Our Global Team

Globalising Solidarity: Workers of the Pacific Rim pledge to back Australian unions in IR battles ahead

Two days before the Globalising Solidarity International Pacific Rim Mining and Maritime Unions Seminar was to bring together 250 union delegates from 10 Pacific Rim nations in Long Beach, California, USA, Burmese unionist Ko Moe Naung was tortured to death by the military junta on the other side of the Pacific in Burma. The Globalising Solidarity conference was dedicated to his memory.

"We recognise the selfless dedication of the Seafarers' Union of Burma organiser Ko Moe Naung to his countrymen and women and to the international trade union movement,² the resolution read in part. ³Vale brother Ko Moe Naung forever re-membered as a heroic fighter for human and workers rights." Workers of Burma and the US are oceans apart, but tragedy had brought the gritty reality of far away industrial jungles to the near Hollywood setting in the worldıs richest nation. The conference became Ko Moe Naung's memorial and the dedication set the stage for what was to come ‹ yet more horrific tales of murder and exploitation in the region and more concentrated efforts to organise workers across national borders in defence of their rights.

Prominent among the assembly of 250 leaders and rank-and-file members of unions from 10 Pacific Rim nations representing three million workers was a delegation of 60 Australian rank and file maritime workers, veterans and officials. Our struggles both old and new were also acknowledged.

During the 1998 lockout longshore workers in the US had black banned a scab shipment of Australian exports on the Columbus Canada. Workers in Japan, Indonesia and India had also taken solidar-ity action. Seven years on the conservative government is renewing its attacks on Australian workers. In recognition of this conference resolved that as before we would not be alone in our struggle. The delegates passed a resolution opposing Howardıs plans and supporting the Australian unions, pledging each union present to do all it can to help beat back this attack. ILWU Canada President Tom Dufresne said he would take the resolution to the upcoming Canadian Labor Congress meeting to get the support of the entire Canadian labor movement.

National Secretary Paddy Crumlin gave a keynote address, highlighting the

1998 war on the waterfront, (see Diary MWJ April/May) thanking the ILWU for its support at the time and calling for unions to mobilise globally against renewed onslaughts worldwide .

"The ILWU CFMEU and MUA are proud to have put this thing together and we want them to con-tinue in building the strength and character of our movement while sending a clear signal to those commercial and political interests that put profit before people, money before morals and war be-fore peace." he said. (See also Maritime Diary,) Key resolutions were also adopted in recognition of the need for workers to or-ganise across borders to ensure that governments did not violate human rights of workers under the guise of maritime security.

Issues on the table included port security, flag of convenience shipping, the transportation infrastructure crisis, domestic and global trends in the Pacific Rim's economy and political environment, ships of shame, ports of convenience, international supply chain logistics, environmental impacts of international trade, trade policies in the Pacific Rim and human rights abuses by multi-national mining companies.

Frank Leys, the new secretary of the dockers section of the International Transport Workers' Federation, noted that four major terminal operators‹A.P.

Moeller, Hutchison, P&O and PSA International‹now handle more than half of all global trade at their facilities around the world. The ITF is trying to work with union affiliates at their terminals to de-velop and negotiate framework agreements, contracts with minimum international stan-dards that take into consideration the basic conventions of the International Labor Organisation (ILO).

Conference resolved to ensure dockside labour maintained its right to load and discharge ships in port and endorsed the ITF Ports of Convenience campaign.

By far the most disturbing presentation was video footage capturing a bloody attack on Chilean dockworkers.

The president of the 6,000-member Chilean dock workers' union, Jorge Silva Beron, re-counted how his members went on strike October. 5, 2004 demanding a raise from $29 a day to $32. They were met by police and military who attacked the workers, beating Jorge Silva on the head and then leaving him to almost bleed to death.

After 20 days on strike the Chilean dockers finally won their demands. But now the employers are suing the union for the money lost in those 20 days and the government is prosecuting Beron for leading an organisation that stopped production at the port. He is facing a five-year prison sentence and his case will not be decided by a judge, but by a navy admiral.

Understanding the desperation of the situation, the delegates raised $6,000 from among themselves to donate to Beronıs legal defence fund.

Sessions also focused on the big picture - the links between the resource, transport and manufac-turing industries, cooperations between global union federations ­ national federations and national unions, TheTainted

Titans: A Study of Excesses of BHP-Billiton, Anglo-American, Alcoa, Placer Dome and Rio Tinto, new technologies, building links in the resource chain, building coalitions with human rights, civil rights, church, environment and indigenous groups and the importance of women and veteran union activists.

"The seminar was an outstanding demonstration of international solidarity and unity and especially concentrated on the problems faced by workers in the aggressive campaigns against them being by right wing conservative governments, aggressive employers and the effects of things like free trade agreements, privatisation and deregulation," said Paddy Crumlin. "The overall intent was to develop the best possible strategies for globalising solidarity. All conference speakers were quick to note the international offensive of the global corporations and the recognition of a global working class offensive if we were to be successful in representing and protecting workers rights and working conditions."

Hosted by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and co sponsored by the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) and the Construction Forestry and Mining Union, the Seminar brought together representatives from labour unions that comprise important elements in the transportation chain, from the workers in the mines who extract raw materials, to those who work in industries that produce the goods traded internationally, to those who move those goods in ships around the world, to the dockworkers and truckers in the ports on both sides of the Pacific who unload and move those goods.

"The transport chain has emerged as the industry that is vital to all nations' economic interests. Therefore our actions can have a significant impact on the increasing attack on workers and unions in the national and international transport sectors. As delegates gathered here in Long Beach, we pledge that we will not allow this offensive to degrade and diminish the rights of our brothers and sisters in those industries.

"We stand behind our slogan of 'An Injury to one, is an Injury to all.' THE WORKERS UNITED WILL NEVER BE DEFEATED."

The full Long Beach Declaration can be downloaded form the website.