Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2000 12:18:41 -0500
To: marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
From: Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Nezavisnost and the European Trade Union Confederation
The American SWP, the British SWP and presumably the Australian DSP are all
feeling rapturous about the emergence of an "independent" trade union
movement in Serbia called Nezavisnost. What they fail to mention is that
this outfit is owned and controlled--lock, stock and barrel--by the
European Trade Union Confederation, an umbrella group for the social
democratic trade unions of Western Europe. Nezavisnost was "independent" of
the old system in Yugoslavia as Solidarity was of the Polish government.
Unlike Solidarity, however, Nezavisnost never seemed to have made much
headway on its own. It appears to be a satellite of the same imperialist
power structures that made Yugoslavia cry uncle. If you go to the ETUC
website, you will find dozens of Nezavisnost press releases, including one
that opposed demonstrations against NATO bombing by Serb factory workers.
Beneath are some of the cheerleading for Nezavisnost from the comrades,
followed by a Financial Times article illustrating the blatantly
class-collaborationist character of ETUC.
The Militant:
"The majority of workers at Ikarbus, for example, have quit the old trade
union, which was tied to the former Milosevic regime, and organized
themselves into the metalworkers branch of Nezavisnost (Independence), the
largest trade union federation not linked directly to the former ruling
party. In the same period, Nezavisnost supporters told us, membership has
jumped from 200,000 to as much as half a million."
Socialist Worker:
Cedanka Andric works for the Nezavisnost trade union confederation, which
was independent from the old regime and faced repression. She explained how
in areas where the opposition to Milosevic was at its strongest, such as
the cities of Cacak and Novi Sad, almost all the old directors of major
workplaces have been forced to resign. Control has not passed to the
workers. New directors are in place. However, workers have had a taste of
their power and many crisis boards have not been dismantled.
====
Financial Times (London), May 12, 1995, Friday
EU jobs plan from bosses and unions
By ROBERT TAYLOR
BRUSSELS
Europe's main employers' associations and trade unions have reached
agreement on a joint strategy of economic expansion to reduce mass
unemployment in the European Union.
In a confidential four-page draft declaration, the two sides of European
industry call for 'sustained and job-creating growth'.
The draft guidelines will be presented to the European Commission on Monday
and will be discussed at the next meeting of the EU's finance ministers
later this month.
The document has been prepared by UNICE, the European employers'
federation, CEEP, the European public employers' body, and the European
Trade Union Confederation (ETUC). It is a contribution to the preparations
of the EU's economic policy guidelines in the aftermath of last December's
Essen EU heads of government conference which made reducing unemployment a
priority.
In recent years the employers and trade unions have made common cause on a
number of issues. But the new document shows that both sides want to
restore what many see as a loss of momentum from the white paper on growth,
competitiveness and employment drawn up two years ago by the then president
of the European Commission, Mr Jacques Delors.
This document committed the EU to halving its unemployment by the year 2000
and creating 5m new jobs by the end of the century. There are presently
17.9m unemployed in the EU, according to Eurostat.
The new joint employer/union document says that only 2 per cent, or 3m of
the 11 per cent unemployed in the EU, will secure jobs in the present
recovery. 'Reducing significantly the remaining 9 per cent will require
both turning the recovery into a long lasting investment-led growth process
and implementing more active and efficient labour market policies,' the
paper says.
Both sides have agreed, despite some union reservations, that the large
budget deficits in many EU countries will have to be tackled as 'an
essential' ingredient in any economic recovery. 'If deficits cannot be
tackled now, when can they be?' asks the document. 'This is essential to
preserve the basic social functions of modern states, and to regain the
room for manoeuvre which has often been lost as a result of high public
debt burdens.'
Louis Proyect
Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org
From: "Johannes Schneider" <Johannes.Schneider@xxxxxxx>
To: <marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Nezavisnost and the European Trade Union Confederation
Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 19:36:59 +0100
Louis Proyect quoted:
> The Militant:
"The majority of workers at Ikarbus, for example, have quit the old trade
union, which was tied to the former Milosevic regime, and organized
themselves into the metalworkers branch of Nezavisnost (Independence), the
largest trade union federation not linked directly to the former ruling
party. In the same period, Nezavisnost supporters told us, membership has
> jumped from 200,000 to as much as half a million."
Not even Nezavisnost itself is claiming this number. In a letter to
Kostunica they claim 'more than 200.000 members'.
I think Louis is correct to say that the term 'independant' is nonsense.
Nezavisnost demands inter alia:
'Comprehensive and radical economic reforms based on privatisation, economic
efficiency and social justice'
I would rather call this Thatcherism than Social-Democracy.
