Archive

(Durban 07.04.2000 - Juhani Artto) In the industrialised countries, statutory social security covers practically 100 per cent of the population. In sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, which together include almost one third of the world population, such coverage is estimated at five to ten per cent and falling. In other parts of the world the coverage lies somewhere between these two extremes and is mainly decreasing.

A recent report by the ILO indicated that half of the world's people are excluded from any type of statutory social security protection.

This is the social character of our world, where the number of people living on an income of less than one or two US dollars a day increased drastically in the 1990s.

At the same time the traditional third world extended family pattern of social protection is showing signs of rapid disintegration.

(Durban 07.04.2000 - Juhani Artto) The 17th ICFTU Congress ended today in Durban. The extensive preparations and a whole week's work by 1,200 delegates and others involved in the event produced a remarkable success for the international trade union movement. Social movements on all continents, focusing on a large variety of problems of working men and women, may well count on the ICFTU as a strong and constructive partner in the common struggle.

"At earlier Congresses the ICFTU used to be content to define the goals sought by the global trade union movement. This time we went further. The Congress launched a process which will make the entire ICFTU family a more effective tool in the hands of those whose share of the world's enormous wealth is not a fair one," commented Turo Bergman, Secretary for International Affairs at Finland's largest central trade union organisation, SAK.

(Durban 06.04.2000 - Juhani Artto) Like ICFTU, the ILO places a strong emphasis on core labour standards. This was felt strongly this week at the Durban International Convention Centre, where the 17^th ICFTU Congress is in progress.

Two years ago the ILO leadership established a new mechanism allowing the organisation to gather information in countries that have not ratified the ILO Conventions on fundamental labour rights. In March, the organisation published its first annual synthesis on the situation in countries that have ratified none of these eight Conventions.

"The report shows that our policy and the work of ICFTU have led to a series of important positive steps," says Kari Tapiola, who is Assistant General Secretary of the ILO and former Secretary for International Affairs at Finland's largest central trade union organisation, SAK.

"Information was received from 60 governments. 41 of these admitted their problems and expressed their willingness to work with the ILO to find solutions to them. This is a promising start to the new mechanism."

(Durban 06.04.2000 - Juhani Artto) ICFTU General Secretary Bill Jordan was asked in the pre-Congress on Sunday about his organisation's relationship with Chinese, Russian and Palestinian organisations and with the French federation CGT, which is known to be dominated by the French Communist Party.

Jordan told the journalists that the Russian federation FNPR is "in the process of applying for membership". At the Congress itself the FNPR delegation, headed by FNPR President Mikhail Shmakov, has observer status. The FNPR delegation spent part of the Congress week making observations in Cape Town.

Two other Russian organisations, the Russian Labour Confederation (KTR) and the All-Russia Confederation of Labour (VKT), also have observer status at the Congress. So do the Yugoslavian CATYU, the Ukrainian FTUU and several federations from other former socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

(Durban 05.04.2000 - Juhani Artto) ICFTU leaders and delegates at the 17th Congress are justifiably proud of the progress made over the last few years by trade union demands to condition international trade with core labour standards. Not long ago such demands had hardly any support outside of the trade union movement, and even the movement itself was split with a large number of third world unions labelling the demands as protectionist.

In Durban the ICFTU has found a single voice for the inclusion of core labour standards in world trade regulations.

At the December 1999 WTO Seattle negotiations, the European Union and the United States were already in favour of adopting core labour standards as part of the international trade regime. This is clearly a triumph for the international trade union movement.

The ICFTU is now ready to increase the pressure to get its demand implemented. Delegates at the 17th Congress are specifying the necessary control and other mechanisms needed to realise core labour standards in practice.

(Durban 04.04.2000 - Juhani Artto) "Governments and business accept what we never will: extravagance and misery growing side by side, the growth of trade breeding the growth of injustice. Enormous wealth accumulating in the hands of a very few and growing poverty and desperation for the many. Their indifference is globalisation's greatest crime, because the resources exist to eradicate poverty from the face of the earth", ICFTU General Secretary Bill Jordan said in his opening address to the 17th ICFTU Congress in Durban, South Africa.

Without doubt, this tone will endure to the very end of the Congress, which finishes at noon on Friday.

The diverse meeting of 1,200 delegates, representing 125 million organised workers in 145 countries, has no difficulties in outlining the changes which it wants to bring about in the world or identifying those responsible for the misery and growing injustice. The problem is how to achieve these common goals or even a tiny part of them in the coming years.

(Durban 03.04.2000 - Juhani Artto) ICFTU, the leading body of the international trade union movement, today began its 17th Congress in Durban, South Africa. There is no lack of issues of major importance to a global labour force of three billion people, almost one billion of whom are unemployed or underemployed.

It is a huge achievement for organised labour that ICFTU, with its 215 affiliated federations in 145 countries, currently represents 125 million employees, and that more federations are seeking membership of the ICFTU family. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the cold war, ICFTU has had no major challenger on the trade union scene.

Another brilliant achievement is that the wide variety of 1,200 delegates will be able to consider complex issues in a constructive, non-divisive way, even when many of the affiliated federations are often bitter rivals in their own countries.

(Riga 30.03.2000 - Juhani Artto) Latvia, one of the three Baltic countries to the south of Finland, began official membership negotiations with the EU in February. The other two Baltic countries, Estonia and Lithuania, are also officially negotiating on membership.

While the more optimistic Latvian ministers claim that the negotiations will be completed by 2003, most experts believe that a longer period will be needed.

In any case, it is highly probable that labour, goods and capital will cross the Gulf of Finland freely in the not-too-distant future. This means that Finnish employees have a special interest in the evolution of the labour market in the Baltic States.

(05.03.2000 - Juhani Artto) Many trade union activists and leaders around the world have heard about, or know what SASK is. SASK is the Finnish language abbreviation of the Trade Union Solidarity Centre of Finland.

What is the role of this organisation in Finland and globally?

"The international trade union movement coordinates work to increase expertise, improve networking and raise the organising rate of trade unions in the developing countries", explains SASK Director Hannu Ohvo. "SASK is the tool, or service centre, of the Finnish trade union movement in this endeavour."

(24.02.2000 - Juhani Artto) "International organisations must increase the pressure against States which approve of unethical acts such as child labour, environmental destruction or repression of the trade union movement."

Asked to guess, who published this demand last year, few Finns would immediately consider the bishops of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Finland. This, however, is the right answer. The statement is part of the booklet "Towards the Common Good", in which the bishops express their worries about current antisocial trends in the world - Finland included.

The booklet is a direct attack against the antisocial character of the neo-liberal policies determining the present model of globalisation. The text strongly defends the welfare State created in the Nordic countries in the latter half of the 20th century and warns of the threats which this system nowadays faces.