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Report of The International Workers' Conference held in Havana, 6 - 8.August 97

As the first conference of its kind, Cuba was taking a calculated risk when it organised the International Workers' Conference against Neo-liberalism and Globalisation.

Running back-to-back with the XIV World YouthFestival, the organisation of two such large-scale events might have stretched the resources of many capitals in the developed world, let alone that of a country undergoing the privations and stresses of the USA's economic and political war against it.

Cuba, however, put politics and the needs of the world's people first, and then worked out the organisational details.

Its success can be judged by results: Brazil volunteered to host the second International Conference in two years' time, and meanwhile, many forms of international activity were agreed which delegates will be attempting to implement from workplace through to continental and international level. The most immediate of these is an agreement to use May Day 1998 to alert the world's people to the dangers of neo-liberal policies.

Although only ten per cent the size of the Youth Festival, catering efficiently and effectively for the needs of 1,200 delegates from 60 countries in four official languages over three days, is no mean feat.

The Conference opened with a keynote speech from Dr.Osvaldo Martinez, member of the National Assembly for People's Power in Cuba and Director of the Centre for Research on World Economy. He demonstrated that, as neo-liberal policies and globalisation had expanded, the world economy had grown more sluggishly. Between 1950 and 1973 the world product grew at almost 5%, but took a downturn between 1974 and 1980 to 3.5%, and throughout the 1980's stood at 3.3%, nosediving to 1.4% so far in the 1990's. The disproportionate growth of speculative capital meant that for every dollar produced by the real economy, between 30 and 50 dollars emerged from the financial market, turning around in the roulette wheel of what he termed the "casino" economy.

Unemployment rates of up to 10% were now regarded as necessary and encouraging, a phenomenon which would have shocked Adam Smith, David Ricardo and Keynes, who put forward full employment as the progressive mission of capitalism.

Forty per cent of the world's economically active population are un- or under-employed while at least 80 million children are forced to work and 800 million people throughout the world go hungry. What more conclusive expression of the bancruptcy of neo-liberal policies and globalisation could there be, asked Dr.Martinez. While half the population of Africa live in extreme poverty, the neo-liberal philosphy in the United States and Europe meant about 15% of the population of these countries also live below the poverty line.

Cutbacks in State budgets at the expense of unemployment insurance and social benefits had fostered an increase in poverty, particularly among women, youth, the elderly and the disabled, while homelessness in London and New York had soared.

Dr.Martinez showed how the effects of neo-liberal globalisation caused environmental deterioration. Globalisation had the means to devastate the environment anywhere in the world, by universalising technologies or exporting pollution.

He concluded by saying we must globalise our resistance. "Let us wield our unity of action to end the system that provides opulence to 10% of humanity, while degrading and dooming the remaining 90%; which prioritises goods over people; which mistakes quality of life for the quantity of things, and which considers worthless everything that is priceless."

Following this inspiring opening address, delegates divided into five commissions for the rest of Day One. These considered: actions against privatisation; un- and under-employment, reduction in salaries, negative work legislation and attacks on trade unions; privatisation and reductions in social security, deterioration of health and welfare services and worker action against the unfair distribution of wealth; actions against discriminatory treatment of women and immigrants and use of child labour; actions in the light of the world's unipolarity and the loss of sovereignty and independence of countries.

I took part in Commission 2, which was the best attended, and heard speaker after speaker catalogue the effects of neo-liberalism and globalisation in their countries. Whether they came from rich and powerful countries, or from some of the poorset, delegates told a similar tale. Delegates from the USA and Britain spoke of attacks on trade unions over the past two decades. Delegates from Japan and Sweden spoke of high levels of unemployment for the first time. Sweden, which had been held up as the model of social welfare capitalism, was now making big cuts in provision. Nearly half of the trade unionists murdered worldwide were Colombian we were told by a delegate who spoke of the social decomposition caused by neo-liberalism and globalisation in his country. High tariffs had protected workers in Bangladesh until 1993, when neo-liberal policies had caused 3 million workers to lose their jobs, said a delegate from that country.

