Violent Repression Continues in Honduras
In the wake of the June 28 coup in Honduras that forcibly deposed and expelled President Manuel Zelaya, thousands of trade unionists—following the call of the three national labor centrals (CUTH, CTH and the CGT)—joined tens of thousands in nonviolent protests, demanding the immediate restoration of democracy in their country.
In response, the de facto government of Roberto Micheletti directed the military and police to violently repress the legitimate protests. National and international human rights organizations report widespread human rights violations by state security forces, including arbitrary arrests and detentions, severe beatings, sexual violence, imprisonment and torture, and killings of Zelaya’s supporters.
Following the president’s return to the capital city of Tegucigalpa on Sept. 21, the situation deteriorated rapidly. The de facto government stepped up its offensive against democratic civil society organizations, including the trade union movement. A report by Honduran Radio Progreso confirmed the killing of a trade unionist from the National Agrarian Institute shortly after Zelaya’s return. Three members of the teachers union—Felix Murillo Lopez, Roger Vallejo and Martin Florencio Rivera—were killed while mobilizing trade union opposition to the coup.
Global Support Growing for Employee Free Choice
Since Friday, when we wrote about international union support for the Employee Free Choice Act, more letters backing this critical legislation have poured in from around the world.
In separate letters to United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo Gerard, leaders of unions in eight countries, along with an international union federation, have expressed solid support for the bill. The latest letters come from all corners of the world: Paraguay, Japan, Ghana, Argentina, Brazil, Indonesia, Thailand and Togo, the base of the 13-member International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM).
Brazil’s President, Sweeney Discuss Global Economy
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AFL-CIO President John Sweeney met with Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva this past weekend, prior to Lula’s White House meeting with President Obama.
Lula, a metalworker and internationally recognized trade union leader before he was elected Brazil’s president in 2002, was re-elected in 2006. He has met frequently with the AFL-CIO on his visits to the United States since his election.
During their meeting Saturday, Lula and Sweeney discussed ways the international union movement and coordinated economic recovery policies can benefit workers in Brazil, the United States and around the globe.
Sweeney emphasized that strengthening the collective bargaining rights of U.S. workers by enacting the Employee Free Choice Act will benefit workers internationally by contributing to demand-driven growth in the global economy.
World Social Forum: Making Young People at Home in Union Movement
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Brian Finnegan and Gladys Cisneros gave us this update from the ninth World Social Forum held in Brazil from Jan. 27-Feb. 1.
On the opening day of workshops at the World Social Forum, U.S. youth labor activists from the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center and the United Steelworkers (USW) joined the youth commission of Brazil’s chemical workers confederation (CNQ-CUT) in a discussion of young worker participation in the labor movement. Carlos Jimenez from Jobs with Justice was also present at the workshop.
The debate also dealt with the current financial crisis, since young workers are especially vulnerable to layoffs, and other measures that employers take to reduce costs.
Brazilian youth labor activists from the chemical sector discussed workplace organization, youth-specific collective bargaining concerns and promoting innovative union structures to encourage youth leadership. They also argued for the need to bridge the digital divide and use new media and information technology to build national movements and maintain communication between workers in different countries.
World Social Forum: Another World Is Possible
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Patrick Young from the United Steelworkers (USW) reports back from the World Social Forum in Belem, Brazil. Young was part of a delegation of U.S. union activists who participated in this year’s forum from Jan. 27-Feb. 1.
The World Social Forum, launched in 2001 as an alternative to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, allows grassroots activists to debate and develop proposals to make the global economy work for everyone.
We arrived at this year’s World Social Forum in Brazil in a time of crisis. Following decades of unfair trade, privatization and deregulation, the world’s financial markets have collapsed. People around the world are being forced from their homes by foreclosures; major global banking institutions have gone bankrupt; and unemployment rates are skyrocketing as hundreds of thousands of workers are being laid off.
World Social Forum Kicks Off in Brazil
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| Brian Finnegan of the Solidarity Center, left, and Steelworkers member Patrick Young get ready to march in the rain at the World Social Forum. |
Brian Finnegan and Gladys Cisneros of the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center report from Belem, Brazil, where the World Social Forum began this week. The World Social Forum, launched in 2001 as an alternative to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, allows grassroots activists to debate and develop proposals to make the global economy work for everyone.
The World Social Forum opened Jan. 27 with thousands marching through relentlessly heavy rain in the Brazilian city of Belem. The downpour did not deter the drums and dancing of the crowd that advanced from the restored old Amazon waterfront docks to the Workers Square four miles away.
Members of the Brazilian national labor centers—CUT, Força Sindical and UGT—were joined by thousand of local and international labor, youth, environmental, indigenous, cultural and community activists of all ages. The Brazilian national labor centers are similar to labor federations like the AFL-CIO. U.S. labor participants included representatives of the Solidarity Center, United Steelworkers, Jobs with Justice, United Students Against Sweatshops and the United Electrical Workers.
