Trade unionists from 20 countries meet in Havana
1992Elizabeth Byce 1992-02Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 22 →
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22 SOCIALISTACTION FEBRUARY 1992 Over Nov. 7-9, 1991, some 224 labor leaders and activists from 20 countries across North and South America met in Havana, Cuba, to discuss the plight of workers in the new world economic order.
The event, called a "union gathering for the rights and freedoms of workers against neo-liberalism," was hosted by the Cuban Federation of Labor (CTC). The dozens of unions and labor federations officially represented covered a wide range of views, from Christian Democracy to the socialist left. They came together to discuss what we in Canada know as the right-wing corporate agenda and its impact on working people and the poor.
The horror stories we heard were not unfamiliar. Privatization, cutbacks in Elizabeth Byce is a Canadian trade unionist and political activist. social expenditures, wage controls, massive layoffs and union-busting.
But in Latin America and the Caribbean, the situation, which was much worse than ours before, is now desperate for millions because of the foreign debt payments and the austerity measures imposed by international banking bodies and their client regimes. Deep poverty, homelessness, illiteracy and disease are widespread and growing fast.
As a postal worker, my attention was drawn to reports from Argentina about how the postal service there was completely privatized.
In Panama, where the U.S. invaded supposedly to restore democracy two years ago-and killed over 2,000 people in the process-thousands of public employees were fired and civil rights attacked.
In Nicaragua, after 10 years of contra war, and following the election of a pro-U.S. government, peasants are losing their land. Health and education are rapidly declining. And the country is creeping toward civil war.
Factories are springing up in northern Mexico, but only to assemble imported parts, with mostly young women workers paid six dollars a day. Unsafe working conditions and horrible pollution are common in such "free-trade zones" in Mexico and South Africa.
The conference demanded exploitative trade and economic policies that favor continued domination of Latin America by the big banks and businesses of the U.S., Europe, Canada and Japan. The delegates called for an end to the debt payments, for genuine economic development through Latin American cooperation and integration, for respect for human and labor rights and liberties, and for an end to the economic blockade and the occupation of Cuban territory by the U.S. military at Guantanamo.
The gathering showed that Cuba is overcoming its isolation in this hemisphere, and that Latin American and Caribbean labor federations are moving to the left under the impact of economic crisis, and are being influenced by the positive example of Cuba's commitment to social justice and equality.
An international steering committee was established to plan the next conference to be held in Mexico.