An Argentine delegate said that the casualisation of labour meant that many workers no longer had the opportunity to join a trade union. A COSATU delegate spoke of the strong history of trade unionism in South Africa and the important part unions had played in the achievement of power by the ANC Government of Nelson Mandela. He said that delegates would no doubt have heard of differences between the Government and COSATU, but what was happening in South Africa was the necessary struggle against multinational companies. I spoke of the effect of neo-liberal policies on teachers' pay and conditions in Britain. What had once been regarded as a "job for life" had now been hit by casualisation and a driving down of wages through the use of agency staff. Valentin Pacho, Deputy General Secretary of the World Federation of Trade Unions said that asking capitalism to act with a human face was like asking a lion to act like a lamb.

Days Two and Three were plenary sessions where delegates put forward amendments to the draft resolution on a minimum programme of workers' actions against neo-liberal globalisation. Two British delegates, Bob Quick of UNISON and CSC, and Roseanne Foyer of the Scottish TUC, spoke in the Plenary. Both speeches were well received by the Conference. Bob Quick spoke of the effects of privatisation in the National Health Service leading to a lowering of standards and a worsening of working conditions. He ended by quoting Fidel Castro: "When we have a little, we share a little. When we have lot, we share a lot, but what we have, we share." Roseanne Foyer spoke of the need "to harness the hopes of the young people of the world...replace their disillusionment with the realisation that there is a better way than what is currently offered." Her moving and spirited speech ended in thunderous applause when she said: "Don't let the bastards grind you down."

The main proposals of the agreed final resolution were to:

*have May Day 1998 as an international day of action against neo-liberalism;

*hold a World Summit on employment, wages and working conditions, sponsored by the UN;

*denounce all forms of child exploitation;

*struggle for the rights of women and oppose discrimination and exploitation;

*demand that workers' rights be upheld;

*denounce the victimisation, arrest, torture and assassination of trade unionists;

*defend the principle of self-determination, independence and sovereignty of nations, and maintenance of the way of life and development of indigenous communities;

*reject privatisation;

*support the role of the state in economic activities and its essential responsibility in all processes affecting the quality of life of the peoples;

*demand the dissolution of military blocs and the implementation of disarmament programmes consistently linked with real, self-sustainable development through the rechannelling of a significant share of the military expenditure to eradicate poverty and provide development assistance for the most underdeveloped nations, and the dismantling of foreign military bases and the return of those areas to the respective countries;

*expose and oppose Third World debt charges;

*denounce the expolitation of migrant workers, reject xenophobia and encourage solidarity and support;

*reject the manipulation of technological development as an excuse for mass layoffs, underemployment and the intensification of labour exploitation;

*the trade union movement, while maintaining its independence, should form alliances with all movements that challenge the practices and doctrines of neo-liberal globalisation;

*initiate programmes of education on the effects of neo-liberal globalisation for the mass of the people;

*promote a movement in favour of fair interdependence favourable to all countries;

*propose a development model to:-

- create more and better jobs;

- increase salaries and income;

- a shorter working week for the same pay;

- reaffirm collective bargaining;

- substantially increase the budgets for health, education, social securityand housing;

- create a workers' charter based on International Labour Organisationagreements.

*foster communication between workers within multinational corporations.

The Final Resolution expressed its solidarity with the XIV Youth Festival, condemned the economic, political and diplomatic war by the USA against Cuba and called on all world progressive forces to take solidarity action in support of Cuba.

In his concluding speech, Pedro Ross Leall, General Secretary of the CTC, spoke of the new spirit and awareness that had emerged over the three days discussion which had not been present a few years ago. He said that the amendments strengthened the Final Resolution and he wholeheartedly thanked delegates for their opposition to Helms-Burton. To be worthy of that support the Cuban people would work daily with more resolve to continue the fight to build socialism.

Despite the large numbers involved, the maximum participation was encouraged by the organising committee. A total of 369 speakers took part in the plenary discussions, and there were 259 speeches from the floor in the commissions on Day One. While most delegates represented trade unions in their respective countries, there was a minority who represented only themselves. This discrepancy might be an issue to be addressed by the Co-Sponsoring Committee when discussing the accrediation of delegates for the Conference in Brazil in 1999.

Pauline Fraser attended the Conference as a delegate from Newham Teachers' Association where she is Membership Secretary.