce the formation of a new group of union activists
concerned about the need for international solidarity among workers and
their unions in the region and the need to develop an ongoing network that
can respond quickly and effectively through a combination of campaigns,
actions and messages of support.
We have formulated a statement that outlines the basis on which we have come
together and are seeking endorsements from union activists, along with
contact details to enable regular communication and information sharing. We
envisage a moderated email list as the most regular form of communication
but UACT will also coordinate and involve itself in seminars, conferences
and actions.
Apart from establishing the statement and email contact list, we have
initiated educational seminars in Sydney and Melbourne during the lead up to
the September 11 events around the meeting of the World Economic Forum.
Dates: Melbourne - Saturday 26 August; Sydney - Saturday 2 September.
The seminar titled "Globalisation": Trade Union resistance in the
Asia-Pacific will feature a representative from the FNPBI of Indonesia. A
speaker from the KCTU has also been invited to attend. Union activists will
speak on various panels that consider how to fight against IMF austerity and
the increasing attacks on worker organisations, wages and conditions. The
seminars will also identify practical steps that we can take to extend
regional worker solidarity.
If you wish to endorse the statement or maintain contact, please notify us
at either [EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED] with your
name, union, any relevent positoins and email contact. Further details
about the seminar will also be circulated through email.
Yours in solidarity
Melanie Sjoberg & Jeremy Smith
23 June 2000
Unionists Against Corporate Tyranny (UACT)
All out for September 11! Oppose the unjust world economic order of the
IMF, World Bank and WTO!
Today's world economy, dominated by the wealth and power of the
multinational corporations and intensifying global competition, is rapidly
increasing the exploitation of workers. It degrades their working
conditions, forces them to work harder for less and threatens them with
unemployment and a struggle to exist.
In the countries of the Third World (the "South") those lucky enough to find
work face subsistence wages, a working week of up to 60 hours, poisonous and
dangerous conditions and primitive, if any, social security.
For the workers of the advanced industrial countries (the "North") the gains
from a century of trade union and democratic struggles have been seriously
eroded or are under threat from privatisation, labor market deregulation and
dismantling of the welfare state - that is, from the agenda of neoliberal
economic "reform" common to the mainstream parties.
Economic injustice and inequality between the South and the North is stark.
Despite all the talk of "free trade" and a "level playing field" the terms
of trade for the exports from the South continue to decline (1.5 per cent a
year since 1980). They face tariff barriers up to five times as high as
those set for the economies of the North. The debt of the South to the North
stood at $US100 billion in 1970 and now stands at $US2.5 trillion. Had
export prices and interest rates stayed at the 1980 levels this debt would
have been completely paid off: it should now be cancelled.
Increasingly, workers are being forced into ruthless competition within and
between countries, but only the bosses benefit. The International Monetary
Fund, World Bank and World Trade Organisation are the main economic
enforcers of this unjust and unequal system. They make aid and loans
conditional on the implementation of anti-worker and anti-people economic
programs, jealously guard the multinationals' monopoly of knowledge and
technology ("intellectual property rights"), and are dominated by the United
States and the G-7 club of rich industrial nations.
Trade unionists have only one principle to proclaim against this destructive
and unjust global system - we need to globalise solidarity among working
people. We should reject any call made in the North for increases in tariffs
and subsidies or for global trade agreements that include social and
environmental conditions (social clauses) that block exports from the South.
These only destroy jobs, working conditions and the environment in the South
without creating jobs or increasing people's employment security in the
North.
To counter the social and environmental devastation caused by neoliberal
globalisation we therefore propose the following program of demands. It is
aimed at easing the burden carried by working peoples and countries of the
South, at reversing the loss of workers' rights and conditions in the North
and at drawing working people North and South into a closer union of
resistance against global corporate tyranny.
In the interests of global economic justice we say:
That the IMF and World Bank should…
1. Cancel all debts owed to them;
2. Stop imposing "structural adjustment programs" that exacerbate poverty
and inequality through making loans conditional on neoliberal economic
"reform";
3. Pay reparations to the peoples who have suffered from the disastrous
impact of their programs and cease to channel aid through private sector
investment that further fosters neoliberal programs;
4. Be made democratic, participatory and transparent, and take full account
of the interests of the peoples most affected by their policies.
…or else be abolished!
And also that the World Trade Organisation should:
5 Overturn the discriminatory and exploitative ground rules for trade it has
imposed on the South and help provide the countries of the South with access
to new technology, knowledge, investment and trade opportunities;
…or else be abolished.
We further demand that the governments of the North, including the
Australian government:
6 Provide the South with equal access to technology, knowledge and
investment so as to boost their development potential;
7 Immediately implement the target assistance at 0.7 per cent of its GDP to
the countries of the South and that this aid be unconditional and directed
to those most in need; and
8 Cease the purchase of World Bank bonds as well as all payments to the IMF;
And that the Australian trade union and environmental movements:
9 Focus their work on solidarity with the unionists and environmentalists of
the South and not on introducing discriminatory "social clauses" into
trading agreements.
We also support the call made by Fidel Castro at the recent South Summit:
10 For the creation of a new development fund through applying a one per
cent tax on all global speculative capital flows, and this fund to be
democratically controlled by the countries of the South.
Signed:
Alana Kerr, delegate DOCS,NSW PSA; Alex Bainbridge, State Council Hobart,
AEU; Anna Kailis, Perth SSTU; Anthony Benbow, Freemantle CEPU; Chris
Spindler, delegate, Melbourne AMWU; Coral Wynter, Queensland Uni, NTEU;
Daniel Jardine, delegate Macquarie Uni, NTEU; Ian Jamieson, Freemantle, MUA;
Jenny Long, delegate TAFE NSW PSA; Jeremy Smith, Ballarat Uni, NTEU; Jim
McIlroy, delegate Brisbane Centrelink, CPSU; John McGill, delegate Adelaide
Mail Exchange, CEPU; Katherine Newnam, PSA SA;, Lachlan Malloch, delegate
Dept Fair Trading, NSW PSA; Micheal Bull CFMEU; Melanie Sjoberg; Pat Brewer
NTEU; Paul Oboohov, delegate Canberra DETYA, CPSU; Phillipa Stanford,
Adelaide Centrelink, CPSU; Sam Wainwright MUA; Sarah Harris, delegate Perth
CPSU; Sarah Stephens, Perth Centrelink CPSU; Stan Thompson, SDC Tax,
Adelaide, CPSU; Stuart Martin, delegate Screensound Canberra, CPSU; Tim
Gooden CFMEU; Tim Stewart, Brisbane CPSU, Tom Flanagan, Sydney, MUA, Yvonne
Francis, Canberra CPSU;.
For more information contact;
Melbourne: Jeremy Smith 5229 0655, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sydney: Melanie Sjoberg 9690 1230, email [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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