All quotes are from their website at:
http://www.nezavisnost.org.yu
Johannes
====
FROM THE NEZAVISNOST WEBSITE:
Main goals
--Restoration of the rule of law
--Constitutional and legal protection of human and union rights
--Democratic labour laws harmonised with international standards
--Genuine multiparty parliamentary democracy
--Comprehensive and radical economic reforms based on privatisation,
economic efficiency and social justice
=====
Some Links:
--International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) (see additional
info at bottom)
--American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations
(AFL-CIO)
--Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe (see additional info at bottom)
=====
VISIT OF THE DELEGATION OF THE NEZAVISNOST TRADE UNION CONFEDERATION AND
PARTNERSHIP FOR DEMOCRATIC CHANGE TO THE United States of America ON THE
INVITATION OF THE "SOLITARY [sic] CENTER AFL - CIO
/16- 30 JULY 2000./
1. Meeting with the AFL-CIO President Jon Sweeney and Phil Fishman,
Assistant Director of the International Department.
2. George Meany training center of the American unions.
3. Seminar in George Meany center.
4. Work in small groups. 5. Members of the delegation with American
colleagues after receiving certificates.
6. Elise, Nada, Pepe and Zoran, singing "De Colores", anthem of the
participants.
7. Nebojsa and Elise singing "Milkina kuca na kraju". Our American friends
learned to sing this Serbian folk song.
8. Entertainment in the George Meany Center club.
9. Visit to union colleagues from Baltimore.
10. Visit to "Baltimore Sun" daily
11. Coctail party at Anca Hassing s home given in honor of our delegation.
12. President of UGS "Nezavisnost" Branislav Canak hands the Nezavisnost
banner to the AFL-CIO president Jon Sweeney.
====
Nezavisnost is member of the European Forum of the European Trade Union
Confederation and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions
====
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION (Not from Nezavisnost website)
THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary
July 30, 1999
FACT SHEET ON STABILITY PACT FOR SOUTH EASTERN EUROPE
Today President Clinton joined over forty leaders from across Europe and
North America in reaffirming our shared commitment to support the
reconstruction, development, democratization, stabilization and integration
of southeast Europe, in the wake of victory in Kosovo, by formally
launching the Stability Pact.
The Stability Pact, signed last month by representatives of over 27
democracies, including the United States, is an initiative to prevent
regional crises such as the Kosovo conflict from repeating in the future.
It seeks to help build a Southeast Europe animated by cooperation and
democracy rather than further conflict and ethnic cleansing. Its goal is to
stabilize, transform and eventually integrate the region into the European
and transatlantic mainstream.
It reflects a vision, shared by our European friends and allies, that the
President articulated in San Francisco on April 15, to "do for Southeast
Europe what we helped to do for Western Europe after World War II, and for
Central Europe after the Cold War: to help its people build a region of
multiethnic democracies, a community that upholds common standards of human
rights, a community in which borders are open to people and trade, where
nations cooperate to make war unthinkable."
=====
The Washington Post
February 12, 1989, Sunday, Final Edition
OBITUARIES
Irving Brown, AFL-CIO Official, Dies
Irving Brown, 77, a senior adviser to AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland who
also had served the labor federation as its director of international
affairs from 1982 to 1986, died of cancer Feb. 10 at his home in Paris.
"We have lost a giant," Kirkland said. "No other individual did more than
Irving to protect and advance workers' rights in every nation around the
world."
Mr. Brown was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in October by
then-President Reagan for his work in leading the resistance to communist
takeovers of trade unions in Western Europe after World War II.
During World War II, he served as a labor representative to the War
Production Board. After the war, he represented the AFL and the CIO with
the Foreign Economic Administration.
As the U.S. labor movement's emissary to Europe after the war, Mr. Brown
was instrumental in rallying support among unions there for the Marshall
Plan.
In 1950, he helped found the INTERNATIONAL CONFEDERATION OF FREE TRADE
UNIONS, which broke with the communist-dominated World Federation of Trade
Unions.
Much of his work in Europe in the 1950s and 1960s focused on preventing
communist takeovers of labor organizations. During those years, he was
denounced by communist groups as a tool of the State Department and the
Central Intelligence Agency. At the same time, he was attacked by right
wing groups in the United States as a communist sympathizer.
Over the years, he made a number of secret visits to Warsaw Pact countries,
meeting with labor leaders. He also helped arrange for radio broadcasts to
Iron Curtain countries by exiled labor leaders.
Louis Proyect
Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org